Analogue 31: Identification with the Messiah

Wisdom Themes and Semiotic Seeings

Note on ANALOGUES 26-36

• These analogues may be a series of the poignant wisdom-teachings of Yeshua as he seeks to restore and measure out the truth.
• Though they seem to be unrelated analogues in the “sayings tradition” of Yeshua, something more interesting may be happening semiotically. 
• They are followed by Analogue 35 which appears to be a final reminder of extent or measurement of Yeshua’s wisdom as a cruciform in the four cardinal directions across the earth. 
• Rather than this being the atonement theology of the Cross as constructed in the West, here is a new cosmic geography of the cruciform shape which extends out (or is measured) over the whole Earth. 

COMMENTARY

In this commentary we are attempting two hermeneutical objectives: to explicate the rich meanings of the text through a spiritual exegesis that takes into consideration multiple layers of meaning, and also attempting a semiotic exploration of the text that seeks also to understand the complexities of its own internal structure. These are essential in modern interpretation theory. One cannot truly know a text without examining not only the historical-critical context in which it was written, looking closely at each specific part (or analogue with its words, phrases, sentences, metaphors and their references), but also the whole of the text in relationship to its many parts. 

Looking at the structure of the text semiotically (how it seems to have been put together), it appears that a fair amount of textual artistry and esthetic consideration was given to its construction. For example, Analogues 30-34 may indeed be built as a unit that describes how Yeshua as Restorer and Teacher “measures out” his wisdom, or how Philip saw the relationship between many of Yeshua’s wisdom sayings and logia. This is both a semiotic and iconic way of seeing, and it can be detected not simply by an analytical method but also through the analogical imagination (as the “eyes of the heart” open and perceive the text). This possibility should be considered, even if it is simply a heuristic that enables the reader to gain a better hermeneutical grasp of an ancient text such as this. 

Imagine then that in Analogues 30-34 there are various disparate sayings (or logia) of Yeshua which Philip assembles in a new configuration. In this text they are linked in such a way as to cover a vast sapiential field, becoming Wisdom’s Eucharistic feast for the four quarters of the earth as the human world. Their many meanings are both broad and practical, helping us to discover insights that will enable us to traverse the varied landscapes of our own experience as we journey both inwardly and through the external world. 

In an even larger context, you might imagine that these particular analogues could be grouped in a way that is bracketed by the image of the dyer in Analogue 26 and the one in analogue 36. That set creates a visual mandala-like convergence of ideas, expressing relationships and experiences from the most transcendent to the most mundane. It is an interesting exercise to map these out diagrammatically or to create a mandala-like drawing which contains these analogues. We might also conclude with the observation that this entire section radiates out from a center point to a circumference that is described as a Eucharistic feast in the form of a cross. There may be other semiotic and exegetical features found both here and certainly throughout the entire Gospel of Philip in which these various analogues and their archetypal features are woven together to create a kind of fractal tapestry of which this is just one. 

 

Using this diagram, imagine the details of the dye-works of Levi at either end, and then the various horizontal and vertical relationships described in these analogues forming a kind of sapiential matrix in the middle binding heaven and earth in the Seal of Solomon which radiates across these domains in the form of a cross, with the sign of the Pearl reflecting Light as the center-point. You might use this schematic and see what you discover about these analogues and their wisdom, and perhaps reconstruct a diagram of your own to demonstrate your own discoveries.

ANALOGUE 31

Identification with the Messiah

If you say, “I am a Jew,” no one will be surprised by that. If you say, “I am a Roman,” it will disturb no one. If you say, “I am a Greek, or a barbarian, a slave or a freeman,” no one will pay much attention. If, however, you say, “I am the Christ,” it will indeed cause a reaction. May it be that I receive whatever is needed to withstand in the kosmos when that is uttered!

SYNOPSIS

• This analogue reinforces the assertion made concerning the Jewish nature of this text, since the concepts it presents would only make sense in a setting where the discussion of the Jewish Messiah is of importance. 
• Understanding what Messiah means politically, theologically, traditionally, and spiritually requires first understanding the meaning of the term Messiah itself.
• Anointing is central in this text and it is neither a political nor even theological idea. Instead, it is an existential experience of interior awareness of both a covering by and a supersaturation with Spirit.
• The Messiah (the Anointed One) is not only a title, it is also an indicator of an interior experience of Spirit that allows the title to be applied both inwardly and outwardly.
• If one claims that title, the typical human order (Kosmos) interprets it in only an exoteric way and the consequences can be (and will be for Yeshua) lethal. 
• Yeshua will be sacrificed on the altar of human consequences.
• In this pathway, anointing with Spirit is essential. Without it one cannot know one’s own essential Self, one’s core essence. 
• The question is: does one have the inner strength to endure the reactions of the outer world to sharing one’s inner experience? 

COMMENTARY

Ethnic and Other Identities

In this analogue, it appears we are once again listening to a discussion within a Jewish context. This Gospel was written for followers of Yeshua, the Anointed One, who were living within the thought-world of the traditions and practices of Judaism. The author is imagining what the impact of the many names used for these followers will be when spoken publicly. More importantly, perhaps, he is also anticipating what the inner experience is when these names come to be realized inwardly. Reactions in the outer world, implies inward feelings and responses. We must be prepared for both. 

