The Three Day Journey
A Baha’i Reflection on the Resurrection
Part 2: Dying to Live
The Earth Yields Up A Treasure
In a recent front page story published in the New York Times Sunday edition (“Ancient Tablet Ignites Debate On Messiah and Resurrection,” 6 July 2008; http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/world/middleeast/06stone.html?pagewanted=all), journalist Ethan Bronner reported that a 1 meter long stone tablet had been discovered in the vicinity of the Dead Sea in Jordan. It had been dated to the century before the time of Jesus Christ, and contained 87 lines of Hebrew text inscribed on it. Scholars and antiquities collectors have analyzed the text, found it to be apocalyptic in nature, and discovered that it contains a dialogue between the angel Gabriel and someone the angel addresses as the sar hasarin or “prince of princes.” Lines 19-21 of the text were reported to read: “In three days you will know that evil will be defeated by justice.” The text at line 80 and following is somewhat hard to read, but one scholar has interpreted it as the angel Gabriel saying to this prince of princes: “In three days you shall live, I, Gabriel, command you.”
The story goes on to indicate the controversy such language must necessarily arouse, suggesting as it does that a Messiah-like figure and a three day motif hinting at resurrection were part of Jewish tradition in the Palestine region before the time of Jesus. Thus, the resurrection tradition and the resultant doctrine in Christianity must be derived and not unique. [1]
What the scholars quoted in the article and what Mr. Bronner himself seemed not to recognize, however, is that the “three day” theme mentioned in the tablet can be found widely (overtly or covertly) in the Hebrew scriptures and related texts, as well as in the Christian New Testament. It is ancient and ubiquitous. The Reverend John Shelby Spong [2] noted that the “three day” theme appeared at least 14 times in the Hebrew Old Testament, perhaps as a repetitive midrash:
There was a sense in Jewish life and folklore that after three days the crucial moment arrives, particularly when one is dealing either with God or with a turning point in national history. Whenever the people of
It re-appeared as a reflection of these Hebrew themes numerous times and in numerous ways in the Christian New Testament, both in the various Gospels and in the letters from the Apostle Paul. Table 1 (at the bottom of the posting) tabulates the data from Reverend Spong’s investigation from the Hebrew scriptures (using Young’s literal translation when the text is quoted directly).
The appearance of the three days’ motif in the Exodus account three times is particularly significant and corresponds textually to the three stage journey it relates (Egypt > wilderness > Promised Land). At times, this typology is buried and needs to be dug up; for example, by ciphering the text in Exodus 19:1 we can determine that the traverse across the desert of Sin brought the Israelites to Mount Sinai on the third day of the third month, again reflecting the significance of the three motif: “In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same [i.e., third] day came they [into] the wilderness of Sinai.”
The three day motif re-appears in numerous places and in several contexts in the New Testament, sometimes reflecting directly a Hebrew text and at other times establishing a new meaning or understanding to the typological configuration it represents. Importantly, the first trace of it (as a mention of the resurrection) is not from the Gospels, all of which were recorded decades after the crucifixion of Christ, but rather in a letter from Paul to the Christians at Corinth (estimated at ca. 56 CE): “and that he was buried, and that he hath risen on the third day, according to the Writings” (1 Corinthians 15:4, Young’s Literal Translation). Because Paul was not a physical eye witness to the crucifixion nor resurrection, yet he himself claimed to have “seen” the Lord (1 Corinthians 9:1), we are faced with the options of concluding that he was merely reporting the three day resurrection event as second hand information, having heard it from Stephen or some other early believers; or that Paul understood it as a typological repetition of the Old Testament themes of which he was thoroughly aware (“according to the Writings” as the Corinthians text says, which are tabulated in Table 1 from Reverend Spong’s analysis). Indeed, Paul routinely recapitulated Hebrew texts in various ways, sometimes identifying new themes, developing new meanings, or pointing out meanings that he obviously intends to be original but believes to have been misunderstood. An example is given in the Spiritual Geography: Paces and Places posting, in which Paul interpreted the Exodus account typologically and not literally (1 Corinthians 10:1-15). Thus, Paul’s statement “according to the Writings” taken from 1 Corinthians 9 provides an hermeneutical guide for us in understanding his very first reference to the three days time motif in the New Testament. If we take Paul at his word that the Writings are typological in nature, then we should be on guard to the possibility that his views of the events associated with Jesus’ life are to be understood typologically as well.
Let’s have a look at the New Testament references to the three days leitmotif. Table 2 tabulates it as both three days and third day, indicating the text, context, and general theme. The search was conducted in the databases and search engines BlueLetter Bible and Ocean. An examination of each of these texts would require a special investigation which would go beyond the scope of this posting; however, certain of them deserve comment (brackets after each quote in Table 2), and some will be studied in more detail as we go along, such as here or in a later posting to be entitled Spiritual Anthropology: The Three Fold Path. The main point to make here is that, like in the Old Testament scriptures, the three day motif is widespread in the New Testament as well, but as in the Old Testament, it is symbolic. Historical events, place names, time processes, even human names are all used in ways to represent spiritual processes and events. In contrast to the conclusion in Bronner’s New York Times article, we can recognize the three day leitmotif in the New Testament texts as a continuation and revisioning of the Hebrew themes; therefore, we should strive to understand its inner meaning and why the texts depend on it in its temporal form and its related forms (e.g., geography, children) so intensively and across several contexts.
That the New York Times article did not elaborate on the three day theme as a broader, symbolic motif is as remarkable as the actual discovery, showing that the author of the article kept his mind narrowly focused on the controversy (somewhat contrived) rather than broadening his thinking to the heuristic value of the discovery. In addition, the article did not more fully elaborate on the conversation between God’s angelic spokesman Gabriel and the highly significant figure, a prince of princes, who somehow will be involved in the defeat of evil by means of justice. The article simply suggested that the text may have referred to someone other than Jesus at the time, such as an anti-Roman rebel. The article did not broach the possibility that the “prince of princes” was some larger, archetypical figure, perhaps a transhistoric figure, one responsive to theophanic influences represented by the communications from Gabriel. [4] Rather than being some historical document whose content refutes the solely Christian origins of the resurrection tradition, the tablet by authors unknown may recapitulate a universal model or pattern symbolized by a three day leitmotif, and placed into a context of a revelation from God to man through an intermediary, a great prince of princes, such as we can also see in Hosea’s chapter 6 and in many other places. The Baha’is may recognize the text from Hosea, where the “Lord” is envisioned to return each spring or at each dawn and in doing so to stimulate the resurrection of three days, and from this newly discovered stone tablet, as a reference to the eternal Manifestation of God and His purpose.
