William Blake on the Life and teaching of Jesus

the Schaefer lectureship was established in 1929 by a gift from John C Schaffer of Chicago as a memorial to his son Kent PhD 1907 the indenture provides for lectures to be given on the life character and teachings of Jesus the series is given every second year alternating with the Nathaniel W Taylor lecture series our distinguished lecturer this year is Christopher Roland dean Ireland's professor of the exegesis of Holy Scripture in the University of Oxford and fellow of Queens College Oxford a post which he has held since 1991 professor Allen was educated at Christ's College Cambridge where he was a contemporary of Rowan Williams the Archbishop of Canterbury and where he graduated with first-class honours in theology he wrote his doctoral dissertation on the origins of Jewish mysticism and its impact on Christian origins his first university appointment was at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne subsequently he served as fellow and Dean of Jesus College Cambridge his research and writing have been concerned with the history of apocalypticism and he has a long-standing interest in Latin American liberation theology and was for a decade Shearer of Christian aides Latin American and Caribbean Committee which was the British church's development work and provides for British church's development work in Latin America his published works are many and they include the open heaven a study of apocalyptic in Judaism and early Christianity all the way through the Kane companion to Liberation Theology published in 2007 we're absolutely delighted to have Christopher with us and look forward to his lectures they overall theme of the shape of lecturers this year yes from impulse not from rules the life character and teachings of Jesus in the light of the prophecy poetry and art of William Blake and today's lecture will be on William Blake on the life and teaching of Jesus please join me in welcoming professor Rob for the honor of being invited to give these shape my lectures and in particular the particular privilege of giving these lectures in the context of convocation for 2008 before I start just a word about the handout that you've got and about halfway through the lecture I'm going to take you through two pieces of William Blake text and I've tried to do it as expeditious expeditiously as possible but on the back of the first page you've got the text written out but it will also be put up here on on the screen I'll read the text so you've got a chance to assimilate it and there will be a second short extract and towards the end of the lecture a mile or so from Year Divinity School just around the corner from the hotel where I'm staying in the Center for British art you can look at one of the treasures of English literature and one might at one of the great treasures of theology in the English language as well it's a unique illuminated version of William Blake's Jerusalem the first took place of which you've got up there on the screen now I don't mean the famous stanzas which have become England's unofficial national anthem of which more in a moment I'm talking about Blake's last major illuminated text Jerusalem one of my graduate students heard that I was going to be in New Haven a year ago and told me that if I did nothing else I should see this text she was right that afternoon and I spent looking at this beautifully illuminated and exquisitely executed work was unforgettable I kept pinching myself as I looked at the extraordinary coloring and the detail which at times seemed to leap out of the page of me in a kind of 3d effect and this is the page in particular which stayed with me the image at the bottom there of the woman above the reclining figure who I take to be Albion symbolizing Britain and the woman probably symbolizing Jerusalem the heroine of the story but what stayed with me was looking at the fringes of her dress and what you can see at the bottom there which you doesn't come across in the digitized version of those little balls the bottom of her dress there which I kind of stand out from the test when one lesson I kept reminding myself that this was probably created from inspiration via a complicated process of engraving and by carefully crafted illumination by an engraver who was living on the fringes of poverty Blake despite having hardly enough to keep himself and his wife Catherine alive spent money on expensive paints not to mention hours of patient labor to create his masterpiece the fact that there is only one example of this version I think is a reminder of the cost not only in terms of labor but also the expense which probably prohibited any further copies like it being made being graving and the printing together enabled this self-proclaimed prophet to match inspiration with production in ways which have rarely been healed the complexity of the words and the designs should not stop us admiring this representative of Blake's art and the examples that I've given you are among the less exotic and enigmatic of the images which one might find the lavish world in which Blake illuminated this book and indeed all his other nominated books