I consider Roman 3, 24-26, the small text in the New Testament as the brief version of the biblical theology. Reflections on Roman 3, 24-26 and on related texts and pictures are the subjects of my essays in this homepage.
In my view
Roman 3, 24-26 comprises the symbolic structure of theological thinking. But not
only that! It seems to me that this text can represent as an example of the
basci structure of our Western consciousness: In the center is the ideal of
redemption through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This sacrifice finds its
glorification in God and it is not accidental and not insignificant that both
god and the sacrifice of God are represented as male characters.
In Romans 3, 24 the salvation through Jesus Christ is theologically a new act of creation, which frees man from the divine law. But an essential part in this text is forgotten, the recipient of the victim. Who needs a sacrifice to be offered for a new creation can happen? The text does not give any answer. But displaced the recipient comes to the light in the word “atonement" (hilasterion). Jesus Christ has brought the salvation a the atonement (hilasterion) of all men. The same word "hilasterion" is used also in the Greek version of the Old Testament and means “Atonement Cover”. And in the Old Testament the Atonement Cover only exists on the Covenant Ark in the sanctum of the Temple of Jerusalem.
Today's commentators agree the concept in Romans 3,24-26 refers Leviticus 16. Leviticus 16 describes the ritual of the atonement in front of the Ark in the sanctuary of the Temple. Only the high priest of the tribe of Levi was allowed to enter the sanctuary to perform the ritual of the atonement. In my essay of Romans 3,24-26 I described how the Ark of Covenant is to be understood as a feminine symbol. The Ark represents the Great Mother in her devouring and re-generative aspect, which is locked up under the Atonement Cover (Hilasterion).
But in Roman 3, 24-26 not only the Great Mother is ignored in the patriarchal Christian tradition, by all means, but also a central event, the event of the empty grave. The empty grave had obviously only been seen by women. For "Ark" and "empty grave" are the same symbol, they are identical. When a messenger of God or the risen Christ appears over the empty grave, the Holy of Holies, where only the high priest of the tribe of Levi was allowed to enter, is superfluous. God did not appear in front of the high priest but in front of the women who went to the empty grave. The topic of the women at the grave in the Christian tradition is written especially in my essay "Resurrection". This essay follows a picture of the late medieval painter Fra Beato Angelico (15th century).
An impressiv text, too, is the 1st scene of the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, written by Tim Rice. For me it is a good example of Christian theology: Judas dominates as an analytic thinker - and fails! As in Roman 3, 25 the ark, the chest plays here a subliminal role, too. Judas needs in his language a symbolism based on the light. The light is patriarchal interpreted, is identified with male symbols. The light, a symbol of the ego and consciousness, is seeping in the unconscious where it receives a own dynamic. This own dynamic produces symbols which do not agree with Judas' thinking.
Between
1976 and 1985 I studied theology with a longer maternity leave at the
university in Zurich. What hurts me deep, was the very patriarchal characters of
the theology. In looking for possible ways of interpretation, I found the
writings of C. G. Jung. According to C. G. Jung described the Great Mother as an
archetype which has an enormous influence over our consciousness: She
compensates our collective consciousness. Erich Neumann, a scholar of C. G.
Jung, described in his book "The Great Mother" in details her symbols. The Great
Mother is not only the concrete woman, mother, grandmother, daughter but also
virtues and vices as well as wisdom, love, laziness and malice. To her lower
aspect all symbols with vascular character as well as jar, coffin, house, ship
etc. In a further dimension, the Great Mother however is symbolized also by the
sea, the ocean, the world and nature and generally as matter. Erich Neumann
understood the Great Mother also as the archaic ocean, out of which the divine
and human ego had emerged. Despite the fascination these books had on me, in
these books I'm missing the questioning of the male archetype, the archetype of
the Great Father. These books brought me further, but at the same time I
realized the authors glorify also the patriarchat and the Great Father as well
as the theology.
For me, I wonder how does the collective ego, who feels man-like, react to this unconscious Great Mother? How does this ego treat the Great Mother? Because this collective ego cannot realize the Great Mother as a inner world, he projects her on the outside, on the world, nature, matter. The ego explores her, analyzes her and takes her as the world outside in possession. In parallel, the destruction of our world is progressing, without it burdens us really. For, the Great Mother is part of the blind spot in our conscious, the same blind spot like the Ark of the Covenant in Romans 3,25 or the Oaken Chest in Jesus Christ - Superstar.
For me there are parallels between our collective ego and the Old Testament God Yahweh. How the symbolism between the ego and the Great Mother works in the Old Testament, can be shown at the matrimonial alliance between Yahweh and his wife: The wife appears in the symbols of the motherly archetype, once as a people, then as a country (Judea, Israel) or as a city (Jerusalem, Samaria). Yahweh has absolute lordship over his wife. The wife is delivered for better or worse to Yahweh and his sense of justice. Her rebellion, her independence have been answered with divine rancour and destruction. The wife’s subordination is so central, so unconditional, the divine rancour so merciless that I must ask myself, whether the death for the woman appears rather as a salvation than as a punishment?
But
against whom does Yahweh fight actually? I think Yahweh does not struggle
against his wife actually but against his blind spot in himself. Because
Yahweh is the creator of our world, as we know, he built the world about his
imaginations, so he fights in his wife something which belongs to him. The
suspicion hardens in the fact that she has never spoken. Everything has
always been seen through His optics. And everything that does not belongs to
his super elevate ego he tries to humiliate and destroy with relish and
merciless joy. makeshift the divine behavior is pressed in a moral context.
II. Samuel 24 shows for example, that it is about the divine arbitrary,
which the people barely escape.
Yahweh and his wife appear as a mythical archetype of our Western civilization. As Yahweh, our collective ego is in front of a dumb world, of a dumb nature and of a dumb matter. Nature and our world are suitable projections of our unconscious Great Mother. She should satisfy our needs and adapt our imaginations. And when disaster strikes, which is caused by man, the blame is pushed on her as matter.
Of course, our ego is been working towards the good, the good in its specific meaning, while the destructive of our ideals accompanies shadowy and destroys our basic survival needs.
Leo Frobenius, Das Zeitalter des Sonnengottes
Hans Heinrich Schmied, Gerechtigkeit als Weltordnung; Felix Christ, Jesus Sophia, Marija Gimbutas, Die Sprache der Göttin, Bd. 1; Vera Zingsem, Der Himmel ist mein, die Erde ist mein; Helmut Uhlig, Am Anfang war Gott eine Göttin
Fritz Stolz, Jahwes und Israels Kriege, S. 102ff.
Zum Beispiel verschiedene Autoren in "Neutestamentliche Überlieferung von der Auferstehung Jesu", herausgegeben von Paul Hoffmann
C. G. Jung, Symbole der Wandlung G. W. V
Erich Neumann, Ursprung des Bewusstseins, Die Grosse Mutter
Ferdinand Hodler, Der Holzfäller
Othmar Keel, Die Welt der altorientalischen Bildsymbolik und
das Alte Testament, S. 183
Last revision: 11.03.2010
Text: 27.12.1999
Text and design by Esther Keller-Stocker, Horgen-Zurich (Switzerland)
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