All Our Yesterdays
"To the last
syllable of recorded time, and all our yesterdays. . ." (Macbeth V.v.)
A series of brief articles
dealing with Human Pre-existence
by Arthur & Rosalind Eedle.
24. Apocryphal writings
The very
word "Apocrypha" causes the minds of many believers to seize up.
Immediately they think they are being asked to look at something as bad as a
volume of Black Magic Curses. This has all come about because of bad
advertisement over the years by evangelicals in "high places", who
have made us believe everything outside Holy Scripture is as poisonous as
toadstools.
This,
however, is far from the truth. Apocryphal writings are very valuable, insofar
as they tell us a great deal about the thoughts and beliefs of those who wrote
the books. From these works we find out what was currently believed in the era
of their writing. Furthermore, there are many good, wholesome things to be
found there, which if we put a veto on them, prevent them from serving a useful
purpose in our studies.
The word
"Apocrypha" means "hidden", and the ancients were prone to
class these writings as "hidden works", containing valuable material
"not for general consumption." Today, the word is often used
colloquially. We say about a certain news item, "Oh, that's an apocryphal
tale!" meaning we can take it with a pinch of salt! There's no likelihood
of truth in it. The word has therefore become quite the opposite of its
former meaning.
Having said
all that as a preamble, let's have a look at what the Apocryphal works have to
say about the subject of pre-existence.
2
Esdras 4:36-42. "The righteous in the storehouse of souls [i.e. the
GUPH or the OTZAR, before mentioned] asked, 'How long must we stay here? When
will the harvest begin, the time when we get our reward?' And the Archangel
Jeremiel answered, 'As soon as the number of those like yourselves is complete.
For the Lord has weighed the world in a balance, and He has measured and
numbered the ages; He will move nothing, alter nothing, until the appointed
number is achieved.' - - - "The storehouses of souls in the world below
are like the womb. As a woman in travail is impatient to see the end of her
labour, so they are impatient to give back all the souls committed to them
since time began." [Doesn't this remind you of the
"souls under the altar" in Revelation?]
2
Esdras 7:12-15."The Lord answered Ezra, saying, 'The entrances to
this world were made narrow, painful and arduous, few and evil, full of perils
and grinding hardship. But the entrances to the greater world are broad and
safe, and lead to immortality. All men must therefore enter this narrow and
futile existence, otherwise they can never attain the blessings in store. Why
then, Ezra, are you so deeply disturbed at the thought that you are mortal and
must die? Why have you not turned your mind to the future instead of the
present?'"
A
casual reading of the above passage may lead some to cast it on one side,
supposing it to contradict the words of our Lord in the sermon on the mount,
where He spoke about the narrow gate that leads to life, compared with the
broad way that leads to destruction. But the symbolism in Esdras speaks of a
different setting to that in the Gospels. Jesus spoke to those who were ALREADY
in the world. In Esdras, the narrow entrances were made thus by Adam's
transgression, whereby the souls in the GUPH might tremble at the thought of
entering a world of evil. The theme is taken up again in our next reference.
Ecclus.40:1-2
"Hard
work is the lot of every man, and a heavy yoke is laid on the sons of Adam,
from the day when they come from their mother's womb until the day of their
RETURN TO THE MOTHER OF ALL, troubled thoughts and fears are theirs, and
anxious expectation of the day of their death."
This
is parallel to the statement of Job, which must be presented here to provide
the connection, rather than leaving it to the next part of this series.
Job.1:21
Job stood up and rent his cloak; then he shaved his head and fell down on the
ground, and worshipped, saying, "Naked came I out of my mother's
womb, and naked shall I return thither."
Commentators
have tried to explain Job's words, knowing that at death no one actually
returns to his mother's womb. The understanding is clear enough in
Ecclesiasticus, and may be parallel to Paul's words in Galatians, where he
speaks of the "
Wisdom
8:17-21. [Solomon writes] "When I considered these things in myself, and took
thought in my heart how that in kinship unto wisdom is immortality, and in her
friendship is good delight, and in the labours of her hands is wealth that fails
not, and in assiduous communing with her is understanding, and great renown in
having fellowship with her words, I went about seeking how to take her unto
myself. Now I was a goodly child, and a good soul fell to my lot; (nay rather,
being good, I came into a body undefiled.) But perceiving that I could not
otherwise possess wisdom except God gave her to me, - - I pleaded with the Lord
- - "[and Solomon then tells how he asked the Lord for the
gift of wisdom, as related in the O.T. text.]