as with the icon painters of Orthodox Christianity or the medieval scribes of the Western Church reflected his conviction that the book contained in word and picture a vehicle of redemption it was worth spending the money on for us Blake put it in another engraving roughly contemporary with Jerusalem I quote Christianity is art and not money money is its curse the old and new testaments are the great code about Jesus and His disciples were all artists and a quotation art for Blake was not just an aesthetic experience but part of what he termed the that which enabled the mental fight which was needed to build Jerusalem it was part of a spiritual warfare in which he believed he was engaged to awaken slumbering spirits from their adherence to state religion and what he called mutant sleep the confining a perception to sense experience and the exclusion of the poetic genius which he identifies with the spirit of prophecy which brings me to these lectures whose theme is the life character and teachings of Jesus I hope that's at the very least the three lectures will offer an introduction to an important chapter of the history of interpretation of a life and teaching of Jesus but I'd like to think there will be more to ponder to Blake's life scramming as it does a turbulent period not only in political history but also in the history of ideas touches on a variety of issues which are of importance for studies of students of the Gospels the method I've adopted in these lectures reflects some hints offered by Blake at various points in his writings and explicitly sketched what I consider to be a key part of his hermeneutics in lecture 2 and apply it to my reading of one of the more enigmatic of the pictures of the life of Jesus Blake's hermeneutics may be characterized by the need for an attention to what he calls my quotes my new particulars in both images and texts the juxtaposition of text and image stimulating the imagination and the importance of the involvement of the interpreting subject in engaging with and contributing to the understanding of his texts and images I shall follow a similar map of myself in the interpretation that plays art in his writing added to this I'll bring a historical perspective to bear as I seek to locate Blake in the history of theological exegesis and assess what contribution is very distinctive our two may continue to offer to contemporary biblical interpretation I should stress my perspective is that of a biblical scholar interested in the history of interpretation I've known pretensions to be either an art historian or an expert in English romanticism I've learned much from life scholarship in both of these areas as will be apparent throughout his lecture the details of Blake's life may be briefly told he was born in 1757 and died in 1827 he was married to count who was in his later years his collaborator is engraving and printing he lived most of his life in London with the exception of a few difficult years in Felton in Sussex they were difficult because they marked a time of great personal upheaval when the ideas which formed his long illuminated poems Milton and Jerusalem took shrim who was put on trial at this time for sedition for comments he was alleged to have made to an English soldier he was a skilled trained engraver who pioneered his own technique this remained the basis of his art after his move back to London he lived in obscurity and on the fringes of poverty indebted to the support of patrons like Thomas births for whom he painted painted over 300 biblical scenes some of which will be seen over the next couple of days only the last years of his life was he discovered and lauded by a small group of artists on the screen here you've got the words which are popularly known Astra's taken from a preface Blake wrote for his long poem Milton they're full of biblical things I think if lakid wanted the evidence of the ability of his words to rouse all sorts and conditions of people they're no better example could be found the way these words have had their impact across the political and the age spectrum they encapsulate so much of what is distinctive about Blake as an artist an opponent full of biblical themes as I've said not least themes from the book of Revelation they finish with that quotation from numbers words of God that all the north's people were prophets Blake's conviction that every honest man is a prophet informs his use of the Bible in four short stanzas of his poem London you've got two versions of it here both of which are in the Yale Center for British art and I wanted to just oppose the two because I think they are an example of the way in which Blake and illustrated and painted with different colors that the basic poem and there you've got and two of the companies and which as I say are in the Yale Center let me read the stanzas I wander through each Chartres Street near where the chart attends us flow and mark in every face I need marks of weakness marks of work in every cry of every man in every infants cry of fear in every voice in every band the mind Forge manacles I hear how the chimney sweepers try every blackening Church appalls and the hapless so decide