"The Lord created the world through Wisdom and He put everything in its place. That is why He made Wisdom the adviser of the soul. Hear the voice of your adviser throughout the days of your sojourn on the Earth so that you may be well and listen to the words of Wisdom." ~Peter Deunov
In mythologies divine beings often appear in pairs – a god and a goddess. We can see such pairs in the Egyptian couple Osiris and Isis - in Sumer An (the Sky) and Ki (the Earth), - and in the Greek couple Zeus and Hera.
Spiritual beings don’t have a gender, so we can imagine such couples as a unity with a masculine and a feminine aspect, the masculine being connected with processes of creation, the feminine with bringing this creation into reality. Or as a unity with an active principle and a passive principle that mirrors the activity and thereby makes it conscious.
In Anthroposophy the deities from world mythologies are regarded beings from the ranks of the nine hierarchies of angels that have been described by the 5th century theologian Pseudo Dionysius Areopagita.
Our knowledge of The Holy Sophia is based on texts from the Old Testament that are known as the Books of Wisdom: the books of Job, parts of Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, & the Book of Wisdom. These books were written in the first millennium before Christ, most of them rather late. The psalms are usually attributed to King David. It is obvious that these collections of texts have their origin in an oral literature that is much older. Some Jewish wisdom books show parallels with the wisdom books of the neighboring cultures of Egypt and the Middle East.
In Proverbs and in Sirach, Wisdom herself speaks to us as a being: “The Lord created me at the beginning of his work. The first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. … I was there … when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world, delighting in the sons of men.” (Proverbs 8:22-31),
“I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, and covered the earth like a mist. I dwelt in high places, and my throne was in a pillar of cloud. … From eternity, in the beginning, he created me, and for eternity I shall not cease to exist. In the holy tabernacle I ministered before him, and so I was established in Zion. In the beloved city he likewise gave me a resting place, and in Jerusalem was my dominion.” (Sirach 24:3-4 and 9-11)
Wisdom (in Greek: Sophia) as the co-creator of the world is a most unusual image in the Bible. In the already mentioned Book of Wisdom, written in Egypt in the early centuries BC, as well as in Proverbs, we find influences from Greek philosophy, like the idea that Reason (wisdom) bound the universe together. But this is not the origin of the biblical wisdom tradition.
When the writer of the Book of Wisdom praised her qualities in chapter 7, he used words from the cult of the Egyptian goddess Isis: “She is a radiance of eternal light, … She is intelligent, holy, unique, … She is a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty.”
This brings us to the question: Who is She? In Egypt we find a first answer to this question. Rudolf Steiner spoke of Isis-Sophia, the Sun-World-Mother (Sonnen-Weltenmutter).
I am reminded of the marriage in Cana on the third day, and where the water was turned into wine. It was the Mother who inspired Christ to fulfill the moment. She said: "What He tells you to do, do it!" A total act of faith represents the first attesting miracle.
I am enthused here very much when Paul is invoked from 1 Corinthians, which demonstrates how much of a bond-servant to the Lord he was to be after getting kicked off his horse on the way to Damascus. As well, some ten years before this letter, he had been to Athens as part of his so-called "second missionary journey", and wherein he passed through the districts leading to Athens, as recorded in Acts 17.
Now, it is in Athens that Paul was able to receive his most positive reception, and it concerned the concept of the Resurrection in Christ. Dionysius the Areopagite lived at that time as a member of the Areopagus, and he was able to confirm that what Paul had said about the Mystery of Golgotha had actually occurred. You see, in AD 33, Dionysius had been an astronomer living in Heliopolis, Egypt, and had recorded an event in which both the sky darkened and the ground shook. This confirmed what Paul was talking about concerning the Christ, and so Dionysius had his journal retrieved and the entry was confirmed. According to Spiritual Science, Paul stayed in order to initiate Dionysius and Demaris, and this is how the Celestial Hierarchies were first exposed. Dionysius the Areopagite saw the scales fall off his eyes when observing the planets, and this became the first school of spiritual science, which was conducted by Dionysius for 50 years. It was the Apostle Paul who initiated him. Then, this school passed into the monasteries for some 500 years, until being written down by 'Pseudo' Dionysius the Areopagite, who some think was Proclus. The fact of the ten Hierarchies is the root of Spiritual Science, and why Steiner is very close to Paul.
"The Lord created the world through Wisdom and He put everything in its place. That is why He made Wisdom the adviser of the soul. Hear the voice of your adviser throughout the days of your sojourn on the Earth so that you may be well and listen to the words of Wisdom." ~Peter Deunov
In mythologies divine beings often appear in pairs – a god and a goddess. We can see such pairs in the Egyptian couple Osiris and Isis - in Sumer An (the Sky) and Ki (the Earth), - and in the Greek couple Zeus and Hera.
