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

THE IMAGO TEMPLI IN CONFRONTATION
exile. 89 At that time the Temple will be rebuilt as it was. The author uses
hyperbole: not only Cyrus, but all the kings of Persia will lavish gifts upon
it and embellish it with gold and precious metals. In the "Sibylline
Oracles", the Imago Templi is seen as the symbol of the return to the
Golden Age. 90 We must note, however, that in the "Oracles" it is the
second Temple, Zerubabbel's Temple, which is exalted, whereas in Psalm
132:7—17, for example, it is the future temple, which will be built by the
Davidic Messiah. The difference is resolved on the level of the Imago
Templi: if the author visualizes the post-exilic community as the final
messianic establishment, the implication is that he perceives the Temple
of Jerusalem, of which he is a contemporary, as the restoration of the first
Temple, the Temple of Solomon, in all its magnificence. The exaltation of
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the Temple thus links up with the exaltation in the Book of Tobit
which we discussed above.
6. Philo, in his monumental work, has provided us with one of the greatest
conspectuses of symbolic hermeneutics to appear among the "religions of
the Book". To discover the Imago Templi in this work amounts to inquiring
whether and how this Image is present in it on the imaginal level. The fact
that Philo uses the terms allegory and symbol interchangeably tends to
complicate the inquiry, insofar as we try nowadays to distinguish precisely
between them. 92 But whether allegorical or symbolical, Philo's hermeneutic
is aimed essentially at revealing the hidden meaning (the batin of Islamic
gnosis). And since the hidden meaning is nothing other than the letter
raised or transmuted into symbol, and perceived henceforth on the level of
the imaginal world, the symbol itself is no longer something behind which
hides the thing symbolized. It is, quite simply, the form assumed on this
level by the transcendent reality, and this form is this reality. Thus,
89 Zech. 6:11—14. On this passage from the Book of Zechariah, see below, note 158.
90 "Der Tempel hat in den judischen Sibyllinen sozusagen symbolhaften Charakter.
Er ist die Verkorperung des goldenen Zeitalters, das langst vergangen ist, aber
wieder mit Herrlichkeit fur die Einen und Schrecken fur die Anderen kommen
wird." [In the Jewish sibyllines the Temple has a kind of symbolic character. It is
the personification of the Golden Age now long gone, but which will come again—in
majesty for some and terror for others.] P. Dalbert, Die Theologie der Hellenistisch-
Jiidischen Missionsliteratur (Hamburg-Volkdorf, 1954), quoted in Shozo Fujita, op.
cit., p. 213.
91 Ibid., p. 214.
92 Cf. En Islam iranien, op. cit., vol. IV, index s.v. allegorie, symbole.
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THE IMAGO TEMPLI IN CONFRONTATION
instead of allegory, one could perhaps speak of tautegory. Far from being
exhausted, these problems may not even have been properly formulated
yet. The hermeneutics of Philo will have to be compared with those of
Qumran, a comparison from which the Ismaili hermeneutic in Islamic
gnosis must not be excluded.
Needless to say, for Philo the Temple of Jerusalem is the only authentic
Temple on earth: one God, one Temple on earth. He also gives us a
celebrated description of it. But the work of his true genius is other than
this. Dominating his thought is the idea that notwithstanding the uniqueness
on earth of the Temple of Jerusalem, on a higher level of vision there
are two temples, the cosmic temple and the temple of the soul. We had
occasion above (section II) to refer to the cosmic mysticism of pre-Christian
antiquity, to the Imago Templi mundi. This theme is one which Philo accepts
as self-evident, 93 even though he is specific about his own personal idea of
the cosmic temple, which he sees as a philosopher.
One could in fact say that there is a double cosmic temple, because the
cosmos includes both the sensible cosmos "which is the temple of the
natures perceived by the senses", and an intelligible cosmos "which is the
consecrated temple of invisible natures". One could also say that there is a
unique temple constituted by a unique cosmos, "whose sanctuary is the
most holy part of the essence of beings, that is to say Heaven" with all the
intelligible natures that it comprises. On the other hand, the cosmic
significance of the Temple of Jerusalem and of the parts which compose it
is attested in Philo by reference to Exodus 25:40, where Moses is ordered:
"And look that thou makest them [the tabernacle and all it contains] after
their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount". The tabernacle on
earth (the Temple) is the image of the tabernacle in Heaven, the archetypal
model which was revealed to Moses. 94 This motif also has roots in wisdom
literature: the Book of Wisdom likewise saw in the Temple of Solomon "the
image of the sacred tent". 95 The phenomenology of the Imago Templi is
93 Shozo Fujita, op. cit., p. 222. For what follows, see Annie Jaubert, op. cit., pp.
483-484. The quotes from Philo here are taken from this latter work.
94 Annie Jaubert, op. cit., p. 483, and the references given on p. 484, note 3. We have
already alluded to the motif of the Temple-archetype in Shiite gnosis; cf. my
'Configuration of the Temple of the Ka'bah', op. cit.
95 "Et dixisti me aedificare templum in monte sancto tuo, et in civitate habitationis
tuae altare, similitudinem tabernaculi sancti tui, quod praeparasti ab initio" (Liber
Sapientiae 9:8).
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