The Theme of This Posting
In this posting to MasterKey, we begin exploring the meaning of the three day theme identified in this recently discovered tablet, with specific reference to a symbolic (that is, non-literal and non-physical) understanding of the resurrection. We will travel towards the conclusion that it represents a model or pattern of human spiritual development that can be structured into a successive process of three stages. We will also see how such a conceptualization of the resurrection can further a meaningful dialogue between contemporary Christians and Baha’is. To provide some focus, we will explore the notion of dying to self as a key element of the resurrection, woven into the process of rising to new life.
Type Three: The Three Days as a Typological Leitmotif
An earlier posting on MasterKey (“Spiritual Geography: Paces and Places” at http://watchman-masterkey.blogspot.com/2008/01/spiritual-geography-paces-and-places.html) elaborated on a pattern of 3’s found to permeate the Judeo-Christian scriptures through symbolic, narrative language, forming a typology. [5] Its spatial representation as human movement through a spiritual geography (using the Exodus account as the primary example, but alluding to other examples) formed the theme of that initial posting, showing that it could be understood as a progression of positive, spiritual change. In it, the human soul -- or collectively, mankind -- is likened to a wayfarer or exile who traverses successively three lands:
With effort and in a continuing response to God’s call, the soul escapes the trials of the wilderness, and ascends to a third, higher plane, symbolized by the Promised Land, in which it matures through activation of its innate capacities of willpower and of knowledge, volition, and action. [6] It has released itself from the two lower planes, has generated its will power, responded to God’s call and to God’s grace, and has begun “converting satanic strength” into “heavenly power.” [7] Disencumbered from material longings and desires and from promptings of its self-insistent ego, the soul discovers within itself the image of God reflecting purely and without blemishes in the mirror of the soul. [8] Awakened to its capacity and higher calling, astonished and full of wonder and awe, it comes into knowledge of the reason for its existence, the nature of its existential reality, and its relationship to the created realm. Being born again is one of the many representations of the transition of the soul from the plane of the wilderness to the Promised Land. It has passed through a difficult and trying process of spiritual growth from lower to higher states, during which its will became progressively developed and refined, and has opened to what Abdu’l-Baha called the “divine bestowal.” [9] The Seventh Persian Hidden Word from Baha’u’llah similarly frames the pattern in its call for the spiritual seeker to “take thou one pace, and with the next advance into the immortal realm and enter the “pavilion of eternity.” [10] Taking two paces results in 3 changes in position. The thesis of this posting is that this progression of spiritual growth similarly defines the resurrection as a process of three stages or “days.”
The Resurrection as a Model for Spiritual Transformation
In the teachings of the Baha’i Faith, the lower planes of material existence discussed above are likened to death or hell, and the higher plane of spiritual awakening to life or heaven. They are spiritual conditions and not states of physical existence, not 3 twenty-four hour days in a row, nor geographic locations. The three days are three stages of human spiritual position and perspective, and can be viewed in sequence as a progression through which each human being can ascend, from relatively lower to relatively higher. We will see in the posting Spiritual Anthropology that such an ascent defined a spiritual view of human nature early in Christian mystical practice that reflects even today in modern psychology. Satan is the insistent self, the ego, the Evil One who attempts to hold back any progress toward spiritual rebirth; and as such, represents the lower dimension of human nature (equivalent to Pharaoh, Herod, Laban, or several other representations of the self-centered, dominating, materialistically oriented person). Living one’s life in this state of being is likened to being dead. In fact, these are core Christian teachings too. One of the earliest known Christian documents, the Didache, refers to two life styles: the way of death, and the way of life. It shows that early Christians were taught to understand “life” and “death” in a spiritual, rather than merely physical, way. [11]
Such a teaching is reinforced by the words of Christ Himself, Who responded to a man who would not agree to follow Him until after he had gone to “bury his dead father” to “let the dead bury their dead,” signifying that people who were physically alive could be spiritually dead. [12] These two examples, amongst many that could be recounted here, have important implications for a discussion of the resurrection, which is understood to be a transformation from a condition of spiritual death to spiritual life. From a perspective obtained from the Baha’i Teachings, the resurrection has never been about physical resuscitation or reconstitution of physical human bodies, nor will it ever be. This perspective also emerges from the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, if one chooses to understand them in a particularly typological and symbolic way, and if one is willing to disregard the literal crust of doctrine and the formalized tradition that have formed around the interpretation of them. The teachings from the Apostle Paul are particularly aligned to this point of view, as we shall see below. From this perspective, one can realize that it is not revisionist at all to interpret the resurrection accounts and the witness stories as symbolic, if one is willing to accept their original intent to be other than a re-telling of a literal set of circumstances and actual events. The arrival of the Manifestation of God, the return, coincides with the resurrection and with renewal of the religion of the previous dispensations, and revival of the spirit they originally propounded but in new attire. “I am the Resurrection and the Life” ties living and resurrection together, not in a physical sense, but in the sense of spiritual renewal and re-birth, related to the appearance of the Promised One, the great I AM.
The Exodus account demarcates spiritual transformation into 3 planes or lands, as outlined above and presented in detail in Spiritual Geography: Paces and Places. In a review of the resurrection tradition, we will see here that this geographical motif is replaced with a time motif, but the typological pattern of 3’s is retained.
A proof that the Exodus account reconciles with the resurrection account can be found in Exodus 3:16-18, where the three days is mentioned in parallel to the journey from
Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt: And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.
And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.
Because the Exodus account indicates not a journey of three days but rather of 40 years in the wilderness, we are faced with either a set of factual errors (is it 3 days or 40 years?) or with the possibility that the “three days’ journey” represents the transitions from Egypt to wilderness to Promised Land, as the text above indicates rather clearly. Certain writers have posited that the “three days’ journey” cited above was a reference to physical translocation along a trade route or ancient road with stops at the end of each day as night fell and travelers stopped for the night to rest. This kind of explanation is a rationalization by reduction of the text, a relatively common practice that reflects “second day” thinking and is discussed elsewhere in MasterKey (see Spiritual Geography: Paces and Places, and The Meaning of the Miracles book review). We do not need to resort to this practice to uncover a fuller (“third day thinking”) meaning to the text, an oblique reference to the resurrection process initiated by Moses.
