Church as Tower

In the Second Temple period, one of the normal terms for the Jewish Temple became “tower” (thus in 1 Enoch and some other Jewish works), clearly, influenced by the Babylonian ziggurats — temples in the form of tower. This term persisted in some Christian works (thus, the tower imagery in the Pastor) and even traditions. The following monolith churches in Lalibela (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalibela), Ethiopia, that are created below the level of ground in the 12th and 13th cent. are called “towers” in the Ethiopian Life of Lalibela, the king who constructed all this after a revelation when he saw the heavenly temple (I suggest to see much more pictures from Lalibela available on the web):

However, the typology of the Church as the Tower is in a more direct connection to another Babylonian “ziggurat”, namely, the Tower of Babel. This imagery is also pre-Christian. In the Jewish apocalypse 3 Baruch the feast of the Pentecost (day of the Covenant, and so, of the creation of the Church in the OT sense) is presented as a correction of the sin committed by the builders of the Tower of Babel. Thus, the true Church is an antipode of the Tower of Babel.
One of the greatest Byzantine poets, Roman the Melodos, in the early sixth century, wrote a poem (called “kondakion”) on the Pentecost whose initial strophes are still in use in the Byzantine rite (in the Pentecost service). The opening strophe is the following:
When the Most High came down and confused the tongues,
He divided the nations,
but when He distributed the tongues of fire,
He called all men to unity.
Wherefore, we glorify the Holy Spirit with one accord.
It explains what is the connection between the Church and the Tower of Babel.
(Sorry for being unable to find out an appropriate musical performance of the kondakion; all that I have found on the web were 19th-century sentimental harmonizations).

Cameron mentioned, as a basic distinction between the Jewish and the Christian mysticisms, that the Jewish one was focused on the Torah, although the Christian one, indeed, on Christ.
This diversity, put back into its early Christian context, reveals continuity.
Even in the medieval Christian context we have, among other images used as symbols of the Theotokos (Mother of God), the “Book”: Theotokos is “the animated book of Christ” in which the Father wrote with his finger his Word (Logos). This imagery, common in the Eastern (probably, Western too? I don’t know) Christianity, goes back to the early Christian prototypes and, through them, to the following verses of Isaiah (29:11-12): “Y os será toda visión como palabras de libro sellado, el cual si dieren al que sabe leer, y le dijeren: Lee ahora esto; él dirá: No puedo, porque está sellado. Y si se diere el libro al que no sabe leer, diciéndole: Lee ahora esto; él dirá: No sé leer”.
M. van Esboeck once published a homily attributed to John Chrysostom and known in the Armenian translation from Greek only (really datable to the 5th cent.) where this Isaiah’s imagery is applied to the Theotokos. She was a virgin like a concealed book but Joseph who was experienced in marriage, was unable to understand her mystery (God’s incarnation in her womb); likewise, when the incarnation was revealed to the world, John the Theologian, who was a virgin inexperienced in marriage, was unable to understand how the mystery of incarnation was performed. Thus, the “contents” of the Theotokos as a book remains beyond any understanding…
This is not all. As van Esbroeck pointed out, this pseudo-Chrysostom’s passage is a key to a very esoteric text among the early Christian (2nd or 3rd cent.) “Songs of Solomon” (a series of extremely beautiful hymns persisting in Syriac and in Coptic, one song also in Greek), Ode 23. It describes some “letter” from heaven which is concealed and received on some “wheel”; then, the wheel started to roll, and so, the letter passes from its top to the bottom; in the same time, it becomes very great… (I put a Spanish translation of this text at the end of this message). In this text, the Theotokos is, probably, symbolised with both wheel and letter, but Theotokos and Christ are somewhat merged in the symbol of letter (although, of course, Christ is here, first of all, the text written in the letter). Letter appears as a roll (with a seal), that is, as a book (in this time, the books were normally rolls and not codices composed from the quaternions).
———
Oda 23
1 ¡Regocijo de los Santos! ¿ Quiénes lo disfrutarán sino Ellos?
2 ¡Gracia dada a los elegidos! ¿ Quiénes la recibirán excepto aquellos que han creído en ella desde el principio?
3 ¡El Amor de los elegidos! ¿ Quiénes se revestirán de el excepto aquellos que lo han disfrutado desde el
principio?
4 Caminen ustedes en el Conocimiento del Altísimo sin resistirse a Su alborozo y a la perfección de su
Sabiduría.
5 Su pensamiento vino como una carta, Su voluntad descendió de las alturas, y fue enviada como una flecha
desde un arco,
6 Y muchas manos se precipitaron a la carta para apresarla, tomarla y leerla:
7 Pero escapó de sus dedos y ellos se aterraron de eso y del sello que estaba sobre ella.
8 Porque no les fue permitido a ellos soltar su sello: pues el poder que estaba sobre el sello era superior a ellos,
9 Pero otros la vieron y fueron detrás de ella porque podían saber donde descendería, y quién la leería y quién
la escucharía.
10 Pero una rueda la recibió y se posó sobre ella.
11 Y se halló en ella una señal del Reino y de su Potestad:
12 Y todo el que trató de detener la rueda fue segado y desechado.
13 Y congregó a la muchedumbre de sus adversarios, y cruzó los ríos sacó de raíz muchos bosques e hizo un
ancho sendero.
14 Las cabezas se inclinaron a los pies de hacia quien corría la rueda, y que tenía una señal sobre ella.
15 La carta era de mandato, y abarcaba a todas las regiones;
16 Y fue vista a la cabeza de quién fue revelado como el Hijo de Verdad del Altísimo Padre,
17 Y Él heredó y tomó posesión de todo. Y los pensamientos de muchos fueron reducidos a nada.
18 Y todos los traidores se apresuraron a huir. Y esos quienes enfurecidos la persiguieron fueron extinguidos.
19 La carta era un gran libro, escrito enteramente por el dedo de Dios:
20 Y el Nombre del Padre, el del Hijo y el de la Santa Espíritu estaba en el, para regir para siempre. Aleluya.

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