How I use the Metaphysical Bible Dictionary

In my teens / twenties the Essenes were regarded very much as children of the New Age, helped by books like The Essene Gospel of Peace by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely (which I used to have, and might still), supposedly an ancient Aramaic manuscript (4 volumes, entire!) discovered by him in 'the Secret Archives of the Vatican'.

A hoax. There is no record of Szekely ever visiting the Vatican library, nor quite how he might have managed to 'liberating' the original Aramaic texts therefrom. Nor have any such documents ever come to light from other sources (one was the library at Monte Cassino, a monastery destroyed during WWII). Szekely was the co-founder of the International Biogenic Society and the Jesus of the Essene Gospel cannily matches Szekely's opinions on vegetarianism, colonic irrigation, etc., etc.

Later scholarship has since identified that the Essenes were not quite so peace-loving nor new-agey as was supposed; in fact they were quite rigorously fundamentalist and even militant.
 
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wil said:
For those that want to play along...

Vengeance on Midian

1And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people. 3And Moses spake unto the people, saying, Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites, and avenge the LORD of Midian.4Of every tribe a thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall ye send to the war. 5So there were delivered out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. 6And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand of every tribe, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the holy instruments, and the trumpets to blow in his hand. 7And they warred against the Midianites, as the LORD commanded Moses; and they slew all the males. 8And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain; namely, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword.9And the children of Israel took allthe women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods. 10And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire. 11And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and of beasts. 12And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan nearJericho.

13And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp. 14And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle. 15And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? 16Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD. 17Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. 18But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. 19And do ye abide without the camp seven days: whosoever hath killed any person, and whosoever hath touched any slain, purify bothyourselves and your captives on the third day, and on the seventh day. 20And purify all your raiment, and all that is made of skins, and all work of goats' hair, and all things made of wood.
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My first though after reading this was: "Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards; for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ." -- 2 Cor 10:3-5

If we could only grasp that these things are not literal, it would begin to dissipate some of the rancor created by the reading of them and the judging of them according to our sense of right and wrong, our current moralities. But that's when it gets interesting and caution has to be exercised. The types, the shadows of truth from the OT. A veritable treasure trove of potentiality, powerful, mysterious... but, well, one has to be careful... You have to wait for it, and it it doesn't come, wait for it some more. I rather enjoy my own ignorance in these matters but am willing to be taught at the proper time, if and when that time should come.
 
Thomas said:
Later scholarship has since identified that the Essenes were not quite so peace-loving nor new-agey as was supposed; in fact they were quite rigorously fundamentalist and even militant.
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Sources, please?
 
Why people will never stop reading the Bible:

As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.

O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the day time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.
I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Psalm 42 (KJV)
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+42&version=KJV
 
Ahanu said:
Sources, please?
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It's general reading rather than specific sources, I'm afraid.

Although little is actually known, it does seem the Essenes were sectarian, had a priesthood which practiced celibacy, held property in common. But they seem to have lived by a strict rule of Mosaic Law, especially with the rules of purity. If Christ managed to shock His contemporaries by consorting withe the lowest of the low, He would have outraged ... or perhaps horrified is a better term ... an Essene.

I'm sure I read somewhere they might have been closer to the 'zealot' kind of Judaism than your average man in the street, and / or that the Qumran community were Essene hardliners living absolutely apart from society.
 
Thomas said:
It's general reading rather than specific sources, I'm afraid.

Although little is actually known, it does seem the Essenes were sectarian, had a priesthood which practiced celibacy, held property in common. But they seem to have lived by a strict rule of Mosaic Law, especially with the rules of purity. If Christ managed to shock His contemporaries by consorting withe the lowest of the low, He would have outraged ... or perhaps horrified is a better term ... an Essene.

I'm sure I read somewhere they might have been closer to the 'zealot' kind of Judaism than your average man in the street, and / or that the Qumran community were Essene hardliners living absolutely apart from society.
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Seems like a new thread is in order.
 
I also read the Esseene Gospel of Peace many years back - I had no idea it was a hoax!!!
 
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Arif Ghamiq said:
I also read the Esseene Gospel of Peace many years back - I had no idea it was a hoax!!!
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I loved it. I got into the fasting thing and angels found me. It changed my life.

But then eventually I saw a sick sheep away from the flock, waiting to die.

It was sinless, it hadn't done or omitted anything to cause it's own condition, and then I realized the philosophy of the Essense Gospel and the angelic invocations are essentially a young person's assessment.