This transference of the typology from geography to days is very important to appreciate because one motif reflects or re-visions the other, yet both describe the same process of spiritual transformation or spiritual recovery, initiated by the coming or return of the Manifestation of God and the effect His Teachings have on the people who are receptive to Him (in our example here, the first case, Moses; in the second, Christ, both designated as “princes” in the sacred texts). Indeed, the Manifestation of God by whatever earthly name (or “new name” as in Revelations 3) He is known takes on the burden of the transformation process with the receptive people, joining (“descending”) with them into their low estate, and becoming both their advocate and the personification or embodiment of the transformation as a human archetype, providing a model and pattern to emulate. This is the meaning of the phrase “he descended into hell” with reference to Christ and the well known Apostle’s creed: Christ takes on the burden of humanly lower existence, and with humanity rises out it into the third day of rebirth (“raised up on the last day”).
Dr. Christopher Buck, a Baha’i, distinguished orientalist, prolific author, educator, and attorney, has observed that “This transformation is spiritual alchemy, taking the base appetites that most of us are born with and transmuting these into the pure gold of a refined moral and spiritual character.” [13] His statement summarizes well in symbolic fashion the Baha’i understanding of spiritual growth, as a transformation from lower to higher spiritual states; it is the essence of the resurrection, bounding the soul’s release from spiritual exile, prison, tomb of self, or condition of spiritual death, into new life.
In the spirit of the discussion above, a key text synthesizing the time-motif of three days and spatial-motif of geographic movement of three days from the Gospel of Luke 13:32-33 is highly appealing and relevant to the argument developed here (lest the reader should feel doubtful that the Exodus account and the resurrection account have a common basis conceptually). It should be emphasized that such a synthesis might be expected to come from Paul, and indeed it is thought that Luke was a fellow-traveler with Paul and was familiar with Paul’s teachings, thus Luke is perhaps expressing a Pauline sentiment:
Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of
Briefly to offer an exegesis of the passage from Luke consistent with the theme being developed here, it should be clear to the reader that Christ is not referring to an actual period of three days’ time during which He would take a long walk. Rather, the walk refers to the collective spiritual journey He invites all of His followers to take, and the devils that He casts out along the way are indeed the base appetites that emerge from one’s self-centered thoughts into morally degrading intentions and actions. [14] They are the cause and source of spiritual illnesses, symbolized in the Gospel accounts by leprosy, blindness, deafness, madness, demonic possession, and in the Apostle Paul’s words by drunkenness and sleep, all leading to “death.” Their personal and social implications are enormous, because they result in the accumulation of negative spiritual forces (“archons” or “rulers”) in the world, e.g., greed, selfishness, disdain, narrow-mindedness, prejudice, bigotry, and so on. They hinder spiritual development of the individual, and of mankind. The teachings of the Manifestation of God provide the pathway for release (i.e., healing) from the vicious cause-and-effect cycle that results from being caught up in these spiritual illnesses, both individually and collectively. One has to die to these passions in order to live to compassion. These spiritual afflictions operate in days 1 and 2, but not so particularly in day 3, when the soul passes the lower stages of limitation, rules over its material existence and has subsumed the promptings of its ego, replacing selfishness with selflessness and servitude. The passage from Luke cited above intensifies the three stages (“days”) by repeating the leitmotif twice for emphasis. It uses the word “I” to emphasize that Christ as the universal Manifestation of God became an archetypal human walking this pathway for and with each of us, and that we should follow His way and adopt His model. Indeed, early Christians identified themselves as the Body of Christ, with the Spirit of Christ infused into their communities; thus the “I” actually refers to them or to the entire set of believers. The implication is that we all need to take the three day walk, just as we all need to make the Exodus according to rabbinic tradition. But they are spiritual journeys, and not physical events or processes.
Dying To Live
Baha’u’llah, the Manifestation of God for our present age Who has ushered in the era of global consciousness, unity, and justice into which humanity is now (reluctantly and painfully) entering, has made imperative the spiritual transformation of each individual human being, and of humanity collectively. In a succinct passage from His treatise entitled The Seven Valleys He wrote: “Then we must labor to destroy the animal condition, till the meaning of humanity shall come to light.” Elsewhere, in His treatise known as The Gems of Divine Mysteries, He wrote of the ascent of the soul (termed “servant”) during its spiritual journey as follows:
And should the servant ascend to even loftier heights, quit this mortal world of dust, and seek to ascend unto the celestial abode, he will then pass from this city into the City of
Baha’u’llah’s use of place designations to represent spiritual states (“city,” “mortal world of dust,” “celestial abode”) demonstrates the importance the Manifestation of God places on symbolism as a heuristic and edifying device. For example, “city” references a spiritual dwelling place, not a physical location, and as such it serves as a guide when a city (
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Here, we can discern that the Apostle Paul teaches in his letter that each person has to undergo a crucifixion of sorts, but obviously as the text indicates not of the kind where one is literally nailed to a wooden cross. Rather, Paul sees the cross and the action of crucifixion as metaphors for the spiritual process of dying to the “works of the flesh” as he calls them, in order to engender the “fruit of the Spirit.” Those who truly follow Christ’s teachings have died to the ways of the flesh, with its “affections and lusts.” That Paul interprets the crucifixion in this spiritual (vs. literal) way provides an hermeneutic guide for the remainder of his writings, many of which are commonly interpreted more literally rather than figuratively. We will see below that this understanding of the crurcifixion as a model or pattern is quite different than the understanding of the crucifixion as a ransom payment, a theological derivation which arose from centuries of debate and discord in the Christian community. The late mythologist and philosopher Joseph Campbell, in his well known series of interviews with the journalist Bill Moyers published in the compilation The Power of Myth, noted that (p. 141):
The New Testament teaches dying to one’s self, literally suffering the pain of death to the world and its values. This is the vocabulary of the mystics ... . You die to your current life in order to come to another of some kind. But, as Jung says, you’d better not get caught in a symbolic situation. You don’t have to die, really, physically. All you have to do is die spiritually and be reborn to a larger way of living.
In Corinthians 3:5-10, the Apostle Paul continues to develop this theme, using the word “mortify” in reference to dying to one’s attachments to the world (in his terminology, “members which are upon the earth”):
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him … .
