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

THE IMAGO TEMPLI IN CONFRONTATION
temple because it owed its birth to a new prophetic inspiration, a new
revelation of the divine mystery. 130 This Revelation enabled the Community
to think of itself as a sanctuary, as the Community-temple, for it
felt itself to be the active realization of all the prophecies concerning the
temple of Jerusalem. "To live within the Community would mean that the
laity always behaved as though they were in the Temple, and that the
priests always thought of themselves as being in the Holy of Holies". 131
3. The symbolism of the planting, the water, and the high mountain. This constellation
of symbols is what really determines the "Ezekelian" character of
the Community. By means of a tropological hermeneutic, the images of
Ezekiel's vision actually become the active images in terms of which the
Qumran Community represents itself to itself. We have already alluded to
the vision in Ezekiel (17:22-24) of the prince of the future city-temple as a
"young branch" planted on the mountain of the Temple where the new
Israel will flourish (cf. above, sections III and IV, A, 3). Hence the idea of
the "planting of righteousness" or "eternal planting". The Community of
Qumran, as the symbolic Temple, feels itself to be this planting. 132 The
symbolism of the planting spontaneously evokes the symbolism of the
water that nourishes the trees of life—that is, the Teacher of Righteousness
and his disciples—and this Water issues from the "fountain of Mystery".
The notion of mystery encompasses all the things that man is unable to
see unless God himself reveals them to him. "There is a cosmic mystery of
God (Razi-el) , 133 a vast and profound secret that only the Teacher of
Righteousness and his followers can at least recognize; and this knowledge
or gnosis enables them to be the authentic lineal heirs of the "planting of
righteousness". Their growth and prosperity are assured forever and
without limit by the "living Water", that is to say, by the mystery.
We have already observed in Ezekiel (47:1-12) the visionary image of
the Water welling up from beneath the Temple threshold on the eastern
side, swelling into a powerful torrent which flows through the desert to the
sea. By this torrent the parched earth is made fertile; a dead sea is
130 Cf. Shozo Fujita, op. cit., pp. 275-278.
131 A. Jaubert, op. cit., p. 159.
132 Cf. Shozo Fujita, op. cit., p. 279, with reference to 1 QS, 8:5.
133 Ibid., p. 282. Raziel is the name of the Angel who was Adam's initiator. Cf. Moise
Schwab, Vocabulaire de I'angeiologie (Paris, 1897), p. 246. On water as a symbol of
knowledge, see En Islam iranien, op. cit., vol. IV, index s.v.
318
THE IMAGO TEMPLI IN CONFRONTATION
transformed into a living sea. As the Angel, the visionary guide, measures
it, it becomes too deep to be crossed. Similarly, a Qumran text says: "And
they [the springs] shall become an unleashed torrent over all the banks,
and shall go down to the fathomless seas". 134 The parallel is obvious. It
indicates that the source of the torrent which fertilizes the parched earth is
ultimately to be sought in the Temple. The Water that wells up from
below the Temple threshold symbolizes the special revelation imparted to
the "Teacher of Righteousness", and by means of this Water his Community
thrives like the "Tree of Life".
It is from the symbolism of this Water, too, that the Community derives
its sense of participation in God's "eschatological programme". This
participation consists in the profound study and strict observance of the
Torah, since this was "to prepare the way of God" (see above, the three
meanings of such preparation), the Torah being precisely that which was
symbolized by the Water—this Water that "issues from beneath the
threshold of the house", that causes justice to flourish and transforms the
land. 135 We agree with Shozo Fujita in thinking that when the Community
refers to the "scroll hidden beneath the threshold" and to "the water that
nourishes the plants in the dry land", it associates both these concepts
with the prophetic image of Ezekiel contemplating the Water whose
source is in the Temple. They knew that they were those in whom this
prophetic vision found its fulfilment, and that, as the symbolic temple, their
Community was the source in which God's "eschatological programme"
was initiated. 136 But as we shall see later, the living within oneself of such
a fulfilment of the prophecies is what was known as "realized eschatology".
Finally, the symbolism of the high mountain, too, both proceeds from
and nourishes the experiential sense of "realized eschatology". The image
of the new Temple on a high mountain—"on the high mountain of
134 Shozo Fujita, op. cit., p. 284, quoting 1 QH, 8:17.
135 Cf. Zechariah 14:8: "And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from
Jerusalem; half of them toward the former [i.e. Dead] sea, and half of them toward
the hinder [i.e. Mediterranean] sea: in summer and in winter shall it be." Cf. Joel
3:18, I Enoch 28:9 (all these references to the river are based on the image of the
current of water flowing out of the Temple in Ezekiel's vision). Cf. also Rev.
22:1-2: "... a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the
throne of God and of the Lamb", flowing down the middle of the street in the new
Jerusalem.
136 Shozo Fujita, op. cit., p. 287.