Publisher's Synopsis
The thesis of this study exposits the temple veil as symbolizing the firmament above that defines the culture and cosmos of ancient Israel reflected in the Law of Moses, namely, the Law of Holiness. This thesis is corroborated by the ethnological method of Mary Douglas synthesized with the findings of Margaret Barker. Barker noted that the veil bounded heaven from earth, and therefrom, eternity from time, spirit from matter, etc. Barker noted that when a prophet or high priest apprehended (lambano [to lay hold of]) the glory behind the veil, this person assumed the nature of an angel. Conversely, Paul taught: God's glory apprehended that holy one. Paul unveils the mystery, the glory of wisdom hidden behind the veil through ages past, in faith to Jews and Gentiles. This mystery denotes the manifold wisdom of eternal wholeness bounded from the wisdom before the veil that, in turn, is unholy due to the rifts and boundaries dividing being. These divisions result from the contamination of dis-ease (sin, death and decay). This concept symbolized the gulf separating uncreated from created enhanced by the Fall of Adam as the great divide, namely, the gulf as rift.Paul reveals the old oeconomia of Moses reflecting the temple veil and firmament. Also, God through Paul reveals the veil of the new oeconomia through faith in Christ. The former preserves the holy from the unholy while the latter transforms the unholy into wholeness-namely, the catholicization of being based upon the ensomatosis of Christ in being through the logoi of the Logos, the incarnation, and the inscribing of God's wisdom into being through "tables of stone" and holy scripture. Through the incarnation, the healing veil of Christ's person and Church emerges bringing the transformation of unholiness into wholeness through the kenotic love of Christ. In turn, the Church emerges as the eschatological bride of Christ and New Jerusalem, the bridegroom.
