Sunday, August 13, 2017
Saturday, July 9, 2016
Seer Stones and the Book of Mormon
To many it may seem out of place, that Joseph Smith used seer stones to aid in the translation of the Book of Mormon. However they were part of what were given to him when he received the gold plates by the angel, that contained the Book of Mormon. But it was not uncommon for Biblical prophets to use seer stones to learn of God's will
in revealing things to his prophets (Num. 27:21; 1Sam 28:6; Rev.2:17). The Urim
and Thummim were two such seer stones.
According to the Babylonian Talmud the Prophet Abraham carried a stone
around his neck for purposes of healing the sick and creating light (Baba Bathra 16b). Noah reportedly
used a stone that provided light for the ark (Gen.R 31:11, Midrash Rabbah
1:244, Soncino Press)
John the Baptist in Matt.3:9, while chastising those who
thought they were better than others, because they were descendants of Abraham, used
stones as an example of what God could do with stones when he
said "For I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up
children unto Abraham".
It is important to keep in mind the Book of Mormon (that
the seer stones were reportedly used on) was not some archeological discovery, but was brought forth by the coming of an angel. Such an event is a miracle in and of itself
that invites the reader to pray for inspiration to learn of its divinity. Not an
intellectual analysis of what can be proven.
As with most of the things God has given us, it is by an exercise of our
faith in God and praying to him that these things are understood and believed in.
If something like the Book of Mormon is translated by revelation, it must be
understood and believed in by revelation.
And then maybe the Book of Mormon will become our seer stone
in understand spiritual things.
For additional information on how God has used stones for
his prophets see, John Tvedtnes Appendix 2 in: The Book of Mormon and Other
Hidden Books.
Below are links to excellent sites for its Jewish History.
New Ensign article: https://www.lds.org/ensign/2015/10/joseph-the-seer?lang=eng
Other related topics:
Friday, May 13, 2016
Spouses during the Resurrection of the Dead
Q: If a woman was married to two
different men during her lifetime, who will she be with after the Resurrection
of the Dead?
A: There is an answer to this question in the book "Piskei Teshuvah" of Ha-Rav Avraham Pitrakovsky (#124). He quoted the book "Shut Matzav Ha-Yashar" on the Zohar that there was a young woman who was married to a wonderful man who died at a relatively young age. The young woman did not want to marry again. She said, "Why should I get married to someone else? During the Resurrection of the Dead I will be married to my second husband, and my first husband is dearer to me than anything. I prefer to remain a widow all of my life and then be married to my true soul-mate." There is a similar question in the book "Ha-Techiya Ve-Ha-Pedut" (question #6) of Ha-Rav Sa'adia Gaon: how will I find my wife during the Resurrection of the Dead? Ha-Rav Sa'adia did not want to answer since it is forbidden to answer a halachic question before someone who is greater than him in wisdom. Since this is a question of the Resurrection of the Dead, Moshe Rabbenu will be there and it is therefore forbidden for me to answer. If there are questions that arise now - what can we do? We have to answer them. Questions that have to do with the future, however, we leave for Moshe Rabbenu and the other prophets. It therefore seems that the question in "Shut Matzav Ha-Yashar" cannot be answered, but this was before the Zohar was revealed. After the Zohar was revealed, our question was answered. Regarding a Jewish servant, the verse says, "If he arrives by himself, he leaves by himself; if he is the husband of a woman, his wife leaves with him" (Shemot 21:3). This means that he enters the Resurrection of the Dead with his wife – his first wife. There are commentators who explain that the meaning of the Zohar is that she will return to her true spouse, i.e. the most successful marriage (see note in Piskei Teshuvah). Thus, she will return to the marriage which was filled with the most love, fraternity, peace, and friendship.
A: There is an answer to this question in the book "Piskei Teshuvah" of Ha-Rav Avraham Pitrakovsky (#124). He quoted the book "Shut Matzav Ha-Yashar" on the Zohar that there was a young woman who was married to a wonderful man who died at a relatively young age. The young woman did not want to marry again. She said, "Why should I get married to someone else? During the Resurrection of the Dead I will be married to my second husband, and my first husband is dearer to me than anything. I prefer to remain a widow all of my life and then be married to my true soul-mate." There is a similar question in the book "Ha-Techiya Ve-Ha-Pedut" (question #6) of Ha-Rav Sa'adia Gaon: how will I find my wife during the Resurrection of the Dead? Ha-Rav Sa'adia did not want to answer since it is forbidden to answer a halachic question before someone who is greater than him in wisdom. Since this is a question of the Resurrection of the Dead, Moshe Rabbenu will be there and it is therefore forbidden for me to answer. If there are questions that arise now - what can we do? We have to answer them. Questions that have to do with the future, however, we leave for Moshe Rabbenu and the other prophets. It therefore seems that the question in "Shut Matzav Ha-Yashar" cannot be answered, but this was before the Zohar was revealed. After the Zohar was revealed, our question was answered. Regarding a Jewish servant, the verse says, "If he arrives by himself, he leaves by himself; if he is the husband of a woman, his wife leaves with him" (Shemot 21:3). This means that he enters the Resurrection of the Dead with his wife – his first wife. There are commentators who explain that the meaning of the Zohar is that she will return to her true spouse, i.e. the most successful marriage (see note in Piskei Teshuvah). Thus, she will return to the marriage which was filled with the most love, fraternity, peace, and friendship.
Seder Eliyahu Rabbah ch.4:19,
In the Seder
Eliyahu Rabbah: “in the ‘world-to-come.’ What will that life be like? The Holy One will
be seated in His great academy and seated in His presence will be the righteous
of the world, they, their wives, their sons, their daughters…”
Seder
Eliyahu Rabbah ch.4:19, in Braude and Kapstein, trans., Tanna Debe Eliyyahu: The Lore of the School of Elijah, (The Jewish Publication Society
of America, 1981) p.81
Midrash Alpha-Betot, Batei Midrashot
Midrash
Alpha-Betot, Batei Midrashot, II, ed. S.A.Wertheimer: “Each righteous person will draw near
his wife in the world to come…” cited in, David Nirenberg, “Posthumous Love in
Judaism”, in Bernard Jussen, Ramie Targoff, ed., Love after Death: Concepts of Posthumous Love in Medieval and Early
Modern Europe (De Gruyter 2015)
p.60: https://www.academia.edu/10305251/Posthumous_Love_in_Judaism
Ketav Tamim, Otsar Nehmad ed., 91., trans., by David I. Shyovitz
From the thirteenth century Tosafist, Rabbi Moshe Taku
talks about marriage in the resurrection:
“And [after the resurrection] the righteous will take
wives in accordance with their deeds, for each one will not marry the wife he
had in this world unless the two of them are of equivalent righteousness…A
wholly righteous man [who had been married to] a non-wholly righteous woman, or
a wholly righteous woman [who had been married to] a nonwholly righteous man,
will not be rejoined in the future, for death severs their bonds. When they are
resurrected, each person will marry the partner who is appropriate for them, in
accordance with their deeds.” (Ketav Tamim, Otsar Nehmad ed., 91)., trans., by
David I. Shyovitz, in his Doctoral Dissertation in History, “He Has Created a
Remembrance of His Wonders’: Nature and Embodiment in the Thought of the
Hasidei Ashkenaz,” (University of Pennsylvania, 2011) p.317, fn.180
Ketav Tamin is
a polemical work by Moses ben Hisdai Taku (early thirteenth century) against
the Jewish theologians of his time. Only a small part of the work has survived
and it is preserved in Ms. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, hèb. 711, from which
this manuscript was copied by Ber Goldberg.
24 leaves (fols. 10-11, 17v, 20v and 21r blank), 8 ¾ x 6 ¾ inches; 222 x 172 mm, written in
Ashkenazic script in black-brown ink; large inkstain on fol. 13. Brown wrappers.
Gospel of Philip
“the women is united to her
husband in the bridal chamber. Indeed those who have united in the bridal
chamber will no longer be separated” (70:19-20)
Wesley W. Isenberg, trans of
the Gospel of Philip, in J. M.
Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library,
San Francisco, (Harper and Row), p. 142
Zohar III 283b
"It is already been stated that all spirits issue from heaven in pairs male and female, and then separate. Sometimes the spirit of the female goes forth before the male which is her mate, and as long as the time of the male has not come to be united with her another can come and marry her, but when the time of the first arrives to marry her, when righteousness arises to visit the sins the first comes and marries her."
Zohar vol.5:370 in Harry Sperling and Maurice Simon, trans., 2nd edition, (Soncino Press 1984)
{ADDIONAL SITES TO SEE}
Eternal Marriage in Early Jewish and Christian Belief:
David Werden
Eternal Marriage
David R. Werden
It is generally understood in today’s
Christianity that there will be no marriages after death[1].
This is largely because of a statement made by Jesus in Luke 20:33-40.[2] This paper is a reexamination of Jesus’s
statement made in The Gospel of Luke, in relation to being married in the
resurrection. A Jewish sect called the
Sadducees, who did not believe in a resurrection,[3]
ask Jesus a question that is also found in
Matthew 22:25-28 and Mark.12:20-23.
Luke 20:
29: There were therefore seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and died without children
30 And
the second took her to wife, and he died childless.
31 And
the third took her; and in like manner the seven also: and they left no children, and died.
32 Last
of all the woman died also.
33
Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them is she? For seven had her to
wife.[4]
The
question is interesting because it shows they expected Jesus to believe in not only
a resurrection but the possibility of having a wife there as well. Jesus is
asked if a woman had been married to seven brothers over the course of her
life, who then will she be married to in the resurrection? The question is posed with all new husbands
being brothers of the deceased husband, letting us know it was a custom called
“levirate marriage” meaning marriage to a brother in-law. The custom goes back
to Moses, (Deut. 25:5-10) where we can find the law being taught.[5]
These marriages had a specific purpose:
to allow the brothers to bear children by proxy for their deceased
brother in the event there was no heir to carry on the family name. As with all
the laws given to Moses, over time interpretations of the law were made that
have come down to us through the Talmud.[6]
The
Sadducees’ question was meant to challenge the resurrection rather than an
inquiry of who the husband would be. It was a topic that was already enjoying a
contentious debate,[7] (Acts 23:6-10) and one
that would be continued by Christians well into the third century. The debate
was over more than a resurrection. Eusebius, in
his Ecclesiastical History, describes
the debate over the literal Jewish understanding of sexuality during the
millennium: Bishop Nepos of Egypt contended it was as the Jews taught, while
Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria opposed it in his work on the Promises.[8] This raised questions about how much of this
life would continue in a resurrected state.[9] In
one description from the Talmud, the next life is void of bodily pleasures: “In the future world there is no eating nor
drinking nor propagation….”[10]
Yet in other places there are references to Ezekiel reviving the dead that go
into Palestine, marrying and begetting children.[11]
Origen
(185-253), an early Christian theologian, describes a group of Jewish Christians
that held to a belief in a futuristic Jerusalem where marriage would continue
in the resurrection: “they say, that
after the resurrection there will be marriages, and the begetting of children”.[12]
In 1Enoch 10:17 it also refers to a futuristic Jerusalem with marriages, but it
is unclear if the marriages are in a resurrected state.
With this lack of clarity, Jesus rebukes the
Sadducees by saying that they don’t understand the scriptures or the power of
God. [13]
In Luke
20:34-36 the Savior answers the question of who will be married in the
resurrection, saying:
34 “And Jesus answering said unto them, The children
of this world marry, and are given in marriage:
35
But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the
resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage.