runs in blood down palace walls but most through midnight streets I hear how the youthful harlots curse blast the newborn infants tear and blinds with plagues the marriage shows angry words two versions deliberately illuminated differently for different events there's much one could say about texts and images but it's the biblical allusions in the opening stanza I want to focus on in Ezekiel 9 the Prophet SAW a man clothed with linen which had the writer's inkhorn by his son Ezekiel 9 3 setting a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and the cry for the abominations that be done in the midst of Jerusalem these words inspire Blake the poet prophets observation of what he sees and hears what he marks in the streets of history solemn London but the marks here are not the marks of salvation for light the marks of the beast in Revelation 13 these marks consigned the inhabitants to worse brought on by a society which outwardly may be upright but scratch the surface one finds a sorry tale of suffering and pain it is the vocation of the poet prophet to mark the marks of the beast and of the eschatological was in his minister and Monica together participated the life of misery for the hapless victims of the charted streets of economic change which was late 18th and early 19th century London the first stanza of this poem shows us played actualizing biblical temps words images especially from Blake's favorite prophet Ezekiel are an inspiration to Blake the poet prophet convinced as he is that he acts in continuity in his own time in place with the spirit of prophecy which fired Ezekiel and later of John of Patmos two examples of the ways in which Blake engaged with the Gospels will form the core of this lecture they exemplify Blake's creative reading of the Gospels the first of these is the reading of the story of the woman taken in adultery which was part of an unfinished poem entitled the everlasting gospel the second is flex reading of Matthew 1 19 to 22 which touches on a theme which dominated his writing the second half of his life the gospel being the forgiveness of sins as it stands the everlasting gospel concert 8:7 attempts to first apply the story of Jesus who is presented throughout as a distant humble towards God crowd towards man as plateful see the title the everlasting gospel echoes revelation 14 verse 6 but also coincides with a significant role that this phrase plays in the apocalyptic theology of the Hyori as david admin one of this unfinished poems major interpreters points out these deceptively simple verses mark a return to some of the themes of Blake's work nearly thirty years before in his illuminated text of the 1790s Blake set himself to challenge religion and politics particularly their ways of interpreting the Bible which used it as a text to support the status quo in church instead the life and teaching of Jesus plays a brief but crucial role and Blake depicts Jesus as one who according to his satirical work the marriage of heaven and hell I quote acted from impulse not from wounds like some of the critics of his death who questioned the holistic character of the Pentateuch Blake played with the different names for the divinity and we shall see in the everlasting gospel uses the ambiguous relationship between Jehovah and the angel of the Lord in the Pentateuch to explore tensions in divinity between justice on the one hand and mercy on the other and so to the woman taken in adultery I'm not going to read out but the capacity you've got it there I was going to say something just opposing image and text as blatant as wanting wouldn't to do it about his picture which you haven't before you know in his watercolor interpreting this passage where you see the woman's hands are tied she has her left breast there and her hair - Oh Blake captures the moment in John eight ten but Jesus saying he that is with sin among you let him first cast a stone at you and stooping to the ground for the second time the accusers retreat one can see there one of the accusers feet turning away and Jesus is left alone with the water supreme personal moment and in this respect it's very different from Rembrandt's interpretation I'm just going to allow myself one image by another artist necessary you see here Rembrandt in this interpretation takes seriously the setting of the biblical passage in the champ Grand Collins back there in the shadow of the shadow and reality theme I think Bruton brought out very well here but another contrast between Blake's and Rembrandt's portrayal is that in Blake's picture the woman is standing whereas she's kneeling in an attitude of reverence in the Rembrandt picture indeed as Jesus who is struggling in the ground unto the ground in effect bowing before the woman this is one of those possibilities but I think that Blake found in the biblical text and Exploited to make his point about the divine image already being in the woman was Jesus the divine and human honors by seemingly bowing down before him but notice Jesus fingers stooping down but not quite touching the earth as the woman watches his action he seems to point to a space where the woman can lead which the accusers advocated