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From Temple to Heavenly Court

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2024

Joseph Bourke O.P.
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In a series of articles, of which this is the fourth, I have attempted to Trace a particular theme of God's presence to Israel, and of Israel's encounter with God in his holiness, through the Old Testament into the New. The theme has its source in a vision—Moses’ vision of the burning bush (Exod. 3). A blaze of mysterious fire, awful, yet irresistibly attractive, draws Moses towards itself, and the voice of God himself issues from the flame summoning him and miraculously empowering him to enter within the sphere of its numinous radiance. At Sinai (Exod. 19) the same encounter with holiness is repeated on a gigantic scale. Yahweh descends on the mountain in the midst of fire, amid earthquake, thunder and lightning and the sound of a terrible trumpet which grows louder and louder. Here the whole mountain becomes charged and glowing with holiness and so constitutes the numinous sphere of mortal danger to all creaturehood.

Type
Research Article
Information
Life of the Spirit , Volume 16 , Issue 189 , April 1962 , pp. 407 - 420
Copyright
Copyright © 1962 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

References

1 cf. The Life of the Spirit March, May, November 1961

2 cf. A. Weiser: ‘Die Darstellung der Theophanie in den Psalmen und in Festkult: Zur Frage nach den Beziehungen der Psalmen zum Kult’ in Festschrift für Alfred Bertholet Tübingen 1950 pp. 513-531; also W. Beyerlin. Herkunft und Geschichte der Altesten Sinaitraditionen, Tubingen 1961, pp. 153-164.

3 cf. H. Torczyner: Die Bundeslade und die Anfänge der Religion Israels 2 ed.Berlin 1930, p. 38 ff. and Weiser art. cit. p. 520.

4 cf. G. R. Driver: Canaanite Myths and Legends, Edinburgh 1956, p. 81.

5 cf. A. Parrot: Le Temple de Jérusalem, Paris, 1954, p. 21.

6 So for example W. Zimmerli: Die Urgeschichte (I Mose—I-II) 2 ed. Zürich, stuttgart 1957 ad loc.

7 cf. W. Eichrodt: Der Prophet Hesekiel 1-18 ATD Gottingen 1959. P.8.

8 Cf. J. A. Emerton: ‘The Origin of the Son of Man Imagery’ in the Journal of Theological Studies IX/2 October 1958 pp. 225-242

9 On this form of vocation scene cf. W. Zimmerli: Ezechiel, Biblischer kommentar XIII/I Moers 1955, pp. 16-21.

10 cf. A. Feufflet: ‘Le Fils de l'Homme de Daniel et la Tradition Biblique’ in Revue Biblique lx 1953, pp. 173 ff., 321 ff.

11 W. Eichrodt: Theologie des Alten Testaments II Berlin 1948, p. 11.