Texts in Conversation
On the Origin of the World quotes Psalm 92 from the Greek Septuagint translation, where the word for palm also means phoenix, and interprets it as the mythical bird in Greek and Roman tradition that dies and rises again, a symbol of the end of the age.
Share:
2500 BCE
1000+ CE
LXX Psalms 91:13
Septuagint
10 For look, your enemies will perish, and all those who are working lawlessness will be scattered abroad. 11 But my horn will be raised up as a unicorn, and my old age will be with good olive oil. 12 And my eyes looked on my enemies, and my ear will listen to those acting wickedly, who rise up against me. 13 The righteous will bloom like a palm tree; like the cedar that is in Lebanon he will increase. 14 Those planted in the house of the Lord will flourish in the courts of our God. 15 Then they will increase in old age with plenty, and they will be well off 16 to report that the Lord, my God, is righteous, and there is no injustice in him.
On the Origin of the World 24:10
Nag Hammadi
Similarly, the three phoenixes ‹inside› Paradise: the first is deathless, the second lives for 1,000 years. Of the third it is written in the sacred Scripture that it is consumed. Similarly, as well, there are three baptisms: the first is spiritual, the second is with fire, the third is with water. Precisely as the phoenix symbolizes the angels, so is the case of the water hydri in Egypt, which symbolizes those who descend into the baptism of a true man. The two bulls in Egypt possess a symbolic meaning, namely, the sun and moon, which is a symbol of Sabaoth, on account of Sophia obtaining the universe from the day that she fashioned the sun and the moon, placing a seal on her heaven, until the age ends. And the worm born out of the phoenix is also symbolic of a human being, of which it is written, “the just man will blossom like a phoenix,” and the phoenix appears first alive, and dies, and rises again, functioning as a symbol of what will happen at the consummation of the age.
Tags:
Search:
Notes and References
“... The homonymy of the phoenix’ name and the word for palm (Gk phoinix, Lat phoenix), led several Latin authors to assume a relationship between bird and tree (Lactantius, De ave phoen., 69-70; Isidore of Sevilla, Etymol., XVII.7:1). Tertullian, De resurr. mort., XIII:3, read in Ps 91:13 [LXX]: “The righteous shall flourish like the phoenix” (also in Pseudo-Ambrose, De trin., 34 [PL 17, 545A]; On the Origin of the World, NHC II 122:28-29; Byzantine Physiologus, 10). ...”
Broek, R. van den
"Phoenix" in Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst (eds.) Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible
(p. 655) Brill / William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
Your Feedback:
Leave a Comment
Anonymous comments are welcome. All comments are subject to moderation.
User Comments
,