Where is my face?
"So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. Then the LORD said to Cain, 'Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?'" (Genesis 4:3-6)
...God questions Cain. It's the very well known story of Cain and Abel. "Where is Abel your brother?" But before this question - this is the second - is another one: "Why has your countenance fallen?" In Genesis 4:6. Literally speaking, if we were to translate this language - it's a little bit old for me, for us - literally it means, why has your face fallen? Your face. "Cain, you dropped your face. I can't see your face. Where is your face?" If we would search the language - you know, the language is a big treasure for all of us - we would find here something very interesting. In Hebrew, we find the word, panim. This is a plural, but always used as a singular. ... Like trousers or scissors. You know, there is a secret in this language. He speaks about faces. The Bible never speaks about one face. It always speaks about faces.
...The Greek word for mask is very similar to this Hebrew word. It's prosopeio. What does it mean, this? It means, "pro" - like, I have a face, but I have to turn my face toward you. I exist just in this motion of turning toward you. In other words, objectively speaking, one face cannot exist. Only panim. Only many faces. Only various faces. Just one face does not exist. Because my face contains your faces, but in the beginning it contains the face of God, of the creator.
God says to our friend, Cain, "You dropped your face." Do we have faces or do we just have our own face? Do we have a plural face? In other words, does our face contain the face of God or not? This is the basis of humanity. To share the face of God, the panim. If we don't, what happens? The next step of Cain is murder. The first step is to drop the face, the next step is to kill the other. To destroy the other's face.
We have a wonderful passage in the Bible when God speaks to a friend of His face to face. Moses. God wants to speak to us face to face. In other words, to share His face with us. We need to have faces penetrated by God's image. We need this, because if not, the next step is violence. ... My father explained to me once that this expression in the Bible, face-to-face, means to be so close, one face to the other, that there is no room for anything in between. Do we have things in between God's face and our face? Do we have? We do. We do. But we need the light of the Holy Spirit to see those things and to deliver us from behind those walls.
[AV, 2008]
...God questions Cain. It's the very well known story of Cain and Abel. "Where is Abel your brother?" But before this question - this is the second - is another one: "Why has your countenance fallen?" In Genesis 4:6. Literally speaking, if we were to translate this language - it's a little bit old for me, for us - literally it means, why has your face fallen? Your face. "Cain, you dropped your face. I can't see your face. Where is your face?" If we would search the language - you know, the language is a big treasure for all of us - we would find here something very interesting. In Hebrew, we find the word, panim. This is a plural, but always used as a singular. ... Like trousers or scissors. You know, there is a secret in this language. He speaks about faces. The Bible never speaks about one face. It always speaks about faces.
...The Greek word for mask is very similar to this Hebrew word. It's prosopeio. What does it mean, this? It means, "pro" - like, I have a face, but I have to turn my face toward you. I exist just in this motion of turning toward you. In other words, objectively speaking, one face cannot exist. Only panim. Only many faces. Only various faces. Just one face does not exist. Because my face contains your faces, but in the beginning it contains the face of God, of the creator.
God says to our friend, Cain, "You dropped your face." Do we have faces or do we just have our own face? Do we have a plural face? In other words, does our face contain the face of God or not? This is the basis of humanity. To share the face of God, the panim. If we don't, what happens? The next step of Cain is murder. The first step is to drop the face, the next step is to kill the other. To destroy the other's face.
We have a wonderful passage in the Bible when God speaks to a friend of His face to face. Moses. God wants to speak to us face to face. In other words, to share His face with us. We need to have faces penetrated by God's image. We need this, because if not, the next step is violence. ... My father explained to me once that this expression in the Bible, face-to-face, means to be so close, one face to the other, that there is no room for anything in between. Do we have things in between God's face and our face? Do we have? We do. We do. But we need the light of the Holy Spirit to see those things and to deliver us from behind those walls.
[AV, 2008]
posted by CS at 2:44 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home