36 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are
the children of God, being the
children of the resurrection. (KJV)
Ben
Witherington points out that γαμοῦσιν καὶ γαμίζονται (marry and
given in marriage) is referring to the ceremony of marriage, letting us know
there would be no new levirate marriages to a brother in-law performed
after the resurrection. Concluding only levirate marriages will end, allowing the marriage to the first
(original) husband to continue.[14]
In verse
34, which reads “Children of this world marry
and are given in marriage”, as contrasted with resurrected angels who are
not married. The word that is translated “world” is αἰών ( aion ). Aion or
aeon, which can be interpreted as time spent in the world ( κόσμος ). However, the word in the Greek for world
(κόσμος) does not appear there. Aion is
a word that can also mean “eternal” or eternity, taken from its original
meaning in Hebrew “Olam”[15]. In the 102 times it is used in the New
Testament, 66 according to Ramelli and Konstan [16]
“unmistakably, have the meaning of eternal as in eternal life with God”. This is the same word that John 17:3 used
when he declared “this is life eternal
(aion)” that we might know Thee”, and
John 3:16 “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal (aion) life.” There are
instances where aion could be interpreted
to mean “age” as in a limited time, age of the world or age to come, in
Rabbinic Hebrew “Olam Ha-Ba” (world
to come)[17]. So the context in which it’s used is most
often the deciding factor.[18] If
we give aion the translation of eternal, and use it in those verses of Luke
20, it would have a different message:
The sons
of eternity marry, and are given in marriage, those worthy, those eternal and attain resurrection. Those
from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, neither die anymore yet
are equal to the angels and are sons of God resurrected being sons.
Now
the contrast is with the sons of eternity
(aion) who are married and worthy,
compared to the angels who are resurrected and not married. The problem may not
be with whether there is marriage in the resurrection, but who will or will not
be worthy of marriage in the resurrection. The use of καταξιωθέντες [who are
worthy] of “aion” or becoming Sons of Aion, is important because it helps to
clarify the importance of worthiness,[19] in becoming a “son of
eternity”. The problem is if it’s meant to be applied to the sons of eternity
or to the resurrected angels. In our new translation, Aion is used twice, first
to identify who will be married (Sons of Aion), the second time to qualify the
sons of eternity by being worthy of aion
or eternal life. In the current translations “Aion” is used first to mean, (time in mortality)
and the second to mean a (time to come) where those worthy, will be like the
angels, resurrected and without marriage. So it is important to understand the
intent of the worthiness, whether it is referring to the “sons of eternity” or
the unmarried resurrected angels. It is also important to note, as a
distinction is going to be made between the Sons of Eternity and angels, the
use of the term angel has had a wide range of meaning from its generic use of
the hosts of heaven to its original meaning as messenger that has even been
applied to the God YHWH.[20]
As scribes and others have tried to maintain monotheism we find instances where
the reference to the sons of god have been translated angels.[21]
Origen (185-253), condemned the Christians
that believed you were still married in the resurrection, described them as
having a more Jewish understanding of the scriptures.[22]
With this Jewish understanding, words like aion,
would still have their Hebrew meaning of “Eternal”
(Olam).[23] Later translators, after
the Hellenization of Christianity,[24]
would be far more likely to choose a translation of “age” having aion defined as a limited time.[25]
In the Gospel of John when Aion is used in connection with Life, as in “Eternal Life”,[26] it
has celestial overtones for those in the next life or world to come, not life
in this world of mortality.[27]
Later
Christians, who became known as Gnostics, used the word aion or aeons, to mean
individuals and worlds that were part of a celestial realm. In “The
Gnostic Religion” by Hans Jonas, shows how the use of the term aion changes to mean divine and
semi-divine beings.[28] In
Gen.21:33, Abraham calls upon the name of YHWH,
El-Olam (God Eternal), and in the Apocalypse of Abraham, Abraham in praying to God, with the title of Olam
(Aion) “Eternal One” (God).[29]
Tertullian (155-240 AD.) has Valentinian describing God as a “Perfect Aion” and personaliter Forefather, Adversus
Valentinianos VII.[30]
Irenaeus in his, “Against Heresies”,
written in the second century, condemned Valentinian and the Christians that
followed him for performing a “spiritual marriage” like in heaven.[31] Gilles Quispel, shows how they used the term aeons in describing celestial marital
relationships.
“According to Clement of
Alexandria, Valentinus and his followers consider couples of man and wife and
their copulations to be a symbol of the sacred marriage of the aeons and for that reason they are all
in favor of marriage. ‘Valentinus and his followers derive couples
from the divine emanations above and for this reason take a delight in marriage.’”
Stromateis III,I,I [32]
These Gnostics Christians performed ritual
marriages in mirrored bridal chambers (fn.114) to
mirror the marriages that are termed “hieros
gamos” or sacred marriage,[33]
a term also used to symbolize Christ’s marriage to the church[34]
that is now being used to define celestial marriage with the term Aeons (eternal ones) at its very center.
In Wilson’s book on the Gospel of Philip he states “the sacred marriages
of the aeons provided the model for
the earthly activity.”[35] With
the Gospel of Philip describing the union of a man and woman being different in
the aeon (next life) but
called by the same name (marriage).[36]
In what
respect these aeons were married is
not clear, nor is the Gnostic Christian use of the term aeons. What is clear is that there was a connection between the use
of the term aeon and marriage that is
being referred to in terms of an afterlife or celestial realm. A connection these Christians understood well
enough to justify continuing the practice of marriage in a temple setting.[37] This theme of marriage in heaven can
also be seen in Israel’s understanding of having both a Father in Heaven with
his wife (Asherah) that later was referred to as Shekhinah (Feminine form of
God’s spiritual presence fn.116), has become more apparent.[38] Showing that at least the ancient Israelites
and gnostic Christians believed in a form of marriage in heaven from having
both a father and mother in heaven.
In an account of the first wedding, Rabbi
Eliezer describes the wedding of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden under the direction
of The Holy One (God), ten wedding canopies are erected and decorated with
precious stones such as sardius, topaz, diamonds and jasper. The angels were
playing upon timbrels and dancing with pipes (like females).[39] Rabbi Eliezer tells us that Adam was created
“in a pure locality in the place of the temple …into His palace,”[40]
This idea of a wedding in heaven, like that of Adam and Eve, is mimicked as it
is played out in other wedding settings. The Sacred Marriage ritual was a
reenactment performed anciently with two heavenly counterparts, a god and
goddess being married, coming down to us in the form of poems and hymns.[41]
From the
Acts of Thomas, the apostle is
attending a wedding and sings this song.
The
maiden is the daughter of light,…
And her
bridesmaids are seven,…
Having
their gaze and looking toward the bridegroom,…
And for ever shall they be with him in
that eternal joy…
Of which
the eternal ones are accounted worthy,
And they
shall put on royal robes
And be
arrayed in splendid raiment,
And both
shall be in joy and exultation
And they shall glorify the father of all,… [42]
In one of the lines we see the phrase
“which the eternal ones are accounted worthy” and then described by
the apostle as given royal robes with
splendid raiment and brought before
the father of all. The eternal ones
are individuals that, if accounted worthy, enjoy a state that will “ever be with him”. Much like Luke described: The Sons of Eternity are married and which
are accounted worthy. Both Luke and The Acts
of Thomas are in the context of a wedding, a wedding that cannot be separated
from the symbol of the coming of the messiah and being in his presence. With Luke the time is the resurrection, when
Christ the groom and the Church the bride will be wed.[43]
In “The Acts of Thomas” a wedding that will result in being in his
presence. Another line refers to the
bride as “the daughter of light” also an expression that is used in the “Book of Jeu” that describes those who
receive all the ordinances as “sons of light”.[44]
In
a new look at some of the older accounts of the prophets ascending into heaven.
It is believed that what has been going on in heaven is what the earthly temple
is doing in the form of ordinances and dramatizations.[45]
In Ezekiel’s ascent to heaven in chapter one, Ezekiel finds himself, surrounded
by some of the same scenes like the heavenly account of Adam and Eve’s wedding.
Mirroring a heavenly temple [46]
Ezekiel, sees, topaz v.16, sapphire in the shape of a throne v.26, and a
ceiling like glittered ice v.22. As we will see, these prophets in their ascent
to heaven to visit the heavenly temple will be going to meet God, a place where
the angels are not allowed to go. Acting as a high priest, these prophets will
receive a glorified state like unto God. This endowment of becoming like God
differs from the angels.
In the different accounts of Enoch’s
ascension into heaven,[47]
we find him in 2En.22:8-10, being
anointed and clothed in a glorious garment. “And I gazed at all myself, and I had become like one of the
glorious ones”.[48] Described in 3En.12:5
as being endowed then becoming a Metatron[49] (little yhwh) or lesser god, during his
transformation he meets with both the male and female counterparts of God, “Shekhinah”
the feminine form of God (3 En.15:1).[50]
Mirroring a temple[51]
on earth he goes where even the angels are not allowed, God’s presence (1En.14:21).[52] Enoch
begins acting as a high priest in this heavenly temple,[53] going
where the Gospel of Philip tells us
only high priest can go, the holy of holies,[54]
also called the bridal-chamber into the presence of God.[55] There is a separation in the heavenly temple where
those who are worthy can go and be exalted and angels cannot.[56] Much of
this was allegorized later, by what Willem Smelik described as “rabbinic
reluctance to articulate the concept of mystical transformation…of the
righteous as gods.”[57]
This
transformation occurs when ordinances were received and then kept, bringing
about oneness with God. This was part of the everlasting covenant (Olam or Aion covenant) given to Abraham by the LORD (Gen.17:4, 19, 18:1-4).
In the Midrash Rabbah, the Lord
declares in a blessing to Abraham that together he and his wife will have
children,[58] and according to one
account Abraham has revealed to him the future of that covenant, in this world
and the next.[59] This everlasting
covenant is what Jesus was referring to when he said to the Sadducees, “You do
not understand the scriptures or the power of God, the God of Abraham is the
God of the Living” (Matt.22:32, Mark 12:26-27). If Abraham is alive[60]
so likewise are his Eternal (Aion)
Covenants.[61] The references to Eternal
(Aion) as it is used in connection to
God, is always understood to be non-ending.[62] It was even believed that those who die would
be received into Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16:22-23). Abraham’s position as a
father transcends death, shown by Lazarus being received into his bosom, as
Abraham cares for his posterity even after death. That understanding of being the children of
Abraham was a vital part of what Israel wished to maintain in life or death
(Matt.3:9; John 8.39-40; Gal. 3:7-9, 29). Women seem to take a role in the next
life as well, shown by a Mother seen in 4
Maccabees 17, lighting the way for her martyred children back to God and
Abraham.[63]
The Gospel of Philip, emphasizing the
importance of the eternal nature of
families, says only progeny is eternal. Everything else fades away. 75:10-12 (NHL 145).
The Zohar I:91b, talking about part of the
covenant of Abraham, said:
“R. Judah sent a question to R. Eleazar. ‘I
know’, he said, ‘about marriages in heaven, but I would like to ask, from where
do those souls are a second time on earth obtain their mates?’” [64]
In
the Zohar
I:101 Abraham is greeted by three heavenly messengers along with The Lord[65]
that give’s Abraham his Eternal Covenants. Shekhinah the feminine form of the
presence of God descends and their tent becomes a holy of holies. R. Simeon
said:
“This is a reference to the Holy One…which is
a feminine form of the same, to emphasize the bond of union between the male
and the female, which is the secret of true faith. Where is that bond of union complete? The answer is, BEHOLD IN THE TENT: there it is found, and there is the
all-in-all union.”[66]
Right
after the visit Abraham begins performing washings for the men and Sarah for
the women.[67] This tent is described in the Talmud as
the “tent of meeting” or holy of holies where Moses could hear the voice of
God.[68]
These covenants given to Abraham were
to be realized by the children of Israel as they were expected to go before the
Lord three times a year (Deut.16:16), with their wives.[69] In those pilgrimages to the temple, marriage
of God to Shekhinah was emphasized as well, going back to the events on Mount
Sinai.[70] In
the, Pesikta Rabbati, “the Hebrew
word for count is taken in its literal sense of lift up and is associated with
Israel’s exaltation at Sinai, where angels gave crowns …to each of the children
of Israel.” (Piska 10:6)[71] During the brief time, before their
disobedience, the men in Israel had the opportunity to become a nation of
Priests (Ex. 19:6), along with seeing the face of God (assisted by two angles).[72] Seeing the face of God
was the original anticipation that later was replaced by images of a male and
female deities, called Cherubim,[73] who were described in
Exodus 37:7-9 as winged figurines made of gold, seated on the two ends of the
“mercy seat, with their faces one to another”. The Dead Sea Scrolls describes
them as “figures of godlike beings”.[74] The two Cherubim were
shown to those making their pilgrimage to the temple. Later accounts describe them embracing like a
husband and wife. According to Rabbi Kattina:
“Whenever Israel came up to the Festival, the
curtain would be removed for them and the Cherubim were shown to them, whose
bodies intertwisted with one another, and they would be thus addressed: Look!
