The Shadow of God - Dr. Wesley Muhammad

The divine Glory is described as a “[ra]diant substance, with glorious mingled colors, wonderfully hued
(4Q405 20 ii-21-22 lines 10-11)” and “many-colored (המקור) as a work of a weaver (ישעמ; 4Q405 23 ii
line 7).” 133 These descriptions associate the Glory of God with the colors of the high priestly robe. 134
Whether or not the Songs intend to identify the (angelic/human?) high priests of the 13 th Song with God‟s
anthropomorphic Glory, as Fletcher-Louis has argued, 135 the divine appearance is certainly reflected in the
high priestly garments. 136
This identification of the high priestly robe with the kābôd may have been preserved in Syriac
Christian (SC) literature where this “blue-robe-as-body-of-God” metaphor is most systematic articulated. 137
Alexander Golitzin and Andrei A. Orlov have argued for a “kinship” between the Qumran sectarians and
early Syriac Christians based on studies of particular motifs found in both literatures. 138 The great extent to
which Jewish traditions appear in SC sources make these latter potentially helpful in understanding some of
the former. 139 The comparison of Christ‟s body to a royal/priestly purple robe was quite popular in some SC
circles, as Sebastian Brock has shown. 140 See also Clement of Alexandria (2 nd century) who notes a
tradition (“and they say”) in which “the robe prophesied the ministry in the flesh by which he (Christ) was
made visible (Stromateis V 39, 2).” If Clement was indeed influenced by Jewish esotericism, 141 and if SC
literature is capable of shedding some light on traditions evidenced in the Qumran literature, then these
Jewish and Christian sources give further evidence of a Jewish (priestly) tradition identifying the colored
high priestly garments with the body divine. Underlying this identification, we suggest, is the ANE bluebody-divine
motif.
Merkavah Mysticism,” in Timothy H. Lim et al (edd.), The Dead Sea Scrolls in Their Historical Context (Edinburgh: T&T Clark,
2000) 249-64.
133 On these passages and their association with the kābôd v. Carol Newsom, Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice: A Critical Edition
(Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1985) 315; idem, “Shirot „Olat Hashabbat,” in E. Eshel et al (edd.), Qumran Cave 4: VI, Poetical and
Liturgical Texts, Part 1 (DJD 11; Oxford: Clarendon, 1998) 352; Himmelfarb, Ascent to Heaven, 19-20. Crispin H.T. Fletcher-Louis,
“Heavenly ascent or incarnational presence: a revisionist reading of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice,” SBL Seminar Papers Series
37 (1998) 367-399, esp. 385-99; idem, All the Glory of Adam, 346-50. Newsom took תוחור המקור(4Q405 23 ii line 7) as an ellipsis
for “spirits clothed with multicolored garments” (Songs, 336), but Fletcher-Louis rejects this reading (All the Glory of Adam, 366).
134 Ibid. As Newsom (Songs, 336) noted, ישעמ in 4Q405 23 ii line 7 is likely phonetic orthography of השעמ, used in connection with
the high priestly robe in Exod. 28:32; 39:22, 27. Newsom found it puzzling, however, that in the Songs the blue robe is described as
multicolored המקור. We find the same peculiarity in Philo; he too describes the robe as variegated: QE II, 107; Mos. II, 110. Such a
description probably takes into consideration the hem of the robe which is multi-colored.
135 “Heavenly Ascent,” 393-94; idem, All the Glory of Adam, 373-74.
136 Newsom, “Merkabah Exegesis,” 27; Himmelfarb, Ascent to Heaven, 19-20.
137 See especially Sebastion Brock, “Clothing Metaphors as a Means of Theological Expression in Syriac Tradition,” in Typus,
Symbol, Allegorie bei den östlichen Vätern und ihren Parallelen im Mittelalter (Eichstätter Beiträge 4; Regensburg 1982): 11-37.
138 Alexander Golitzin, “Recovering the „Glory of Adam‟: „Divine Light‟ Traditions in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian
Ascetical Literature of Fourth-Century Syro-Mesopotamia,” in James R. Davila (ed.), The Dead Sea Scrolls as Background to
Postbiblical Judaism and Early Christianity. Papers from an International Conference at St. Andrews in 2001, (Leiden and
Boston: Brill, 2003) 274-308; idem, “Temple and Throne of Divine Glory: „Pseudo-Macarius‟ and Purity of Heart, Together with
Some Remarks on the Limitations and Usefulness of Scholarship,” in Harriet A. Luckman and Linda Kulzer, O.S.B. (edd.), Purity of
Heart in Early Ascetic and Monastic Literature. Essays in Honor of Juana Raasch, O.S.B., (Collegville, Minnesota: The Liturgical
Press, 1999) 107-129; Andrei A. Orlov, “Vested with Adam‟s Glory: Moses as the Luminous Counterpart of Adam in the Dead Sea
Scrolls and in the Marcarian Homilies,” Mémorial Annie Jaubert (1912-1980) Xristianskij Vostok 4.10 (2002): 740-755; Andrei Orlov
and Alexander Golitzin, “„Many Lamps are Lightened From The One‟: Paradigms of the Transformational Vision in Macarian
Homilies,” VC 55 (2001): 281-298. “Kinship” is a term used by Golitzin, “Recovering the „Glory of Adam‟,” 307.
139 On Jewish traditions in Syriac Christianity v. also Sebastian Brock, “Jewish Traditions in Syriac Sources,” JJS 30 (1979): 212-32;
idem, “Clothing Metaphors”; Frederick G. McLeod, S.J., “Judaism‟s Influence upon the Syriac Christians of the Third and Fourth
Centuries,” in Religions of the Book (Lanham, Md: University Press of America, 1996) 193-208; G. Rouwhorst, “Jewish Liturgical
Traditions in Early Syriac Christianity,” VC 51 (1997) 72-93; Robert Murray, Symbols of Church and Kingdom: A Study in Early
Syriac Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975); idem, “Some Themes and Problems of Early Syriac Angeology,”
in V Symposium Syriacum, 1988 ed. R. Lavenant (OCA 236; Rome; Pontifical Institute of Oriental Studies, 1990) 143-153; N. Séd,
“Les Hymnes sur la paradis de saint Ephrem et les traditions juives,” Mus (1968) 455-501; Tryggve Kronholm, Motifs from Genesis
1-11in the Genuine Hymns of Ephrem the Syrian, with particular reference to the influence of Jewish exegetical tradition
(Sweden: CW Gleerup Lund, 1978.
140 Brock, “Clothing Metaphors,” 18.
141 Guy G. Stroumsa, Hidden Wisdom: Esoteric Traditions and the Roots of Christian Mysticism (SHR 70; Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996)
111-17; Margaret Barker, “The Secret Tradition,” in idem, Great High Priest, 1-33; J. Daniélou, “Aux sources de l‟ésotérisme judéochrétien,”
Archivio de filosofia 2-3 (1960): 39-46.