Trading Spaces
a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man. Hebrews 8:2 NASB
Tabernacle – “The man of the archaic societies tends to live as much as possible in the sacred or in close proximity to consecrated objects. The tendency is perfectly understandable, because . . . the sacred is equivalent to a power, and, in the last analysis, to reality.”[1] Eliade contrasts this with contemporary man. “ . . . the experience of the man without religious feeling, of the man who lives, or wishes to live, in a desacralized world. It should be said at once that the completely profane world, the wholly desacralized cosmos, is a recent discovery in the history of the human spirit. . . . For modern consciousness, a physiological act—eating, sex, and so on—is in sum only an organic phenomenon, however much it may still be encumbered by tabus [sic]. . . But for the primitive, such an act is never simply physiological; it is, or can become, a sacrament, that is, a communion with the sacred. The reader will very soon realize that sacred and profane are two modes of being in the world, two existential situations assumed by man in the course of history.”[2]
If Eliade is right, then text of the Bible is not an historical account of God’s revelation among men. It is a drama of a way of being in the world. Those who live according to the text do so because they see the world as God’s creation. Their actions are in alignment with the sacred nature of His creation. Therefore, ritual purity, food requirements, Shabbat and other Torah commandments are manifestations of the divine. They are not desacralized rules. Only those who do not live in sacred spaces view them as antiquated legislation. This difference is critically important. It demonstrates why debates about the necessity of Torah are usually fruitless. Until we realize that Torah observance views the world as sacred, it is simply impossible to make sense of Torah. But once we realize that Torah observance is a way of being in the world, further argument about the details is unnecessary. What matters is whether the world is sacred or profane. And that is a choice! Of course, choices have consequences, so we might pay attention to the disastrous consequences of seeing the world as completely desacralized, but even those consequences are usually not enough to force paradigm shift.
The language of Scripture can only be understood from the perspective of a sacred world. It speaks of common human behavior—eating, sex, childbirth, death, etc.—but it views these as contact with the sacred. To draw close to God is to live in the sacred. Therefore, all of my common human actions take on meaning not inherent in the act itself. If we don’t understand this, we simply cannot grasp the delicacy of the Bible’s point of view. In the end, the Bible cannot be read as literature. To do so is to draw it into profane space, a space that it will not occupy comfortably. To read Scripture is to come into the presence of the divine—by choice. That changes everything.
Topical Index: Mircea Eliade, sacred, profane, Hebrews 8:2
[1] Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane, p. 12.
[2] Ibid., p. 13.
Wow! This is turning things upside down. Marvellous. Mind blowing! Thank you Skip!
When I started this journey, what made me so excited was knowing that I was actually doing the very same thing in the flesh that Yeshua was/is doing. I had it explained this way. We in the west see time as linear but Yahweh sees time as circular. Every year is a circle, so all the Sabbaths and Feasts throughout the year line up in the circle with all the other Sabbaths and Feasts throughout all of history, making one space of time on that spot on the circle, from the very first of time to the very last. Therefore, when I am keeping these special days, I am actually keeping them at the very same time that Yeshua did for those 33 years He was on earth. To me, it is a thrill to know I am doing – in this small way – the same thing that Yeshua was/is doing on those certain days throughout each year. In that way, we have a true connection.
And that same concept can be applied to every detail of the law since the law was/is His Word for every detail of His life and therefore mine. It’s having that connection with Him that makes none of this about “keeping the law” for me. Doing it the way the law says is uniting myself to Him.
You are almost correct. Greek time is linear, but Hebrew time is not circular. There are many circular temporal points-of-view in the ancient pagan world. See Eliade’s The Myth of Eternal Return. But Hebrew time is cycloidal, i.e., it is circular patterns moving linearly, like the spiral staircase. Things do repeat, but each time they are moving forward. According to Eliade, Hebrews invented history because history is going somewhere whereas eternal return myths are not going anywhere. They are just repeating the original over and over.
That is actually what I meant, and I now have the correct word to say it. Thanks so much for your explanation. I was so blessed when I first learned this. It really changed my perception of things.
Then as “time” marches “forward”, are the stairs like in a lighthouse ( ie the closer you get to the top, the shorter the cycles)…..fascinating and stimulating… thanks
Perhaps more like a seed growing into a plant and producing fruit (which produces more (manifold) seeds). Day after day, lying in the ground dormant, (to our eyes) then a tiny point slowly showing activity, that if you watch eagerly, doesn’t seem to change. If you go away for a while, when you come back it’s like, “woozers, that didn’t take long. Then, the explosion, rapid growth, fruit, and finally(?) more seed. That’s where we seem to have a problem, we see the new plant from the seed as separate from the parent plant, it’s really only a continuation only in spades. History is a funny thing, it’s not so much about the past. 🙂
YHWH bless you and keep you……….
You mean Hebrews view time as a spiral? Like the Golden Mean in geometry?
kind of. I have written about cycloidal time in other TWs. You can search for them on the web site.
Again, your source had strong occultic roots, moreover, he was a Nazi sympathizer who NEVER recanted or back tracked on his support.
I can’t take him seriously.
New Age thinking would have us believe that God “is in everything.” Therefore, everything is to be worshipped in one way or another. But what you’re saying, Skip, is that everything is sacred. God made all, and therefore owns all, so, of course, it would all be sacred, belonging to Him. But that understanding doesn’t require worship of the created, only of the Creator. Makes a lot of sense.
Thank you, Thomas.
This is a SUPER TW!! Surely we can’t separate the Word from the lives we live; cant ever see how that can be possible.
” Those who live according to the text do so because they see the world as God’s creation. Their actions are in alignment with the sacred nature of His creation.”
Torah observance IS a/our way of life.Period!
“What matters is whether the world is sacred or profane” in our eyes, whether people are of YHWH’s or not. IF so, we are certainly to value our relationship with them, treating them with respect and dignity!
” Therefore, all of my common human actions take on meaning not inherent in the act itself.” ” To read Scripture is to come into the presence of the divine—by choice. That changes everything.” YES! That ought to turn the switch on, to change our mindsets on many aspects of our behaviour, responsibility, walking in fear before YHWH, circumspectly possible. Shalom!