You are beloved before God as the love between man and woman" (Yoma 54a). Babylonian Talmud (TB) [75]
In the Zohar III, referring to this experience of seeing a male and
female Cherubim in the temple, “R. Isaac
said: From this we learn that where there is no union of male and female, men
are not worthy to behold the divine presence.” (Ahare Moth 59a) [76]
According
to Rabbi Judah it was so important for the
High Priest to have a wife during The Day of Atonement, in the temple, a second
wife was prepared:
“Also
another wife was prepared for him in case his wife should die. For it is
written, and he shall make Atonement for himself and for his house. ‘His house’
that means ‘his wife’.” (Mishnah Yoma 1:1) Babylonian Talmud, Seder Mo`ed[77]
Crispin Fletcher-Louis in his article on high
priests, believes Enoch’s heavenly ascent was in resemblance of the high
priest’s annual visit to the holy of holies on the Day of Atonement. A parallel
that would suggest there would have been a wife.[78] The Zohar I:55b says nothing can be done before God without the women,[79]and
the Midrash Rabbah says, “It was
taught: He who has no wife dwells… without atonement.” (Gen. R.17.2) [80]
Josephus
in describing the Jewish Temple, tells of a large gate where those who are
“pure came in, together with their wives…”[81] According to R. Eliezer b. Hyrkanus, in this
tradition, Solomon built two gates one for married couples and the other for
mourners and those under the ban.[82]
This special gate is seen in the heavenly temple in Falasha’s, Fifth
Baruch, Baruch is taken up to the different gates of heaven by the angel
Raphael, who tells him of the blessed who enter a special gate, of those he
says “the husband remains with his wife and the wife remains with her husband”[83].
The angle (Raphael) then said, “Blessed are those who enter though this gate.” He
is also shown the throne room where those who enter that gate will go.
In the Seder
Eliyahu Rabbah, that throne room is described: “in the
‘world-to-come.’ What will that life be
like? The Holy One will be seated in His great academy and seated in His
presence will be the righteous of the world, they, their wives, their sons,
their daughters…”[84]
In the
Gospel of Philip, that is part of the Nag Hammadi library, tells us the most
sacred part of the temple is the Holy of Holies, also called the bridal chamber, where God is. (fn.55)
“There
are 3 buildings specifically for sacrifice…one facing west called the holy another facing south called holy of the holy the third facing east was called the holy of
the holies the place where only the high
priest enters… the holy of holies is the bridal chamber”(69:14-25).[85]
Here it says, “the women is united to her husband in the
bridal chamber. Indeed those who have united in the bridal chamber will no
longer be separated” (70:19-20)fn.85. This description of the Holy of Holies as the
bridal chamber is important because it tells us that it is restricted to only
High Priests[86]
and that marriages performed there “will
no longer be separated”. The endowment of becoming like God or a Metatron,
received by Enoch when he entered the heavenly Holy of Holies made him
different from the angels who are not able to enter the Holy of Holies or
bridal chamber, this being another distinction made. A distinction that
parallels Jesus’ account of the Sons of Eternity
(Aions) differing from
resurrected angels.
After the resurrection of the Savior, the apostles
continued to receive instruction from the risen Christ. In the Book
of Jeu and the Pistis Sophia we
have an account of some of what happened:
The apostles together with the women disciples were being instructed by
the risen Savior in all the mysteries (ordinances):
“For
it is necessary that you should receive the mystery…so that you may become sons
of light and completed in all the mysteries (ordinances). So that we become sons of light and that the
archons[87]
of the aeons which are outside the treasury of light do not restrain us and
that we may be numbered within the inheritance of the kingdom of the light”.[88]
This is
taking place with Jesus in the middle of the circle and the apostles with the
women disciples surrounding him, going through all the mysteries (ordinances)
together. It is important to note that
this is done with women. The same
mysteries are being done in the Pistis
Sophia with the apostles and women disciples.[89]
These women
disciples would have been their wives, according to Clement it was not uncommon
for the apostles who were married to bring their wives with them (1Cor. 9:5),[90] to have women disciples
there without the apostle’s wives would not have been done.[91]
Mary who figures prominently in these accounts,[92] would suggest that even
Jesus was accompanied by what the Gospel of Philip describes as his
“companion”.[93]
This was done to complete the image of God.
According to Paul there is no greater mystery than marriage
(Eph.5:32), which is understood as an ordinance.[94] The Gospel of
Philip also describes marriage as an ordinance along with, baptism, chrism,
eucharist.[95] Of all these, it says marriage is the most
important and must be done here or it can’t be done at all. “If anyone does not receive It while he is in
these places he will not be able to receive it in the other place”
(86:5-10)[96].
As Jesus said, there is no marriage later in the resurrection (Luke 20:35-36). Angels are not married and marriages are not
performed after the resurrection. [97]
In Gen.6:1-6 and 1Enoch ch.6-16 the story is told of the
Sons of God who try and circumvent that by forfeiting their heavenly state to
come to earth and marry the daughters of men. In 1En.6 they are referred to as angels rather than sons of god. It is
also made clear these angels actions are unacceptable, described as defilement
and fornication rather than acceptable marriage, the consequences of their
actions resulting in a loss or fall from heaven. Some scholars question if
these were angels at all, but rather a typological reference to fallen priests
who married unworthily (Ezra ch.9-10),[98] going
to the very heart of the issue, by having unworthy priests, characterized as
unmarried angels and the worthy high priest as a metatron or endowed god that
would be married. “Sons of Eternity/Aion” would then take on the same
implications as “Sons of Light”,
those who have received all the mysteries (ordinances) with both Light and
Eternal/Aion being synonyms for God.[99]
The Gospel of Philip goes on to tell
us Eve was in Adam before the fall and “Christ
came to repair the separation…and again unite the two” this it says happens
in the bridal chamber (70:10-24).[100]
In The Homily Ascribed to Clement XII:
“For the
Lord himself being asked by one when His kingdom would come, replied, “when two
shall be one and that which is without as that which is within and the male
with the female neither male nor female.” Now two are one …one sole in two
bodies.” (ANF Vol.7:520)
As an ordinance, the mystery of marriage
(Eph.5:32) binds[101]
and seals a husband and wife as one, returning men and women to their divine
nature before the fall. Paul describes
the incompleteness of men and women without this mystery (ordinance),
1Cor.11:11 “neither is the man without
the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord.”
In
the Zohar I 55b: the man is not
complete without the woman before God:
“Every figure
which does not comprise male and female elements is not a true and proper
figure….The male is not even called man till he is united with female.” R.
Simeon goes on to say, “God, does not
place his abode in any place where male and female are not found together, nor
are blessings found save in such a place,..”.[102]
In the Midrash Rabbah, “It was taught: He who
has no wife dwells without good, without help, without joy, without blessings,
and without atonement.” (Gen. R.17.2)
[103]
The marriage ordinance allows men and women to
reflect their true image as it was before the fall, a likeness and oneness with
Heavenly Father, and “Shekhinah” his
feminine counterpart to be complete. [104] Jesus spoke of the authority given to
Peter: “whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven”
(Matt.16:19). That “binding” was part of the everlasting covenant of Abraham, made
possible through the atonement. A husband and wife become one when that oneness
is joined to and reflective of the Father, Shekhinah
and the Son. This oneness is describes by Jesus when he prayed to his
Father that they become one just like He and his Father are one, so we may
become one with them.[105]
That is the symbolism of Christ’s marriage to the church as well. Those who
have entered into the ordinances are the church that will receive him when he
comes. They are the five wise virgins, symbolized in the parable, who are
prepared for the bridegroom (Matt.25:1-6). Jesus in Luke refers to
his followers as children of the bridal chamber. Luke 5:34: “And he said unto them, can ye make the
children of the bride-chamber, fast while the bridegrooms is with them?”[106]
Much of the resurrection and who
may be married, would be based more on lives lived and ordinances (mysteries)
received and kept than anything else. As Enoch stood before the angels it says
“He had no need of council, in his every
word was a deed.” (1 Enoch 14:22)
In Pesikta
Rabbati, R. Phinehas said; “Moses who ascended on high…took the Torah… by virtue of Israel’s merit”
(Pisk 47).[107]
The Torah was more than the law in was the ordinances also.
Paul, in 1Cor 15:40-43, compares
the diversity in the resurrection to the stars differing in glory “so also is the resurrection of the dead”
This difference can be seen in the accounts of Enoch, Moses and others who were
able to go even where angels were not permitted and received an endowment that
made them more than mere angels, but like unto God.[108]
At the completion of one of these ceremonies
in the “Untitled Text” Jesus says
“And
I will send you powers. And I will strengthen you with spirits of power, and I
will give you authority as you will. And no one will prevent you in what you
wish. And you will beget for yourselves aeons and worlds and heavens, (so that)
the intelligible spirits come and dwell in them. And you will become gods”.[109]
In Morton Smith’s translation to 4QM, an unknown author in the Dead Sea Scrolls describes his seat
in the congregation of the gods.
[El
Elyon gave me a seat among] those perfect forever
A mighty
throne in the congregation of the gods.
For I
have taken my seat in the [congregation] in the heavens,
I shall be reckoned with the gods
And
established in the holy congregation.
I do not
desire gold as would a man of flesh;
Everything
precious to me is in the glory of [my God]
[The
status of a holy temple,] not to be violated,
Has been
attributed to me and who can compare with me in glory?[110]
With everything precious to
him was not gold but the status of the holy temple, the “holy temple not to be
violated, has been attributed to me”.
Here the glorified writer tells us the importance he put on keeping the
sacred mysteries and living the covenants made in the temple.[111]
Yet all this needed to be done with a female
counterpart to become like God.[112]
According to Patai you were constantly reminded while in the Holy of Holies of
the Temple, of the eternal union of male and female by the cherubim that symbolized
two heavenly beings in a marital embrace (TB.Yoma 54a).[113] The mirror in the bridal chamber was ever
present to remind them of the true image of God, male and female (Gen.1:26-27),
being reflected as they stood side by side[114]in
that sacred chamber, now seeing Him as he is. (1John 3:2)
The feminine aspects of God can only
be obtained in the oneness of marriage, if man is ever to become like God.[115] The allusions to God’s
female counterpart whether Wisdom, Shekhinah, or Asherah[116] were always meant to be understood as part of
the oneness of God, like the Father and the Son.[117] So likewise, were a husband and wife meant to
become as one.
According to Jewish legend the faces of the cherubim
would turn their faces away from each other according to Israel’s disobedience.[118] All this made both the Sadducees and the
Pharisees very uncomfortable and had since the reformers in 2Kings.[119]
They had lost all they once understood about Temple ordinances, so Jesus
answering them on that occasion said:
“Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God” (Matt.
22:29, Mk.12:24). Jesus during his last week referring to their Temple said: “behold,
your house is left unto you desolate.”[120]
Since the destruction of the Jewish temple by the
Romans in 70 AD, Jews and Christians alike have looked to a time when those
mysteries (ordinances) would be restored. During The Six-Day War of 1967, the
Jewish State of Israel annexed Jerusalem and along with it the Temple Mount
where their temple once stood. In years prior on the same mount, the Muslims
erected a shrine called the “Dome of the Rock” along with the Al-Aqsa
Mosque. This became the third most important site in Islam. Hence, the prospect of rebuilding a Jewish Temple on that site and
the prophecies of Ezekiel (Ch.40-44) were left unfulfilled. During one of
Yigael Yadin’s lectures on the The Temple Scrolls (from the Dead Sea Scrolls)[121]
he was asked about the possibility of rebuilding the Temple somewhere else. He
said: When it comes to building temples, the Mormons were the only ones he knew
of that knew anything about building temples.[122]
After the fourth
century, the Christianity that emerged rejected the esoteric nature of temple
rituals,[123] and
with it the mystery of marriage. The interpretation of Jesus’ use of “Aion” a title that was used later even
to describe Jesus,[124]
is now being used to differentiate those
married in the resurrection, as “Sons of
Aion” (Sons of Eternity), compared to those who become like the angels.
