I am black but beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Cedar, as the curtains of Solomon

 

I am black but beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Cedar, as the curtains of Solomon. Song 1:4 Vulgate (Song 1:5 RNAB)

From Sermon 27.2

“What does she mean then by saying: ‘I am beautiful like the curtains of Solomon’?” I feel here we have a great and wonderful mystery, provided we apply the words, not to the Solomon of this Song, but to him who said of himself: ‘What is here is greater than Solomon.’ Mt 12:42 This Solomon to whom I refer is so great a Solomon that he is called not only Peaceful … but Peace itself: for Paul proclaims that ‘He is our Peace.’ Eph 2:14 … It was he, and not the former Solomon, who spoke these words of God his Father: ‘When he set the heavens in their place, I was there.’ Prov 8:27 His power and his wisdom were undoubtedly present at the establishing of the heavens. 1 Cor 1:24”

Sermon 27.3

3. The bride's form must be understood in a spiritual sense, her beauty as something that is grasped by the intellect; it is eternal because it is an image of eternity. Her gracefulness consists of love, and you have read that "love never ends."1 Cor 13:8 It consists of justice, for "her justice endures forever.” Ps 112:3 It consists of patience, and Scripture tells you ' 'the patience of the poor shall not perish forever." Ps10:19 … Therefore the Church, possessing the promise of happiness to come 1 Tim 4:8, now prepares for it by adorning herself with a variety of graces and virtues Ps 45:10, in order to be found worthy and capable of the fulness of grace.

 Sermon 27.7

7. These two then have their origin in heaven – Jesus the Bridegroom and Jerusalem the Bride. He, in order to be seen by men, “emptied himself taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”⁴⁴ But the bride—in what form or exterior loveliness, in what guise did St John see her coming down? ⁴⁵ Was it perhaps in the company of the angels whom he saw ascending and descending upon the Son of Man? ⁴⁶ It is more accurate to say that he saw the bride when he looked on the Word made flesh, and acknowledged two natures in the one flesh. ⁴⁷ For when that holy Emmanuel introduced to earth the curriculum of heavenly teaching, when we came to know the visible image and radiant comeliness of that supernal Jerusalem,⁴⁸ our mother, revealed to us in Christ and by his means, what did we behold if not the bride in the Bridegroom? What did we admire but that same person who is the Lord of glory,⁴⁹ the Bridegroom decked with a garland, the bride adorned with her jewels? ^so "He who descended is he also who ascended,' '⁵¹ since "no one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven,” ⁵² the one and same Lord who as head of the Church is the Bridegroom, as body is the bride. This heaven-formed man did not appear on earth in vain, ⁵³ since he endowed a multitude of earthly followers with his own heavenly image.⁵⁴ As Scripture says: "the heavenly Man is the pattern of all the heavenly."⁵⁵ From that time the lives of many on earth have been like the lives of heaven's citizens, as when, after the example of that exalted and blessed bride, she who came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon,⁵⁶ embraced the heavenly Bridegroom with a chaste love. Though, unlike the blessed bride, not yet united to him by vision, she is still espoused to him by faith, as God promised through the Prophet's words: "I will betroth you to me in steadfast love and mercy, I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. "⁵⁷ Hence she strives more and more to resemble her who came from heaven, learning from her to be modest and prudent, learning to be chaste and holy, to be patient and compassionate, and ultimately to be meek and humble of heart. By these virtues she endeavors, even while absent,⁵⁹ to be pleasing to him on whom the angels long to look. ⁶⁰ With a love angelic in its fervor she shows herself to be a fellow-citizen with the saints and a domestic of God, ⁶¹ she shows that she is beloved, that she is a bride.

 44. Phil 2:7    45. Rev 21:2    46. Jn 1:51    47. Gen 2:24    48. Gal 4:26; Ps 49:2    49. 1 Cor     50. Is 61:10   51. Eph 4:10    52. Jn 3.13   53. Bar 3:38   54. 1 Cor 15:47   55. 1 Cor 15:48   56. 1 Kings 10:1-10   57. Hos 2:19-20   58. Mt 11:29   59. 2 Cor 5:9

60. 1 Pet 1:12   61. Eph 2:19

Sholem Asch "The Apostle"

Sholem Asch

I finally decided to embark on the task of reading another of Sholem Asch’s tomes on the life of major Jewish biblical characters. The Apostle is a fictionalization of the life of Paul of Tarshish. The edition I’m reading was translated from the Yiddish by Maurice Samuel, consists of 754 pages and published in 1943 by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York. It is the first of Asch’s books that I own that came with a table of contents. Although most of his novels are quite long the style of the writing makes reading them effortless.

A fictionalization goes beyond the exposition of facts as would a pure biography. Sholem constructs personality and character around his subject that takes what is known and deduced about Saul and weaves him into the plot that consists of the description of the culture and mores of the world at the time of Saul; the close association of the Jews daily life and the covenant with their God. The book is populated with people who are acutely aware of their history and the promises their God has made to those who are faithful to him.

Of, course readers who seek an accurate picture of the culture of the time will constantly be asking whether or not what they are reading is fact or fiction. For them researching the material presented can provide an education that is well worth the time. If you are, however, just looking for a pleasurable reading experience, Sholem’s presentation will satisfy your desire. He treats the religion of the Jews as well as the new sect of Yeshua with respect and reverence. The culture of the times is presented through the personal experience of the characters, making the story engaging.

