The Prophetic Telegraph - No.102
PRE-EXISTENCE
(PART THREE)
APOCRYPHAL, PSEUDEPIGRAPHICAL AND OTHER WRITINGS
We were brought up in
evangelical circles, where any writings OUTSIDE 'Holy Writ" were
considered not only suspect, but even dangerous to read! This applied to the
Apocryphal works, found these days in many new editions of the Bible, and
accepted by Roman Catholics. Over many years of change and recollection, we
have come to see that there are numerous ancient documents that add colour, and
often help, in the understanding of Scripture. We are no longer afraid to read
them! Origen
referred to a work called "The Prayer of Joseph" which sadly is no longer extant,
but we do have a quote from it, concerning, first John the Baptist, and then
Jacob and his re-naming to
"It will
not be out of place to add a notion of our own about John the Baptist. When we
read the prophecy of him, Behold, I send my angel before Thy face, etc., we
reflected if by chance one of the holy angels being upon service were not sent
down as a forerunner of our Saviour. - - - Now if anyone accepts among the
Apocrypha current among the Hebrews, what is entitled The Prayer of Joseph, he
will derive from it exactly this teaching, expressed in plain terms: that those
who from the beginning possessed some special excellence beyond men, and were
greatly superior to all other souls, have descended from the estate of Angels
into human nature. Jacob at any rate says, 'For I Jacob that speak unto you, I
am also
(And later the account
continues -)
"And I,
when I was coming from Mesopotamia of Syria, Uriel fhe Angel of God came forth
and said that I had come down to earth and tabernacled among men, and that I
was called by name Jacob. He fought with me, and wrestled, and I said 'Are you
not Uriel, the eighth from me, and I am
Origen says, "It
is likely that if these words were really spoken by Jacob, and therefore
recorded, that the incident, 'He supplanted his brother in the womb' [Hosea
12:3] happened intelligently." It may also explain why the Lord
said, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated"
BEFORE either of them were even born.
THE APOCRYPHAL WRITINGS
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 awake 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.
In our next section we
shall investigate the Biblical references, to establish the grounds for this
assertion amongst the ancients.