TL:DR: The Genesis Question part forty-four

Hi, Everybody!

So, two things:

1, the bizness:

There's a Indiegogo live if you missed the Kickstarter for the birthday card.

The remastered Volume 1, digitally for $9.99.

Postcard Kickstarter ya got a week, so I hopes you gots yours!  no Star code for the remastered Jaka's Story yet, but I'll add it to the list when I get it!

2, I ran out of pages from issue 289/290 to run in front of Dave's Genesis Question commentaries. Dave suggested I use Jewish, Christian or Muslim religious images. But then, Superman's Frenemy: David Birdsong sent in a bunch of (so far) unused Cerebus in Hell? images and now I'ma gonna run them. So:
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image by Doré, Sim & Birdsong

30 November 14

Hi Troy & Mia; David & Marie:

Ezekiel 47

Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house and behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward:  for the forefront of the house toward the east and the waters came down from under the right side of the house at the south side of the Altar.

Water is God's medium, so this would be a literal incarnation of God relative to the Temple/Sanctuary -- either purely a vision given to Ezekiel, representing the fulfillment of the agreement between God and YHWH, or Ezekiel witnessing the actual incarnation/event or something in between.  In the realm of spirit -- particularly as regards Reality, as opposed to reality -- it would be impossible to determine which is the exact nature of what Ezekiel is documenting but it would, presumably, be extremely vivid.

Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward and behold, there ran out waters on the right side.

As in the descriptions of the Temple/Sanctuary architecture, it's hard to get a clear mental picture of what Ezekiel is vividly seeing and vividly experiencing. "…led me about the way without unto the utter gate…" is particularly problematic in that regard.

However, the "eastward" presumably refers to the nature of literal sun-worship: either the residual worship of the sun inherent in YHWHistic Judaism, the pagan corruption of Judaism or a combination of the two.  Any edifice intended for worship which faces east invokes the notion of sun worship.  I would infer that the reiterated reference to the waters which "came down under the RIGHT side of the house" and "there ran out waters on the RIGHT side" is aligned with the ancient belief that the right side (Latin: dextram from which we get dexterity) is good and the left side (Latin: sinestram from which we get sinister) is evil, here, again, expressing God and indicating a Godly incarnation. 

And when the man that had the line in his hand, went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits and he brought me through the waters: waters [of/to] the ankles.

Again, he measured a thousand and brought me through the waters: the waters were to the knees: again he measured a thousand and brought me through: the waters were to the loins.

Afterward he measured a thousand, a river, that I could not pass over for the waters were risen, [Hebrew: waters of swimming/KJV:waters to swim in], a river that could not be passed over.

And he said unto me, son of man, hast thou seen?  Then he brought me and caused me to return to the brink of the river.

Ezekiel doesn't reply to the "Hast thou seen?" question, just documents what he saw.  My own inference is that this is God indicating why the idea of containing him by mathematics and geometry within the Temple/Sanctuary isn't going to work: the same reason that you can't imprison water with a gate.  Water flows.  God awareness, God devotion is comparable:  it flows and seeks its own level.

The elaboration of the idea, here, it seems to me is to take the ("hidden") concept of sun worship with the gate that faces eastward -- which would be a major component of the YHWH's intention: that the YHWH is linked to all of the solar deities in every pagan society and therefore contains God on that level (as well as the mathematics and geometry level) -- and to illustrate how ill-conceived it is.  Ezekiel is brought eastward, in the direction of the sun, presumably the source of power for those worshipping the sun, but the further east you go and the closer you get to the sun, the deeper the waters -- God -- become.  Not only is God immune to containment, God also expands in any direction governed by faith.  The more sun worshippers worship the sun, the more God expands in that context and dwarfs the blasphemous supposition.

The reiteration of "thousand", I would also infer, refers to our present epoch which began with A Dam, the first thousand representing A Dam's lifespan, the second thousand representing the period up to Noah (and adding another level of meaning to the Flood) the third thousand up to Abraham.  "Hast thou seen?"  It really depends on how large a context you want  the increments of a thousand to represent all the way up to our present vantage point.  The first thousand can represent Adam to David.  The second thousand from David to Jesus.  In each case, the point remains valid:  God and God-worship increases the further along we go in human history and paganism decreases.