But I gained a lot from the Essense Gospel of Peace, when I was younger. It's always stayed with me. There's a lot of wisdom in it. Fasting has helped me, probably more than anything.
 
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wil said:
Did the waters really part? Did water turn to wine? Were the dead raised?
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Back in my Sunday school days I was taught the waters really parted, the water really turned to wine, and the dead were really raised.

wil said:
But again,.my question is, of what value is the verse I posted to you today? How do you use it in your daily life? If you read the bible annually or every few years what do you think when you read.this scripture?
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No relevance for me.
 
wil said:
Charles.Filmore, founder of Unity and author of the metaphysical bible dictionary
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I see. I was reading the MBD's view of David and Goliath below. I can relate to this story more than the one in post #2. I agree with the MBD that this story "illustrates the necessity of our doing things in our own natural, original way."

"We are often scared, even terrified, at the giant proportions of some leading thought on the error side, represented by Goliath. Our Goliath may be different from that of our neighbor, but it boasts and brags daily of its strength, and intimidates us with its show of power. People who depend on the resources of materiality, as Saul had come to do, often give up in despair when these thoughts of sense continue their bullying methods day and night. There is but one way to meet and subdue them, and that is through the power of love (represented by David, the little, ruddy-faced shepherd boy). When he suggested that he could, single-handed, vanquish the giant of the Philistines, he was ridiculed by his companions. Saul was grasping at straws and was willing to try anything. He put his own armor on David, but it did not fit, and was evidently cumbersome. David refused to wear it, saying that he had not "proved it." This illustrates the necessity of our doing things in our own natural, original way. People who try to fight their battles by using the methods of others usually fail."

David, unlike Saul, did not depend on the army, but proclaimed the hosts of the Lord as his resource. He evidently understood the power of the word, and met with strong denials and with affirmations of efficiency every boast of the giant. He was fearless, and his assurance led him to victory. An open, verbal statement of Truth will often demonstrate, where the silent thought will fail. The Philistines represent the most external thoughts, and they respond most quickly to the spoken word.

The smooth stone that David used is the rock of faith, and the sling is the assurance and force with which the mind sends it forth to do its perfect work of destroying error in the stronghold of error thought, the forehead.

The lesson may be summed up as an illustration of the necessity for having boldness, courage, and fearlessness in demonstrating Truth. Some metaphysicians think that sympathetic love will bring results, but they are often disappointed. Love must have the assurance of Truth, and must send Truth forth with confidence, courage, and power in both thought and word."
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In the MBD many of the characters in the Bible are related to aspects of consciousness. Midianites are said to be representations of "contentious thoughts, also judgment or discrimination in sense consciousness; judgment of the senses according to outer appearances produces discordant thoughts, jealousies, and the like."
 
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Ahanu said:
In the MBD many of the characters in the Bible are related to aspects of consciousness.
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I rather think the whole thing is a humanist reading of Scripture as a kind of map of human consciousness and everything is related to that, so it does come across as rather naive and new agey — our understanding of human consciousness has advanced a long way since Filmore wrote his dictionary.

And of course anyone can interpret a text as they so choose — it's the difference between exegesis and eisegesis.

This is not to say it's necessarily a bad thing, it's simply not all there is, and by making it all there is, it misses a great deal.

Addition:
By taking a humanist anthropology as the blueprint, as it were, Christianity, indeed the Abrahamics, are not the ideal model, as it insists on a Personal god in dialogue with man, and the Bible is its unfolding. The MBD assumes a correlation between the 'higher mind' and God, rather because it takes man as the model and God is the exemplar of what it is to be man, therefore a kind of 'man to the nth degree'.

Perhaps a non-theist doctrine would have been better ... ?
 
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Christian mystics and theologians have a long history of commentary around the idea of treating persons named in Scriptures as archetypes.

John Scottus Eriugena (a fave of mine) offered in his commentary on John the idea that Peter and John signify the will and the illumined intellect respectively — the race to the empty tomb can be read as a psychodrama in that respect.

Hans Urs von Balthasar, a giant among theologians, has written extensively on the topic in "Mary Archetype of the Church".

In my own speculations, I have offered before that anyone called 'Mary' signifies an aspect of the soul — not the least Mary Mother of Christ and Mary Magdalene who signify two ends of the spectrum.

