Shlama Akhi Andrew,I have read your wonderful commentary here, and although I've never really been good with theology and the "deeper meanings", I am very fascinated here with this insight.
Yukhanan is, to me, the most fascinating writer in the NT - and the parallels with later mystical traditions is amazing.
Whereas the authors of the Synoptics concerned themselves with the relation of the facts, Yukhanan gives us so much more insight into the Mystery (Raza) of Alaha's revelation to mankind.
That Maran Eshoo uttered the "secrets hidden since the foundation of the world", this is surely the case.
That the "mystics" even before Christ's advent (the Prophets) foresaw the shadows of these realities is also true.
Why not, then, the "mystics" (I use the term loosely) after Christ's time? Beginning with Yukhanan and continuing to Kabbalistic thought, and even our time and beyond?
I have always been a firm believer in Alaha's continuous revelation to bar-Nashutha (mankind). That even today, we receive revelation from HIM. And that we will spend eternity learning all the secrets (as the Peshitta puts it) which were hidden from the foundation of the world....and of which ultimately found fulfillment in HIM who is the object of our worship and adoration......
Nym0w Nym0
Ml9w 04h 0hl0l 0xbw4
Shlama w'Burkate,
Paul
>LAST EDITED ON Oct-27-00
>AT 12:53 PM (CST)
>
>Shlama all...
>
>I've been thinking about a possible
>connection between Matti and Yukhanan
>and wanted some feedback.
>Please keep in mind that
>I am not saying there
>is only one way to
>look at this, but that
>its occurrence is interesting.
>
>Yukhanan's main difference from the synoptics
>is in its spiritual depth.
> It gets into mystical
>issues that the others only
>hint at. What fascinates me
>personally is that Yukhanan bar
>Zawdee seems to have anticipated
>by many centuries much of
>later Kabbalistic thought, showing that
>the oral versions of these
>teachings have been around for
>much longer than their final
>written counterparts completed in the
>late Middle Ages.
>
>So here is what I noticed.
> Matti 13:35 has Maran
>Eshoo say, "I will open
>my mouth in parables and
>utter things not mentioned since
>the foundation of the world."
> In Aramaic, the word
>for parables is:
>
>MITHLEH
>
>However, when we look at Yukhanan's
>creation account (1:1-5), it is
>drashing (comparing) with Psalm 33:6
>when saying that the WORD
>made all things. In
>the Psalm, "word" is DABAR,
>but the mystics as well
>as the targum writers consistently
>use MEMRA instead when God
>is described in human forms,
>including His Word. In turn,
>the Aramaic equivalent of MEMRA
>is MILTHA, which Yukhanan uses
>instead of DABAR. Could
>the parables be reminiscent then
>of the WORD that created
>the universe, since their meaning
>has been hidden from the
>beginning until Maran Eshoo's time?
>
>
>Could it also be that the
>statement in Matti may be
>referring to the proto-mystical teachings
>picked up by Yukhanan and
>referred