posted on Sep, 30 2004 @ 09:12 AM
Hi JadeStone Doll:
Just a little "scholarly" background on the Merkhava/Hekhalot tradition you touched upon in your post (in case you get bored today) !
The words placed into the mouth of R. Yehoshua bar Yosef the Galilean in John's gospel have been clearly shaken (re-digested) out of their original
contexts long before they were translated then set forth in the ("stylishly over-simplified") Koine Greek of his book. Notice all the short pithy
3 and 4 word phrases in his Greek....
Sometimes when someone takes the time to re-translate certain snatchets of John the Elder's pithy Greek back into Aramaic (i.e. word for word) we
find traces of more "condensed" Dead Sea Scroll language connotations, and other 1st Century Hebraisms, like:
"In my father's House, there are many Hekhalot ("palaces")
Behold, I am going ahead of your to prepare your resting Places"
which is (Apocalyptic) proto-Kabbalistic language referring to the 1st Century 2nd Temple notion of a FLAT EARTH surrounded by "7 domes of heavens"
called Hekhalot or Palaces--where the Righteous Dead were supposed to have their own Apartments (sort of built on the image of a Persian Palace)
For some reason the KJV translated the term as "Mansions"---but it refers to Domed Orbits of the 7 wandering "Visible Planets" from the vantage
point of a "stationary" and flat earth: (e.g. the SUN, MOON, MERCURY, VENUS, MARS, JUPITER and SATURN): this is why the Menorah in the Temple had 7
lights (and Zechariah and the Book of Revelation call these " the 7 EYES OF YHWH which roam around the whole earth")
We see this kind of "7-domes" language in the book of I Henoch (especially the Astronomical Sections chapters 72-84) and in other books found among
the Dead Sea Scroll Fragments at Qumran and Masada (e.g. the "Scroll of the Book of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifices" (c. BC 50) , which borrows
Kabbalistic language from the book of Hezekiel and other books like I Henoch, that were derivative of that type of mind-set).
Here's a sort of "random sample" of a passage having to do with the 7th (i.e. the last) Hekhalah (Palace) vision of Henoch as "Metatron" in the
Scroll of the Book of the Visions of (3rd) Henoch:
"As soon as YHWH took me to "the 7th Hekhalah" (Palace) wherein was The Throne of his Glory, even the Wheels of the Chariot, and the
Shekhinah---all at once my flesh was transfigured into Flame, my bones into a glowingly hot Fire, my tendons as glowing juniper Coals, my eyelids the
light of a Bolt of Lightning, my Pupils as bright brning Torches, my hair to Glowing Embers, all of my limbs to Sparks, and my bodily frame to White
Heat: On my right side were hewers of pure Flame, and on my left side were bright torches of white light. There blew around me wind, storm, and
tempest, and the rumble of earthquake upon earthquake was in front of me and behind me. " (3rd Henoch, 15:1b-2, 19)
Presumably the idea was that the Righteous Dead would "rest" i.e. live after death in fulfilment of the words of Daniel chapter 12 and other later
writings based on this verse :"All the Righteous Ones shall Glow in the Last Days like the Stars of Heaven.." and other related images of
"resting" like the stars rest in their place without movement, but glowing in their respective Helkhalot (Palaces) :
The idea of flame-glowing etc. is part and parcel of the Shekhinah of YHWH throughout Hebrew writings....especially on Judgment Day when YHWH is
supposed to "make his appearance" on earth e.g. (read Psalm 29, or the Image in Exodus of the Cloud of Smoke by Day, and a Flame of Fire by
night.." or "Who shall abide the Day of his Coming...? Or who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a Refiner's Fire" etc.)
You will see that in the Judaeism(s) of the 2nd Temple period (BC 430 to AD 70), "preparing a place of Rest in the Palaces of YHWH" was one of the
goals of those Jews who believed in an afterlife (i.e. non Sadduccees, since the Zadokim who ran the 2nd Temple in Jerusalem avoided the newfangled
Persian influenc and refused to believe in a Resurrection of the Dead, or in angels/daemons) which included the Qumran Saduccees (Zadokite splinter
groups) and the Pharasim, both heavilly influenced by Persian Zoroastrianism...and tied into the so-called Merkhava Tradition (i.e. Hezekiel's
Wheels) which may have been of Babylo-Persian origin..
"Not only have the seers perceived the celestial hosts, heaven with its angels, but the whole of this apocalyptic and pseudepigraphic literature is
shot through with a chain of new revelations concerning the hidden glory of the great Majesty, its throne, its palace...the celestial spheres towering
up one over the other, paradise, hell, and the containers of the souls."
- Baldensperger, Die messianisch-apokalyptischen Hoffnungen des Judentums, p. 68
"The Hekhaloth were different 'chambers' or 'halls' through which mystics advanced during meditation."
- Alan G. Hefner, "Hekhaloth"
A reference to imagery of the Hekhalot can be found in the apocryphal Fourth Book of Ezra, c. AD 80
"O YHWH who inhabitest eternity, whose eyes are exalted and whose upper Palaces [hekhaloth] are in the air, whose Throne [merkavah] is beyond
measure and whose Glory is beyond comprehension, before whom the hosts of Angels stand trembling and at whose command they are changed to wind and
fire..." 4 Ezra 8:21-22a