Temple and Contemplation brings together for the first ... - ImagoMundi

THE IMAGO TEMPLI IN CONFRONTATION
had of the Temple of God in the highest heaven. 71 In the highest Heaven
dwells the great Glory
, far above all holiness, in the Holy
of Holies of the celestial Temple. In the sixth Heaven are the "Angels of
the Presence", who are its liturgies and who intercede for men. The idea of
liturgy evokes the ritual observed by the priests in the Tabernacle and the
Temple, but the angelic liturgy is purely spiritual and does not include any
blood sacrifice. It may be objected that this is merely a spiritualized
description of the earthly Temple, projected into Heaven. We believe this
to be too facile a way by far of surrendering and conforming to the
explanations of modern psychology. In total contrast to this type of
explanation, it may be said that to see what our visionaries see is to see that
the earthly Temple is never more than a projection on earth of the celestial
Temple. This archetypal relationship will prove crucial for the theology of
Qumran, inspiring the texts of its dazzling celestial liturgy. Philo also
testifies to the idea of spiritual worship among the Essenes. It is perfectly
correct to speak of the pre-Christian origins of spiritual worship. 72
The "Angel of the Presence" plays a most important part in intertestamentary
literature. He is the intercessor, the minister of the spiritual
liturgy {Testament of Levi 3:5—6), God's Scribe, whose task in the celestial
Temple is to write down the decrees which determine the destiny of the
hierohistory of the world (Jubilees 1:27) 73 —this hierohistory which, through
its hidden decrees, defies the secular norms of exoteric History.
b. Thus the celestial Imago Templi arises, in a form which accords with
the scope of the angelic liturgy and with the hidden reality of a hierohistory
that resuscitates from the fallen Temple the figure of the ideal Temple
reserved for God, the Angels and the righteous. 74 Sacred cosmology, or
hierocosmology, presents us with the vision of the ascent of this Temple
into the heights—the vision of its vertical cosmic dimension. The Holy of
Holies is in the seventh heaven. The sanctuary where the Angels of the
highest rank celebrate their liturgy is in the sixth heaven. The vestibule of
the Temple corresponds to the fourth and fifth heavens, where the lower-
71 According to one manuscript, the "seventh heaven"; ibid., p. 152, note 2. The
numbering and function of the Heavens are different in the cosmological mysticism
of Avicenna and Suhravardi.
72 Ibid., pp. 156-157. On the same concept of the celestial temple-archetype in Shiite
gnosis, see my study 'The Configuration of the Temple of the Ka'bah', op. cit.,
notes 13 and 14.
73 We may also think of Metatron, of the "Cherub on the Throne", and so on.
74 Cf. H. Bietenhard, op. cit., pp. 130 ff., and index s.v.
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THE IMAGO TEMPLI IN CONFRONTATION
ranking Angels assist the higher Angels in celebrating the eternal liturgy. 75
Here again, we will not say that the celestial Temple is an idealized
projection of the earthly Temple; as the visionary knows, it is the celestial
Temple which is the original, of which the earthly Temple is merely a
copy. The archetypal relationship—whose importance for the Qumran
Community we noted above—goes back ultimately to the vision of the
new Temple in Ezekiel, to the idea of the celestial archetype of the
Tabernacle as it impressed itself on the priest-theologian.
c. With regard to the significance of the celestial Temple as the eschatological
Temple, the lived experience of this must be sought in the
mysterium liturgicum. In I Enoch (chaps. 24-25), there is a description of a
visionary journey towards the north-west, in the course of which Enoch
sees seven magnificent mountains. The central mountain surpasses all the
others: "... resembling the seat of a throne: and fragrant trees encircled
the throne" (24:3); ". . . it reached to heaven like the throne of God, of
alabaster, and the summit of the throne was of sapphire" (18:8). The
Angel-guide, who is here the archangel Michael, explains to the visionary:
"... it is His throne . . . when He shall come down to visit the earth with
goodness" (25:3). Four things are to be noted here: the mountain is a link
whereby communication is established between Heaven and Earth; it is
the throne on which God is seated when He descends; it is, consequently,
the mountain-temple; and from this mountain, divine grace is poured out
over men. There is an analogous vision in Ezekiel (40:2). 76
Among the fragrant trees one is without peer. The archangel Michael
explains (24:4) that no mortal may touch its fruit until the day of judgement,
when it will be transplanted close to the temple of the Lord (25:4—5)
and its fruits will nourish the Elect. This tree is the tree of Life, 11 and we are
75 In the fifth heaven are "the Angels who bear the replies to the Angels of the Lord's
presence". This is most likely a category of Angels who are inferior in rank to the
latter, to whom it is their function to bear the prayers of men. The Angels of the
Presence offer these prayers to God, then bear his replies back to the lower-ranking
Angels, who in turn communicate them to men. In the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch,
11—12, the archangel Michael is represented as receiving the prayers of men which
are brought to him from earth by the Angels. Elsewhere he is identified as being
himself the "Angel of the Presence"; Shozo Fujita, op. cit., pp. 156—157. The essence
of the angelic hierarchy can thus be expressed sometimes in liturgical terms and
sometimes philosophically. We may also recall the superimposed Sinais of which
the celestial Temple is constituted in Suhravardi's 'Recital of the Occidental Exile'.
76 Shozo Fujita, Temple Theology, p. 161.
77 R. H. Charles (ed.), The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament (Oxford,
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