a space near him but between the two of them his right leg is turned towards the woman and the woman's left foot slightly moves towards Jesus and so to the wounds as I go through the text I want to point to the major outlines of the poem rather than Commons in every detail and I've selected certain parts to look at a little more closely the version on the handout is we're going to see on the screen with the exception of the addition of some biblical reference that I put on the end panned out poem there's the version in the latest edition of David Evans complete poetry prose of William Blake I've tried to number the lines and Faiz the convenience of identification and as I go through the poem I'll consider some blake images which i think as i 15 touched on in the park but first I'm going to read what Jesus chest or did he give any lessons of chastity the morning blushed fiery red Mary was found in adult respect earth groaned beneath and heaven above trembled the discovery of love Jesus was sitting in Moses chair they brought the trembling woman there Moses commanded be she be stoned to death what was the sound of Jesus breath he laid his hand on Moses law the ancient heavens in silent or rich with curses from pole to pole all the way began to rub the earth trembling and naked lay in secret bed of mortal clay on Siloam I felt the hand divine putting back the bloody front and she heard the breath of God as she heard by Eden's flood good and evil are no more sign eyes trumpet cease to rule cease finger of God to write the heavens are not clean in thy sight thou art good and thou alone nor made the similar cast one stone to be good only is to be a god or else a Pharisee that angel of the presence divine that let's create this body of mine wherefore hast thou rid these laws and created hell's dark yours my presence I would take from thee a cold leper thou shalt be though that was so pure and bright that heaven was impure in thy sight though they earth turned heaven pale though my covenant built hell's channel though thou didst all to chaos room with the serpent for its soul still the breath divined us moon and the breath divine is love Mary fear not let me see the Seven Devils that torment thee hide not from my sights thy sin that forgiveness thou mayst wit has no man condemned thee no man Lord then what is he who shall accuse thee come you forth fallen of heavenly birth that have forgot your ancient love and driven away my trembling death you shall bow before her feet you shall lick the dust for eat and though you cannot love but hate shall be beggars and loves Gynt not was thy love let me see it was it love war dark deceit their love too long from me has fled to stop deceit to earn my bread frost-covered or twas custom or some trifle not worth caring for that they may call shame and sin love's temple that God dwelleth in and hide in secret hidden shrine the naked human form divine and render that of lawless thing on which the soul expands his wing but this o Lord this was my sin when first I let these Devils in in dark pretends to chastity blaspheming love blaspheming the dense grows secret adulterers and dense did covered also arise my sin has that thou hast forgiven me canst thou forgive my blasphemy canst I return to this dark hell and in my burning wasn't well and canst thou deny that I made it and can star pity and forgive then roll the shadowy man away from the limbs of Jesus to make them astray an ever devouring appetite glittering with festering Venom's brought crying crucify this cause of distress who don't keep the secrets of holiness all mental powers by disease as we bind but he feels the depth the dumb and the blind whom God has afflicted for secret ends he comforts and heals and calls them friends but when Jesus was crucified then was perfected his glittering problem in three nights he divided his prey and still he devours the body of clerk for Dustin claims the Serpent's meat which never was meant for man to eat at several points the fragments of the everlasting gospel start the questions for example was Jesus hung as here was Jesus chest the answer to the question about chastity is given here by telling the story of the woman taken in adultery determined who as we as we concede plain identified with Mary Magdalene that via various interpretive moves including links with newspapers ^ falls into four parts first of all there's Jesus challenge to Moses law Lang's five to twenty eight then there's challenge to the angel of the divine presence who is held responsible for the woman and engine Jesus situation of having a body of flesh Lions 29 to 40 in the third path lines 41 to 80 the focus turns to the woman and her growing awareness of the circumstances which led to her predicament the final section lines 81 to 96 concerns Jesus death and how what happened to Jesus on the cross heroines what happened for the woman a soap opera lines 528 blank has Jesus sitting in Moses chair Matthew 23 verse 2 alluded to in line 7 they have I been placed in the tradition of Moses and having to make a judgment on the case the critical character of Jesus response is demonstrated by the language about cosmic disturbance in