Jonathan Beale

But it also has to be, like for it to be the fullness, you also have to have these extremes where the angels appear above, these singing angels, the music of the spheres, and then the lowest aspect of reality being connected together so that you say, oh, this is the fullness of God's revelation, the fullness of God's presence in the world represented by these two extremes with the angels up above.

It has to do with hypocrisy. Yeah. The idea of saying one thing and doing another. Like, that's the opposite of incarnation. It's like, it's this disjoining of heaven and earth where you have a word and a being that aren't connected. You say things, you think something, you say something, and then you do another thing. Where Christ is saying, no, heaven and earth have to be united.

It has to do with hypocrisy. Yeah. The idea of saying one thing and doing another. Like, that's the opposite of incarnation. It's like, it's this disjoining of heaven and earth where you have a word and a being that aren't connected. You say things, you think something, you say something, and then you do another thing. Where Christ is saying, no, heaven and earth have to be united.

That is what the incarnation is trying to show.

That is what the incarnation is trying to show.

Sure. I mean, the interesting thing about the flight into Egypt and the massacre of the innocents is, you know, the story of Jesus is always smashing the Old Testament references together, bringing them together in a way that is absolutely crazy. And so what happens is when Jesus goes to Egypt, he's doing the flight and return from Egypt at the same time.

Sure. I mean, the interesting thing about the flight into Egypt and the massacre of the innocents is, you know, the story of Jesus is always smashing the Old Testament references together, bringing them together in a way that is absolutely crazy. And so what happens is when Jesus goes to Egypt, he's doing the flight and return from Egypt at the same time.

That is, when Joseph goes to Egypt, he flees his brothers trying to kill him. When Moses leaves Egypt with the Israelites, he's fleeing the Pharaoh that tried to kill the children of Israel. And so in this version, the two come together in one story. And there's a third element too, which is also King David fleeing King Saul, who the true king fleeing the king that is there at this moment.

That is, when Joseph goes to Egypt, he flees his brothers trying to kill him. When Moses leaves Egypt with the Israelites, he's fleeing the Pharaoh that tried to kill the children of Israel. And so in this version, the two come together in one story. And there's a third element too, which is also King David fleeing King Saul, who the true king fleeing the king that is there at this moment.

So you have this wild image where, you know, the... Christ goes into Egypt in order to flee the king in both ways, like fleeing his own brother, but then also fleeing the tyrant Pharaoh. It's hard even to say it because all the images kind of come together. But this is, we talked about this in Exodus. It's a difficult situation because in some ways it has to do with the problem of the one.

So you have this wild image where, you know, the... Christ goes into Egypt in order to flee the king in both ways, like fleeing his own brother, but then also fleeing the tyrant Pharaoh. It's hard even to say it because all the images kind of come together. But this is, we talked about this in Exodus. It's a difficult situation because in some ways it has to do with the problem of the one.

And it has to do with the problem of the concentration of a generation into one person. It's a little scandalous to talk about it, but I think that that is part of what is happening.

And it has to do with the problem of the concentration of a generation into one person. It's a little scandalous to talk about it, but I think that that is part of what is happening.

All the young, all the babies.

All the young, all the babies.

And it's another echoing of the idea that... And also Joseph, like Joseph leaving his brothers that want to kill him into Egypt, but then also Moses leaving Egypt into the Promised Land. Those two get smashed into one image.

And it's another echoing of the idea that... And also Joseph, like Joseph leaving his brothers that want to kill him into Egypt, but then also Moses leaving Egypt into the Promised Land. Those two get smashed into one image.

There's also the intimation that's been presented right from the beginning and will be continually presented, which is that It is related to the story of Joseph, something like the stranger will recognize him first. Like this will move towards the strangers.

There's also the intimation that's been presented right from the beginning and will be continually presented, which is that It is related to the story of Joseph, something like the stranger will recognize him first. Like this will move towards the strangers.

And for the Christians, too, it's important because the early church, there was a debate. There was actually an early Christian who proposed a single gospel. He said, you know, we have to take these unwieldy texts and merge them into one nice, clean, coherent text.