Notice
here that Solomon speaks of "goodness" prior to birth, but that he
realises the need of God's wisdom to cope with mortal life. Sad indeed was the
outcome in his later years.
Baruch
23:4-5
"When Adam sinned and death was decreed against those who were to be born
from him, then the number of those to be born was fixed, and for that number a
place was prepared where the living might live out their lives, and the dead
might be kept in security. Thus until that number is reached; no creature will
live again (since my Spirit is the Creator of Life) and Sheol will receive the
dead."
Baruch
29:3
"[when all those spirits have been born into the world] then the Messiah
shall begin to be revealed."
Apocalypse
of Abraham 19. Abraham is taken up into heaven and shown various wonders at
different levels. In this chapter he says, "And I saw upon the
seventh firmament [i.e. the region referred to elsewhere as ARABOTH] upon which
I stood a fire widely extended, and light, and DEW, and a multitude of angels,
and a power of invisible glory over the Living Ones [i.e. the Cherubim]."
In
R.H.Charles' footnotes on this section, he mentions the parallel with the Ascension
of Isaiah, who spoke about "a wonderful light and
angels innumerable." [Asc.ls.7:7f] These
angels are then identified as pre-existent spirits according to
the Haggadah, (12b) where in the seventh heaven (ARABOTH)
are judgment and righteousness, the treasures of life, peace and blessing, the
souls of the departed righteous, the spirits and souls of the yet
unborn, the DEW with which God will awaken the dead, the
Seraphim, the Ophannim [wheels], and Cherubim and other angels of service, and
God Himself, seated upon the throne of His glory.
The
two mentions of DEW excite some interest here, apart from any other considerations,
because the same message comes through in Psalm 110:3 "Thy
people [shall offer themselves] willingly in the day of Thy power, in the
beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning, thou hast the DEW OF THY
YOUTH." [Maybe BIRTH rather than YOUTH, because the
Hebrew is YALAD, normally speaking of birth.] Although in the first instance
the words are used of the Lord Himself, at resurrection, they take on a more
corporate significance at a later time, when the rest of God's people are
raised. [It should be pointed out that the interpretation of the Hebrew of
Psalm 110:3 is a little uncertain,]
Assumption
of Moses
We now
come to the Gospel
of Thomas, a work that was found at Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt in 1945, amongst other Gnostic texts. It
purports to be dictated by Jesus to His brother Judas Thomas the Twin, founder
of the churches of the East, and reveals a Jesus who merges with the wisdom of
the Sophists, and with Diogenes, Plato, and Socrates. We suppose
this would be enough to turn most Christians away! But our purpose is to bring
forward anything and everything that betrays early thinking and understanding
connected with our theme - that of pre-existence of the soul. In §50 we read
these puzzling words -
Jesus said, "If they say to
you, 'Where have you come from?' say to them, 'We have come from the light,
from the place where the light came into being by itself, established itself
and appeared in their image.' "
According
to the notes accompanying this text, (in the edition by Marvin Meyer which we possess)
the language employed is similar to that found in another gnostic work, called The Acts of Thomas, in which
there is "The
Hymn of the Pearl" [1 08-1 3] but I am afraid we do not have
this to quote from. However, another book, called "The Secret Book of John"
is quoted by Irenĉus [Against Heresies 1.21.5], and refers to another similar text. The question is asked,
and answers given, concerning the interrogation of the soul as it passes
through the various spheres of heaven. Apparently the soul is to respond,
"I am a child of the father,
the father who is pre-existent, a child moreover in the one who is pre-existent
- - I trace my origin from the one who is pre-existent and back to what is my
own, from whence I have come."
Another
quote from "The
Gospel of Thomas" is in §83-84 Jesus said,
"Images are visible to people,
but the light within them is hidden in the image of the father's light. He will
be disclosed, but his image is hidden by his light. When you see your likeness,
you are happy. But when you see your images that came into being before you,
and that neither die nor become visible, how much you will bear!"
We
confess that many of the supposed sayings of the "Jesus" quoted in
this work are paradoxical, and difficult of interpretation. That doesn't make
them spurious as such, but it does tend towards scepticism. We are not
advocating the adoption of these texts for devotional use, but adducing them
for purposes of study only.
By
this time, it will have become apparent that pre-existence was a concept
well-developed in the inter-testamental period, and because of this, it becomes
necessary to ask why. The Jews were not in the habit of taking on board highly
lurid and imaginative interpretations of their sacred Scriptures. Anyone who
reads the Talmud will see that it is full of minor speculation, and
interpretation, but not in the direction of matters of such great import as
pre-existence, UNLESS of course they had sufficient reason for so doing.