Therapeutae spiritual androgyny & ritual sexfeasts

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PHILO's
Anarchist Spiritual Androgyne
& PAUL's Ethic of The Body
of Christ?

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FOR PHILO
the first human
- the male~and~female of GEN[esis] 1 -
was in truth a spiritual
androgyne.

THUS
both myths are comprised in his discourse:
a primal androgyne of no~sex
and a primal male/secondary
female.

Since
the two texts,
the one in GEN 1
and the one in GEN 2,
refer to two entirely different species,
he can claim that ONLY the first one is calles
"in the image of G D,"
that is,
only the singular,
unbodied Adam~creature
is referred to
as being in G D's
likeness,
and his male~and~femaleness
must be understood
spiritually.

THAT
is to say
that the designation of THIS creature as male~and~female
means really that it is neither
male nor
female.

We find
this explicitly
in another passage
of PHILO:

AFTER this
he says that "G D formed man by taking clay from the earth,
and breathed into his face the breath of life"
[GEN ii 7].

BY THIS also
he shows very clearly that there is a vast difference
between the man THUS formed and the man that came into existence
earlier after the image of G D:
for the man so formed is an object of sense~perception,
partaking already of such or such quality,
consisting of body and soul,
man or woman,
by nature mortal;
while he that was after the Image was an idea or type or seal,
an object of thought,
incorporeal,
neither male nor female,
by nature incorruptible.

[Philo 1929b, 107]


PHILO's interpretation
is NOT an individual idiosyncrasy.
As has been shown, he is refferring to a tradition known to him from before.


THE
fundamental point
which seems to be established is that for the Hellenistic Jews,
the one~ness of pure spirit is ontologically privileged in the constitution of humanity.


THIS
platonic Jewish anthropology
is elegantly summed up
with respect to Philo
as follows:


"PHILO
inherits
from Plato
a radically dualistic conception of the universe.


In THIS view,
the material world of sense perception is an imperfect reflection
of the intelliible order which emanates
from G D.


The human soul
finds its fulfillment through separation from the world of material desires,
a world that LACKS true reality,
and through participation in the life of the spirit
and divine intellect;
the soul finally reunites the true self with its divine source
and thereby achieves
immortality!"

~liefdesverdriet~
~knipoogcool!knipoog~
~verliefd~
engel

06 aug 2005 - bewerkt op 17 mrt 2008 - meld ongepast verhaal
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