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In Ezekiel, the glory of God appears on a throne as a form like a man, glowing like fire from the waist up. The Ladder of Jacob similarly describes a fiery human face at the top of the ladder, which may also represent God's glory.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Ezekiel 1:27
Hebrew Bible
25 Then there was a voice from above the platform over their heads when they stood still. 26 Above the platform over their heads was something like a sapphire shaped like a throne. High above on the throne was a form that appeared to be a man. 27 I saw an amber glow like a fire enclosed all around from his waist up. From his waist down I saw something that looked like fire. There was a brilliant light around it, 28 like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds after the rain. This was the appearance of the surrounding brilliant light; it looked like the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I threw myself face down, and I heard a voice speaking.
Ladder of Jacob 1:3
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
3 And the top of the ladder was a face like a man's, hewn out of fire. 4 Now it had twelve steps up to the top of the ladder, and upon each step up to the top were two human faces on the right and on the left — twenty-four faces seen down to their chests, on the ladder. 5 But the middle face was higher than them all, which I saw made of fire, to the shoulder and the arm, very terrifying, more than the twenty-four faces. 6 And as I looked, there were the angels of God ascending and descending on it; but the Lord was set above it, and he called me, saying, Jacob, Jacob.
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Notes and References
“... It has been previously noted that this fiery extent, labeled in some biblical and intertestamental texts as the “Face,” is related to the glorious celestial entity known in theophanic traditions as God’s Kavod. In these traditions, the Face often serves to designate the radiant façade of the divine Kavod. [...] It is noteworthy, that already in the classic Ezekilean description of God’s Glory in Ezek. 1:27, Kavod is described similarly to the description of the Face in Ladder, namely, as the fiery bust: “I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as it full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him.” ...”
Orlov, Andrei A.
From Apocalypticism to Merkabah Mysticism: Studies in the Slavonic Pseudepigrapha
(pp. 403-404) Brill, 2007
* 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.
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