Fire and Light
I was meditating on Logion 10 of the Gospel of Thomas and working with one of its hermeneutical “twins.”
Yeshua says, “See, I have sown fire into the cosmos and I shall guard it carefully until it blazes."
One interpretation of this saying is that Yeshua is speaking of the fires of purification and burning, which is a legitimate understanding, it seems to me. But another “twin” that gets lost concerns the “Theology of Beauty and Glory.”
An ancient seeing is that fire is nothing less than the Glory of God, the divine Beauty blazing up and transforming the matter of earth into Light. The work of Yeshua as Cosmic Being (as the Logos of God), is to transform the creation until it blazes with “All Light.”
Notice the first word of the text, See. It could just as easily say Behold, or “Observe in wonder.” Only someone fully “in love” can see such a possibility. Perceiving such a thing is impossible without being caught up in love. Islamic iconography in the form of illuminated manuscripts and miniatures often depicts the heads of saints, sages, and prophets aflame with fire, instead of the Christian image of the nimbus of light. Logion 10 can therefore be seen as early verbal image of Semitic iconography that we can behold in wonder.
Yeshua says, “See, I have sown fire into the cosmos and I shall guard it carefully until it blazes."
One interpretation of this saying is that Yeshua is speaking of the fires of purification and burning, which is a legitimate understanding, it seems to me. But another “twin” that gets lost concerns the “Theology of Beauty and Glory.”
An ancient seeing is that fire is nothing less than the Glory of God, the divine Beauty blazing up and transforming the matter of earth into Light. The work of Yeshua as Cosmic Being (as the Logos of God), is to transform the creation until it blazes with “All Light.”
Notice the first word of the text, See. It could just as easily say Behold, or “Observe in wonder.” Only someone fully “in love” can see such a possibility. Perceiving such a thing is impossible without being caught up in love. Islamic iconography in the form of illuminated manuscripts and miniatures often depicts the heads of saints, sages, and prophets aflame with fire, instead of the Christian image of the nimbus of light. Logion 10 can therefore be seen as early verbal image of Semitic iconography that we can behold in wonder.
posted by Lynn Bauman at 6:14 AM
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