The Shadow of God - Dr. Wesley Muhammad

This anthropogonic descent also strikes a resemblance to Porphyry‟s description of the descent of the astral
body: “Originally of an ethereal substance, in the course of its descent the πνευμα is progressively darkened
and thickened as it absorbs moisture from the air, until it finally becomes fully material and even
visible.” 230 That this descent applies to the Logos is confirmed by the fact that the latter is said to dwell in
man (Fug. 117; Post. 122). While man‟s body is the abode of the soul, the soul is the abode of the Divine
Logos. 231 Once the archetypal, etherial light (the Logos) enters the sublunar world it darkens, becoming
areal and, finally, earthly. This accounts for the sense of identity, yet distinction, noted above between the
Logos as Urbild and Abbild, and the hight priest. We can therefore discern in Philo‟s writings the contours
of a probably pre-Philonic tradition of the somatic devolution of Phōs. 232 The intermediary stage of this
corporeal descent is the aereal/psychic body, schattenbild of the ethereal/pneumatic body. What is of
significance for our study is that this body was signified by the blue robe of the high priest.
There are remarkable parallels between P and Philo. The latter‟s HPL, the demiurgic Image and
Shadow of God drapped in high priestly garments, corresponds to P‟s high priestly demiurgic Adam, who
is also the Image and Shadow of God. As the tabernacle in P parallels both the cosmos and Adam, so it
does in Philo. The high priestly garments in P might signify the surrounding splendor as the light of
Yahweh‟s kābôd shines through the hair pores of his „dark image‟ or shadow, Adam. In Philo, the high
priestly garments signify the body divine. P‟s Adam subtly effaces the Creator/creature distinction, 233 just
as Philo‟s HPL stands on that border and whose nature mediates between the two. 234 Now these parallels
could of course be coincidental, but in our view, they are better accounted for by assuming Philo‟s
knowledge of a priestly tradition similar to, if not identical with that implied by P. Philo‟s HPL doctrine
couldn‟t be purely exegetical. That is to say, this doctrine is not based on an interpretation of the biblical
text, for which he used the Greek LXX, but obviously existed as an independent tradition and only
secondarily justified by or harmonized with his text. 235 Both P and Philo seem to be interacting with a Blue
Body Divine tradition. We get from Philo our first glimpse of the myth associated with this tradition:
Yahweh‟s blue body is the result of his cosmic descent. No such myth is clearly articulated by P but little of
P‟s theology is.
further D.G. Bostock, “Quality and Corporeity in Origen,” Origeniana secunda (1980): 323-337; Cécile Blanc, “Dieu est pneuma: Le
sens de cette expression d‟après Origène,” StPatr 16 (1985): 224-241; Gedaliahu Stroumsa, “The Incoporeality of God: Context and
Implications of Origen‟s Position,” Rel 13 (1983): 345-358.
230 Quote from E.R. Dodds, “Appendix II: The Astral Body in Neoplatonism” in idem, Proclus: The Elements of Theology (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1963): 318. Cf. Porphyry, On The Cave of the Nymph 62-66.
231 Opif. 139; Somn. I.26; Mig. 193 (earthly body as abode of the soul); Somn. I.113, 149; II. 248, 250; Cher. 98-100 (soul as abode of
God/Logos); Her. 225 (Logos as the 7 th part of man‟s heptadic soul); Spec. IV. 123 (the Divine Spirit [viz. Logos, Plant. 18] as
essence of the soul). On Philo‟s doctrine of the fall of areal souls into terrestrial embodiment v. John Dillon, “Philo‟s Doctrine of
Angels,” in David Winston and John Dillon, Two Treatises of Philo of Alexandria: A Commentary on De Gigantibus and Quod
Deus Sit Immutabilis (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1983) 197-205; Bernard Barc, “Samaèl – Saklas – Yaldabaôth. Recherche sur la
genèse d‟un myth gnostique,” in idem (ed.) Colloque International sur les Textes de Nag Hammadi (Québec, 22-25 août 1978)
(Québec/Louvain: Les Presses de l‟Université Laval/Éditions Peeters, 1981) 133-34.
232 This „dimming‟ of the light of the Logos as it enters the sense perceptible realm recalls the Gnostic and later Jewish (rabbinic and
kabbalistic) myth of the dimming of the demiurge‟s light. See e.g. the Apoc. John NHC II, 1, 13.14-17: “Then the mother (Sophia)
began to move to and from. She became aware of the deficiency when the brightness of her light diminished. And she became dark
because her consort had not agreed with her.” See also the parallel Mandean myth of the demiurge Ptahil: “Ptahil-Uthra rose up, he
went and descended below the škinas, to the place where there is no world. He trod in the filthy mud, he entered the turbid water…as
the living fire (in him) changed/disappeared…His radiance has changed…has become deficient and imperfect…Arise, see how the
radiance of the alien Man has diminished…” (Right Ginza III, 98-100; translation by Kurt Rudolph in Gnosis: A Selection of Texts by
Werner Foerster [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974] II: 171-3.) See also Howard Schwartz, Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) 58 who, drawing from rabbinic and Zoharic texts, narrates the following Judaic myth:
After the Temple had been destroyed and the Shekhinah had gone into exile, all the angels went into mourning for Her, and
they composed dirges and lamentations for her. So too did all the upper and lower realms weep for Her and go into
mourning. Then God came down from heaven and looked upon His house that had been burned. He looked for His people,
who had gone into exile. And He inquired about His bride, who had left Him. And just as she had suffered a change, so
too did Her husband-His light no longer shone, and He was changed from what He had been. Indeed, by some accounts
God was bound in chains.
233 McBride, “Divine Protocol,” 16-17.
234 Her. 205-6; Somn. II.188-89; Spec. I.116; Mig. 101-105.
235 Harald Hergermann was able to show that Philo‟s high priest symbolism was unoriginal and reflected pre-Philonic tradition: Die
Vorstellung vom Schöpfungsmitter im Hellenistischen Judentum und Urchristentum (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1961)
78ff.