A cosmic crucifixion per Ephesians 3:18

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Giuseppe
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A cosmic crucifixion per Ephesians 3:18

Post by Giuseppe »

Ephesians 3:
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— 2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus
...
18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God

"this love that surpasses knowledge" is the same mistery of which Paul talks in 1 Cor 2:6-11, since also there Paul quotes a scripture where the gnosis is given by the love of God for "whom he loves".

But then why does this mistery is described as having "the breadth and length and height and depth" ?

So Irenaeus, Epideixis 1:34 :

And because He is Himself the Word of God Almighty, who in His invisible form pervades us universally in the whole world, and encompasses both its length and
breadth and height and depth
for by God's Word everything is disposed and administered the Son of God was also crucified in these, imprinted in the form of a cross on the universe; 171 for He had necessarily, in becoming visible, to bring to light the universality of His cross, in order to show openly through His visible form that activity of His: 172 that it is He who makes bright the height, that is, what is in heaven, and holds the deep, which is in the bowels of the earth, and stretches forth and extends the length from East to West, navigating also the Northern parts and the breadth of the South, and calling in all the dispersed from all sides to the knowledge of the Father.


So the crucifixion was originally for Paul a cosmic crucifixion. Not an earthly crucifixion. To eclipse this fact, Irenaeus has to distinguish the invisible (cosmic) crucifixion from the visible Gospel crucifixion.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
nightshadetwine
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Re: A cosmic crucifixion per Ephesians 3:18

Post by nightshadetwine »

the Son of God was also crucified in these, imprinted in the form of a cross on the universe; for He had necessarily, in becoming visible, to bring to light the universality of His cross, in order to show openly through His visible form that activity of His...
This reminds me of Plato's "X". Justin Martyr also compared Plato's "X" to the cross of Jesus.

www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/3/3/880/pdf
At the end of Timaeus, Plato proclaims that the living Cosmos (which he said had the shape of an
X) is a visible, discernible god... The Demiurge first creates the World Soul, composed of two cosmic circles whose intersections
take the form of an X. According to Plato, the Cosmic Soul itself is invisible, but the Creator decides
to make the visible body of the universe as similar as possible to the invisible soul...
I think Plato's "X" and Jesus' cross both represent the crossing or intersecting of "spirit" and "matter" or the invisible and visible.
Giuseppe
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Re: A cosmic crucifixion per Ephesians 3:18

Post by Giuseppe »

1 Corinthians 2:10-11 is describing something of very giant in physical terms (in the eyes, obviously, of Paul):

However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—

the things God has prepared for those who love him—
these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.


“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived"
is precisely "how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ", i.e. the cosmic cross described also by Justin.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
Giuseppe
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Re: A cosmic crucifixion per Ephesians 3:18

Post by Giuseppe »

Hebrews 13:12 refers to this cosmic, celestial crucifixion too:
“ And so Jesus also suffered outside the gate to sanctify the people. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore, for here we do not have an enduring city"


The reason why the Christians have to leave this world (=this camp) is that the celestial sacrifice of Jesus happened, itself, outside this world. If they continue to remain in this world, their sacrifices are not equally valid as the celestial sacrifice of Jesus is, and so they are not purified totally.


The cosmic crucifixion of Jesus in heaven is recent and it precedes the ascension of the his adorers "outside of camp", I.e. from this world.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
Giuseppe
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Re: A cosmic crucifixion per Ephesians 3:18

Post by Giuseppe »

Ephesians 4:10 confirms again that Jesus was crucified on a cosmic cross in heaven, not on earth :

10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)

how could he "fill the whole universe"? Irenaeus knew the answer:

the Son of God was also crucified in these, imprinted in the form of a cross on the universe

Justin also was disturbed by the identity (made by the Gnostics) between the Plato's "X", a cosmic cross, and the cross of Jesus.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
Giuseppe
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Re: A cosmic crucifixion per Ephesians 3:18

Post by Giuseppe »

The cosmic body of Jesus for the his cosmic cross could be read in the Psalm 19:6:
He is strong as a giant to run his course

Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
Giuseppe
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Re: A cosmic crucifixion per Ephesians 3:18

Post by Giuseppe »

A cosmic celestial crucifixion is meant also here, in Galatians 6:14 :
May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world

How could the "world", the κόσμος, be crucified by the cross of Jesus?

By a cosmic crucifixion, precisely described in the following terms :
...the Son of God was also crucified in these, imprinted in the form of a cross on the universe

Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
Giuseppe
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Re: A cosmic crucifixion per Ephesians 3:18

Post by Giuseppe »

A question:

I read that in Cappadocia there would be earliest picture of a COSMIC CROSS (IV° CE).

Can someone help me to give an image of that picture ?

It should be something of very similar to this:

Image

Thanks in advance.
Nihil enim in speciem fallacius est quam prava religio. -Liv. xxxix. 16.
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