This passage from the Apostle Paul has many important elements, notably his reference to changing the “old man” for the “new man.” As in the Galatians text above it, we can see how Paul identifies negative behaviors and attitudes in series and that a person can hold to these attributes as part of one’s personality and way of being, and can even elevate them as gods (“idolatry”) in one’s life. For example, Paul says we (i.e., all humans) “walked some time” with these attributes in an echo of the passage from Luke cited above, using the metaphor of “walking” to refer to a life journey in which these ephemeral and undesirable qualities dominate for some phase of it. He then, by contrast, provides a shorter list of positive spiritual qualities or attributes, and then emphasizes the imperative need to die (“mortify”) to the former attributes in order to live to the latter ones. Clearly again, Paul does not mean a literal death nor a literal resurrection to live the spiritual life, but rather a change of spiritual orientation; a true change of heart. In this text, we can also begin to understand Paul’s use of the Greek term “soma” (literally, body), a term that continues to puzzle theologians and make understanding of Paul’s words difficult for translation. Briefly, Paul identifies the spiritual body as one’s spiritual nature in potentiality, and the attributes one holds or exhibits (either materialistic base attributes; or lofty attributes) as like “members” of that body (arms, legs, etc.). Paul is clearly using symbolic terminology in a subtle way. Some Christians have interpreted Paul’s use of these words to refer to an actual “body” that will be the resurrected one at the time of the end and so on, such as a phantasmal body. Our understanding developed here shows that such an interpretation is misguided and unnecessary, given Paul’s typological emphasis and highly symbolic teaching method. We will re-visit this issue in the Spiritual Anthropology posting, where hopefully it will become clearer.
Of interest is Paul’s use of the term “wrath of God” in this text. The ordinary interpretation is that if one does wrong or if one sins, then God will punish that person. However, we can understand this process in a different and deeper way. Indeed, living one’s life as if God is lingering about ready to punish us for every wrong deed is equivalent to erecting a false image of God in our minds and hearts; it is not how God interacts with each of us intimately and it creates intensive feelings of guilt (feelings that are like demons) which actually interfere with our capacity to let shame place in check any base tendencies we might occasionally feel. Rather, referring to the interaction of cause and effect, or reward and punishment, that occurs in the wandering in the wilderness phase of spiritual development (the “day of wrath”), we can understand that such “wrath” is the consequence of our own negative actions. In Romans 2:3, Paul writes:
“Do you not know that the kindness of God is meant to lead you into repentance? But by your hard and unrepentant heart you store up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and of the revelation of God’s ordinances, Who will requite each one according to his works … .”
Paul tells us that God is kind. To fear God is to understand well the relationships between cause and effect relative to our own thoughts, intentions and actions; and to know that right thoughts and behavior will lead to positive effects that build up and reinforce one’s spiritual life (“fruits of the spirit”), whilst wrong behavior, thoughts, and intentions tear down and destroy one’s spiritual life (resulting in “wrath”). Both ways of being reverberate to society as well, one positively and the other negatively. The Apostle Paul said it well: "For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Paul’s Letter to the Galatians 6:7). The teaching that Paul presents here is profound in this regard. His emphasis on the recognition of God’s ordinances as framed in revelation, his identification of the process of putting on the new man as a symbol of resurrection and renewal, and his correlation of the acquisition of knowledge of the latent image of God within oneself, parallel closely Baha’u’llah’s words from The Seven Valleys, in the section called The Valley of Unity:
O My Brother! A pure heart is as a mirror; cleanse it with the burnish of love and severance from all save God, that the true sun may shine within it and the eternal morning dawn. Then wilt thou clearly see the meaning of "Neither doth My earth nor My heaven contain Me, but the heart of My faithful servant containeth Me." And thou wilt take up thy life in thine hand, and with infinite longing cast it before the new Beloved One.
Whensoever the light of Manifestation of the King of Oneness settleth upon the throne of the heart and soul, His shining becometh visible in every limb and member. At that time the mystery of the famed tradition gleameth out of the darkness: "A servant is drawn unto Me in prayer until I answer him; and when I have answered him, I become the ear wherewith he heareth...." For thus the Master of the house hath appeared within His home, and all the pillars of the dwelling are ashine with His light. And the action and effect of the light are from the Light-Giver; so it is that all move through Him and arise by His will.
In a statement echoing the above text, Joseph Campbell commented that “The mind of man, cleansed of secondary and merely temporal concerns, beholds with the radiance of a cleansed mirror a reflection of the rational mind of God.” (The Power of Myth, p 31). The understanding of the heart or soul as a mirror capable of being cleansed and reflecting purely the image of God is a central tenet of the Baha’i spiritual experience. We read how Baha’u’llah beautifully predicates the experience of cleansing the heart and reflecting the image on recognizing and accepting “the new Beloved One,” “the Master of the House,” (i.e., the returned Manifestation of God) in His human form, into one’s life.
The famous text from the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 13) is relevant to this discussion and has perhaps been misunderstood in this regard:
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly (literally, “for at this moment we discern obscurely by the means of a mirror”); but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
The “glass” to which Paul refers is not a pane of glass as in a window, the common assumption, but rather a mirror (Greek, esoptron), which in those times was polished metal in which one could see a reflected image, if of course it was sufficiently polished and had no tarnish or obscuring dust on it. “Darkly” is much better translated as “obscurely” as Young has done in his literal translation. What is Paul saying here, then? Like the texts above, he is referring to the spiritual phenomenon of self-knowledge described metaphorically as an image in a mirror. He denotes the spiritual progress “I” (that is, any believer) makes from a child-like state of immature understanding to a mature understanding of one’s own nature (“then I shall know even as also I am known.”) The transition through adolescence must be assumed here, as the transitional or “second day” condition between childhood (day 1) and adulthood or maturity (day 3). In this sense, the “I” has died to the childlike condition in order to live to the mature adult spiritual condition, just as a seed dies to allow the tree to germinate and grow. Once this occurs, then the “image of God” appears in the mirror of one’s heart as a clear reflection of the qualities and attributes of God, the way that we come to know God and the way God then knows us.
Reverend Bruce Chilton, Bible scholar, insightful writer, Bell Professor of Religion at Bard College in New York State, and pastor (rector) of the (Episcopal) Church of St. John the Evangelist in Barrytown, New York, provided several insights into the teachings of the Apostle Paul regarding the meaning of the crucifixion and the type of death which it symbolically conveys to human spiritual life, which are relevant here. Notably, Rev. Chilton indicates in his book Rabbi Paul: An Intellectual Biography (Doubleday, 2004) that
For Paul and Christianity after Paul, the cross of Christ is the intersection where the Torah stops and the Spirit begins for all humanity … . The cross becomes the pattern of human suffering transmuted into fulfillment … . The fulfillment of promise – realized by identification with Christ – is the destiny of belief. The meaning of human existence is not static, but progressive, and that progress takes people beyond the Law.
