Another
ancient symbol of renewed life is the sacred embrace.[xiv] Hugh
Nibley notes that according to the Manichaean religion, “the right
hand was used for bidding farewell to our heavenly parents upon
leaving our primeval home and [was] the greeting with which we shall
be received when we return to it.”[xv] Likewise,
the Mandaeans, whose history may intersect with disciples of John the
Baptist,[xvi] still
continue a ritual practice in which the kushta,
a ceremonial handclasp, is given three times, each one of which,
according to Elizabeth Drower, “seems to mark the completion … of
a stage in a ceremony.”[xvii] At
the moment of glorious resurrection, Mandaean scripture records that
a final kushta will
also take place, albeit in the form of an embrace — what
the Ginza calls
the “key of the kushta of
both arms.” In this context, the two-armed embrace of Mandaean
ritual can be seen as an intensification and a fulfillment of the
handclasp gesture.
Both
the handclasp and the sacred embrace may represent not only mutual
love and trust but also a transfer of life and power from one
individual to another. In what Elder Willard Richards called “the
sweetest sermon from Joseph he ever heard in his life,”[xviii]the
Prophet described a vision of the resurrection that, like Mandaean
ritual, included a handclasp and an embrace:[xix]
So
plain was the vision. I actually saw men, before they had ascended
from the tomb, as though they were getting up slowly. They took each
other by
the hand,
and it was, “My father and my son, my mother and my daughter, my
brother and my sister.” When the voice calls for the dead to arise,
suppose I am laid by the side of my father, what would be the first
joy of my heart? Where is my father, my mother my sister? They are by
my side. I
embrace them,
and they me.
Joseph
Smith’s words about the gesture of embrace in the resurrection
recalls similar symbolism in the stories of Elijah and Elisha, who
each employed a similar ritual gesture as they raised a dead child
back to life.[xx] The
more detailed account of Elisha reads as follows (see Figure 5):[xxi]
And
he [Elisha] went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon
his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands:
and he stretched himself upon the child;[xxii] and
the flesh of the child waxed warm.[xxiii]
Although
some might take the “intent of this physical contact [as] to
transfer the bodily warmth and stimulation of the prophet to the
child, Elijah’s prayer, however, makes it clear that he expected
the life of the child to return as an answer to prayer, not as a
result of bodily contact.”[xxiv] The
threefold repetition of the act in the story of Elijah points to a
ritual context,[xxv] perhaps
corresponding to a similar Mesopotamian procedure where “the healer
superimpose[s] his body over that of the patient, head to head, hand
to hand, foot to foot.”[xxvi]
In
addition to the stories of Elijah and Elisha, Eugene Seaich noted the
following parallels in Jewish and Christian sources:[xxvii]
The
same embrace reappeared in the early Christian Gospel
of Thomas,
where Jesus tells the disciples that they must “become one” with
him by placing eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in the place
of a hand, and a foot in the place of a foot, and an image in the
place of an image.[xxviii]
That
this was remembered even during the Middle Ages is shown by the fact
that the Seder
Eliyahu Rabbah (eighth
century) also explains how God will resuscitate the dead by lifting
them out of the dust, setting them on their feet, and placing them
between his knees to embrace them and press them to him. … Compare
Acts 20:10, where Paul raises a man from the dead with a sacred
embrace. Also the Jewish apocryphon, Joseph and Aseneth, where Joseph
gives his bride eternal life with an embrace and a kiss.[xxix]
Seeing
anticipatory symbolism in this story, the Seder
Eliyahu Rabbah specifically
adds that the Messiah will be the very “Son of the Widow” whom
Elijah raised from the dead.[xxx]
There
is also a symbolism of the sacred embrace in the miracles, death, and
resurrection of the Savior. According to H. Riesenfeld,[xxxii] whose
careful study of Old Testament incidents of raising the dead showed
detailed parallels to the later miracles of the Savior: “It is
perhaps more than chance that the miracles of revivication performed,
according to Jewish belief, by Elijah, Elisha, and Ezekiel, each
prefiguring the coming Messiah, in some way have reached fulfillment
in the Messianic activity of Jesus Christ.” According to Sparks and
Gilquist, the actions of Elijah in reviving a dead child can also be
seen as pointing forward to the “death, burial, and resurrection of
Christ.”[xxxiii] Matthew
Brown brought attention to Medieval paintings such as this one by
Lorenzetti (Figure 7) that echo the actions of Elijah and Elisha,
showing specific points of contact with the Savior at his death —
face, hand, knee, and foot — with an embrace across the chest.
Brown correlated such scenes with passages such as these from English
mystery plays: “Behold my body … / And therefore thou shalt
understand / In body, head, feet, and hand.”[xxxiv]
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