But all these assume Christian doctrine as a given, whereas MBD actually abandons the core principle of the NT — divine union or theosis — and deploys Scriptural terms to tag elements of the psyche and modes of human consciousness which it elevates to a godlike status.
 
You'll find many if not most of the name definitions to have Jewish origins, as each of the mothers gave birth to a child of the twelve tribes they said I name thee X because it means y, and the names of towns and wells metaphysical descriptions coincide with scripture.
Ahanu said:
I see. I was reading the MBD's view of David and Goliath below. I can relate to this story more than the one in post #2. I agree with the MBD that this story "illustrates the necessity of our doing things in our own natural, original way."


​
In the MBD many of the characters in the Bible are related to aspects of consciousness. Midianites are said to be representations of "contentious thoughts, also judgment or discrimination in sense consciousness; judgment of the senses according to outer appearances produces discordant thoughts, jealousies, and the like."
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Exactly and this is the battle in your mind, G!d asking us to slaughter the negative thoughts, including the elderly (old ingrained thinking) the women and children (similar thoughts that beget more negative thinking) but save the virginal (uninfected thought) for yourselves.

Is this 100% accurate? Maybe,.maybe not. But can I use this interpretation to benefit me and my thinking in everyday encounters and read the bible with a new light that improves my thought processes and attitudes....yup, I sure can, as can anyone who chooses.
 
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wil said:
You'll find many if not most of the name definitions to have Jewish origins, as each of the mothers gave birth to a child of the twelve tribes they said I name thee X because it means y, and the names of towns and wells metaphysical descriptions coincide with scripture.

Exactly and this is the battle in your mind, G!d asking us to slaughter the negative thoughts, including the elderly (old ingrained thinking) the women and children (similar thoughts that beget more negative thinking) but save the virginal (uninfected thought) for yourselves.

Is this 100% accurate? Maybe,.maybe not. But can I use this interpretation to benefit me and my thinking in everyday encounters and read the bible with a new light that improves my thought processes and attitudes....yup, I sure can, as can anyone who chooses.
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Ok, that is fine. But there is no need to change the word of scripture to conform it to better support the contemporary value? A word here, a sentence there ... the slippery slide. I do wish you would just concede on this point, lol?

Interpret the Bible -- any ancient scripture -- as you choose, and be as forceful as you like, but just don't try to change the parts you don't like?
 
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Martin Luther tried it when he changed Paul's 'Man is saved by faith' to 'Man is saved by faith alone.'

It was not an issue of translation or interpretation; he wrote a single word into the Bible that is not written there. He couldn't get away with it, of course. It is still the stick most used to beat Luther by ... well, the message is clear?
 
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RJM Corbet said:
Ok, that is fine. But there is no need to change the word of scripture to conform it to better support the contemporary value? A word here, a sentence there ... the slippery slide. I do wish you would just concede on this point, lol?
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What do you prefer? Koine? Aramaic? Hebrew? Latin...lol or King James's VERSION. You read your version and interpretation and I'll read mine.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I like the slip n slide!
RJM Corbet said:
Martin Luther tried it when he changed Paul's 'Man is saved by faith' to 'Man is saved by faith alone.'

It was not an issue of translation or interpretation; he wrote a single word into the Bible that is not written there. He couldn't get away with it, of course. It is still the stick most used to beat Luther by ... well, the message is clear?
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Faith or faith alone, neither was in any original scripture, and since I don't read koine.or Aramaic I don't know what was originally Written. The Llamsa bible is the most current most accurate from Aramaic to English (supposedly) what does it say?
 
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Now this'll be contentious but on topic. My preacher decided to become a preacher due to the little old preacher lady he met when he was young.

Watching her preach... Well it was hard to watch, she was four foot nuthin and didn't like the pulpit much, so you'd only see her bible held above high as she walked back and forth in front of the congregation... "Your biography is written"

She told the story of a homeless man who knocked on the door of the church, obviously inebriated, looking for a place to crash for the night. "Sister, I come to be saved!" She replied, "Well you came to the wrong place, I can't save ya, but I can give you some food and a place to sleep. And we will teach you to save yourslef". At unity it ain't faith, faith alone or Jesus that saves, but a choice you make to realize that both heaven and hell are states of mind that exist right here right now...look neither high nor low for it is in your midst.

The glory if this (to me) you don't have to agree or disagree, believe or not believe,.that is your choice to do as you choose. I find it funny those same folks want to tell me what to believe.
 
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