Spiritual beings don’t have a gender, so we can imagine such couples as a unity with a masculine and a feminine aspect, the masculine being connected with processes of creation, the feminine with bringing this creation into reality. Or as a unity with an active principle and a passive principle that mirrors the activity and thereby makes it conscious.
In Anthroposophy the deities from world mythologies are regarded beings from the ranks of the nine hierarchies of angels that have been described by the 5th century theologian Pseudo Dionysius Areopagita.
Our knowledge of The Holy Sophia is based on texts from the Old Testament that are known as the Books of Wisdom: the books of Job, parts of Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, & the Book of Wisdom. These books were written in the first millennium before Christ, most of them rather late. The psalms are usually attributed to King David. It is obvious that these collections of texts have their origin in an oral literature that is much older. Some Jewish wisdom books show parallels with the wisdom books of the neighboring cultures of Egypt and the Middle East.
In Proverbs and in Sirach, Wisdom herself speaks to us as a being: “The Lord created me at the beginning of his work. The first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. … I was there … when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world, delighting in the sons of men.” (Proverbs 8:22-31),
“I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, and covered the earth like a mist. I dwelt in high places, and my throne was in a pillar of cloud. … From eternity, in the beginning, he created me, and for eternity I shall not cease to exist. In the holy tabernacle I ministered before him, and so I was established in Zion. In the beloved city he likewise gave me a resting place, and in Jerusalem was my dominion.” (Sirach 24:3-4 and 9-11)
Wisdom (in Greek: Sophia) as the co-creator of the world is a most unusual image in the Bible. In the already mentioned Book of Wisdom, written in Egypt in the early centuries BC, as well as in Proverbs, we find influences from Greek philosophy, like the idea that Reason (wisdom) bound the universe together. But this is not the origin of the biblical wisdom tradition.
When the writer of the Book of Wisdom praised her qualities in chapter 7, he used words from the cult of the Egyptian goddess Isis: “She is a radiance of eternal light, … She is intelligent, holy, unique, … She is a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty.”
This brings us to the question: Who is She? In Egypt we find a first answer to this question. Rudolf Steiner spoke of Isis-Sophia, the Sun-World-Mother (Sonnen-Weltenmutter).
amazing; thank you for the comment 😊
How can we know the Being of Love without the Wisdom of Understanding...?
We must bring warmth & light together in ourselves
Christ-Sophia
I am reminded of the marriage in Cana on the third day, and where the water was turned into wine. It was the Mother who inspired Christ to fulfill the moment. She said: "What He tells you to do, do it!" A total act of faith represents the first attesting miracle.
I am enthused here very much when Paul is invoked from 1 Corinthians, which demonstrates how much of a bond-servant to the Lord he was to be after getting kicked off his horse on the way to Damascus. As well, some ten years before this letter, he had been to Athens as part of his so-called "second missionary journey", and wherein he passed through the districts leading to Athens, as recorded in Acts 17.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts+17&version=NASB1995
Now, it is in Athens that Paul was able to receive his most positive reception, and it concerned the concept of the Resurrection in Christ. Dionysius the Areopagite lived at that time as a member of the Areopagus, and he was able to confirm that what Paul had said about the Mystery of Golgotha had actually occurred. You see, in AD 33, Dionysius had been an astronomer living in Heliopolis, Egypt, and had recorded an event in which both the sky darkened and the ground shook. This confirmed what Paul was talking about concerning the Christ, and so Dionysius had his journal retrieved and the entry was confirmed. According to Spiritual Science, Paul stayed in order to initiate Dionysius and Demaris, and this is how the Celestial Hierarchies were first exposed. Dionysius the Areopagite saw the scales fall off his eyes when observing the planets, and this became the first school of spiritual science, which was conducted by Dionysius for 50 years. It was the Apostle Paul who initiated him. Then, this school passed into the monasteries for some 500 years, until being written down by 'Pseudo' Dionysius the Areopagite, who some think was Proclus. The fact of the ten Hierarchies is the root of Spiritual Science, and why Steiner is very close to Paul.
Three more references re Saint Jesus of Galilee, although because they written decades ago do not refer to Jesus as Saint Jesus of Galilee
http://www.beezone.com/beezones-main-stack/ewb_pp436-459.html Jesus and the Teaching of Truth ABOUT Man (male and female)
http://www.beezone.com/adida/davidtoddunderstandingjesus.html
http://www.beezone.com/wide-stacks-many-topicsspirit_worship.html
Thank you and I wish you a merry Christmas Max.
Excellent post.
thank you for the kind word