lines 10 to 20 the trembling of the earth even silent picking up themes from Psalm 80 to confirm woman especially Psalm 68 verse 8 the earth truth the heavens also drop to the presence of God even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of the God of Israel but this time the earth-shattering event accompanied a challenge to the law rather the giving of them it's also an eschatological event as the echo of text like revelation 6:14 indicates in line 14 the sky vanishing rolled up like a screw the whole cost is effective the poem turns from the cosmic effects back to the law in line 11 the hand divine this time is not writing laws but manhandling Sinai and the bloody shrine reference property Exodus 20:24 in Lions 9220 there's a contrast between the woman the first sheet in line 19 she heard the breath of God with another sheet I think as she heard by even sludd namely in both the breath of God that was Eve her condemnation the woman her forgiveness the proclamation good and evil are no more asserts place belief at the end of an era defining good and evil on the basis of the law has come to an end with the words cease finger of God to write Jesus pronounces the end of era of law written on Sinai with the finger of God alluding to Exodus 31 the cessation of writing means bringing to an end the contrast which result in exclusion indication between uncleanness and cleanness for example god alone is good an allusion to mark 10:18 might you call me good no one is good but God alone but the consequence of that is that no sinner should cast a stone in line 26 I need to point out that there is an alternative reading who said of God the devil there in parentheses in line 28 and that's a reminder to us and to me in particular that this poem is subject to revision by Blake and the meaning Blake intended may have been in a in a process of change the image here God writing on the tablets of stone just one thing I want to point you to note the hair of the divinity blown from right to left here almost right angles with the head reminiscent of the Ancient of Days in that famous imitation which Blake did in various places this is the preface to his prophecy you'll a wind coming from outside the picture from if I can put it like this the eschatological East place where the desire is going to come from where the day star will appear as we look at it spirit of prophecy the eternal gospel upend impending upon the era of the divine father I think you for this one image which I think epitomizes blade for me it's it's that think of it the compasses and circumscribing things ordering things but then the wind coming outside the picture can ruffling the hairs and ruffling the situation where that all that comes about the imperative sees finger of God - right brings to mind - John 8 where we read the Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground whatever else the words in John 86 length of Blake they don't mean that he was writing your replacement law I said yet as I suggested when we consider the watercolor the finger of Jesus is less writing and pointing to a space which the woman can occupy and that she was just as much the divine in human as Jesus so two parts in Nice 29 to 40 in the following the passage we have the judgment which Jesus passes on the angel of the presence for his part in bringing the woman caught in the act of adultery into her predicament I've been having a body of flesh and blood and subservience to the Lord - 30 and 31 despite a dislocated and blighted world in line 41 the breath divine that his love is still at work on the consequences of his work manifest in the sound of Jesus breath the line 10 and then in that every line that's falling now I just want to point you to an image which play did of the angel of the Divine Presence this time clothing Adam and Eve after they perform this is an interpretation of Genesis 3:21 very different benign figure here as compared with the angry words at the everlasting gospel the angel of the presence appears here as elsewhere in the late for example in the gerb engravings as the Demiurge awarded a divinity reproached by Jesus but keeping humankind with Rahl for a religion of law and the sanctions connected with it is tempting to find in Blake's theology what we may lose the term losting theology whether blake could have known of the details of Seth healing Valentinian systems I very much doubt be that as it meant one of Blake's most distinguished modern critics Walton Paley has put it and I quote Blake was a most who found his mythology trapping him in a dualistic position he's right but I would take it further because we get strong denunciation of dualistic ideas in Blake and I'd add to this comment that Blake is also trapped in journalism by his exegesis of the Bible he's gone back to the Pentateuch and kind of found fissures in ways in which God is is described and particular the relationship strained relationship between God and the mother at Barnard the angel of the Lord in the Pentateuch so Blake found apart in the Bible evidence about the complex nature of divinity and explore into the different names and attributes of God as a way of exploring the to