A few incidental issue: (1) If 3:20-21 is indeed the conclusion of the hymn, its use of the word ‘Saviour’ may support an earlier dating of the Gospel of the Saviour of which we only have a fragment. Pap. Oxy 840. The realism of this account is supported by the relatively recent discovery of the double-pooled, lido-sized Pool of Siloam.
(2) The note 41 on DH 533 and the structural point made almost certainly has a bearing on the ANO beneath the ROTAS-SATOR Word Square found on a column and dateable to a time between 62 & 79 CE. This Square has been linked to the Latin phrase Pater Noster with A & O forming a X as in Christos. The central letter N might refer to snake. The Latin Words have been a focus of attention as has the suggestion represents the Chariot Throne with Wheels within wheels. If however the five by five Square is considered as a Magic Number Square opposite numbers equal 26 and the central square would also yield 26 if doubled. This may link to the the letters of the Tetragramaton which you relate to 1 Corinthians 8:6 and the re-working of the Shema in Jesus Monotheism Vol 1. Some form of the Shema would have been worn in the tefillin by Jewish Christians at the hours of prayer in the Temple when the Lord’s Prayer would have been used. Jews may have introduced the letter Shin as a distinguishing feature from Jewish Christiand before the Fall of the Temple. There was a Christian community in nearby Puteoli at this time and they provided hospitality to Paul. They may well have been exiles from Rome under Claudius.
(3) J. M. Ford proposed Revelation was substantially the work of some of John the Baptist’s disciples. Apollos was learned and knew the Scriptures according to Acts. Certainly he would have been capable of writing a para-Pauline hymn with the reference to contemporary worship and knew the Baptism of John but not of Jesus. This is compatible with the worship in Revelation 5 that you relate to the Hymn.
(4) Joseph dreams of stars bowing before his star and this dream materializes as the Genesis plot unfolds though his brothers are deaf and blind to his divine identity, having enslaved him. Except for the post-Freudian charge of being a self- centered prig, he is the last man of Genesis and sinless in contrast to Adam, the first man of the text. Philippians calls on its readers to shine like stars. Joseph was the victim of false enslavement and escaped rape at the hands of his mistress, yet submitted to the will of Jacob’s God. This was part of a divine plan in which he was the Saviour of his people, and his two gentile sons and their mother. In Joseph and Asenath he assumes angelic form. the patriarchs and angels were created beings but was there an un-created Angel who submitted to human form, and even to death on a cross?
Thank you William for this thoughts. I’m especially grateful for no. 2. I agree re Apollos as possible author of the hymn and will discuss this in the second volume of my Jesus Monotheism series.
A few incidental issue: (1) If 3:20-21 is indeed the conclusion of the hymn, its use of the word ‘Saviour’ may support an earlier dating of the Gospel of the Saviour of which we only have a fragment. Pap. Oxy 840. The realism of this account is supported by the relatively recent discovery of the double-pooled, lido-sized Pool of Siloam.
(2) The note 41 on DH 533 and the structural point made almost certainly has a bearing on the ANO beneath the ROTAS-SATOR Word Square found on a column and dateable to a time between 62 & 79 CE. This Square has been linked to the Latin phrase Pater Noster with A & O forming a X as in Christos. The central letter N might refer to snake. The Latin Words have been a focus of attention as has the suggestion represents the Chariot Throne with Wheels within wheels. If however the five by five Square is considered as a Magic Number Square opposite numbers equal 26 and the central square would also yield 26 if doubled. This may link to the the letters of the Tetragramaton which you relate to 1 Corinthians 8:6 and the re-working of the Shema in Jesus Monotheism Vol 1. Some form of the Shema would have been worn in the tefillin by Jewish Christians at the hours of prayer in the Temple when the Lord’s Prayer would have been used. Jews may have introduced the letter Shin as a distinguishing feature from Jewish Christiand before the Fall of the Temple. There was a Christian community in nearby Puteoli at this time and they provided hospitality to Paul. They may well have been exiles from Rome under Claudius.
(3) J. M. Ford proposed Revelation was substantially the work of some of John the Baptist’s disciples. Apollos was learned and knew the Scriptures according to Acts. Certainly he would have been capable of writing a para-Pauline hymn with the reference to contemporary worship and knew the Baptism of John but not of Jesus. This is compatible with the worship in Revelation 5 that you relate to the Hymn.
(4) Joseph dreams of stars bowing before his star and this dream materializes as the Genesis plot unfolds though his brothers are deaf and blind to his divine identity, having enslaved him. Except for the post-Freudian charge of being a self- centered prig, he is the last man of Genesis and sinless in contrast to Adam, the first man of the text. Philippians calls on its readers to shine like stars. Joseph was the victim of false enslavement and escaped rape at the hands of his mistress, yet submitted to the will of Jacob’s God. This was part of a divine plan in which he was the Saviour of his people, and his two gentile sons and their mother. In Joseph and Asenath he assumes angelic form. the patriarchs and angels were created beings but was there an un-created Angel who submitted to human form, and even to death on a cross?
Thank you William for this thoughts. I’m especially grateful for no. 2. I agree re Apollos as possible author of the hymn and will discuss this in the second volume of my Jesus Monotheism series.