Aion’s rich diversity both
before and after the time of Jesus goes to show how important it is to consider
its esoteric implications in the temple, as it went hand in hand with the
mysteries taught there. Going to the very heart of the Gnostic writings, we
find its theme interwoven like tapestry,[125]
veiling its significance to all but its recipients, with the true gnosis
(knowledge) acquired only in its ritual initiation. In the Book of Hebrews
9:12,15, for example, Aion is defined
as the blessing coming out of the “Holy Place”. This pattern of Aion’s association
with the very room in the temple that is also called the “Bridal Chamber” may
not be any different than its association with the name of God or the promise
of Eternal Life, both being understood with the celestial, now being used to
define those worthy of its blessings as “Sons of Aion”. It is not surprising
then that so many translators today have chosen to leave Aion in the Greek and
not hazard a guess to its veiled uses in the Nag Hammadi Library and Anti
Gnostic wittings of Irenaeus and others. Jesus’ position on the sacredness of
marriage was well established,[126] when
he was surrounded on that occasion being asked by the non-believing Sadducees who the woman would be married to in the
resurrection. Is it any wonder then, given Christ’s audience on that occasion,
and his fondness for parables, that the term he chose (Aion) was meant to be just that, a mystery.
[1] Notable exceptions, Ben Witherington, The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical
Commentary: pp.328-329; John J. Kilgallen, A Brief Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, p.195; Joseph Smith Jr., The
Doctrine and Covenants, Sections 131:1-4, 132:19 (Hereafter D&C), in
Ludlow, ed., Encyclopedia of Mormonism
Vol. 5 (Macmillan, 1992) pp.428-429
[2] Matt.22: 23-33,
Mark 12:18-27. Although John does not give an account in his gospel, in the Discourse on
Abbaton, fol.26a:
The resurrected Savior while visiting John does reiterates, no marriage in the
resurrection. Discourse
on Abbaton, by Archbishop of Alexandria, in A.E. Wallis Budge, Coptic Texts, Vol. IV, Coptic Martyrdoms
Ect. In the Dialect of Upper Egypt, (AMS reprint 1914) p.492
[3]
Matt.22:23,
Mark 12:18, Acts 23:8; Josephus, Antiquities
of the Jews (AJ.), 18.1.4, in William Whiston, trans., Josephus Complete Works, (Kregel Publications), p.377; Sadducees
accept only the Torah (First five Books of Moses) AJ.,13.10.6, (p.281),
rejecting the resurrection that is not made clear until later. Dan 12:2-3;
2Macc. 7:9, 11, 14, 23; Alluding to: 1Sam.2:6; Job 19:26; Isa. 26:19; Ezek.
37:12
[4]
In the Book
of Tobit a similar story is told, Tobit 3:8 (6:10-8:9): a woman marries seven husbands that die
before consummating the marriage. Then
“Bashert”, the man she was destined
to marry, becomes her husband and lives to consummate the marriage; Tobit 6:17:
“she was destined for you before the world was made”; Babylonian Talmud (Hereafter TB.) Sotah 2a:“Forty days before the creation of a
child, God issues forth and proclaims, The daughter of A is for B”; TB
Katan 18b: “a woman is [destined to] a man by God.”; A position the
Sadducees would have rejected. (Antiquities
of the Jews 13.5.9) p.274; John Tvedtnes, FARMS
Review of Books Vol. 9, No.1 (1997) p.41;
Geoffrey Miller, “A Match Made in Heaven? God’s Role in Marriage according to
the Book of Tobit”, Rivista Biblica, LVII (2009) www.academia.edu/1460532, pp.139,148; Peter Bolt, “What were the Sadducees
Reading? An Enquiry into the Literary Background of Mark 12:18-23”, Tyndale Bulletin Articles 45.2
(Nov.1994) pp. 373-394; Gen.24:48-51; Judges 14:1-4; Proverbs 19:14
[5]
On levirate
marriage (Yibbum),Gen. 38:8, Deut.
25:5-6, Mishneh Torah Yibbum 1:1-3 in
contrast, Halizah: Deut. 25:7-10
Lev.18:13,16, 20:21; Dvora E. Weisberg, “The Widow of Our Discontent: Levirate
Marriage in the Bible and Ancient Israel”,
Journal for the Study of the Old
Testament,28.4 (2004) pp.407-416;
Weisberg, Levirate Marriage and the
Family in Ancient Judaism, Brandeis Univ. Press.
[7]
Strack and
Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament
aus Talmud Midrasch, (Munchen 1922), Das Evangelium Nach Matthaus,
Vol.1:888-889
[8]
Eusebius, Ecclesiastical
History, Book 7, ch.24, (Baker Book House) p. 295; For Dionysius see, Roberts
and Donaldson, eds., Ante-Nicene Fathers,
Vol.6, pp.81-82 (Hereafter ANF)
[9]
Justin
Martyr, On the Resurrection, Ch. III,
in ANF 1:295; Midrash Psalms 146, in William G. Braude, trans., The Midrash Psalms, Yale Judaica Series
XIII, Vol.2:366; Rabbi Nissan Dovid Dubov,
To Live and Live Again, (Sichos In English 1995), pp. 111-112 (fn.373-5), 25-32, 83-86; Raphael Patai, The
Messiah Texts, (Wayne 1988) pp.197-210; Avraham Piatvoski, ed., Piskei Teshuvah sec.124, (Moznaim/Vagshal) pp.60-61; Saadia Gaon, The Book of Beliefs and
Opinions,(Yale Judaica Series Vol. I ) pp.280-282; Taylor Petrey, Resurrecting Parts: Early Christians on
Desire, Reproduction, and Sexual Difference (Routledge 2016)
[10]
TB Berakoth 17a; Rambam (Maimonides), Hilchos Teshuvah 8:2; also Essay
on Resurrection, in Abraham Halkin, trans., Epistles of Maimonides Crisis and Leadership (1993) pp.219-220
[11]
TB Sanhedrin 92b; Seder
Eliyahu Rabbah ch.4:19: Describes the “world-to-come” with family in God’s
presence. In Braude and Kapstein, trans., Tanna
Debe Eliyyahu: The Lore of the School
of Elijah, (The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1981) p.81; Ketav
Tamim, Otsar Nehmad ed., 91: Moshe
Taku says, “And [after the resurrection] the righteous will take wives in
accordance with their deeds,…” trans.,
David I. Shyovitz, in his Doctoral Dissertation in History, “He Has Created
a Remembrance of His Wonders”: Nature and Embodiment in the Thought of the Hasidei Ashkenaz,” (University of
Pennsylvania, 2011) p.317, fn.180; Midrash
Alpha-Betot, Batei Midrashot, II, ed. S.A.Wertheimer: “Each righteous person will draw near his wife in the world to
come…” cited in, David Nirenberg, “Posthumous Love in Judaism”, in Bernard
Jussen, Ramie Targoff, ed., Love after
Death: Concepts of Posthumous Love in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (De Gruyter 2015) p.60: https://www.academia.edu/10305251/Posthumous_Love_in_Judaism
[14]
Ben Witherington, “The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary” pp.328-329, Women in the Ministry of Jesus pp.32-34;
John J. Kilgallen, A Brief Commentary on
the Gospel of Luke, p.195; John J. Kilgallen, “32nd Sunday:
Sadducees and the Resurrection from the Dead”, America: The National Catholic Review, Nov.13, 2007 (Institute of
Pastoral Studies LOYOLA University
Chicago) http://americamagazine.org/node/123628: “Though Jesus
does not say whose wife the widow will be in the next life, it is reasonable to
assume she will be the wife of the first husband, whose life was ended here,
but will continue forever (with her) in the resurrected life.”
[15] James A.
Montgomery: “The Highest, Heaven, Aeon, Times, Etc., in Semitic Religion”: The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 31,
No.2 (Apr.1938), pp.146-147, (Hereafter HTR.)
[17]
In Biblical Hebrew ‘olam means “eternity”(Ex.3:15), but in Rabbinic Hebrew in takes on
the meaning of “world".
[19] Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke, International Greek
Testament Commentary (NIGTC) p.741: Although Marshal does not concede there
is marriage in heaven, largely to the implication of a sexual relationship. He
does suggest there would be a transcendent relationship for those worthy; From
the thirteenth century Tosafist, Rabbi Moshe Taku: “And [after the
resurrection] the righteous will take wives in accordance with their deeds,…of
equivalent righteousness” Sefer Ketav Tamim, trans., by David I.
Shyovitz, in his Doctoral Dissertation in History, “He Has Created a
Remembrance of His Wonders’: Nature and Embodiment in the Thought of the Hasidei Ashkenaz,” (University of
Pennsylvania, 2011) p.317, fn.180; TB Sotah
2a: “They only pair a women with a man according to his deeds”; Smith, Doctrine
and Covenants 132:39
[20] Joseph Trigg,
“The Angel of Great Council”, The Journal
of Theological Studies, Vol.42:1 (April 1991) pp.41-42; Margaret Barker, The Great Angel: A Study of Israel’s
Second God,(W/JKP) pp.71-94
[21]Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, p.269;
Ronald Hendel, “When the Sons of God Cavorted with the Daughters of Men”, in
Hershel Shanks, ed., Understanding the
Dead Sea Scrolls, pp. 169-172; Peter Hayman, “Monotheism—A Misused Word
in Jewish Studies?”, Journal of Jewish
Studies XLII, No,1 (Spring 1991) pp.6-8
[23] James A.
Montgomery: “The Highest, Heaven, Aeon, Times, Etc., in Semitic Religion”, HTR., Vol.31, No.2 (April,1938),
pp.146-147
[24] Harnack, “What is Christianity”, pp.191-192, 201;
Jean Danielou, trans. John Baker, “The
Theology of Jewish Christianity” pp.2-3, 315; H.C. Snape, “The Composition
of the Lukan Writings: A Re-Assessment”,
HTR, Vol.53, No.1 (Jan., 1960) p. 32 “…the New Testament text cannot be
traced without taking into account the philological mind and method as a ‘Greek
contribution to the Christian tradition’ coming from Alexandria…as copies were
distributed among other churches, glosses, expansions and small alterations
crept in to suit popular requirements resulting in the wild and popular text of
the second century.”; John P. Meier, “The Debate on the Resurrection of the
Dead: An Incident from the Ministry of the Historical Jesus?”, Journal for the Study of the New Testament,
77(2000) p.3: Believing these verses (Luke 20: 34-39) to have originated in
Mark, Meier begins the subject by pointing out that some scholars believe that
periscope to be Christian invention.
[25] Kittle, TDNT
Vol.1: 203-204: “the equation αἰών and κόσμος
also found in the Hellenistic mysteries is to be explained in the New Testament
by Jewish linguistic usage.”
[26] J.G. Van Der Watt “The Use of αἰώνιος in the Concept ζωὴ αἰώνιος in John's Gospel”, Novum
Testamentum. Vol. 31:3 (1989) pp.219-228
[27]
R.McL.Wilson,
The Gospel of Philip, (London A.R.
Mowbray & Co.) p.164: Shows a contrast between aeon and world, with
marriages in this world compared to the union of man and woman in the aeons.
[28] Hans Jones: The Gnostic Religion, 2nd
edition, Beacon Press, p.53; April D.
DeConick, “The Great Mystery of Marriage”, Vigiliae
Christianae, Vol.57 No.3 (Aug. 2003) pp.316-320 (Here after VC); also, DeConick shows Jesus as an aeon, from the Tripartite Tractate in, “Heavenly Temple Traditions and Valentinian
Worship”, in Newman, Davila and Lewis, eds., The Jewish Roots of Christological Monotheism, pp. 332-334; George
W. MacRae, “The Jewish Background of
the Gnostic Sophia Myth”, Novum Testamentum.
Vol.12, fasc.2 (Apr.1970) p.88.
[29]
R.
Rubinkiewicz translation, in James H. Charlesworth, “The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Vol. 1, pp.694-695 (Hereafter OTP.);
God the Father who is called the eternal light in Pedagogue 1.6.32.1 “we run toward the eternal light,
we sons, toward the father.” As quoted from, Ilaria Ramelli and David Konstan, Terms for Eternity, p.109
[30] Roberts and
Donaldson, eds., Ante-Nicene Fathers,
Vol.3, p.506 (Hereafter ANF); For translation of “Forefather”
See, Gilles Quispel: “Hermes Trismegistus and the Origins of Gnosticism”, Vigiliae Christianae, Vol. 46 No.1
(1992) p.14 (ref. VC); E. Theodore Mullens, Jr.
