"10 When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the LORD. 11 And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled his temple. 12 Then Solomon said, "The LORD has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud; 13 I have indeed built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever." - 1 Kings 8:10-13 NIV
For some reason I'm almost disturbed by this section. First off, it's not as "glorious" as one would picture God. There is no brilliant white lights and no chorus of angels, just a dark "gloom" as they call it in some translations. It just doesn't have that Godlike feel to it and almost seems more sinister. You could argue I guess that it's to conceal God's image from people so they won't die, but then again, I've heard just being in the Ark's presence can kill. In fact they would tie ropes onto priests going into the "Holy of Holies" so if they did die they could be pulled out.
Surprisingly, as far as I know, this section has yet to have been brought up by ancient astronaut theorists. The dark cloud almost makes me think of an artificial atmosphere, designed for an alien entity. I mean who say aliens breath our air right? Not to mention if their atmosphere is poisonous to humans, it would explain why priests would die when in the presence of the Ark. Either way, it kind of gives me the willies...unless of course God was going through a moody goth phase...
7 comments:
That's an interesting concept. A 'cloud' of alien-atmosphere.
Btw, I love the new look! It totally works!
The cloud appears frequently in the Torah too, although the Torah books usually don't specifically refer to it as being dark except in Deuteronomy. Why the dark appearance, I don't know. It was also described as a pillar of fire at night in the Torah, to give the Israelites light.
The Torah makes it pretty clear that Moses saw the Lord face to face, and the Torah also says that 'the angel of God' led the Israelites through Egypt. So there seemed to be some sort of embodiment, or at least an appearance of embodiment.
Wow- this reminds me of the 456 in Torchwood: Children of Earth. Which is very appropriate if you read the early books of the Old Testament.
I thought about this again, and thought I might take it a step further.
I don't know if you've noticed or not, but in the Old Testament, you sometimes see the phrase 'the angel of God' (or the the angel of the LORD). There are other angels mentioned in the Old Testament that do the will of God and pass along messages, but there is one that is referred to specifically as the angel of God, and that particular angel seems to speak directly for God when he appears.
Jump ahead to the New Testament, you'll notice you no longer see the phrase 'the angel of God' after the birth of Jesus. The one referred to as 'the angel of God' is no longer mentioned, because by that point, Jesus was speaking the Word of God directly.
One Christian interpretation of this is that the one referred to as 'the angel of God' in the Old Testament was a sort of pre-incarnate humanlike (or humanoid) version of Christ. In the New Testament, God set aside his glory to take a fully human form, born as a baby, and live a human experience.
However, in light of what you have written here, I could see how someone today might look back at that and interpret it as some sort of alien genetic engineering. I don't think it was alien genetic engineering, but someone else might think that. I still prefer the Christian interpretation myself.
Just thought I'd throw that out there...
Hey Jason, maybe the gloom was part of Gods way of saying that who ever was in the presence of the ark would surely parish cause it contained all the wickedness of both earth and celestial beings that if ever unleashed would bring a dark cloud of despair all over this world. However your alien theory can go a long way in as much as there is no one around these days that can affinitively say whats really in there or whatever. Pat
If we had the tone of voice that was used when the statement was made you'd have your answer.
For that matter, imagine what we would have if we hand the tone of voice for all verses. :)
That verse there can be interpreted too many ways. If something is interpreted too many ways or even more than one way I put it away and go on.
Wow, this post received a lot more comments then I thought it would lol! Thanks for all the responses.
Interstellar,
I'm glad you like the new look...I wasn't sure about it myself, but it's been well received so far.
Jeff,
I was noticing how often clouds appear when God is around in other sections as well. For the most part it seems to me to be a sign of when God is around. Perhaps also it's a form of concealment.
Also now that I think of it, I'm reminded of mists reported in "haunted" locations as well. Perhaps the clouds/mist are an embodiment of some sort of multidimensional beings, which I think we could agree, God would be by definition.
As for the "angel of God", I got more of an impression that it was sort of a physical avatar for God. Sort of like a character you play as in a role playing game.
Christopher,
I almost brought up the Torchwood comparison in my post because that was instantly what I was reminded of when I first read the passage.
Pat,
You have a good point that no one is around now at days that could tell us what really happened. It'd be interesting to hear what they would say here.
Atrueoriginall,
There are definitely a lot of ways to interpret what happened in those verses. And you are quite right about the tone of voice as well. More accurately I think we could say we don't know how it was originally meant to be interpreted by the reader. At the same time, some truth is possibly even lost in the translation from Hebrew to English making it that tiny bit harder to understand.
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