Now when I had returned, behold, at the [Hebrew: lip/KJV: bank] of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other.

Trees, as I read it, are also incarnations of God, representative of the form of God's creation and the manner in which God creates as per Genesis 1:11:

And God said, Let the earth [that is, YHWH] bring forth tender grass, the herb yielding seed, the fruit tree, yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed in itself, upon the earth, and it was so.

It's a distillation of what "he" is as a) a metaphor for God b) as an example of how you need "he's" for creation to take place and c) the nature of successive incarnation.  "Whose seed in itself". That's what makes something "HIS" kind.  God creates the earth and puts HIS seed within the earth which causes incarnation UPON the earth.  The earth itself is only capable of creating tender grass, a far simpler construct.  God, metaphorically AS tree creates fruit in many forms.  The earth, the YHWH, is a form of fruit from the metaphorical tree that is God. 

So, as I read it, God is essentially showing Ezekiel that these are the two primary steps at issue:  the waters which represent God, worship of God, the sheer profusion of God and the fact that, like God, they dwarf everything else.  And then moving beyond the "sheer immensity" aspect -- "a river that cannot be passed over" -- to the nature of creation in the form of the trees which are on either side of the river.  God's trees and YHWH's trees, although, in fact, all the trees are God's. 

Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the East country, and go down into the [desert/plain], and go into the sea: [interpolated: which] being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed.

It's an interesting way of putting it.  What God, it seems to me, is explaining to Ezekiel is that the "river that cannot be passed over" isn't an impediment (which is obviously how Ezekiel experienced it:  he could wade through it only to a point and then it became impassable).  As immense as the river is -- and clearly its immensity expands the further east it goes -- it has a limited channel and direction.  "These waters issue out toward the East country…"  In other words, they are headed in the direction of the rising sun but they aren't going there to extinguish the sun.  They "go down into the (desert/plain) and go into the sea." 

"Being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed."  You're talking about two different kinds of water:  fresh water and salt water.  The compelled inference is that "the waters" being referred to are the same waters being discussed to that point:  God's waters.  But I read this as God being diplomatic in "sealing the deal" with the YHWH.  Fresh water is God, salt water is the YHWH -- water containing a component part of the earth: salt.  What God is saying is that the waters Ezekiel saw are of one kind -- fresh water, God's waters, issuing from the right side of the Temple/Sanctuary -- and they will meet another kind, salt water, YHWH's waters.  And one of those "waters" would be healed (three guesses and the first two don't count).   

And it shall come to pass every thing that liveth, which moveth, withersover  [Hebrew: two rivers/KJV: the rivers] shall come, shall live, and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed, and every thing shall live whither the river commeth.

I assume that this enacted itself exactly the way that it's expressed.  God was in the Jewish Temple and flowed outward from it, and was no more contained by the Temple and by the insulating layer of the Levitical priesthood than the waters flowing eastward to the sea were made salty by the sea.  On the contrary, the metaphorical waters that WERE God, WERE expressions of and incarnations of God were a healing force to those devoted to God.  Even (and perhaps especially) those who mistook YHWH for God.  I don't think it was especially noticeable that the enactment took place, as described, until its culmination with John the Baptist,  the Synoptic Jesus and the Johannine Jesus who all baptized in river water , which was suddenly more profuse in their time period, irrigating the "desert/plain" on the way to the sea to an extent that was exceptional. 

Over five centuries, you move from the general fulfillment of the prophecy -- God's waters flowing out from the Temple and "irrigating" the "desert/plain" and flowing from there to the Sea -- to the more specific fulfillment:  the sudden popularity of baptism in what were previously "waste places" and are now river valleys…

…and ultimately to the still more specific fulfillment.  Ezekiel writes:

And it shall come to pass the fishers shall stand upon it, from Engedi even unto En-eglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets, their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great Sea, exceeding many.

