In one of Arthur Green’s essays, he explains that..
“...the notion that the Temple is the opening to heaven and hell, or stands on the spot where Creation began, or is located just below the great heavenly Temple, does not find direct narrative expression in scripture. Such is of course indicated by biblical language and terminology: Beth El and Sha’ar ha-Shamayim [the House of God, The Gates of Heaven]… the fact that these terms grow forth into full and explicit narratives in the post-biblical sources, where less care is taken with regard to such anti-mythic “orthodoxy,” and sometimes in forms quite strikingly parallel in expressions in Mesopotamian literature of more than a millennium earlier, makes it rather likely that these concept were indeed part of the unrecorded folk legacy of ancient Israel.”
The source he quotes for this statement is Raphael Patai’s Man and Temple. This book is fascinating, and indeed does explore what we can call mythological elements of both the Temple, and the rites that took place within it. Perhaps the biggest problem with this work is that it was written when Fraser’s The Golden Bough still dominated folklore studies. It no longer does, so one has to wonder if Patai’s frame for the stories and legends in here are well out of date and misleading.
But with that in mind, in the end these are wonderful and provocative stories worth reading.
“...the notion that the Temple is the opening to heaven and hell, or stands on the spot where Creation began, or is located just below the great heavenly Temple, does not find direct narrative expression in scripture. Such is of course indicated by biblical language and terminology: Beth El and Sha’ar ha-Shamayim [the House of God, The Gates of Heaven]… the fact that these terms grow forth into full and explicit narratives in the post-biblical sources, where less care is taken with regard to such anti-mythic “orthodoxy,” and sometimes in forms quite strikingly parallel in expressions in Mesopotamian literature of more than a millennium earlier, makes it rather likely that these concept were indeed part of the unrecorded folk legacy of ancient Israel.”
The source he quotes for this statement is Raphael Patai’s Man and Temple. This book is fascinating, and indeed does explore what we can call mythological elements of both the Temple, and the rites that took place within it. Perhaps the biggest problem with this work is that it was written when Fraser’s The Golden Bough still dominated folklore studies. It no longer does, so one has to wonder if Patai’s frame for the stories and legends in here are well out of date and misleading.
But with that in mind, in the end these are wonderful and provocative stories worth reading.
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