Reverend Chilton’s concept of “pattern” here reflects our development of the notion of “model” and “type” with regard to the 3 day leitmotif. His observation that human spiritual development is dynamic and “progressive” is consistent with our theme here that the resurrection in a three day leitmotif is a pattern of that dynamism, and not a fixed historical event. His identification of the Law as deficient is not elaborated well, but suggests that Paul understood the Law as the elevation of the letter of the law above the intent of the law, as Jesus often said (see below).
To expand further on the theme of dying to live from Paul, Baha’u’llah, and others, we can turn to Paul’s elaboration of the term “circumcision” which occurs in his various letters. In the common way of understanding history of early Christianity, it was considered a matter of great argument during the time of Paul and the other Apostles as to whether new believers (men, obviously) should be circumcised. The argument affected their tendency to expand Christianity outside of Judaism and to the “gentiles” or non-Jewish populations living in the eastern
“[C]ircumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”
Elsewhere in Galatians 6:15, Paul wrote:
“For neither circumcision is anything, nor foreskin, but a new creation. And as many as hold to this standard, peace upon them and mercy … .”
The heterodox Gospel of Thomas emphasizes a similar point in its 53rd reported saying of Christ:
His disciples said to Him, "Is circumcision beneficial or not?" He said to them, "If it were beneficial, their father would beget them already circumcised from their mother. Rather, the true circumcision in spirit has become completely profitable."
We can discern that Paul and the compiler of the Gospel of Thomas sayings refer to circumcision not as the physical act of separation of foreskin from penis, but rather as a separation of the soul from physical desire, from passion. To understand circumcision as a physical law that must be obeyed therefore deflects its intended meaning. It could perhaps be understood as an outward sign of a commitment to make the spiritual leap of detachment from physical desire, much in the same way that baptism is a sign of a commitment to wash oneself clean of error, but neither act actually confers these spiritual commitments (despite the attitudes of the ecclesiastical authority towards these acts).
That Paul does not speak literally here is expressed in his words “not in the letter” and “as many as hold to this standard [of understanding].” His sense conveys that the act and significance of circumcision has been misunderstood all along, and that it is not physical circumcision that makes one a true believer nor part of a religious community, but rather the spiritual one. This perspective makes the entire argument about whether or not to circumcise physically new believers moot, and a literalization or concretization of a spiritual matter [15] Again, we have a hermeneutical guide to Paul’s teachings, which steers us clear of concretistic interpretations that otherwise lead us into a misunderstanding of Paul’s intention. It also helps us to understand further what Paul meant by “Law” which was in his view a concretization of those spiritual principles originally laid down by Moses, such as the example of circumcision here. A key lesson is that the sacred scriptures (“Writings” in Young’s Literal Translation) should not be concretized if they are to be understood and applied effectively. Once the believers concretize their spiritual teachings, their originally intended effect wears off and the laws (spiritual principles) become less effective. Unfortunately, the ecclesiastical authorities (i.e., clergy and divines) are often the very motivators of this concretization process, mainly because it solidifies their power position in society.
Lest the reader be developing a concern that the our text is drifting from our main theme of the three days leitmotif as a temporal representation of a spiritual process, let us consider that the “crucifixion” (or “circumcision”) and the “resurrection” interact in that the former represents the dying to self, and the latter the rising to new life after that very necessary death. It forms a core of the tripartite resurrection process. Baha’u’llah’s use of the words “destroy” and “dying to self” converges on the Christian notions of dying to the old self in order to live newly, of changing the old garment for a new garment, of circumcising away the fleshly nature of the heart’s affections and desires, of replacing the old man with the new man, and of maturing from child to man. These convergences with the teachings found in the letters of the Apostle Paul require a spiritual understanding of the resurrection. Such an understanding requires development of a capacity for discernment, which is seeing past the symbol to the referent it means to expose. This capacity is always under test. In the Baha’i Teachings, one must purify one’s heart from preconceptions and passed down traditions to achieve it.
Any doubt in the reader’s mind that Paul should be interpreted literally on these accounts should be fading by now. Later, we will provide strong evidence from Paul’s own words that he viewed the resurrection itself not as a physical resuscitation of a dead body, but rather a spiritual process. Indeed, Paul is the key to understanding the resurrection in this way, and was the first to mention it in the written word as has already been mentioned. But Paul has always been difficult to understand, thus, it has been relatively easy to concretize his subtle teachings. 2 Peter indicates that Paul’s words should not be taken at surface meaning:
“… Paul wrote to you with the wisdom God gave him--Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters around to mean something quite different from what he meant, just as they do the other parts of Scripture--and the result is disaster for them.” 2 Peter 3: 15-16 , New Living Translation
Similarly, the writer of Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, an unknown author of this Pauline-style text of a homiletic nature, noted as follows:
“Concerning this we have much teaching which is hard to interpret, since you have become deaf in your hearing.” Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews 5:11-14
Discursive Meditation on Three
Succeeding postings under the rubric of The Three Day Journey will help lead us towards a non-concretistic view of the resurrection, through reference to the writings of the Apostle Paul as well as from others. We will examine hermeneutic principles required to discern these matters as “heavenly things,” as well as see specific examples of the three leitmotif from Christian texts and traditions. Then, we will proceed to an examination of the resurrection from the point of view of the Baha’is.
For now, let us close for a discursive meditation with some words from The Tablet of Maqsud from Baha’u’llah, which focus on the three stages of human spiritual development He outlines, where word replaces day:
“Man is the supreme Talisman. Lack of a proper education hath, however, deprived him of what he doth inherently possess. Through a word proceeding out of the mouth of God he was called into being; by one word more he was guided to recognize the Source of his education; by yet another word his station and destiny were safeguarded.”
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Table 1. A tabulation of the three day and third day leitmotif from the Hebrew scriptures (i.e., Christian Old Testament) from Reverend John Shelby Spong.
Hebrew scriptural citation Context/Quotation
1. Genesis 30:36 “and setteth a journey of three days between himself and Jacob; and Jacob is feeding the rest of the flock of Laban.”
