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

THE IMAGO TEMPLI IN CONFRONTATION
between the celestial Temple and the earthly Temple. Both in doctrine
and in practice, this synchronism was essential and fundamental. There
were "Halachic" disagreements. Finally, there was the question of the
authenticity of the sacerdotal lineage, the lineage of the faithful Sons of
Zadok, who had been dispossessed by the Hasmonean usurpers. Confronting
these negatives was the Imago novi Templi, contemplated by Ezekiel in
his visionary ecstasy, and of which the Qumran Community felt itself to
be the realization. True, this new Temple's defining characteristic, then as
now, was that it was not yet realized—not in a "physical" sense, for in any
case its reality is perceived on the imaginal level of vision, but rather in the
plastic sense of its architectural detail. This was because the Community
of Qumran felt that it was itself the new Temple, in so far as this was a
spiritual Temple whose institution inaugurated the new era. And this
profound assurance was rooted in the spiritual hermeneutic as it was lived
at Qumran: a hermeneutic which simultaneously unveiled and realized
the truth of the prophecies, for the Community was itself their culmination.
Ezekiel's prophecy of the new Temple was being fulfilled in the Community
of Qumran. 118
2. The symbolism of the new Temple. The Qumran Community, having to
confront the henceforth tarnished and desecrated second Temple from
which it had cut itself off, was aware that it constituted, symbolically, the
new Temple as a spiritual Temple. 119 Miqdash adam: the translation "human
temple" is already eloquent. The translation suggested by B. Gartner is
more accurate: a "temple of men", that is to say, a temple "consisting of
men". The Community, as the "house of God", bears the seal of eternity:
the eternal Temple is henceforth in the process of realization within the
Community. The sacrifices offered up in this "temple" which is constituted
by the members of the Community are purely spiritual in nature, consisting
in the strict observance of, and deepening penetration into, the hidden
meaning of the Torah. 120 It is, indeed, a symbolic Temple, by contrast
with the "material temple" which the high priest Onias IV attempted to
118 Cf. Shozo Fujita, op. cit., p. 259, note 1: the comparative plan of the structure of
the new Temple as it is described in Ezekiel, and as it is actualized at Qumran in
the feeling of the Messianic Community.
119 Ibid., pp. 263 ff., the lengthy analysis of the document 4 Q Florilegium.
120 Cf. Bertil Gartner, The Temple and the Community in Qumran and the New Testament
(Cambridge, 1965), pp. 34-35 (abbrev. The Temple).
THE IMAGO
TEMPLI IN CONFRONTATION
build at Leontopolis. At Qumran, it is the spiritual Community itself
which sees itself as the "place" or ideal of the Temple. The Imago Templi is
being actively realized; the Community, therefore, as a spiritual or theological
temple, is the "new Temple".
Nevertheless, the idea of the "spiritualization of the Temple" must be
given a precise meaning. The Community has no intention of breaking
with the idea of the Temple and the worship celebrated in it. The "spiritualization,,
consists in transferring the concrete entity—the Temple building—to
a spiritual kingdom—the Community-temple—and in replacing
the sacrificial rituals by a form of worship that consists of a life spent in
observance of the Torah and of a liturgy of hymns and psalms celebrated
in conjunction with the celestial liturgy. Needless to say, the term "spiritualization"
in no way implies the idea of a lesser degree of reality, of a
temple less "realistic" than the Temple of Jerusalem. 121 The opposite is
true: the "spiritual" represents a degree of reality that is preeminent. Thus
the idea of the Temple was never abandoned. On the contrary, it was
reinforced by the idea of the regeneration of the Temple at the end of time.
Like the primitive Judaeo-Christian community, Qumran retained both
the idea of the Temple and the longing for it. 122
The question now arises: how did the Community intend to realize, in
its actual structure, its theological ideal of the "new Temple"? The two
most important areas within the material Temple were the Holy of Holies
and the sanctuary. Within the new Temple, these are represented respectively
by the "sacerdotal circle" and by the circle formed by the rest of the
Community; and these two circles are typified by Aaron and Israel. The
firm and sure foundation of the "Temple constituted by men" is the
truth—that is to say, the understanding in depth of the Torah and of the
Revelation to which the Community owes its existence. From this under-
121 Ibid., pp. 18-19.
122 Cf. Ibid., pp. 26 ff., 44, 99 ff., and notes 46 and 55 above. Cf. also Shozo Fujita, op.
cit., p. 42 note 15, pp. 267 ff. Th. A. Busink, op. cit., p. 42, note 156, makes timely
reference to an article by Valentin Nikiprowetzky in Revue des Etudes juives 126
(1967), p. 25, which denies that the Qumran texts can lead to the idea that the
Temple was to be abandoned definitively. "On the contrary, these texts would
appear obviously to favour the opposite idea, the idea, that is, of a regeneration of
the Temple at the end of time. This concept . . . alone keeps Qumran within
Judaism." Similarly, the first Christians did not reject the Temple of Jerusalem;
see H. Nibley, 'Christian Envy of the Temple', in The Jewish Quarterly Review, 1959,
pp. 97—123. See also Georg Klinzing, Die Umdeutung des Kultus in der Qumrangemeinde
und im Neuen Testament (Gottingen, 1971), pp. 92, 150 ff., 221-224.
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