Yes Susan, I am in agreement that visions are not
accepted as physical matter. Was it not the
misinterpreted "seeing of Him" that was understood to
be a physical body resurrected, rather than the
spiritual vision of spiritual "matter"?>>
There are three kinds of "seeing"
-- seeing a person in the physical sense, with physical eyes
-- seeing a vision
-- "seeing" meaning faith, meaning recognition of the station of the
Manifestation.
It is this third kind that is referred to when Christ says "The people have
eyes, but do not see. Blessed are your eyes for they see." This "seeing"
and these "eyes" are not the physical eyes, and not seeing a vision. It
means perception.
(Respectfully, I personally do not see support in the Baha'i Writings for
the appearances of Christ being visions of "spiritual matter".)
And in the Gospels, sometimes this third kind of seeing or recognition is
referred to as recognition, as in the verse just quoted. However, sometimes
it is symbolically represented, by depicting a believer who sees Jesus, but
does not recognize Him. This is presented as a physical thing, that the
believer physically sees Jesus, but does not physically recognize Him. The
Guardian says these should be understood allegorically; though the text of
the Gospel gives no hint that it should be understood allegorically;
presenting it as a physical event. So, the Gospel says that Mary Magdalene
saw Jesus in the garden, but didn't recognize Him; and the disciples on the
road to Emmaus saw him but their "eyes were holden" and they did not
recognize Him until He gave them "bread." Then their eyes were opened and
they recognized Him.
In the paper I wrote, "The Kitab-i-Iqan, the Key to Unsealing the Mysteries
of the Holy Bible" I go into this more fully, with more Bible quotations.
http://bahai-library.com/?file=poirier_iqan_unsealing_bible
For me, the key to understanding this is this letter on behalf of Shoghi
Effendi:
"We do not believe that there was a bodily resurrection after the
crucifixion of Christ, but that there was a time after His ascension when
His disciples perceived spiritually His true greatness and realized He was
eternal in being. This is what has been reported symbolically in the New
Testament and been misunderstood. His eating with His disciples after
resurrection is the same thing." From a letter on behalf of the Guardian,
"High Endeavours" pp. 69-70, "Lights of Guidance," 2nd Edition, p. 368
The only way that the disciples spiritually recognizing Jesus can be the
"same thing" as "eating" with Him, is if the "seeing" and the "eating" are
understood symbolically; such as when the disciples ate with Jesus after His
resurrection, and recognized Him after they ate bread, and Mary told them
what she had "seen."
And this is why the times when people "saw" Jesus after His crucifixion and
resurrection, were all appearances to believers: This is because these were
not "appearances" in the physical sense of the word; nor were these visions.
Rather, these are allegorical depictions of these believers regaining their
faith and steadfastness, realizing the eternity of Christ, and "seeing" Him
in that sense. In that sense, a non-believer could not "see" Jesus, by
definition, because a person who "sees" Jesus means a person who believes in
Him; and that is why the Bible contains no such reference. These are the
appearances of Christ after His resurrection -- all to believers, which I
copied from a study Bible:
To Mary Magdalene (Matthew 16:9, John 20:11-18);
To other women believers (Matthew 28:9-10);
To two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35);
To Peter (Luke 24:34);
To ten disciples (John 20:19-25);
To eleven disciples (John 20:26);
To the Apostles at the Sea of Tiberias (John 21:1-25);
The great commission to the disciples at Galilee (Matthew 28:16-20);
To five hundred believers (1 Corinthians 15:6);
To all the apostles (Acts 1:4-11);
To James (1 Corinthians 15:7);
To Paul (Acts 9:3-6, 1 Corinthians 15:8);
To John (Revelation 1:10-18).
Again, these "appearances" were neither physical events nor visions. This,
according to the quote from Shoghi Effendi above, means that these people
"perceived spiritually His true greatness and realized He was eternal in
being."
Brent
The information contained in this e-mail and any attachments thereto ("e-mail") is sent
by the Johnson County Community College ("JCCC") and is intended to be confidential and
for the use of only the individual or entity named above. The information may be protected by
federal and state privacy and disclosures acts or other legal rules. If the reader of this message
is not the intended recipient, you are notified that retention, dissemination, distribution or
copying of this e-mail is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error please
immediately notify JCCC by email reply and immediately and permanently delete this e-mail message
and any attachments thereto. Thank you.
__________________________________________________
You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:archive@mail-archive.com
Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st
Baha'i Studies is available through the following:
Mail - mailto:bahai-st@list.jccc.edu
Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st
News - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st
Public - http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist
Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.net
New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu
