Lovely/soft & tender {if you really want to do so}

Yochanan
the Baptist asked
Yehoshua through his two disciples,
"Are you the coming one
or shall we look
for another?"

The meaning
of these words becomes clear
when we read them in connection with the well-known verse
from Dani'el {7:13},
"I saw one like a son of man
COMING
with the clouds of heaven."
Even now some people are still asking about the apocalyptic figure
of the "Son of Man": his main task in the eschatological future will be
to separate the righteous from the sinners, to save the former
and to cast the others into the fires of hell
{Matai 25:31-46}.

This is precisely
what Yochanan preached about
'the one mightier than he' who
is coming
and
"WHOSE WINNIWING FORK IS IN HIS HAND,
TO CLEAR HIS THRESHING FLOOR
['TEMPLE/BODY/COUNTRY/WORLD'],
AND SO GATHER THE WHEAT INTO HIS GRANARY,
BUT THE CHAFF HE WILL BURN
WITH UNQUENCHABLE FIRE"
{Luke 3:16-17;
Matai 3:11-12}!

The Son of Man
is a figure that appears exclusively in Jewish apocalyptic writings,
mostly in those that are close to the Essene movement: as we can see,
Yeshua himself also accepted this belief.

Unlike the Baptist, however,
he did not see the coming of the Son of Man and the last judgment as imminent:
his different perspective is expressed in the parable of the tares {Matai 13:24-30;
see also the parable of the dragnet
in Matai 13:47-50}?

These parables
stand in marked contrast to the acute eschatology of the Baptist,
heard in the already mentioned metaphor in Luke 3:17-17
& Matai 3:11-12.

Yehoshua's parable of the tares
may have been meant as an indirect reaction
to the words of the Baptist: according to Yochanan, the saving of the righteous
and the destruction of the sinners will take place
in the immediate future.

Yeshua,
on the other hand,
rightly saw that even in the period of the kingdom of heaven,
which had begun to be realized, the good and the wicked
do [still] coexist.


Het
blijft in
ieder geval gaan
over ons eigen verleden,
ons heden & onze toekomst:
daarvoor hebben we nu eenmaal
zinnebeelden, gelijkenissen, veronderstellingen,
praktijkervaring en 'hope
& dope'
nodig
...

Slaap
zacht, droom
zoet & tell us
all about it
IF
you really
want to
do so
...