In the
following essay, I discussed, among other things, the high view of man in the
Bible, such as Rev 3:9, 21 where faithful Christians will receive “worship” (προσκυνεω) and will sit on the throne of
God:
Interestingly,
in other works written by Jews and Christians, we see an elevated view of
humanity, too. For instance, in the book of Sirach (accepted as canonical by
Catholics and Eastern Orthodox), we see evidence of a high view of (1) humanity
and (2) the high priest. In the following text, we see that the high priest
(who, of course, is a human ["mere
man" as Anthony Hoekema et al would say]) is the one who re-enacts the
7-day creation
49:16 Shem and Seth and Enosh were honored,
but above every other created living being was Adam.
50:1 The leader of his brothers and the pride
of his people was the high priest, Simon son of Onias, who in his life repaired
the house, and in his time fortified the temple.
2 He
laid the foundations for the high double walls, the high retaining walls for
the temple enclosure.
3 In
his days a water cistern was dug, a reservoir like the sea in circumference.
4 He
considered how to save his people from ruin, and fortified the city against
siege.
5 How
glorious he was, surrounded by the people, as he came out of the house of the
curtain.
6 Like
the morning star among the clouds, like the full moon at the festal season;
7 like
the sun shining on the temple of the Most High, like the rainbow gleaming in
splendid clouds;
8 like
roses in the days of first fruits, like lilies by a spring of water, like a
green shoot on Lebanon on a summer day;
9 like
fire and incense in the censer, like a vessel of hammered gold studded with all
kinds of precious stones;
10
like an olive tree laden with fruit, and like a cypress towering in the clouds.
11
When he put on his glorious robe and clothed himself in perfect splendor, when
he went up to the holy altar, he made the court of the sanctuary glorious.
12
When he received the portions from the hands of the priests, as he stood by the
hearth of the altar with a garland of brothers around him, he was like a young
cedar on Lebanon surrounded by the trunks of palm trees.
13 All
the sons of Aaron in their splendor held the Lord's offering in their hands
before the whole congregation of Israel.
14
Finishing the service at the altars, and arranging the offering to the Most
High, the Almighty,
15 he
held out his hand for the cup and poured a drink offering of the blood of the
grape; he poured it out at the foot of the altar, a pleasing odor to the Most
High, the king of all.
16
Then the sons of Aaron shouted; they blew their trumpets of hammered metal;
they sounded a mighty fanfare as a reminder before the Most High.
17
Then all the people together quickly fell to the ground on their faces to
worship their Lord, the Almighty, God Most High.
18
Then the singers praised him with their voices in sweet and full-toned melody.
19 And
the people of the Lord Most High offered their prayers before the Merciful One,
until the order of worship of the Lord was ended, and they completed his
ritual.
20
Then Simon came down and raised his hands over the whole congregation of
Israelites, to pronounce the blessing of the Lord with his lips, and to glory
in his name;
21 and
they bowed down in worship a second time, to receive the blessing from the Most
High. (Sirach 49:16-50:21 NRSV; cf. 7:27-31)
One is
reminded of Isa 51:15-16, a text that speaks of a human agent of God through
whom God plants the new/eschatological heavens and earth:
But I am the Lord thy God, that divided the
sea, whose waves roared: The Lord of hosts is his name. And I have put my words
in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may
plant (Heb:יסד ; LXX: θεμελιοω) the heavens,
and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.
Commenting
on this, John Watts wrote:
Yahweh introduces himself again,
but this time in terms of his control of the raging sea. He
addresses the one he is using, putting his words in his mouth and
protecting him very carefully. The purpose of this care is to allow him to
plant heavens and earth. That makes no sense if it refers to the original
creation. A similar phrase in the Vision has become a standard way of
describing Yahweh’s work in creation. It uses נטה “to stretch out” while here
the verb נטע “plant.” In the
other instances God acts alone, using no agent. Here the one he has hidden in
the shadow of his hand is his agent. Heavens and land here
must refer metaphorically to the totality of order in Palestine, heavens meaning
the broader overarching structure of the Empire, while land (ארץ) is the political order in
Palestine itself. The assignment is then focused more precisely: to say
to Zion: you are my people. The two pronouns are challenges for the
interpreter. Does my refer to God or to the speaker?
Throughout this larger section God’s work and that of Darius seem fused
together. It is often difficult to separate the two, as will be seen in the
following verses. Because God has chosen Darius and uses him, loyalty to Darius
is viewed as equivalent to loyalty to God. To be Yahweh’s obedient people is to
be Persia’s loyal people too. Zion is usually referred to with a feminine
pronoun. Here it is masculine, apparently because it refers to the people of
the city rather than to the city itself. This last clause defines Darius’s main
task which had so far (49:6, 8) been less precise than it had been for Cyrus
(44:28b; 45:13b-c). (John D.W. Watts, Isaiah 34-66 [Word
Biblical Commentary 25; Waco, Tex.: Word Books, 1987], 212-13, italics in
original)
Interestingly,
more “more men” were highly praised in other non-canonical texts, too; for
instance, in the Sibylline Oracle (book 8), Adam is said to be the recipient of
λατρευω, the
highest form of cultic worship in Greek (in context, due to his being made in
the form [μορφη; cf. Phil 2:6 where
Jesus is said to have existed in the μορφη of God]):
"Behold, let us make man in a form
(μορφη) altogether like our own, and let us give him life-sustaining breath;
Him being yet mortal all things of the world will serve (λατρευω), and unto him
formed out of clay we will subject all things." (Sibylline Oracle
8:442-45)