We may each have many identities which can be called different names by family members, friends, and community members. Using names, titles and nicknames helps us understand our relationships to one another, where we come from, what cultural influences we may have experienced. They may also indicate how we see or are seen by the larger world around us. We should read this analogue from a Jewish perspective, but you can also see it from the perspective of a Roman or Greek citizen and culture, as well as from the perspective of an outsider (called a barbarian), and finally, from the social standing of a slave or free person. These perspectives all shape human experience, but the one that the text is focusing on is that of “an Anointed One” which is primarily about an inner spiritual state and not just an outer act. How does one in intimate contact with Sacred Spirit experience the world?

Self-Identification with the Messiah

To understand the full impact of the argument made in this analogue, we must be conversant with the names and titles of Yeshua as the Messiah. Imagine that you called yourself by that title. What would the reaction be if you said, “I am the Messiah,” or to change the language, “I am the Christ,” or better, perhaps, “I am an Anointed One.” Each of these would cause different reactions in people who heard it from you. What might those be? While there are nuances in the terms being used, the inner reality (or experience of them) appears to be the same. 

Suppose you became supersaturated with Spirit as a term applied in your own inner experience so that you began to experience full enlightened seeing (the consciousness of enlightenment). What response might that cause inside of you, and also in the world around you? The author is wondering about that possibility and imagining the full effect of such an anointing on an individual who is infused with Spirit and how that affects both the world inside you and the external world around you. Clearly Yeshua demonstrated the full effects of Spirit upon his own being and the reactions that it caused in his own historical world. The image of baptism is going to appear later in the text, describing the moment when this saturation by Spirit began. Here, however, the author is thinking of you, the reader, undergoing the same full experience. To talk about it is one thing, but to experience it is quite another. 

The assumption of this text is that the kosmos (the humanly constructed world), is going to resist (if not assail) the individual who identifies with the Messianic anointing in this way, creating difficulty and confusion; in which case Enlightenment (which comes from intimate contact with or anointing by the Sacred Spirit) may be a preferred state to non-enlightenment, but it is never simple or easy. It is likely that these reactions had already begun for the community of the first followers of Yeshua so that under persecution perhaps they were already learning and experiencing what endurance and resilience meant for them. This may also have reflected earlier discussions that Yeshua’s first students had had with their own families, neighbors and community as they began their association with him. Their relationship with him clearly changed their identities permanently. They were ever-after known as christianos, themselves anointed and followers of his Way. Here the Gospel is raising the same questions for the reader. The issue is, do you have the strength and resilience to endure what may come of it? This may need to be answered before we utter anything about our own inner experience of and outer relationship with the Messianic figure who became Anointed (and thus Enlightened).  

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION 

1. How do you think about and use the names and titles of Yeshua? Remember “the Christ” is the proper way to identify his title, designating an outer experience as well as an inner condition. 
2. How do you identify yourself with Yeshua and with any of his names? Do you ever call yourself a Christian? What does it mean in our time to do that? Does that seem different from what the text is talking about?
3. What is it about the kosmos (the humanly constructed world) that resists things related to Spirit? Why did the particular kosmos of Yeshua’s day find the designation of “Messiah” threatening? Why is it threatening now?
4. If you are associated with the Christian tradition in any way, what would you like to be called? Why?
5. Can a spiritual experience (or an experience of Spirit) become lethal—can it cause a kind of death or dying? Explain.

Notes for Reference and further Study

1. We have already been introduced to this Greek term, kosmos, in other parts of this text. There are all sorts of associations with it since we use a derivative of the Greek word in the English language. For us, the term cosmos is both expansive and positive, meaning the whole universe. That, however, is not the way the word is being used in this and other early Christian texts (such as the Pauline corpus of writings). Here it is much more akin to our idea of human civilization, or of the large metropolises that we tend to live in, and the societies they create. These can have both positive and negative aspects, but as used here and in other early Christian texts the term means the most negative aspects of our human creations. The consensus reality of the ordinary human world is often systematically distorted, skewed in its behaviors and in its ways of perception. It is frequently narrow, limited and prejudiced in favor of the current power elites or in rejection of what it considers to be the “other” or the outsider. The Gospel of Philip sees this as a significant problem and the reason why the kosmos reacts to the title, The Anointed One, as something threatening and unacceptable. It suggests that the world as we know it cannot understand or accommodate the dimensions of Spirit because they are transcendent to it, beyond its familiar horizons. 
2. Various classes of people and their status in the first-century world of the eastern Mediterranean are highlighted here. In it, for example, are divisions of freeborn and slaves (the most severe of the distortions in society). Then there are those who are considered to be insiders to the civilization (the Greeks and the Romans). There are those who are classed as outsiders (the enemy Barbarians—perceived to be uncouth, foreign, and uncivilized). In the Jewish world, there are the obviously religious and distinct cultural identities of which this text is a part (Jew and Gentile). Inside and beyond all of these divisions is an altogether different level (or valuation) of human beings which includes such beings in a state of transcendent-immanence. This group is known as “Christed” beings whose consciousness has been altered through anointing, making them enlightened by inward illumination. Understood in this way they have become “Messianic.” This class is not restricted to (or exclusive of) any single ethnicity listed above (Jew, Roman, Greek, Barbarian, slave or free). Instead these are beings undertaking an evolution of Spirit that both transcends and includes all of these human and cultural categories in some significant way, but which is not recognized or understood by the general world order. 

Notes for the Translation

1. The terms “surprised”, “disturbed”, and “pay attention” have the force of causing a real (even dramatic) reaction or response.
2. The term “Christ” appears to be the original word kristikos (but in the Coptic christianos is the term meaning Christian). The intention here appears to be that of becoming completely one with the Anointed One so that one can call oneself “the Christ” in contrast to the word kosmikos (one aligned with the kosmos). The one associated with the kosmos will, then, will react negatively to anyone associated with the kristikos.