----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Calkins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The basic meaning is, I believe, very inexpensive, rough clothing. In
relatively recent times, sackcloth was typically tho't of as feedsack
material. > From this, the meaning could be that the wearers would be
poor and possibly outcast, not permitted to earn enough money for better
quality clothing. The other possibility is that they would be in mourning
for the people having fallen away from the religion of God. As I remember,
some of the Old Testament prophets adopted sack cloth garb.
Strong's Concordance says that the Greek word here translated as "sackcloth"
was "sakkos, i.e. mohair (the material or garments made of it, worn as a
sign of grief): - sackcloth."
However, in connection with the Master's explanation that the meaning of
sackcloth is more related to the garments being "old":
It is said they "are clothed in sackcloth," meaning that they, apparently,
were to be clothed in old raiment, not in new raiment; in other words, in
the beginning they would possess no splendor in the eyes of the people, nor
would their Cause appear new; for Muhammad's spiritual Law corresponds to
that of Christ in the Gospel, and most of His laws relating to material
things correspond to those of the Pentateuch. This is the meaning of the
old raiment. (Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 48)
... this statement by the Bab in the Book of Seven Proofs is illuminating:
"Indeed observe how He Who representeth the origin of creation, He Who is
the Exponent of the verse, 'I, in very truth, am God', identified Himself as
the Gate [Bab] for the advent of the promised Qa'im, a descendant of
Muhammad, and in His first Book enjoined the observance of the laws of the
Qur'an, so that the people might not be seized with perturbation by reason
of a new Book and a new Revelation and might regard His Faith as similar to
their own, perchance they would not turn away from the Truth and ignore the
thing for which they had been called into being." (Selections from the
Writings of the Bab, p. 119)
Brent
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