Shows how Olam has been used as a title for God, in The
Assembly of the Gods, The Divine Council in Canaanite and Early Hebrew
Literature , Scholar Press p.28; Frank Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, Harvard Press pp.17-20
[31]
Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.21.3 in Roberts
and Donaldson, eds., ANF 1:346; Gaye
Strathearn, “The Valentinian Bridal Chamber in the Gospel of Philip” Studies in the Bible and Antiquity,
Vol.1:1 (Maxwell Institute, 2009) p.84
[32] Gilles Quispel, “The
Original Doctrine of Valentinus the Gnostic”, Vigiliae Christianae 50, No.4
(1996) p.334; Henry Chadwick, trans., Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 3.1.1 , The
Library of Christian Classics, Vol.
2:40, 53, (Westminster Press);
DeConick, “Great Mystery of Marriage”, Vigiliae
Christianae, Vol. 57, No. 3 (Aug., 2003), pp. 316-320: “Through the Ptolemaic exegesis of John
1:1-18, Irenaeus tells us that the Valentinians find support for the
procreative nature of the aeons: the first-begotten is the aeon whom
John has called both "the only-begotten Son and God, in whom the Father,
after a seminal manner, brought forth all things" (Iren., Adv.
Haer.I.8.5). Furthermore, "'what was made in him,' says John, 'is
life.' Here again he indicated conjunction; for all things, he said, were made
by him, but in him was life" (Iren., Adv. Haer. I.8.5). (VC
57:3 p.317)
[33]Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.21.3 in Roberts
and Donaldson, eds., ANF 1:346; John
Turner, “Ritual in Gnosticism”, under
Valentinian Mystery of the Bridal Chamber, SBL
1994 Book of Seminar Papers p.162;
Eugene Seaich, A Great Mystery the
Secret of the Jerusalem Temple, Gorgias Press, pp.128, 285; Wayne A Meeks:
The Image of the Androgyne. History of
Religions, vol. 13, No. 3 (Feb. 1974) pp.191-194; Gershom G. Scholem, in “Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism” Shows
Gnostic Jews view on marriage, “Every
true marriage is a symbolical realization of the union of God and the
Shekhinah.” p.235; Jorunn Jacobsen
Buckley, “A Cult-Mystery in The
Gospel of Philip” Journal of Biblical
Literature (Hereafter JBL), Vol. 99, No.4,(Dec.,1980), p. 572
[34]
Alfred C.
Rush, “Death as a Spiritual Marriage: Individual and Ecclesial Eschatology”, Vigiliae Christianae (Hereafter VC),
Vol. 26, No. 2, (Jun., 1972); Kari Syreeni, “From Bridegroom’s Time to the Wedding
of the Lamb Nuptial Imagery in the Canonical Gospels and the Book of Revelation.”
in Nissinen and Uro, eds., Sacred
Marriages.; Rev.12:6-9, 19:7-8, Isa.62:5
[35] R.McL.Wilson, The Gospel of Philip, (London A.R.
Mowbray & Co.) p.96, 136; John D. Turner, “Ritual in Gnosticism”, under
Valentinian Mystery of the Bridal Chamber, SBL 1994 Book of Seminar
Papers p.162; Robert M. Grant, “The Mystery of Marriage in the Gospel of Philip” Vigiliae Christianae, Vol. 15, No. 3
(Sep., 1961), p.136; April DeConick, “The Great Mystery of Marriage. Sex
and Conception in Ancient Valentinian Tradition”, Vigiliae Christianae, Vol.57 No.3 (Aug. 2003), pp. 316-317, 333
[36]
Wesley W.
Isenberg, trans of the Gospel of Philip 76:4-10, in J. M.
Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library,
San Francisco, (Harper and Row), p.145
(Here after NHL.)
[37] Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 1. 21. 3, in
Roberts and Donaldson, ANF 1:346, “for
some of them…perform a sort of mystic rite with those who are being initiated,
and affirm that it is a spiritual marriage which is celebrated by them, after
the likeness of the conjunctions above.”
[38] Mark S. Smith, The Early History of God, (Harper &
Row,1987) pp. 88-89; John Day, Yahweh
and the Gods and Goddesses of Canaan, JSOTS 265 (Sheffield Academic Press) pp.59-60;
David Noel Freedman: “Yahweh of Samaria and His Asherah”, The Biblical Archaeologist,
Vol. 50, No. 4 (Dec., 1987), pp. 241-249 Published by: The American Schools of
Oriental Research Stable URL; William G.
Dever, Did God Have a Wife, (Eerdmans 2005); Elaine
Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels, ch.3;
also “What Became of God the Mother”, Signs
Vol. 2 no.2; Raphael Patai, The Hebrew
Goddess, 3rd edition, p.98
; Lowell K. Handy, Among the Host of
Heaven, (Eisenbrauns, 1994) pp.72-77;
Roberts and Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Fathers (ANF), Vol.5: 48: “From thee father and through thee mother,
two names immortal, progenitors of Aeons.” Hippolytus, Refutation of all Heresies , Book 5, ch.1
[39]
Gerald
Friedlander, trans., Pirke De Rabbi
Eliezer, Hermon Press, p.88; Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, Vol.1: 68; Gen.R
18:1, in Rabbi Dr. H. Freedman B.A. Ph. D and Maurice Simon MA, trans., Midrash Rabbah, Vol. 1 pp.140-141,
Soncino Press in 10 vols.; Howard Schwartz, Tree
of Souls, the Mythology of Judaism, (Oxford Univ. Press, 2004) pp.143-144; Canopies being held up by four
pillars is the way Margaret Barker describes the Holy of Holies in the later
Temple, Margaret Barker: The Great High
Priest, p.207; David Halperin, “Origen, Ezekiel’s Merkabah, and the
Ascension of Moses”, American Society of
Church History, Vol. 50 no.1 (Sept.,1981), Cambridge University Press. p.
274: From the Palestinian Talmud, Hagigah 2:1 (77a) Where R. Eleazar b. Arakh,
while expounding the merkabah sees
angels “leaping before them, like a wedding-party rejoicing before a
bridegroom.” [III:2 E]; David Halperin. Merkhabah in Rabbinic Literature, American Oriantal
Series, vol.62, p.130 (fn.106):At Sinai Angeles descend like a wedding
party.
[40] Gerald
Friedlander, trans., Pirke De Rabbi Eliezer, p. 84; Zohar I, Haye Sarah, 130b, in
Harry Sperling, Maurice Simon, trans., Zohar Vol. 2: 20, in 5 Vols., 2nd
edition, (Soncino Press 1984).
[41] Samuel Kramer,
The Sacred Marriage Rite (Indiana University 1969); Pirjo Lapinkini, “The
Sumerian Sacred Marriage and Its Aftermath in Later Sources” In Nissinen and
Uro, ed., Sacred Marriages, (Eisenbrauns,
2008)
[42] Acts of
Thomas pp. 109-111, in Hennecke-Schneemelcher, New Testament Apocrypha, Vol. 2 pp. 445-446
[43] Kari Syreeni,“From
Bridegroom’s Time to the Wedding of the Lamb Nuptial Imagery in the Canonical Gospels
and the Book of Revelation.” In Nissinen and Uro, ed., Sacred Marriages, (Eisenbrauns, 2008) pp.343-369; Rev.12:6-9,
19:7-8, Isa.62:5;Irenaeus,Against Heresies I.13.3
[44] 2
Jeu 51, 126. in Carl Schmidt,
ed., The Books of Jeu and Untitled Text
in the Bruce Codex, tr. Violet MacDermot (Leiden: Brill 1978), p.181: “For
it is necessary that you should receive the mystery (ordinances)…so that you
may become sons of light and completed in all the mysteries”; Pistis Sophia
III,ch.133, p.346 – 350, in Schmidt, trans., pp.693-701, (Meads
trans., p.289) The same mysteries (ordinances)
are being done with the women disciples in the Pistis Sophia, IV ch.136, p. 353, 359, in Carl Schmidt, ed., Pistis Sophia, tr. Violet MacDermot (Leiden:
Brill 1978) pp. 707, 719. (In Mead’s, trans., pp. 295-300); In the Gospel of Philip, Marriage is specifically
described as an ordinance. In: J.M.Robinson, ed.,Nag Hammadi Library, (Harper and Row 1977), p.140 (Hereafter NHL) ; also in R.McL.Wilson trans., The Gospel of Philip,
p.43; References to Christ’s followers as sons of light: John 12:36, Eph. 5:8, 1Thess. 5:5
[45] Rachel Elior,
“From Earthly Temple to Heavenly Shrine”, Jewish
Studies Quarterly 4, (1997) pp. 217-267, Elior “The Three Temples”, (Littman, 2004) ; Martha Himmelfarb: “Ascent to Heaven”, (Oxford Univ. Press,
1993); April DeConick, “Heavenly Temple,
Tradition and Valentinian Worship”, in Newman, Davila, and Lewis, eds., The Jewish Roots of Christological
Monotheism, (Brill 1999), pp.308-341; C R A Morray-Jones; “Paradise
Revisited” part 1 HTR. 86/2 (1993) pp.203-205; Part 2,
HTR 86/3, p.268; Avigdor Victor Aptowitzer, “The Celestial Temple as Viewed
in the Aggadah”, in Joseph Dan, ed., Binah
Vol.2, Studies in Jewish Thought,
pp. 1-10; George W.E. Nickelsburg, “Enoch,
Levi, and Peter: Recipients of Revelation in Upper Galilee”, JBL. Vol.100, No.4 (Dec.1981) pp.
581-582; Raphael Patai ,Temple and
Man, (KTAV, 1967), pp.130-131; Heb.
8:1-5; Rev.7:15; 14:17; 16:17; Ex. 25:8-9, 40; 26:30; 27:8; Num. 8:4; Jer.17:12
[46] Rachel Elior:
From Earthly Temple to Heavenly Shrine,
Jewish Studies Quarterly 4 (1997) JSQ., pp. 221, 227: https://www.academia.edu/4828756
[47] All the accounts
of first, second and third Enoch unless otherwise indicated are from, James H.
Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Vol. 1 pp.3-317(Hereafter OTP.); Enoch’s works have
influence the New Test. Along with the Zohar
and Books of Jeu. see Charles, Book of Enoch, xii-xiii, lxx-lxxix
xcv-cii Pistis Sophia II ch.100. p. 247
(p.495)
[49] Alexander,
trans., 3 Enoch, in Charlesworth, OTP Vol. 1 p.265; Peter Schafer, trans.
Aubrey Pomerance, Hidden and the Manifest
of God, p.29 (fn.70); Synopse zurHekalot-Literatur, Synopse §279 (Tubingen, 1981); Andrei A. Orlov, The Enoch-Metatron Tradition, Mohr
Siebeck, pp.136-147; Gedaliahu G.
Stroumsa, “Form(s) of God: Some Notes on
Metatron and Christ: For Shlomo Pines”, The
Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 76, No. 3 (Jul., 1983), pp. 278-279; Alan
Segal, Two Powers in Heaven, (Brill,
2002) p.65; Rebecca Lesses, “Speaking
with angels: Jewish and Greco-Egyptian Revelatory Adjurations”, The Harvard Theological Review. Vol. 89, No. 1 (Jan., 1996), p. 47; Hugo
Odeberg, 3 Enoch or The Hebrew Book of
Enoch (Cambridge Univ. Press) p.82
[52] Charlesworth, OTP 1:21;
Moses also, in his ascent to heaven goes where angels are not allowed:
William Braude, trans., Pesikta Rabbati,
Yale Judaica Series XVIII Vol. 1, pp. 406-407
[53]Andrei A. Orlov, The Enoch-Metatron Tradition, (Mohr
Siebeck), pp.70-76; Martha Himmelfarb, Ascent
to Heaven, pp.20-25, 40; Rachel Elior, David Louvish trans., The Three Temples, (Littman Library, 2004) p. 250; Rachel Elior:
“From Earthly Temple to Heavenly Shrine”, Jewish
Studies Quarterly , Vol.4 (1997), pp. 226-229; Charlesworth, OTP 1:303; On the role of the High
Priest as a mediator see: Crispin H. T. Fletcher-Louis, “The High Priest as
Divine Mediator in the Hebrew Bible: Dan 7:13 as a Test Case”, SBL. 1997, Seminar Papers, pp. 161-193; David Halperin, The Faces of the Chariot, (Mohr Siebeck), p.82; D. Boyarin, “Beyond Judaisms”, Journal
for the Study of Judaism 41:3 (2010)
p.329
[54] Wesley W.
