O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto
thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen
gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! (Matt 23:37)
O ye people of these
great cities which have fallen, who are descendants of Jacob, yea, who are of
the house of Israel, how oft have I gathered you as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings, and have nourished you. And again, how oft would I have
gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, yea, O ye people
of the house of Israel, who have fallen; yea, O ye people of the house of
Israel, ye that dwell at Jerusalem, as ye that have fallen; yea, how oft would
I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens, and ye would not. O ye
house of Israel whom I have spared, how oft will I gather you as a hen
gathereth her chickens under her wings, if ye will repent and return unto me
with full purpose of heart. (3 Nephi 10:4-6)
Listen to the voice
of Jesus Christ, your Redeemer, the Great I AM, whose arm of mercy hath atoned
for your sins; who will gather his people even as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings, even as many as will hearken to my voice and humble themselves
before me, and call upon me in mighty prayer. (D&C 29:1-2)
Othmar Keel provides the following
background to the “wings of God” in the Psalter and its Ancient Near Eastern
background, which has implications for Matt 23:37 in the New Testament and 3
Nephi 10:4-6 in the Book of Mormon vis-à-vis the deity of Christ:
The Wings of God
The predication of
Yahweh as rock, shade, foundation, and light may be traced to the experience of
the temple precincts. But it may also have originated experiences of a much more
general nature. The same may hold true of the “wings of God,” beneath which the
suppliant hopes to find shelter (Pss 17:8; 36:7; 57:1; 61:4; 63:7; 91:4). Kraus
links the concept to the “wings of the cherubim extended over the ark” (Psalmen,
p. 132). That may well be. It should be borne in mind, however, that when the
cherubim are directly mentioned in the psalms they appear as Yahweh’s porters
(Pss 18:10; 80:1; 99:1) and have no tutelary function . . . In Ps 61:4, “wings”
stand parallel to ”tent” . . . one might think of the wings which characterize
the roof of the temple or naos as heaven . . . In the final analysis,
the image drawn from the bird which protectively spreads its wings over its
young (Mt 23:37).
The protection bestowed
on the Egyptian king quite naturally expressed by outstretched wings. The
falcon gold of Beheder, early identified with Horus, maintains the posture over
Khefren (260) . . . Even at the outset of Egyptian history, wings were
disassociated from the bird-figure as a kind of hieroglyph for “protection.”
They can represent the feminine-motherly aspect of the sky in its protective
function . . . In the same way, wings serve to represent the protection
afforded by two goddesses (misunderstood as gods on the Phoenician ivory in
Fig. 261) to the newborn sun rising out of the lotus (261), and
also the protection provided by Nephthys (and Isis) to Osiris (262), the
“first among the dead.” Thus the gesture of blessing with which Isis (right)
greets Osiris is, for all practical purposes, synonymous with the wings of
Nephthys (left) spread protectively behind him. This motif, which originated in
Egypt, was adopted in Palestine and Syria (261) at the close of the
second millennium and the beginning of the first; the Phoenicians carried it
westward throughout the Mediterranean world and eastward via North Syria to
northern Mesopotamia. (Othmar Keel, The
Symbolism of the Biblical World: Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Book
of Psalms [New York: The Seabury Press, 1978], 190, 192)
Figure 261: Ivory carving, h. 8.4 cm., w. 9.8 cm.: Arslan Tash (ca. 40 km. east of Carchemish), whence it was brought to Damascus as booty: 8th c. B.C.; Louvre. F. Thureau-Dangin et al., Arslan Tash, vol. 1, p. 93; vol. 2, p. 19, fig. 1. Cf. H. Frankfort, Art and Architecture, pp. 318f.
Figure 262. Papyrus of Konshu-Renep, h. ca. 15 cm.: 21st Dynasty (1165-1085 B.C.); Cairo. A. Piankoff and N. Rambova, Mythological Papyri, no. 11. Cf. V. Schmidt, Levende of Døde, p. 154.