When we read novels we tend to associate the plot and character development with the person of the author. I believe that after reading three of his novels on the Bible I’ve come to know the author well enough to call him Sholem.

_______________________________________________________________________________

The time is about two months after the crucifixion of Jesus and Joseph bar Naba (the Barnabas referred to in Acts 4:36 and 14:14) is sitting in the courtyard of his sister Miriam. He is in the company of Zipporah. A woman which the text intimates is romantically involved with him. In this passage we get a sense of how closely intertwined are the earthly life and the spiritual life of these people. In stark contrast, the last paragraph displays the harshness the Pharisetic rule over the people.

 Sholem Asch describes the scene:

‘The whole world lay wide open to the grace of God, and Joseph bar Naba sat hand in hand with the loveliest of the daughters of Jerusalem, Zipporah.

An urgent warmth breathed out of the night. The plants which had been gathering the heat of the sun all day were overloaded with sweetness, which they spilled out on every hand as if afraid that the desert winds might come and rob them of it; and the body of the night was like a human body which had attained ripeness. The silence was filled with a mute, disturbing hunger. Still bar Naba gazed at the deep glimmering heavens where they bent over toward the desert of Jericho, and he did not know that Zipporah’s hand was in his. A long time their hands remained together, and it was as if something flowed from one to the other, stilling the thirst of their youth. But they were aware only of the night, and it seemed to them that they had been drawn into the urgent warmth and silence of the night.

“Why has the gift of prophesy been withdrawn from Israel?” asked Zipporah, suddenly. “Why do not prophets appear to us, as they appeared in the olden days to our forefathers? Wherein are we worse than our forefathers? Why is God silent?”

No one answered her question, nor did Zipporah seem to expect an answer. The sound of her voice was like that of a bell set in motion under water, spreading its tones along the waves. And Zipporah went on talking to herself, more in dream than in waking:

Sometimes I feel that the time is near when He will pour out His spirit upon all flesh, even as he promised the Prophets. I feel the time is near when prophesy will be renewed in Israel, and He will send His spirit not only to His chosen ones, to the learned and the wise, but also to the simple of heart. And upon us, too, upon us women, the spirit will fall like a refreshing dew. It will cover the whole land, and the scales will fall from our eyes; then we shall see all things in another light, and our hearts will be filled with another spirit. Sometimes it seems to me that I am seized with an incomprehensible strength. I am filled with power as a fruit is filled with ripeness in the summer. Like Hannah, the mother of Samuel, I am drunk, not with wine, but with the power that fills my inward parts, so that they cry out and tear my li  ps open. Then words issue from my lips, and I know not their meaning and their content. They pour out at my lips, as water pours out from a spring. I know that God is speaking through my lips.”

“All of us burn with the thirst of the deliverance, and all of us long for the word of God as for a drink,” answered bar Naba.

The Apostle cover

“Like Deborah the Prophetess I long at times to lift up the banner of my people and sing the song of triumph and deliverance. Sometimes the spirit is so strong on me that I believe I can conjure down salvation from the heavens. It fills my heart with the loveliness of the upper worlds, and I hear the beating of wings, though I do not see the angels; and it seems to me that in another moment a door will be opened for me and I will be admitted into the innermost mysteries. And then a voice will issue from the locked wall, and a message will descend from heaven in fiery letters and rest upon my eyes, and I will drink in the fiery script and I will cry out the salvation of all Israel.”

Bar Naba was suddenly aware of Zipporah’s hand in his, hot as a flaming brand. He looked into the girl’s face. Her eyes blazed like the stars which covered the heavens, and like those they sent forth a mystic fire which filled him with bliss and terror.

“Zipporah! How lovely thou art! It is as though Deborah had risen in thee and thou with thy word wilt light a new hope in Israel!”

“Since when does God have recourse to the help of a woman? Only the idol worshipers have sibyls. Woman is an impure vessel and the God of Israel will not make use of it. Her heart is painted, even like her lips and her cheeks, and her one desire is toward man.” The voice came from a corner steeped in darkness, but its hardness revealed the presence of the young man Saul of Tarshish.'  pp.24-25

Jesus Comes of Age

Court of the Women in Jerusalem

At the age of twelve Jesus went with his family to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. The author depicts a scene when Jesus and Mary were together in the Court of the Women. Jesus was attempting to understand the practice of burnt offerings as against the psalmist’s admonition in Palm 51, “For thou hast no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldst not be pleased, the sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not spurn.”

While Jesus was pondering reconciling these two realities Mary knelt at his side and prayed –

 “Father in heaven, I have brought him safe into thy house who is Thy pledge to the world. Behold, he is grown to manhood, but in seeing and hearing he is not like to other men. For his young heart is bruised by our sinful lives and his spirit troubled by the injustice he has met so soon in his way. Even now, standing at my side, he burns with the sacred indignation that raged in Thy Prophets. With contempt he views the flesh and fat they kindle on Thy altar, and like Isaiah he demands that the heart alone be offered before Thee.

“I know not to what paths he shall be led, nor what road Thou hast paved for him. But I do see him, like a launched arrow, speeding toward the target Thou dids't set, and my heart trembles between joy and fear. Father, I fear for him, for I see the walls of fire in his path. He is too young, Father in heaven; the thread of his life is too frail. For a little while yet, let him see the flowers, not the thorns. Leave him to me for a little while longer. And teach me what to do, Father in heaven, for I am in awe of the power of his spirit and feel too weak to be his mother.     Mary, by Sholem Asch, pp. 256-257