contra States not only the human soul but also of the divinity and two very famous poses by Blake belong on the time and I think relate exactly to this the two cultures tasted the human soul the two contrary aspects of divinity the humility meekness gentleness mercy of God in the land the the way in which God is can beyond our comprehension completely unpredictable angry they kind of apocalyptic Roth will just God coming out in the way in which the tiger is described therefore is crucial see the jurist acclaim which here in the light of Blake's other group however strong the emphasis on the overturning of the law and the regime of the angel of the divine presence in these lines at the everlasting gospel Lakes emphasis is not on the negation of one by another but on the province of cultures whether in the divinity or in the human person what he found was a religion dominated by if you like by the tiger I'm not enough by the lab so the hegemony of the Demiurge and the religion of law is challenged and needs to be complemented by the religion of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins so the stern reprimand I think is more a regressive imbalance lost an indication of one divine principle by another part three times 41 point the focus then turns to the woman her experience of release prompts her to come professors of shortcomings Lyons 45 hide not thy bison the woman's forgiveness she must win my 26 by her recognition that what has gone on in her life the allusion to John 8 10 to 11 in lines 48 to 49 is followed by an exorcism if that's the right word in 49 to 52 come ye forth fallen fields of heavenly birth etc here the there's a summoning forth of the Seven Devils that torment thee why 14 what an allusion to Luke 8 to the reference in line 15 I think fallen fiends of heaven at birth maybe to the angels who are condemned for consorting with women mentioned in Genesis 6:2 a story described at greater length in the apocalypse Avenal chapter 7 - 10 blade sketched scenes from we 1 enoch in the last years of his life probably sometime between 1924 and 1827 after Richard Lawrence's translation had been published in 1821 here you've got one of the five images so I represents at the moment when one of the women in bewilderment and terror is confronted by two of the overbearing sons of God the link with the seduction of the women by the Angels raises the possibility than what we have in the everlasting gospel is Blake seeing in the story of the woman taken in adultery a reverse of this primeval event and his terrible consequences for the world the fallen fees instead of dominating the woman's life become subordinate to 9:53 but tyranny over promised Jesus to ask what was I love let me see it was it love will dark deceit - 5758 the distinction between love and darkness each reflects Blake's view that love is not a crime the sins which Mary compresses is hypocrisy pretends to chastity in allowing her life to be ruled by the Seven Devils Mary turned love into deceit a means to a cover descent and we a habit a repressed secret shame from then on as she became an object of show - 63 the Seven Devils abode was in secret hidden from line 64 probably a reference to her body something suggested by Lyons 65 and 66 and hide in secret hidden from the naked human form divine the woman's pretends to chastity let the devil's it may acknowledge us that our sin is forgiven but confesses that something even worse has taken place they're stealing love meant blasphemy Christ line 72 it's blasphemy against the Spirit which has meant driving Christ out from my bosom so - part 4 in response to the woman's anguish questioned by native to forgive the sin of blasphemy and her plea to return to this dark health in line 77 the poem dramatically changes perspective at the moment Mary asks of pity and forgiveness we have son out of the blue a reference to the death of Jesus crucified for being a cause of distress in line 85 and not keeping the secrets of holiness 96 the reference to the shadowing map in line 81 I think is probably that part of the human person akin to what Blake elsewhere calls self whose power ends at death I mean I wonder whether it's something similar to what Paul described as the body of flesh now I think that this whole section is to be understood in the life of Colossians 2 in the evan 250 just to remind you Colossians 2:11 there's a reference to putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ and in 2:14 blotting out the handwriting of Ordinances of us against us nailing it to his cross and finally in 250 the spoiling of the principalities and powers Blake seems to follow in a pack of interpretation which the cross was seen as a moment when Christ divested himself of the principalities and powers by taking off the body of clay so Jesus dead turned out to be the victory in the teeth of defeat when Satan overstretched himself and had Jesus killed so I would take the reference line 92 to the perfecting of his glittering cry to be Satan's glittering product and I have in mind this invocation of Satan in all his brilliance and glory probably they're picking up elements from Ezekiel chapter 28 the plausibility of