Isenberg, transl. of the Gospel of Philip, in The Nag Hammadi Library, ed. J. M. Robinson, San Francisco: Harper
and Row, p. 142 (Here after NHL.) “the holy of the holies the place where only the high priest enters”.
[55]
George W.
MacRae, “The Temple as a House of Revelation in the Nag Hammadi Text”, in
Truman Madsen, ed., The Temple in Antiquity, (1984)
p.185; April DeConick: “The True
Mysteries”, VC. Vol.55 No.3 (Aug. 2001) p.231; For
ref. to a mirrored bridal chamber,( Gospel
of Philip 65:10-12) NHL, p.139
[56] Charlesworth, OTP 1:21 (1En 14:21);
William G.
Braude, trans., Pesikta Rabbati, Yale
Judaica Series XVIII, Vol.1:407 (Piska
20:4) ; David Halperin, The Faces of
the Chariot, Mohr Siebeck, p.82
[57] Willem F. Smelik,
“On Mystical Transformation”, Journal for
the Study of Judaism, JSJ,
26:2 (1995) pp.123, 126 https://www.academia.edu/165505/ ;
Morray-Jones, “Transformational
Mysticism” Journal of Jewish Studies,
Vol.43 No.1 (1992) pp.9-10; Crispin Fletcher-Louis, “Some Reflections on
Angelomorphic Humanity Texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls”, Dead Sea Discoveries, Vol.7, No.3 Angels and Demons (2000), p.307
[59]
Freedman and
Simon, eds., Midrash Rabbah Vol.1:376: Gen.R,( Lech Lecha 44.22) In that day the Lord made a Covenant with
Abram. “R Judan said: R Johanan b. Zakkai and R. Akiba disagree. One
maintained: This world he revealed to him, but not the next. The other
maintains that he revealed to him both this world and the next.”; Kaplan,
trans., Bahir 8, p.4:God added “Heh” to Abraham’s name so all of man’s body parts should be
worthy of life in the World to Come.; Smith, Doctrine and Covenants,
Section 132:30
[60]
Witherington;
The Gospel of Mark, p.329; Kilgallen, Commentary Luke, p.195: Howard Schwartz, Tree of Souls, the Mythology of Judaism, p.348; Smith, Doctrine
and Covenants, Section 132: 29
[61]
Larry W.
Hurtado, New International Biblical
Commentary, Mark, vol.2, Hendrickson Pub. pp.195-196. Although Hurtado
believes the covenant itself transcends death, the marital relationship would
not; I. Howard Marshall, New
International Greek Testament Commentary, p.741.Marshall describes a
possible new elevated state, “marriage relationship is transcended in a new
level of personal relationships,”; Robinson, Nag Hammadi Library, Gospel of Philip, p.145 (76:4-10): aeon marriage in the next world is
different but called by the same name.
[62] Ilaria Ramelli
and David Konstan, Terms for Eternity,
p.58; At fragments on the Psalms fr.200, a messianic psalm, Apollinaris
comments, a propos the words, ‘you are priest forever in accord with the order
of Melchisedek’ (Psalm 109:4): ‘An eternal priest is one who lives eternally’”,
as quoted in, Terms for Eternity p.
228; Ps.110:4; Heb.7:17
[63] Charlesworth, OTP. Vol. 2: 562; R.H. Charles Apocryphya and Pseudepigrapha of the Old
Testament, Vol. 2: 683. For the reference to the sons see, 2 Macc.7:9
[65] Sperling and Simon,
trans., Zohar Vol. 1:326 (Zohar I Vayera
101a) : “R.Simeon
said: assuredly he saw them in their angelic forms, since it is written, AND HE
SAID, ADONAI (my Lord) , which shows
that Shekhinah had come with them”; Pirke De Rabbi
Eliezer,
p. 205; Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the
Bible, (Jewish Publication Society), pp. 110-111
[66]
Sperling and
Simon, trans., Zohar Vol. 1:326-327 (Zohar
I Vayera 101b); Zohar Vol.5:58-59 (Zohar III 66a); Freedman and Simon, eds., Midrash Rabbah vol. 9:175 (Song
of Songs R. 3.11.12) Moshe Weinfeld , Feminine Features in the Imagery of
God in Israel: The Sacred Marriage and the Sacred Tree, Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 46 Fasc. 4 (Oct. 1996), p.518
[68] TB Yoma4b (fn.24) The tent
is the holy of holies (tent of meeting) where Moses could hear the voice of
God.; Howard Schwartz, Tree of Souls, the
Mythology of Judaism, p.42; Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, Vol.5:191: Tent and house can also be used as
a metaphor for wife.; Exodus 29:42
[69] Raphael Patai: The Hebrew Goddess, 3rd edition, p. 85; Temple and Man, p.27; Julian
Morgenstern, “The Channukah Festival and the Calender” Hebrew Union College Annual.XX,(1947) p.45.; Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Bible, p.382 (Ex.23:14-17,
34:23-24, Isa.1:11-13 Deut.31:12); for
wives going to the temple see footnotes 81 and 82 in this paper.
[70] Rachel Elior, trans by David Louvish, The Three Temples, Littman, (2004) pp. 157-159; S.H. Hooke, believes it was later spiritualized by
Judaism into the marriage of Israel to God. “Myth and Ritual”, Oxford
University Press, London, p.85; “The
Origins of Early Semitic Ritual”, p.54; Moshe Weinfeld , Feminine Features
in the Imagery of God in Israel: The Sacred Marriage and the Sacred Tree, Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 46 Fasc. 4 (Oct.
1996), pp.517-521 Raphael Patai, Temple
and Man, pp. 89, 88-95; Louis Ginzberg, Legends
of the Bible, p.382
[71]William
G. Braude, trans., Pesikta Rabbati,
Yale Judaica Series XVIII, Vol.1 pp. 166-167, 411; Babylonian Talmud (TB) Shabbath 88a; Sperling and Simon, Zohar
Vol. 1:165-166,( Zohar I Bereshith 52b); Avrohom Davis, trans., Midrash Tanchuma, Shemos II, (Eastern Book Press) pp.182-183; Friedlander, Pirke De Rabbi Eliezer,367-368; Crispin
Fletcher-Louis, 4Q374: A Discourse on the Sinai Tradition: The Deification of
Moses and Early Christology, Dead Sea
Discoveries, Vol. 3 No.3 (Dec.1996) p.240 ; Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, vol.3: 92-93;
Joseph P. Schulz, “Angelic Opposition to the Ascension of Moses and the
Revelation of the Law”, The Jewish
Quarterly Review, New Series, Vol.61 No.4 (Apr.1971) pp.283-284; Van
Wagoner, The Complete Discourses of
Brigham Young vol.4 p.2497; John Meyendorff, Marriage An Orthodox Perspective, p.129: Crownings were performed
in some orthodox marriages.
[72] Helmer Ringgren,
trans. David Green, Israelite Religion,
p.163; Pesikta Rabbati, (Piska 20), Referring to the children of Israel: “One
angel put his hand upon his heart…and one lifted up his neck so that he could
look at the Holy One …face to face.” In William G. Braude, trans., Pesikta Rabbati, Vol.1 p. 411; Erwin
Goodenough, By Light, Light: The Mystic
Gospel of Hellenistic Judaism, Yale University Press 1935, pp.95-96;
Margaret Barker, Temple Mysticism: An
Introduction, p.55; Emanuel Tov, Textual
Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, p.274; Biblical changes were made to the
expression: see the face of the LORD, with the verb ‘see’ in the qal form, to the niphal, a passive form
with a new rendering: appear before the LORD.
[73] Exodus 25:20-22; Num.7:89:
Moses hears the voice of the LORD from between the two cherubim. (Cherubim is
the plural of cherub)
[74] In 4Q405, frg. 19, 2-7 the cherubim are
called “figures of godlike beings” as quoted in, Rachel Elior, The Three Temples, p.67,fn.36 see also
Moshe Idel: “Kabbalah New Perspective”
p. 134 describing them as one having a “great face” and “little face”; Julian Morgenstern, “The Ark,
the Ephod, and the Tent of Meeting”, Hebrew
Union College Annual, XVII (1942-43)
pp.246-247 (fn.159); Exodus 25:20-22; Num.7:89
[75]
I. Epstein, ed., The Babylonian Talmud (TB) Seder Mo’ed, in 4 vol. trans, Rabbi Leo
Jung, vol.3:255, in 18 vol. Soncino; Louis
Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, Vol.3:
159; Raphael Patai: The Hebrew Goddess, 3rd edition, pp. 84, 308 fn.57 also, 67-68, 84-85,
Man and Temple, p. 93; April
DeConick, “True Mysteries”, VC., 55,
No.3 pp. 254; E. Wolfson, Through a
Speculum that Shines, p.101; Zohar Vol. 5:41, (Zohar III Ahare Moth 59a)
; Rachel Elior, The Three Temples,
pp.67 (66-69); 1Kgs.7:36; Exodus 25:20-22; Num.7:89
[76] Sperling and Simon,
trans., Zohar Vol. 5:41, (Zohar III Ahare Moth 59a-b) “R.Jose said: equity…indicates that the Cherubim
were male and female.”; Moshe Idel, “Sexual Metapors and Praxis in the
Kabbalah”, in The Jewish Family Metaphor
and Memory, Edited by David Kraemer, p 204 fn.37; Andrei Orlov, “The Likeness of Heaven: The Kavod of
Azazel in the Apocalypse of Abraham”,
in Daphna Arbe and Andrei Orlov, eds., With
Letters of Light: Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Early Jewish Apocalypticism,
Magic, and Mysticism in Honor of Rachel Elior, pp.249-250 fn.69; Jean-Yves Leloup,
The Gospel of Philip: Jesus, Mary
Magdalene, and the Gnosis of Sacred Union, (Inner Tradition 2004) pp.29-30
[78]
Fletcher-Louis,
“The High Priest as Divine Mediator in the Hebrew Bible: Dan 7:13 as a Test
Case”, SBL Seminar Papers 1997,
p.180: “it is highly significant that Enoch’s heavenly ascent looks most like
the high priest’s annual visit to the holy of holies on the Day of Atonement.”
This observation is predicated on the similarities of the fallen angels
(1En.9:6, 10:4) and the Day of Atonement ritual (Lev 16:8, 10, 26); Fletcher makes no mention of a wife in his
observations, but given the statement in the Talmud there would need to be a
wife for it to be fulfilled “his house that means his wife.”; David Halperin, The Faces of the Chariot, (Mohr
Siebeck), p.82(fn.17); Sperling and Simon, Zohar Vol. 3:380 (Zohar II 133b), 5:58-59 (Zohar III 66a)
[81] Antiquities of the Jews 15.11.5, “Now this inner inclosure had on its southern and northern quarters
three gates equally distant from one another but on the east quarter towards
the sun-rising there was one large gate through which such as were pure came
in, together with their wives…” . William Whiston, trans., Josephus Complete Works, (Kregel
Publications), p.336
[82]
Julian
Morgenstern, “The Gates of the Righteousness” Hebrew Union College Annual.VI
(1929), p.28(fn.45); other Bible references to gates of the righteous Psalm 118:19-20, Ez.
44:1-3
[83] Wolf Leslau, Falasha Anthology, Yale Judaica Series,
Vol. VI, Yale University Press. p.65; Roberts and Donaldson, Ante-Nicene Fathers (ANF), Vol.5, p.54: “For he says, he becomes a
god when having risen from the dead, he will enter into heaven through a gate
of his kind.” Hippolytus, Refutation of
all Heresies ,Book 5, ch.3; J.
