Quintessence: The Fifth Essence is (like God) Unmentioned
Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2021 12:17 pm
For Philo, the Fifth Essence is Indescribable, so left largely unspoken. FIVE unifies: it is both divine and divinizing, like a metacosmic glue, a force operating at the substratum of Reality. It effects a God-becoming Synthesis. The implications are vast!
Two examples:
So the Chrism or Water baptism is not really symbolic; it has become the Quintessence. Rather, the consummated matter itself has become symbolic; by divinization such is transformed (by Spirit) into something Holy. Become a transferrent agent?
Where appears a 'Four Step' Outline for Palingenesia or Metempsychosis, ACTUALLY a 'Fifth Step' is tacitly implied. God's Divinization (the Process itself) is effected through this mysterious Fifth Essence, which we might call: the Holiness. It is implicit in the process of Divine Reality unfolding, and in the Power known to and channelled by the Jewish A. A. in Egypt, c.25 AD. (Obviously, Jesus wasnt the first, nor would he be the last, to tap and express that Power. But the myth was successfully hijacked by his followers, YES.) The esoteric concept must have been developed several generations before Philo, it was already 'well-known' to Jewish mystics, perhaps c.150 BC.
I only sensed this theory must be evident; I have not yet seen it elucidated. But I thought the scholars of the Philonica must surely know this! There MUST be evidence in Philo Judaeus; the Tetrad of Material Elements is incomplete. I was disappointed by David T. Runia's Philo of Alexandria and The 'Timaeus' of Plato [1986], pp.294-5:
Runia gets close, but misses the mark. There is a more important passage, I think. I'd be surprised if Wolfson also neglected this; I havent yet confirmed, but it seems he did. Hello?!
The Four are 'completed' by Five! Because that's Cosmic Reality. See Quaestiones et solutiones in Genesin 3.6:
The divine goo holds it All together. In the Platonic system, Five completes and divinizes Four: 'Five' brings God into or upon the Cosmic 'Four'. In De E apud Delphos, Plutarch {c.115 AD} says, “it appears that someone earlier than Plato {c.425 BC} realized this and therefore established Five for the god, an indication and symbol of the number of everything” (ἔφθη δή τις ταῦτα πρότερος συνιδὼν Πλάτωνος, διὸ εἶ καθιέρωσε τῷ θεῷ, δήλωμα καὶ σύμβολον τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ τῶν πάντων; 391c).
I'm not sure how well understood the concept is, though it's pretty easy to grasp. See Michael Leo Samuel, Rediscovering Philo of Alexandria: A First Century Torah Commentator ... [2016], p.121 n.129.
This. So very, very this! Everything is really THIS.
In theological terms, quintessence points to the indescribable spiritual essence origin of all possible phenomenal forms in the space-time continuum.
Impossible to visualize. For Philo Judaeus, the Torah would be the neatest expression of this metacosmic glue, the spiritual laws undergirding the Universe.
Two examples:
So the Chrism or Water baptism is not really symbolic; it has become the Quintessence. Rather, the consummated matter itself has become symbolic; by divinization such is transformed (by Spirit) into something Holy. Become a transferrent agent?
Where appears a 'Four Step' Outline for Palingenesia or Metempsychosis, ACTUALLY a 'Fifth Step' is tacitly implied. God's Divinization (the Process itself) is effected through this mysterious Fifth Essence, which we might call: the Holiness. It is implicit in the process of Divine Reality unfolding, and in the Power known to and channelled by the Jewish A. A. in Egypt, c.25 AD. (Obviously, Jesus wasnt the first, nor would he be the last, to tap and express that Power. But the myth was successfully hijacked by his followers, YES.) The esoteric concept must have been developed several generations before Philo, it was already 'well-known' to Jewish mystics, perhaps c.150 BC.
I only sensed this theory must be evident; I have not yet seen it elucidated. But I thought the scholars of the Philonica must surely know this! There MUST be evidence in Philo Judaeus; the Tetrad of Material Elements is incomplete. I was disappointed by David T. Runia's Philo of Alexandria and The 'Timaeus' of Plato [1986], pp.294-5:
it is virtually certain that Philo's very limited interest in Plato's {number} theory was stimulated by the reading of arithmological literature rather than through a detailed study of the Timaeus itself. In contrast to the arithmological sources, however, Philo's remarks are consistently called forth by explanations of Biblical symbolism (unless the fragment is part of the περὶ ἀριθμῶν {Philo’s ‘On Numbers’}, but even this lost work may well have been meant primarily as a source-book for illustratory material required in exegesis). […] In presenting Philo's thought on the creation and structure of the cosmos Wolfson (1.310) declares: “As in Plato, the elements are described by him [i.e. Philo] as having certain geometrical figures.’ This statement, based on the passage in Quaestiones et solutiones in Genesin 3.49 alone, is formulated in an excessively 'doctrinal' manner. Philo is convinced that the ordered structure of the cosmos is achieved by means of number, also at the elemental level. But he is not very interested in Plato's subtle theory of the primary bodies.
Runia gets close, but misses the mark. There is a more important passage, I think. I'd be surprised if Wolfson also neglected this; I havent yet confirmed, but it seems he did. Hello?!
The Four are 'completed' by Five! Because that's Cosmic Reality. See Quaestiones et solutiones in Genesin 3.6:
{God} is shadowing forth a fifth and cyclic nature, from which the ancients say that the heaven was perfected. For the four elements are mixtures rather than elements: by which they sub-divides those already divided into materials of which they are mixed. Thus, the earth contains within itself a water element, and an aerial one, and also of fiery one: more by our our comprehension of it, than by sight. And water is not so pure and unmixed that it has no wind and earth. And so in each of the others there are mixtures. But the fifth substance {quintessence} only is made unmixed and pure, so it was not usually mentioned at all.[…] the simpler and unmixed fifth essence, and therefore this nature, therefore more closely resembles Unity, is indivisible.
The divine goo holds it All together. In the Platonic system, Five completes and divinizes Four: 'Five' brings God into or upon the Cosmic 'Four'. In De E apud Delphos, Plutarch {c.115 AD} says, “it appears that someone earlier than Plato {c.425 BC} realized this and therefore established Five for the god, an indication and symbol of the number of everything” (ἔφθη δή τις ταῦτα πρότερος συνιδὼν Πλάτωνος, διὸ εἶ καθιέρωσε τῷ θεῷ, δήλωμα καὶ σύμβολον τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ τῶν πάντων; 391c).
I'm not sure how well understood the concept is, though it's pretty easy to grasp. See Michael Leo Samuel, Rediscovering Philo of Alexandria: A First Century Torah Commentator ... [2016], p.121 n.129.
According to Aristotle, this essence exhibits many properties: it is un-generated, un-aging, incorruptible, eternal, constant and unchanging. In theological terms, quintessence points to the indescribable spiritual essence origin of all possible phenomenal forms in the space-time continuum.
This. So very, very this! Everything is really THIS.
In theological terms, quintessence points to the indescribable spiritual essence origin of all possible phenomenal forms in the space-time continuum.
Impossible to visualize. For Philo Judaeus, the Torah would be the neatest expression of this metacosmic glue, the spiritual laws undergirding the Universe.