Thursday, December 17, 2020

"The Wings of God" in the Psalter, the ANE, and Jesus's Words in Matthew 23:37//3 Nephi 10:4-6

  

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)

 

Here are figures 260-262, as found on pp. 190-91 (click to enlarge):






The following is taken from ibid., 399 for those interested in the background of these figures:


Figure 260: Statue, dark gray diorite, height of section, ca. 42 cm.: Gizeh Khefren (4th Dynasty, 2600-2480 B.C.); Cairo. J.H. Breasted, Geschichte Ägyptens, p. 53. W. Wolf, Kunst, pp. 143f. ANEP, no. 377. G. Posener et al., Knaurs Lexikon, p. 45


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.