Through the Flaming Sword

I’ve been reading The Great Angel by Margaret Barker, an exploration, among other things, of the origins of Jesus’s title as the Son of God, Messiah, and Lord.

On page 39, Barker discusses the vision and exaltation of the shaman king in ancient Near Eastern mythology. She starts by quoting Psalm 89:19:

“Of old thou didst speak in a vision to thy faithful one, and say:
‘I have set the crown upon one who is mighty,
I have exalted one chosen from the people.’”

She goes on to say:

‘Vision’ and ‘exaltation’ are highly significant words, especially if exaltation means ‘raising up’ in more than just the sense of conferring high status. . . . The heavenly journey reinforced the belief that the ordinary world of human existence and the upper world of their [the visionary’s people’s] mythology were once in a harmony which had been destroyed by the action of evil forces. The shaman had to repel these forces and thus restore the cosmic harmony. As a result of his initiation he had enhanced powers of vision and hearing; he could see into the very nature of things and understand the processes of life itself. Thus he became a healer. The commonest way to induce the experience of ascent was by fasting, lightening the body so that the soul could fly. Once the shaman figure had ascended to the heavenly places and knew the secrets of the creation, he enjoyed a life which had already passed through death, and he became a being from another world.

Immediately upon reading this, I thought of George Fox’s account of one of his visions:

Now was I come up in spirit through the flaming sword into the paradise of God. All things were new, and all the creation gave another smell unto me than before, beyond what words can utter. I knew nothing but pureness, and innocency, and righteousness, being renewed up into the image of God by Christ Jesus, so that i say I was come up to the state of Adam which he was in before he fell. The creation was opened to me, and it was showed me how all things had their names given them according to their nature and virtue. And I was at a stand in my mind whether I should practice physic [medicine] for the good of mankind, seeing the nature and virtues of the creatures were so opened to me by the Lord. But I was immediately taken up in spirit, to see into another or more steadfast state than Adam’s in innocency, even into a state in Christ Jesus, that should never fall. And the Lord showed me that such as were faithful to him in the power and light of Christ, should come up into that state in which Adam was before he fell, in which the admirable works of the creation, and the virtues thereof, may be known, through the openings of that divine Word of wisdom and power by which we were made. Great things did the Lord lead me into, and wonderful depths were opened unto me, beyond what can by words be declared; but as people come into subjection to the spirit of God, and grow up in the image and power of the Almighty, they may receive the Word of wisdom, that opens all things, and come to know the hidden unity in the Eternal Being. (Journal, Nickalls edition, pages 27–28)

So many common themes in these two passages: the fall, that is, the destruction of cosmic harmony by evil forces, and its restoration; vision and ascension to a higher world; enhanced senses and understanding; the power of healing and insight into the secrets of creation; passage beyond the normal mortal human condition into a quasi-divine condition. 

And both accounts echo the ascent of the Son of Man to receive royal status by the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7, with which Jesus identifies himself. But that is another subject.