the link to Colossians 2 is supported by other references to this passage with Colossians elsewhere in the everlasting gospel Blake writes of Christ subduing the serpent bulk of nature's dross till he had nailed it to the cross a clear reference to Colossians 2:14 and the Christ taekyeon seen in the Virgin's womb and putting it up on cross and to so placed emphasis seems to be the removal of the shadowy man as one peels off takes off clothes than despoiling the angelic powers it's a path of interpretation which has a long history I think what Blake writes about here it's portrayed in images which he does here in the context of his poem Milton where Blake describes Milton divesting himself of the robes of obligation more importantly and I just wonder what the immediate impact of this image - ooh I'm just going to describe now because I think it's possible that in this picture Blake offers a visualization of the essentially using Colossians 2:13 2:15 in which Christ takes up the body of the labor group were sent to the Father and the body of clarity taken off are those angels there who then descend to the angelic messanger assembly and the lines we consider from the everlasting gospel Jesus is portrayed as less a teacher of chastity or moral virtue as one who enables the space for the woman to enjoy the licen and like of discovering or better according to Blake rediscovering the human form divine in his circuit much as Blaine had hinted out in his warned to cover the passage what's striking is that in the third and four parts of the poem the things are parallels between what happens to the woman and what happens to Jesus so the foul feelings are driven out from the woman just as Jesus triumphs over the servant when he's released in the body so as in Colossians what happened to Jesus at the cross becomes the key to understanding what happens to humans Redemption problem and living again is a possibility of all mortals as they mirror Christ's death by putting on mortalities negative effects that's blacks idea and so I come to a place reading of Matthew's infancy I'm just going to show you that briefly that's that's the original page in the history it's one of the few pages which is just texted in that you can just see what it's like and we will concentrate on the words themselves this passage is from Jerusalem 61 Lang is based on the canonical account of Jesus infancy in Matthew 119 and Philip II and III think it just needs to come with a health warning because it's absolutely clear to me that as we know from elsewhere like remain agnostic about the virginity of Mary as may be him to that in 910 in the context of the Pope as a whole the divine boys offers Jerusalem a word of comment as she seeks to discern the divine presence in the depths of our health the words of comfort turn out to be offering a reminiscence of the moment when Joseph adjust discovers that Mary's pregnant you remember the words I'm not going to read out at this passage from Jerusalem 61 I'll just point you to various things and that I want to draw your attention very puts blood the consequence of Joseph's rejection of her in line to if that put me away from the dust down don't murder me Joseph speaks in anger and fury and questions why he should marry a harlot an adulteress lines 3 to 4 Mary responds by pointing to the character of God who goes on forgiving his brother Israel lines 5 to 7 in the voice of her betrothed no sir she hears the voice of God and it is a God who's compassionate and forgives sins as well as one who is just line septum--ah in other words mary refuses to allow angry righteous joseph to eclipse all that she perceives about every true lady the writer who has says most about the contras of the human soul to quote the opening of Songs of Innocence and experience as an area point out the possibility of the forgiveness of sins can't happen if you always holy and pure lines 9 and 10 making errors is the nature of humanity and that fact of life offers an opportunity to practice the forgiveness of sins Joseph's response to Mary's words is to embrace that blind Josef's tone changes from condemnation of an preoccupation with the sin to the recognition of the person deformity this may be seen in his oh my men in Lightroom rather than the earlier reference to her as a harlot and an adulteress and mindful the use of Mary's name suggests that forgiveness consists in part in the acceptance of the other as a who a person needing to be forgiven as contrasted with the Walt the offense to be forgiven using language like harlotry Blake seems to suggest here obscures the reality to use Blake's words of the my new particulars of the person before you des Joseph begins the process of his growth and understanding as first he queries whether God does not require a price to be paid for forgiveness at this point he recalls the voice of the angel questioning this repair it with the ology Joseph's dream now makes sense to you in the light of the revelation about Mary's pregnancy and the interaction that had gone on between this is a name is Joseph to apply to himself what he has already learned in the dream to mary situation as a result Joseph dreamed is