2. Exodus 3:16-18 “And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.”
3. Genesis 42:17-18 “Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether [there be any] truth in you: or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye [are] spies. And he put them all together into ward three days. And Joseph said unto them the third day, This do, and live; [for] I fear God:”
4. Exodus 10:22 “And Moses stretcheth out his hand towards the heavens, and there is darkness -- thick darkness in all the
5. 2 Samuel 1:1-16 “And it cometh to pass, after the death of Saul, that David hath returned from smiting the Amalekite, and David dwelleth in Ziklag two days,
and it cometh to pass, on the third day, that lo, a man hath come in out of the camp from Saul, and his garments [are] rent, and earth on his head; and it cometh to pass, in his coming in unto David, that he falleth to the earth, and doth obeisance.”
6. 1 Kings 12:5 “And he saith unto them, `Go -- yet three days, and come back unto me;' and the people go.”
7. Ezra 8:15 “And I gather them unto the river that is going unto Ahava, and we encamp there three days; and I consider about the people, and about the priests, and of the sons of Levi I have found none there;”
8. Ezra 10:8-9 “When Ezra arrived, all the returning exiles had to assemble within three days or else be banned from the house of Israel, which would be established after three days.”
9. Jonah 1:17 “And Jehovah appointeth a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah is in the bowels of the fish three days and three nights.”
10. Esther 4:16 `Go, gather all the Jews who are found in Shushan, and fast for me, and do not eat nor drink three days, by night and by day; also I and my young women do fast likewise, and so I go in unto the king, that [is] not according to law, and when I have perished -- I have perished.'
11. Genesis 40:12-19 [Summary: In a highly symbolic narrative, Joseph interprets the dreams of Pharaoh’s butler and baker, the former of whom was spared after 3 days whilst the latter was executed after three days. In both dreams, symbols are used for the 3 days time motif in Joseph’s interpretation, the first being three branches of grape vine, the second three white baskets.] Genesis 40:12 “And Joseph saith to him, `This [is] its interpretation: the three branches are three days;” [and] Genesis 40:18 “And Joseph answereth and saith, `This [is] its interpretation: the three baskets are three days;”
12. Exodus 19:10-11 “And Jehovah saith unto Moses, `Go unto the people; and thou hast sanctified them to-day and to-morrow, and they have washed their garments, and have been prepared for the third day; for on the third day doth Jehovah come down before the eyes of all the people, on mount Sinai.” [Note: The text continues into Exodus 19:15-16 with reference to the third day]
13. 2 Kings 20:5,8 “ `Turn back, and thou hast said unto Hezekiah, leader of My people: Thus said Jehovah, God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tear, lo, I give healing to thee, on the third day thou dost go up to the house of Jehovah;” [and] “And Hezekiah saith unto Isaiah, `What [is] the sign that Jehovah doth give healing to me, that I have gone up on the third day to the house of Jehovah?' “
14. Hosea 6:2 “He doth revive us after two days, In the third day He doth raise us up, And we live before Him.”
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Table 2. A tabulation of the three day and third day leitmotif in the New Testament. Young’s Literal Translation is used. Comments in brackets.
New Testament scriptural citation Context/Quotation
Acts 9:8-9 “and Saul arose from the earth, and his eyes having been opened, he beheld no one, and leading him by the hand they brought him to
Acts 10:39-41 “and we -- we are witnesses of all things that he did, both in the country of the Jews, and in
Acts 25:1 “Festus, therefore, having come into the province, after three days went up to
1 Corinthians 15:3-8 “for I delivered to you first, what also I did receive, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Writings, and that he was buried, and that he hath risen on the third day, according to the Writings, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, afterwards he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain till now, and certain also did fall asleep; afterwards he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. And last of all -- as to the untimely birth -- he appeared also to me …” [Several important elements appear in this text which we will examine elsewhere]
Mark 8:1-2 In those days the multitude being very great, and not having what they may eat, Jesus having called near his disciples, saith to them, `I have compassion upon the multitude, because now three days they do continue with me, and they have not what they may eat; [A reference to the passing of the multitude through the process of 3 days or planes of spiritual growth, as the listened to and assimilated Jesus’ teachings; note that on the third day – the day of resurrection -- the miracle took place]
Mark 8:31 and began to teach them, that it behoveth the Son of Man to suffer many things, and to be rejected by the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and to be killed, and after three days to rise again; [resurrection reference]
Mark 9:11 for he was teaching his disciples, and he said to them, `The Son of Man is being delivered to the hands of men, and they shall kill him, and having been killed the third day he shall rise,' [resurrection reference]
Mark 10:32 and they shall mock him, and scourge him, and spit on him, and kill him, and the third day he shall rise again.' [resurrection reference]
Mark 14:58 We heard him saying -- I will throw down this sanctuary made with hands, and by three days, another made without hands I will build;' [Jesus abrogates the prior dispensation of Moses, and reconstructs the Cause of God through the three day process of resurrecting the believers to new spiritual life, assembling them as the living “temple” or embodiment of Jesus’ teachings]
Mark 15:29 And those passing by were speaking evil of him, shaking their heads, and saying, `Ah, the thrower down of the sanctuary, and in three days the builder! [Literalists disdainfully dismissing the words of Jesus from Mark 14:58, and clearly misunderstanding their inner meaning]
Matthew 12:28-29 Then answered certain of the scribes and Pharisees, saying, `Teacher, we will to see a sign from thee.' And he answering said to them, `A generation, evil and adulterous, doth seek a sign, and a sign shall not be given to it, except the sign of Jonah the prophet; for, as Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. [Jesus rejects the call for a physical miracle as demonstration of His truth and power, indicating that such a sign comes only from those who cannot understand him and who expect literal rather than spiritual teaching; he gives them the sign of Jonah as a reminder, emphasizing the 3 day leitmotif which they would understand as spiritual resurrection, if only they could see past their limited (i.e., literal) understanding of their own sacred texts. The next few verses enlighten the reader as to Jesus’ station as the true Manifestation of God, greater than a mere Jonah or a Solomon who were minor prophets]
Matthew 15:32 And Jesus having called near his disciples, said, `I have compassion upon the multitude, because now three days they continue with me, and they have not what they may eat; and to let them away fasting I will not, lest they faint in the way.' [cf. Mark 8:1-2, and comments above]
Matthew 16:21 From that time began Jesus to shew to his disciples that it is necessary for him to go away to Jerusalem, and to suffer many things from the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and to be put to death, and the third day to rise. [portends resurrection]
Matthew 17:23 and they shall kill him, and the third day he shall rise,' and they were exceeding sorry. [portends resurrection]