Zandee, “The Book of Gates”, in Liber Amicorum Studies in Honour of Professor
Dr. C. J. Bleeker, (Leiden Brill 1969)
p. 298: “The gods and goddesses who are in this gate… come to us…great
god who opens the mysteries.”; 1Peter 3:7 “heirs together”; Psalm 118:19-20
[84]
Seder Eliyahu Rabbah ch.4:19, in Braude and Kapstein,
trans., Tanna Debe Eliyyahu: The Lore of the School of Elijah, (The Jewish Publication Society
of America, 1981) p.81
[85] Wesley W.
Isenberg, trans of the Gospel of Philip, in J. M. Robinson,
ed., The Nag Hammadi Library, San
Francisco, (Harper and Row), p. 142
(Here after NHL.) The Gospel of Philip has references to
marriage that would extend into the next life: pp.142,149,151. A position that
is not, agreed on by all scholars. See April DeConick, gives a good summation
in “The Great Mystery of Marriage, VC.
vol.57 No.3 (2003) pp.307-312
[86] A Valentinian
Exposition XI 25:32-38 (NHL 437): Describing
the High Priest receiving the glory of the
“Aeons”; Heb.9:2-15 with verse
12 showing, aion is the blessing that is received from the “holy place”; George
W. MacRae, “The Temple as a House of Revelation in the Nag Hammadi Text” in
Truman Madsen, ed., The Temple in
Antiquity, (1984) p.185
[87] These archons
were the angels that were testing Enoch and Moses for worthiness before
ascending to the Throne of God. see Joseph P. Schulz, Angelic Opposition to the
Ascension of Moses and the Revelation of the Law, The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, Vol.61 No.4 (Apr.1971)
282-307; Heb.9:14: Christ who through the aion
spirit offered himself.
[88] 2 Jeu 51, p.126, in Carl Schmidt, trans., The
Books of Jeu and Untitled Text in the
Bruce Codex,p.181
[89] 2 Jeu 42. 99, Carl Schmidt, The Books of Jeu and Untitled Text in the
Bruce Codex, p. 127; Pistis
Sophia IV, ch.136, p.353, in
Schmidt, trans., Pistis Sophia, p. 707;
In Mead’s trans., Pistis Sophia p. 295.
The apostles are together with the women disciples.
[90]Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 3.6.53
, The Library of Christian Classics Vol.
2, Alexandrian Christianity, trans. Oulton and Chadwick, pp.64-65: Clement quoting Paul in a letter “Have we not
a right to take about with us a wife that is a sister like the other apostles?”
1Cor. 9:5; also Eusebius , Ecclesiastical
History, Book 3, ch.30: p.115 in one volume edition, Baker Book House.; Ignatius Epistle to the Philadelphians, ANF, Vol.1, p.81; Basil, On the Renunciation
of the World, in Ascetical Works Vol. 9, in
The Fathers of the Church,
trans., Sister M. Monica Wagner, C.S.C., p.17; In Acts 1:14, has the women
disciples meeting with the apostles in a upper room after the resurrection.
Women in these verses could also mean wife. See. William E. Phipps, Was Jesus Married, pp.100-101; TDNT, Vol.1, p.776, γυναιξὶν
[91] William E.
Phipps, “Was Jesus Married” p.101;
Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of
Jesus the Messiah, p.110 fn.42, edition includes both vol. 1 and 2
(Vol.1:156),Hendrickson Publishers.
[92] All throughout the Pistis Sophia, Mary has the main dialogue with the Savior.; The
Gospel of Mary (NHL) p.473
[93] Gospel of Philip: 63: 30-35, “And the
companion of the [Savior is] Mary Magdalene” NHL p.138; in Wilsons trans. She is called a “consort”:
R.McL.Wilson: The Gospel of Philip: p.35;
Karen L. King, on The Gospel of Jesus’s
Wife (GJW): A newly discovered sixth to ninth century papyrus fragment
still being authenticated, has Jesus
making reference to “My wife”. Although not proof Jesus had a wife, it is
evidence that in the late second to fourth century, when it is believed to have
originally been written, shows how some thought that Jesus was married. Tenth International Congress of Coptic
Studies in Rome (Sept. 18. 2012). see Karen King, “ Jesus said to them, ‘My
wife …’” A New Coptic Papyrus Fragment”, HTR
vol.107 no.2 (Apr. 2014) pp. 131-159
[94] TDNT, Vol.4, pp.806, 825; Morton Smith, The Secret Gospel, (Harper & Row
1972) pp. 83, 96; John Meyendorff, Marriage: An Orthodox Perspective, (St.Vladmir’s
Press1984) pp.19, 23, 129; Gospel of
Philip 82:5 (NHL p.149); Paul Schmitt, “The Ancient Mysteries in the
Society of Their Time, Their Transformation and Most Recent Echoes”, pp.97-98, Hugo
Rahner, “The Christian Mystery and the Pagan Mysteries”, p.387, 394 in Joseph
Campbell, ed., The Mysteries: Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks (Princeton/Bollinger,
1978) pp.97-98, 387, 394
[95] Robinson, ed., NHL.p.140, 149; in R. McL.Wilson,
trans., The Gospel of Philip, p.43:
“the lord did everything in a mystery, a baptism and a chrism and a eucharist
and a redemption and a bride-chamber.”; p.45: “the holy of the holy one, the
place where the high priest entered alone… is the bridal chamber. Baptism has
the resurrection …redemption to hasten into the bridal chamber. But the bridal
chamber is superior…”; April DeConick, “The True
Mysteries”, VC. Vol.55 No.3 (Aug. 2001) p.258: “In this
way, the human marriage of the couple was understood to be a sacramental union…
It seems then that the sacramental experiences allowed the believer to
mystically penetrate the heavenly Temple as far as the veil of the Holy of
Holies.”
[96] Robinson,
ed., NHL.p.151; Robert M. Grant “The
Mystery of Marriage in the Gospel of Philip” Vigiliae Christianae (VC), Vol. 15, No. 3 (Sep., 1961), pp.137-138
[97] Luke 20:35-36:
“the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage…for
they are equal unto the angels; The reference to: γαμοῦσιν
(marry) and γαμίζονται· (given
in marriage) are gender specific and refers to the
marriage ceremony for males and “given in marriage” for females, not to the
state of those already married. see Ben Witherington, The Gospel of Mark: A Socio-Rhetorical
Commentary: pp.328-329
[98]
Leo Jung, “Fallen
Angels in Jewish, Christian and Mohammedan Literature: A Study in Comparative Folk-Lore”, The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series,
vol. 16, no. 3 (Jan., 1926), 287-288; David Suter, “Fallen Angel, Fallen
Priest” Hebrew Union College Annual,
Vol. 50, (1979), pp.116-123,131-135; David Halperin, The Faces of the Chariot, (Mohr Siebeck) p.82 (fn.17); George W.E. Nickelsburg, “Enoch, Levi, and
Peter: Recipients of Revelation in Upper Galilee”, JBL. Vol.100, No. 4 (Dec.1981) pp. 585-587; Fletcher-Louis,
“The High Priest as Divine Mediator in the Hebrew Bible: Dan 7:13 as a Test
Case”, SBL Seminar Papers 1997,
pp.177-187; Fletcher-Louis, All the Glory of Adam, (Brill, 2002), p. 22; L. Grabbe, “The Scapegoat Tradition: A Study
in Early Jewish Interpretation”, Journal
for the Study of Judaism, Vol.18, No. 2, (1987) pp.152-167; Helge S. Kvanvig, Roots of Apocalyptic: The Mesopotamian Background of the Enoch
Figure, (Neukirchener Verlag1988) vol.
61, pp.102-103, 333; TB Yoma 67b; Lev. 16:8, 10, 26 (1En.10:4-7,
12-16); Damascus Document (CD) 4:15-5:15; Smith, Doctrine and Covenants
Section 132:17
[99] Charlesworth,
OTP 1:694-695; Roberts and Donaldson, ANF
3:506; Tripartite Tractate I, 5:92, 94, in
Robinson, NHL. pp. 76, 77; Carl
Schmidt, 2 Jeu 51, 126 (p.181); Allberry, Manichaean Psalm-Book, pp.198-199; Pedagogue 1.6.32.1: in Ilaria Ramelli and David
Konstan, Terms for Eternity, p.109 (see footnotes:17, 18)
[100] Robinson, NHL, p. 142; Quispel points out “Philo's polemic against the androgyny of
heavenly Man seems to show that there existed in Alexandria of a Jewish circle
which proclaimed that the heavenly Adam was both male and female.” Gilles Quispel, “Ezekiel 1:26
in Jewish Mysticism and Gnosis Author(s)”, Vigiliae
Christianae, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Mar., 1980), p. 5; Freedman
and Simon, Midrash Rabbah Vol.1:54 (Gen.R 8:1); Sperling and Simon. Zohar
Vol.1:92; In Charlesworth, OTP Vol.1:994, Test. of Adam,
he is told that his restored glory would not happen until after his atonement;
Wilson’s transl. Gospel of Philip,
describes the incomplete state of Adam and Eve after the fall, that by the
atonement and in the bridal-chamber Adam and Eve can be “united in the bridal
chamber will no longer be separated.”
p.46
[101] Catalin Vatamanu, “Marriage in the
Old Testament, A Social Reality and a Theological Metaphor Reflected in the
Biblical Rhetoric” Conferinta Nationala: Text si discurs
religios, VI-lea, (Nr.6/2014) pp.333-334 https://www.academia.edu/9158474/Text_%C8%99i_discurs_religios_nr._6_2014
[102] Sperling and Simon,
trans., Zohar Vol. 1: 177 (Zohar I,
Bereshith 55b), also, Vol.1:131 (Zohar
I, Bereshith 35a) “man was still defective, and only when Eve was perfected
was he also perfected”; Freedman and Simon, Midrash
Rabbah, Vol. 1:60 (Gen. R. 8.9),
“neither man without woman nor woman without man, and neither of them without the
divine spirit.”, also Vol.1:133 (Gen.R
17.2) ; TB. Nashim, Vol. 1:418, (Yeb.62b):
“R.Tanhum stated…Any man who has no wife lives without joy...Without
blessing.”
[103] Freedman and
Simon, Midrash Rabbah Vol.1:132;
Sperling and Simon, Zohar Vol.1:310 (Zohar
I Lech Lecha, 94a)
[104] Gershom G. Scholem, “Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism” (Schocken Books NY). p. 235 “Every
true marriage is a symbolical realization of the union of god and the
shekhinah.”; Sperling and Simon, Zohar
Vol.3:385-386 (Zohar II, 135a); Zohar
Vol.1:310(Zohar I 94a); Moshe
Weinfeld , Feminine Features in the Imagery of god in Israel: The Sacred
Marriage and the Sacred Tree, Vetus
Testamentum, Vol. 46 Fasc. 4 (Oct. 1996), pp.517-519; Peter Schafer,
Daughter, Sister, Bride and Mother: Images of the Femininity of God in the
Early Kabbala, Journal of the American Academy of Religion vol.68 no,2 (June 2000)
p.225
[105] John 17:11
“that they may be one as we are” KJV; The Apocryphon
of John, NHL 99, “I am the
Father. I am Mother, I am the Son”; Gospel
of Thomas, log. 114, NHL p. 130, “The female becomes like a male to enter
kingdom”; All
needing to come through the Atonement or At- One- Ment: meaning a return to the
Oneness with God.; Midrash
Rabbah Vol.1:132: “It
was taught: He who has no wife dwells without good , without help, without joy,
without blessings, and without atonement.” (Gen. R.17.2)
[106] Mk.2:19,
Matt.9:15; Gosp.Philip
NHL, p.149 “Bridegroom and brides belong
to the bridal chamber. No one shall be able to see the bridegroom with the
bride unless [one becomes] one.”
[107] William G. Braude, trans., Pesikta Rabbati, Yale Judaica Series,
XVIII, Vol. 2, p. 809, and in XVIII, Vol. 1, p.167; TB. Mo’ed Shabbath 88a. When the children of Israel made the golden
calf they were stripped of their crown and exaltations until they repented and
it was restored.
[108]
Andrei A.