They -- that is, "the fishers" -- invoking the Synoptic Jesus' "I will make you fishers of men" -- "shall be a place to spread forth nets". The "it" refers to the land, "from Engedi even unto Eneglaim" -- the "they" -- to the fishers themselves. The fishers themselves "shall be a place to spread forth nets".   

And further invoking the apex of the Johannine narrative, 21:5-6:

Is saying therefore to them Jesus, Little children, not any eatable are having you? They answered to him, No.  The ____ (however ____) said to them, Cast you into the right parts of the boat the net, and you will find. They cast therefore and not yet it to draw they were strong enough from the multitude of the fishes.

Note: "cast you into the RIGHT parts of the boat".  This is the most literal documentation of Lord GOD's promised "exceeding many" vis a vis "the fish".

And, as I read the text, then illustrating the core of the metaphor of the meeting of the fresh water (metaphorically, God) and the salt water (metaphorically, the YHWH):

But the miry places thereof, and the marshes thereof, shall not be healed, they shall be given to salt.

That is (as I read it) that God has no aversion to engaging with the YHWH at all metaphorical levels.  He has no aversion to His waters meeting the YHWH's waters and promises that healing will be the result, but is also establishing that there are limits to this.  Waters that inhabit "miry places, and the marshes thereof" -- consisting as they do of "too much Earth/too much YHWH" healing isn't possible: "they shall be given to salt". 

And by the river upon the bank thereof on this side, and on that side, [Hebrew: shall come up/ KJV: shall grow] all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring up [new/principal] fruit, according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the Sanctuary, and the fruit thereof shall be for meat and the leaf thereof for [medicine/for bruises and sores].

It appears to be a "back to Eden" assertion in many ways.  There are two sides to the river (or, in the original Hebrew, two rivers), God's and YHWH's, both consisting of "trees for meat". Essentially, two gardens of Eden. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17) can be inferred as being alluded to in the "neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed" but that inference would appear to be directly contradicted by "and the fruit thereof shall be for meat and the leaf thereof for (medicine/for bruises and sores)".  I would infer that it's making use of a double meaning:  "neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed" because it will now be fruit "for meat" in such abundance that it will be impossible to consume all of it.

Ezekiel is, again, as I read it, the apex of the Jewish Revelation so it would make sense that it would conclude with Edenic references.  "Here's where you are, relative to where you began." 

There is no longer a single seminal tree of "the knowledge of good and evil".  Whose fruit, I would infer, originated as and contained: God's knowledge and the YHWH's knowledge in tandem.  The former, good faith  and the good knowledge that issues from good faith and the latter, bad faith and the bad knowledge that issues from bad faith (i.e. scientific knowledge divorced from good faith: i.e. abortion, genetic manipulation) and ambiguous knowledge (morphine is a highly addictive faith-destroying, mind-enslaving drug but it's also a very effective medicinal painkiller).

The results of eating the fruit at the beginning of our present epoch haven't gone away, but they have dispersed within both God's and the YHWH's contexts. Good is still good and evil is still evil.

It isn't just for mankind's benefit that this is enunciated, I don't think.  It's also for the benefit of the YHWH.  "You are here". 

From there, as I read it, God moves to a more literal, geography-minded "You are here":

  

Thus saith the Lord GOD, This the border, whereby ye shall inherit the land, according to the twelve tribes of Israel; Joseph two portions.

It's a very "cut to the chase" enunciation.  He begins with Joseph's two portions which (as I read it) is the "bottom line" on the elder/younger debate between God and YHWH (or, rather, misapprehensions on the YHWH's part) which dominate the First Book of Moshe.

 I'm not really sure how aware the historical Joseph was of what it was that he was doing or how much he was just a "YHWHistic sock puppet", but his is a very intricate metaphorical story which attempts to (and I think does) manipulate reality.  Joseph isn't the youngest brother, the son of Jacob/Israel, ultimately:  Benjamin is. 

But -- whether consciously or unconsciously -- as I read it, he manipulates that reality by taking Pharaoh's former butler's dream of "And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup: and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand" (Genesis 40:11) and enunciating, "Yet within three days shall Pharaoh (lift up/reckon) thy head, and restore thee unto thy place, and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his Butler." (Genesis 40:13).  Which does happen.  Then later, he takes his own cup and puts it in Benjamin's camel pack and accuses his brothers of stealing it and they say:

With whom of thy servants it be found, both let him die and we also will be my lords bondmen. 