Matthew 20:19 and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the nations to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify, and the third day he will rise again.' [portends resurrection]
Matthew 26:60-61 At the last came two false witnesses, And said, This [fellow] said, I am able to destroy the
Matthew 27:40 `Thou that art throwing down the sanctuary, and in three days building [it], save thyself; if Son thou art of God, come down from the cross.' [another reference to the “three days” process of rebuilding the temple, here again placed to show the misunderstood teaching]
Matthew 27:62 saying, `Sir, we have remembered that that deceiver said while yet living, After three days I do rise; [verse reveals the misunderstanding of the chief priests and Pharisees, who literalized Jesus’ teaching regarding the “three days” resurrection and so urged guarding the tomb, itself a symbol]
Luke 2:46 And it came to pass, after three days, they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both hearing them and questioning them, [the journey to the temple, a symbol for spiritual attainment, requires 3 days]
Luke 9:22 `It behoveth the Son of Man to suffer many things, and to be rejected by the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and to be killed, and the third day to be raised.' [In this passage and the following verses, Luke portrays in the gospel the model of dying and rising in a three day pattern, which must be emulated by the believers, who are told in 9:23 to take up their own crosses “daily” and repeat Jesus’ pattern of dying as in 9:24. Refer to the Dying to Live section of this posting]
Luke 13:32 `Having gone, say to this fox [Herod], Lo, I cast forth demons, and perfect cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third [day] I am being perfected; [Spiritual perfection requires spiritual healing in a 3 day process; see the succeeding verse and details in this posting]
Luke 18:32-33 and having scourged they shall put him to death, and on the third day he shall rise again. And they none of these things understood, and this saying was hid from them, and they were not knowing the things said.[A highly significant text, indicating that the disciples did not understand the hidden meaning (“this saying was hid from them”) in the third day/rise again model of spiritual resurrection that Jesus gave to them. That understanding ultimately came to them is shown by the remaining verses in this chapter, in which a blind man is healed, signifying spiritual insight into this issue. That the healing took place near
Luke 24:4-7ff It behoveth the Son of Man to be delivered up to the hands of sinful men, and to be crucified, and the third day to rise again.' [the meaning of the third day becomes apparent to the disheartened women who visited the “tomb,” a symbolic reference; see succeeding verse “they remembered his sayings” referring to their renewed capacity in their grief to understand the symbolism. The remainder of this chapter shows how understanding came to the others. This section of Luke is commonly taken to shore up the notion of a physical resurrection because of the appearances described in it, but they are symbolic as one can see by the continual references to “seeing” (understanding) and “Then opened he up their understanding to understand the Writings”]
John 2:1 And the third day a marriage happened in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there, [the marriage at Cana is a highly symbolic representation of the searching soul … a woman as the bride… forming the syzygy with her beloved, her true self, in spiritual reunion; the groom also represents the Lord. Note that the spiritual reunion occurs on the third day, corresponding to the day of spiritual resurrection. The notion of spiritual reunion represented symbolically by marriage is ancient and may have been a sacrament in some of the early churches, and may be codified in the sacramental marriage ceremony today]
John 2:19-21 Jesus answered and said to them, `Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up.'The Jews, therefore, said, `Forty and six years was this sanctuary building, and wilt thou in three days raise it up? but he spake concerning the sanctuary of his body; [John gives the explanation in spiritual terms here; “sanctuary of his body” refers to Jesus’ teachings and His renewed followers in their newly organized form, the Christian religion as the new dispensation]
[1] Reactions to the story predictably fall on both sides of the issue; for example one from the strident Christian apologist blogger Mariano was swift and dismissive (http://lifeanddoctrine.blogspot.com/2008/07/jesus-tablet-lshloshet-yaminin-three.html), as was a comment by a Lutheran poster (http://www.getreligion.org/?s=shoddy). By contrast, the anti-religion polemicist Richard Dawkins received the story as an affirmation of his decidedly strident point of view: http://richarddawkins.net/article,2822,Tablet-Ignites-Debate-on-Messiah-and-Resurrection,New-York-Times#comments.
[2] Reverend Spong is a retired Episcopalian bishop and prolific writer on themes such as new directions he believes Christianity must take in the postmodern era; or alternative interpretations of traditional doctrines, such as the development of the resurrection concept historically. Some books of note include The Resurrection: Myth or Reality? A Bishop’s Search for the Origins of Christianity; Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism: A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture; A New Christianity for a New World: Why Traditional Faith Is Dying and How a New Faith Is Being Born; and Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers In Exile.
[3] Spong, John Shelby. 1994. The Resurrection: Myth or Reality? HarperCollins Publishers,
[4] Notably, Gabriel was the angel reported to have communicated the revelations to the Prophet Muhammad. Bronner’s article does not mention this rather obvious connection, which would have thrown the article even further askew. Otherwise, Gabriel appears only in the Book of Daniel, and the Gospel of Luke (in an appearance to Mary the mother of Jesus.
[5] The traditional, theological understanding of typology in interpreting scripture is as a theory of the systematic analogy between historical events, or as when texts correspond through allegory in conformity with a doctrine (see the wiki at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typology_(theology)). I would amend this understanding to connote “the systematic analogy between historical events where those events are presented scripturally as symbolic narratives of a homiletic intention.” The former definition makes certain literal assumptions about the narratives under consideration, such as the Exodus account or the resurrection accounts, necessarily received as historically accurate to the true believer. My amendment eliminates this requirement but demands an inner or intended meaning, requiring a hermeneutic guide for the exegesis. For a discussion of typology in a theological context, see Knight, Janice. 1991. Learning the Language of God: Jonathan Edwards and the Typology of Nature. The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, 48(4): 531-551. For an example of the application of the typological concept to one’s individual life (“typological self-interpretation”) using St. Teresa of
[6] “The attainment of any object is conditioned upon knowledge, volition and action.” Abdu'l-Baha, Foundations of World Unity, p. 100.
[7] Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 200.
[8] The 13th century mystic and Dominican monk Meister Eckhart commented that "God is not found in the soul by adding anything but by a process of subtraction." See the article by James McFadden at http://www.catholicireland.net/pages/index.php?nd=3&art=544 for comments on Meister Eckhart’s words relative to spiritual detachment.