Orlov, The Enoch-Metatron Tradition,
(Mohr Siebeck), pp. 136-147; Morray-Jones, “Transformational Mysticism” Journal of Jewish Studies, Vol.43 No.1
(1992) pp.8-10 Odeberg, 3 Enoch or
The Hebrew Book of Enoch (Cambridge Univ. Press) p.82; Fletcher-Louis,
4Q374: A Discourse on the Sinai Tradition: The Deification of Moses and Early
Christology, Dead Sea Discoveries,
Vol. 3 No.3 (Dec.1996) pp.236-252 Joseph Smith Jr., The Doctrine and
Covenants, Section 132:20, (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints, 1981) pp. 268-269; Smelik, “On Mystical Transformation”, JSJ,
26:2 (1995) pp.123, 126; James H.
Charlesworth, OTP Vol. 1:994
[109] Untitled Text, 19, pp. 261-262, in Carl
Schmidt, The Books of Jeu and the
Untitled Text in the Bruce Codex, pp. 285-286 also 2 Jeu 44, 104, “they have their part in the treasury of the light
and they are immortal gods.” p. 137; Gospel of Philip: 53: 20-25 “but those who
are exalted above the world are indissoluble, eternal.” NHL, p.132; ANF
I:175; Mark Nispel, “Christian Deification and the Early Testimonia”, Vigiliae Christianae. Vol.53, No.3 (Aug. 99); Ps.82:6-7; John 10:34-35; Rom.8:16-18; 1John3:2
[110] Morton Smith, “Ascent to the Heaven in
4QM”, in Lawrence H. Schiffman, ed., Archaeology
and History in the Dead Sea Scrolls, p.184; On the Cherubim-Part 2 XIV (48)
in Yonge trans., The Works of Philo,
p.85
[111] “the one who
keeps the covenant” is the expression used (Deut.7:9,12, 1 Kgs.8:23, 2 Chr.
6:14, Dan. 7:9, Neh. 1:5, 9:32) Rolf Rendtorff, “Covenant” as a Structuring
Concept in Genesis and Exodus”, JBL,
Vol.108, No. 3 (Aut. 1989) p. 390
[112] Gen.1:26 “And God said let us make
man in our own image, after our likeness: vs.27: So God created man in his own
image, in the image of god created he him: male and female created he them.” Cited
at the time of marriage, see: I. Epstein,
ed., (TB) Seder Nashim vol.2:33-34.
“In the beginning it was the intention [of God] to create two [human beings],
and in the end [only] one [human being] was created.”(Kethuboth. 8a); (TB) Seder
Nashim vol.1:427 (Yebamoth 63b). Zohar vol.1: p.148: Male and Female make the
perfect whole (Bereshith 47a). also from Zohar
vol.
1: 79, 92, 147, 148, 162; Midrash Rabbah
Vol.1 p.54: (Gen. R. 8.1); See Dexter
E Callender, Jr. “Adam in Myth and
History” pp.13, 26-28
[113] Raphael Patai: The Hebrew Goddess, 3rd edition, pp. 67, 68, 84, 85, 308
fn.57; also I. Epstein, ed., TB. Yoma
54a-b: see, Rachel Elior,
trans by David Louvish, The Three Temples,
pp.66-68, 158-159; Sperling and Simon, trans.,
Zohar Vol.5:41,( Ahure Moth 59a); Jean-Yves
Leloup, The Gospel of Philip: Jesus, Mary
Magdalene, and the Gnosis of Sacred Union, (Inner Tradition 2004) pp.29-30
[114]Gospel of Philip 65:10-12; “a male power or a
female power-the bridegroom and the bride—one receives them from the mirrored
bridal chamber.”(NHL. p. 139) ; Gospel of Philip 61:32-35: “so in that
place you see everything and do not see yourselves but in that place you
do see yourselves…and what you see you
shall become” (NHL.p.137) ; Jorunn
Jacobsen Buckley, “A Cult-Mystery in the
Gospel of Philip” JBL vol. 99 No.4,
p.572; Sperling and Simon, trans., Zohar
Vol.1:156-159, (Bereshith 49a-50a); Schmidt, The Untitled Text 2, p.229 , in The
Books of Jeu and the Untitled Text in the Bruce Codex, p. 221; The Pearl
(The Hymn of the Soul), v.76-77, from The Acts of Thomas, in Montague James, The Apocryphal New Testament, p.414
[115] Buckley: “A Cult-Mystery in the Gospel of Philip” JBL. vol. 99 No.4, p.572: “Only
by acquiring male or female power, respectively, may the female or male human
being delude the evil powers. ‘Spiritual’ power asserts itself exclusively in
earthly marriage. The passage, ‘It is certainly necessary that they should be
born again through the image,’ now emerges with added significance. To obtain the
name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit on
one's own, marks the transition from being a Christian to becoming Christ.
Resurrection cannot come about by proxy. Correctly performed, the
bridal-chamber sacrament assures full identity with the divine entity.” Buckley,
p.572 ( NHL pp. 139, 142)
[116] Peter Schafer, Mirror of His Beauty, (Princeton University Press 2002) pp.2-5; Raphael
Patai: The Hebrew Goddess, 3rd
edition (Wyane), p.96-98,107-110; Margaret Barker, The Great Angel: A Study of Israel’s Second God,(W/JKP, 1992) pp.48-69;
Seth Brody, “Open to Me the Gates of Righteousness”, The Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 89, No. 1/2 (Jul.-Oct. 1998) p.16,fn.22:
Elijah de Vidas in Sefer Re shit Hokhmah
ha-Qasar: talks about the importance of
remembering the symbolism of the union to shekhinah with God, then
implying that “triggers the intradivine union of male and female.” Quoted from JQR
p.16; Zohar Vol.3:386 (Zohar II 135a); Ecclesiasticus
(Wisdom of Sirach) 24; Proverbs 8; 2Kings 21:7 (grove/pole=Asherah)
[117] The Apocryphon of John; “I am the father I
am the mother I am the son” 2:1-15(NHL 99) ; Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley, “A Cult-Mystery in the Gospel of Philip”,
p.572; George W. MacRae, Quoting H.M. Schenke, “there is a hierarchy of three
supreme Aeons, the Father, Sophia (wisdom) and the Son (from Nag-Hamadi Studien III) : In,
George W. MacRae, “The Jewish
Background of the Gnostic Sophia Myth”,
Novum Testamentum. Vol. 12, fasc. 2 (Apr.1970) p. 89.
[118] Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, Vol. 3:159; Sperling
and Simon, trans., Zohar Vol.5:41, (Zohar
III Ahure Moth 59a); TB (Nezikin)
Baba Bathra 99a
[119]
Margaret Barker, Temple Theology, An Introduction, pp. 6-11; P. Kyle
McCarter, Jr. “The Religious Reforms of
Hezekiah and Josiah” in Shanks and
Meinhardt, ed., Aspects of Monotheism”;
Willem F. Smelik, “On Mystical Transformation”, Journal for the Study of Judaism, JSJ, 26:2 (1995) p.123; Craig
A. Evans, “Opposition to the Temple: Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls” in James
H. Charlesworth, ed., Jesus and the Dead
Sea Scrolls, (ABRL 1993) pp.237-238
[120] Matt.23:38: “behold, your house is left unto
you desolate.”; Schaff and Wace, eds., Nicene
and Post-Nicene Fathers Second Series, (Hendrickson 2004) Vol.7:45 ; Luke
5:34-35 “Can ye make the children of the bride-chamber fast, while the
bridegroom is with them? But the last days will come, when the bridegroom shall
be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.; Sperling and Simon,
trans., Zohar Vol.1:177,( Bereshith 55b). “R. Judah said, since
the destruction of the temple, blessings which have not reached the world”; : I. Epstein, ed., TB Baba Bathra 12b: R. Johanan said: since the Temple was destroyed,
prophecy has been taken from prophets…”; Hugh Nibley, “Christian Envy of the
Temple”, The Jewish Quarterly Review, New
Series, vol.50, no.3 (Jan., 1960) pp.232-240
[121] Yigael Yadin, The Temple Scrolls (Random House,1985)
pp.112-116
[122]
The quote was from one of Yadin’s lectures during question and answers, NOT in
his book. For information about Mormon’s understanding of Temples see: James
Talmage, House of the Lord (Deseret
Book 1974) pp.83-91; Smith, Doctrine
and Covenants Section 110, in Ludlow, ed., Encyclopedia of Mormonism Vol.5:407-408, Vol.2:857-859,
Vol.4:1444-1445: Allen Rozsa, “Temple Ordinances” http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Temple_Ordinances
[123] Ignatius’s
explanation to the Trallians, (Epist. Ad Trallianos, V). ANF. 1:68, 104; Origen, ANF
4:399; Guy Stroumsa, Hidden Wisdom: Esoteric Traditions and the Roots of
Christian Mysticism, (Brill, 1996) pp.156-157; Danielou, The Theology of Jewish
Christianity, p.315; Arthur Barnes, “Discipline of the Secret” in The Catholic Encyclopedia (Appleton 1909),
Vol.5:33; Also during this time celibacy became the new
emphasis, (William E. Phipps, Clerical
Celibacy: The Heritage, Continuum 2004, Ch.5)
[124] See footnote 32:
DeConick, “Great Mystery of Marriage”, Vigiliae
Christianae, Vol. 57, No. 3 (Aug., 2003), p. 317; also, DeConick shows
Jesus as an aeon, from the Tripartite Tractate in, “Heavenly Temple
Traditions and Valentinian Worship”, in Newman, Davila and Lewis, eds., The Jewish Roots of Christological
Monotheism, pp. 332-334; George W. MacRae, “The Jewish Background of the Gnostic Sophia Myth”, Novum Testamentum. Vol.12, fasc.2 (Apr.1970) p.89; ANF 6:84 (1 John 1:1-2)
[125]
Carl Schmidt,
ed., The Books of Jeu and Untitled Text
in the Bruce Codex, tr. Violet MacDermot (Leiden: Brill 1978) pp.137,
163, 165, 181; C.R.C. Allberry A
Manichaean Psalm-Book II, pp. 54-58, 79, 197-199; April DeConick: The True Mysteries: Sacramentalism in the “Gospel of
Philip” Vigiliae Christianae,
Vol.55 No.3 (Aug. 2001) p.239; ANF
1:319; NHL: pp.91, 151; The Pistis Sophia, G.R.S. Mead, trans., Pistis Sophia (University Books, Inc.
Secaucus, NJ. 1974) pp. 33, 36, 45, 300.
[126]Matt19:3-12; ANF 4:66, Tertullian. On Monogamy ch. X, “From this point I
see that we are challenged by an appeal to the apostle…that a women is more
bound when her husband is dead.” The
emphasis being on the marriage would not end with divorce or death. In Matt 19:12
the reference to eunuchs was self-imposed, meaning to be celibate, as a result
of divorce or death of spouse. The thinking being you were still married
weather divorced or widowed. See Quentin Quesnell “Make Themselves Eunuchs for
the Kingdom of Heaven” Catholic Biblical
Quarterly 30.3 (1968) pp. 335-358; William
E. Phipps, “Clerical Celibacy” pp.26,
64, 73; William A. Heth, Unmarried “For the Sake of The Kingdom" (Matthew
19:12) in the Early Church, Grace
Theological Journal 8.1 (1987) 55-88 (p.64); TB Yebamoth 60a;
Lev.21:14; Ezek.44:22
In: 1 Cor.7:7-8, 27, 39-40, Rom.7:2-3, 1
Tim.5:14, are some examples of Paul’s encouragement to remarry on the death of
a spouse, so it was not forbidden, the emphasis was more on the divorce. In the
Midrash Rabbah, vol.1 p. 145, (Gen. R, Bereshith 18:5), cite Gentiles
who are converts having been previously divorced not having this restriction
apply. In Matt.19:9 “fornication” seems to be another exception.
It
would also be important to point out the policy involving divorce can vary,
being left up to the prophet over that dispensation of time. It seems to depend
on the ability of the believers to live a higher or lower law. A case in point,
when Jesus is asked about divorce, he explains they are not going to have it because
it was not so in the beginning. But when asked why Moses permitted divorce,
Jesus explained that Moses allowed it because of the hardness of their hearts.
(Matt.19:4-8; Mk.10:2-12; Deut.24:2-4)
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