interpreted as a questioning of received theological wisdom forgiveness does not come only after one has made oneself pure the consequences of sexual misconduct and lies 15 and 16 doth Jehovah forgive a debt only unconditioned shall be paid this last is called the religion of the gods line 18 the moral virtues of the heel whose tender mercies are crude God's salvation is about money and without France and the continual forgiveness of sins by anointing they doesn't see forgiveness of sins as only one side it's a leadership followed by sentiments which echo the Lord's Prayer in lines 22 and 23 if you forgive one another so sharp 2 however forgive you the words those words then continue that he himself may dwell among echoing I think Matthew 18 15 to 20 where these things come together there where two or three comes together my name their mind the minister it's a passage which more than anywhere in the life and teaching of Jesus exemplifies the ways in which mutual forgiveness of sins might take place and practice David admin commented that the everlasting gospel represented a throw about by Blake to his thinking of the early 1790s to the antinomian Jesus who lived from impulse not from rules that's correct but denied it in addition in the everlasting gospel and indeed in the water color of John 8 the interest in the iconoclastic Jesus of the Gospels as understood by blank is complemented by Christ as a representative and inclusive figure more typical of the later words the verses that we considered from the everlasting gospel blend plates interest in the nonconformist Jesus of the Gospels with the Christ figure at the Pauline course whose presence includes all in the divine body I think we have in the two passages from the everlasting gospel in Jerusalem different modes of interpretation apply to familiar gospel passages and relating to a theme which was dominant in blank'''s later writing in the reading of John 8 like picks up a theme which may have led this passage to be pending philosopher John Lewis Jesus is ready to challenge the strict implementation of the law of Moses a theme which is found elsewhere in the immediate context of this passage for example in the healing of the man born blind in John 9 leg starts by interpreting to the challenge the dominance of the law of Moses but the nature of the woman's sin and the character of her repentance probably glossing neither do i condemn you go and sin no more which is not it asleep roted is then included in the passage from jerusalem blake imagines the interaction between Joseph and Mary when Joseph discovered that his betrothed is pregnant it's a form of the retelling the biblical story which has its analyzed in some of the Jewish Talmud where gaps in what are sparse the suggesting narrative often the nature of Joseph's righteousness becomes the focus of the story whereas in the story of the woman taken in adultery is the transformation of the cultural assumptions of the woman that is recounted in this passage it's those of Joseph Joseph exemplifies what it means to be a just man but one who does not apply the letter of the law and becomes more open to his betrothed and to the understanding of the angelic bishop the result is that his understanding of what is involved in the forgiveness of sins moves from one of reparation to one that reflects Jehovah's salvation which is without the money and without products I return to some of the things raised in today's lecture about Jesus and antinomianism both Blake's emphasis on religion as impulse not from rules and the character of his hermeneutic in the lecture on Thursday tomorrow's lecture focuses entirely on Blake's visual interpretations of events from the Gospels and related texts aspetta now in this lecture on looking at two examples of blake as an institute of aspects of the life character intention of geezers two aspects of emerge from the passengers they report some early by blake first of all the words which I quoted already which formed part of the title for the series from his satirical tour-de-force the marriage of heaven and health Blake's Jesus is one who lived from temples not from rooms you can see that the bottom line there there's blake at his most iconoclastic I tell you no virtue can exist without breaking these Ten Commandments Jesus was all virtue and active from impulse and not for rules who died as an unbelievable Jesus active impulse and not from rules is far part of an amusing debate whereby an angel learned that Jesus is fact is not on the side of the angels after all it's that kind of portrait that parfaits the everlasting gospel second and finally in another memorable summary blake epitomized what for him was the gospel it's a theme explored in both the passages we've looked at today i quote there is not one moral virtue that jesus inculcated but Plato and Cicero did inculcate before him what then did Christ inculcate forgiveness of sins this alone is the gospel you

Channel: Yale Divinity School

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Keywords: William Blake, Jesus, historic

Id: n3k-ImcAO4Q

Length: 53min 49sec (3229 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 19 2013