[9] Abdu’l-Baha observed that “[B]y simple development along material lines man is not perfected. At most, the physical aspect of man, his natural or material conditions may become stabilized and improved but he will remain deprived of the spiritual or divine bestowal … . Man has two powers, and his development two aspects. One power is connected with the material world and by it he is capable of material advancement. The other power is spiritual and through its development his inner, potential nature is awakened. These powers are like two wings. Both must be developed, for flight is impossible with one wing. Praise be to God! Material advancement has been evident in the world but there is need of spiritual advancement in like proportion. We must strive unceasingly and without rest to accomplish the development of the spiritual nature in man, and endeavor with tireless energy to advance humanity toward the nobility of its true and intended station. For the body of man is accidental; it is of no importance. The time of its disintegration will inevitably come. But the spirit of man is essential and therefore eternal. It is a divine bounty. It is the effulgence of the Sun of Reality and therefore of greater importance than the physical body . . . . The bestowal and grace of God have quickened the realm of existence with life and being.” (From Baha'i World Faith, p. 262-264.) This text has several important elements, including the notions of spiritual advancement as development towards a state of perfection; the necessary and inevitable disintegration of the physical body (thereby eliminating the possibility of physical resurrection); and the essentially eternal nature of the spirit of man (i.e., the soul).
[10] The Hidden Words of Baha’u’llah, From the Persian, Number 7. “O Son of Love! Thou art but one step away from the glorious heights above and from the celestial tree of love. Take thou one pace, and with the next advance into the immortal realm, and enter the pavilion of eternity. Give ear then to that which hath been revealed by the Pen of Glory.”
[11] Baha’is may wish to explore the Didache and the scholarship surrounding it in detail. Two useful links are http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/didache.html and http://www.didache-garrow.info/. It appears to represent a very early Christianity (possibly 50-70 CE) instruction manual or “study circle” style guide, composed before the bread and wine were literalized into the actual body and blood of Christ, and before the resurrection and the life teaching was literalized into a physical resurrection (see the so-called Two Ways portion of the Didache text). The Didache glosses these doctrinalized themes as symbolic. The Baha’i author Daniel Grolin in his book “Jesus and Early Christianity in the Gospels” (George Ronald, publisher) discusses it in some detail. Christian scholars and theologians have taken various positions on the Didache according to their particular points of view and biases. For example, some have emphasized the section on how to receive and treat itinerant teachers, rejecting those who obviously have materialist motives and thus are referred to as “false prophets,” yet this section is only a small part of a much larger and more comprehensive document. It appears to be mainly an edifying and instructional document for new believers. Regarding the bread and wine in the Didache, Burton Mack wrote (bold for emphasis; note repetition of “knowledge” and “known”):
But here in the Didache a very formalistic set of prayers is assigned to the cup and the breaking of bread without the slightest association with the death and resurrection of Jesus. The prayers of thanksgiving are for the food and drink God created for all people and the special, "spiritual" food and drink that Christians have because of Jesus. Drinking the cup symbolizes the knowledge these people have that they and Jesus are the "Holy Vine of David," which means that they "belong to
Regarding the
There are two ways, one of life and one of death, but a great difference between the two ways. The way of life, then, is this: First, you shall love God who made you; second, love your neighbor as yourself, and do not do to another what you would not want done to you. And of these sayings the teaching is this: Bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies, and fast for those who persecute you. For what reward is there for loving those who love you? Do not the Gentiles do the same? But love those who hate you, and you shall not have an enemy. Abstain from fleshly and worldly lusts …
And the way of death is this: First of all it is evil and accursed: murders, adultery, lust, fornication, thefts, idolatries, magic arts, witchcrafts, rape, false witness, hypocrisy, double-heartedness, deceit, haughtiness, depravity, self-will, greediness, filthy talking, jealousy, over-confidence, loftiness, boastfulness; persecutors of the good, hating truth, loving a lie, not knowing a reward for righteousness, not cleaving to good nor to righteous judgment, watching not for that which is good, but for that which is evil; from whom meekness and endurance are far, loving vanities, pursuing revenge, not pitying a poor man, not laboring for the afflicted, not knowing Him Who made them, murderers of children, destroyers of the handiwork of God, turning away from him who is in want, afflicting him who is distressed, advocates of the rich, lawless judges of the poor, utter sinners. Be delivered, children, from all these.
[12] This passage from the Gospel of Luke 9:59-62 is perhaps far more subtle than it has been understood, if we are willing to accept the notion that such passages are both didactic and parenetic in intent to the reading audience, that is, the passage presents a point of view for the sake of emphasizing a particularly subtle but profound teaching. For example, the “dead father” could represent the prior Judaic dispensation of Moses, now passing away; and the hesitating and excuse making “son” could represent the people called to accept the succeeding dispensation ushered in by Jesus Christ, but showing hesitancy and uncertainty. My reason of incorporating it here is to show how the text illustrates the symbolic use of the word “dead,” as others have done. The parenetic sense is perhaps: “don’t allow yourself to be among the dead now that the Promised One has come!”
[13] Buck, Christopher. Discovering. In: Binyamin Abrahamov, Christopher Buck, Michael Carter, Vincent Cornell, Frederick Denny, Francois Deroche, Salwa El-Awa, Reuven Firestone, Anna Gade, Andrew Rippin (contributors and editors). The Blackwell Companion to the Qur’an, Chapter 2, pp. 18-35.
[14] With reference to demons and exorcism, the author Bruce Chilton in his book Rabbi Paul emphasized the spiritual effect of Christ’s coming: “[T]he Spirit of God’s Son transformed every believer into God’s child with the personal awareness of God as Father. That chased out the unintegrated, demonic fragments of personality that can undermine a person’s being … . Spirit’s power in Paul’s mind and practice was worked out by means of exorcism: the inrushing force of the divine kingdom destroyed the demons’ fortresses on the earth … His campaign was part of the underlying, spiritual warfare that was more fateful than any war the world could wage (2 Corinthians 10:4): ‘For the weapons of our warfare are not of flesh, but powerful in God for the demolition of strongholds.’ The struggle for humanity was an intellectual and emotional combat that centered on the conquest of evil in the human heart.”
[15] Concretistic thinking has been defined by Carl Jung in his Compiled Works: “CONCRETISM. By this I mean a peculiarity of thinking and feeling which is the opposite of abstraction. The actual meaning of concrete is ‘grown together’. A concretely thought concept is one that has growth together or coalesced with other concepts. Such a concept is not abstract, not segregated, not thought ‘in itself’, but always alloyed and related to something else. It is not a differentiated concept, but is still embedded in material transmitted by sense-perception. Concretistic thinking operates exclusively with concrete concepts and percepts, and is constantly related to sensation. Similarly, concretistic feeling is never segregated from its sensuous content.” Please see Cope, Theo A. 2001. Re-Thinking, Re-Visioning, Re-Placing. From Neoplatonism to Baha’i in a
[16] Tablets of Baha’u’llah, p. 161-162.