Which Joseph then twists into:

And he said, Now also let it be according to your words: he with whom it is found, shall be my servant and ye shall be blameless. 

Basically what Joseph does, by means of the cup, is to make Benjamin into his proxy and himself into Pharaoh's proxy.  Basically scaling up what he has accomplished in Egypt (in becoming Pharaoh's second-in-command) and in the much larger and more important context of God/YHWH making himself the Ultimate Youngest instead of Benjamin and Benjamin into his servant, as he, Joseph, had been Pharaoh's servant (a narrative anticipated all the way back to Noah in Genesis 9:25-26: "And he said cursed Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.  And he said, Blessed the YHWH God of Shem and Canaan shall be his servant.").

As with his father Jacob/Israel's usurpation of Esau's birthright and blessing, it does represent at least a temporary victory of the younger (YHWH) over the elder (God), metaphorically speaking.  Jacob then either reinforces this or inverts this by blessing the younger of Joseph's two sons, Ephraim, over the elder, Manassah. 

Pretty complicated stuff, but central to the YHWH's theological pretensions which is why, as I read it, the Lord GOD, here at the apex of the Judaic Revelation, addresses it directly:  Joseph will have two portions.  Usually (and ultimately) inferred as Joseph and Ephraim, but God leaves it an open question.  With, I think, good reason.  The two portions could be Joseph and Ephraim or Joseph and Manassah OR Joseph and Benjamin (depending on whether you see the entitlement as belonging to his son or the brother he made into his servant).  As we'll see next week, whoever arbitrated the final decision, the two portions were designated as belonging to Ephraim and Manassah.  Which is interesting and -- as I read it --a further complication.  If you made the two portions Joseph and Ephraim then it would appear to be a win-win for the YHWH:  both being youngest brothers, the former by his manipulation of the "cup narrative" and the latter by birth. Anything else would represent a partial loss for the YHWH, consisting of an elder and a younger.  Which is what Ephraim and Manassah do represent.  

And ye shall inherit it, one as well as an other, concerning the which I [lifted up my hand/swear] to give unto your fathers, and this land shall fall unto you for inheritance. 

And this the border of the land toward the North side from the great sea, the way of Hethlon, as men go to Zedad:

Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath: Hazar Hatticon, which by the coast of Hauran.

And the border from the Sea, shall be Hazar-enan, the border of Damascus, and the North northward, and the border of Hamath: and the North side.

And the East side ye shall measure from Hauran, and and [Hebrew: from between/KJV: from] Damascus, and from Gilead, and from the land of Israel Jordan, from the border unto the East sea: & the Eastside.

And the South side Southward from Tamar, even to the waters of [Meribah/strife] Kadesh, the [river/valley] to the great Sea: and the South side [toward Teman/Southward].

The West side also the great Sea from the border, till a man come over against Hamath: this the West side.

So shall ye divide the land unto you according to the Tribes of Israel.

Again, as I read it, God leaves it an open question as to how the land will be divided and which Tribe will get what.  The only thing He specifies is that Joseph will get two portions (compelling the inference that all of the other brothers/Tribes will get a single portion each) and what the boundaries are on Israel in toto.

The surprise is that God explicitly states that the goyim, the nations, the non-Jews, the "strangers" will be entitled to also inherit land in Israel:

And it shall come to pass, ye shall divide it by lot for an inheritance unto you, and to the strangers that sojourn among you, which shall beget children among you, and they shall be unto you as borne in the country among the children of Israel; they shall have inheritance with you among the Tribes of Israel.

And it shall come to pass in what Tribe the stranger sojourneth, there shall ye give his inheritance saith the Lord GOD.

Spoiler warning:  There is no mention of "the stranger" inheriting in the land of Israel in the final chapter.

Next week, God willing, Ezekiel 48

Best,

Dave 
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Next Time: Dealing with the fallout from yesterday's post? -Past Matt