The redeemed of YHWH eat the delicious flesh of "ZIZ"

by hamsterbait 12 Replies latest jw friends

  • cameo-d
    cameo-d

    HB: "Apparently in Volume 5 of this work (pp 43 - 46) there is a description of the Messianic Banquet"

    There is an interesting discourse on the Messianic Banquet here: http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=581

    excerpts:

    The wealth of the enemies of Israel becomes her wealth. (This is where all the JWs get to pick out their new homes, etc. As always, Jehovah provides for his people by the spoils of war)

    A curse is upon the earth because of humanity’s disobedience to God’s laws and covenant (Isa 24:5, 6).

    (Here we go again with the Crusades....the earth is cursed because of the apostates, atheists, homosexuals, etc. have been allowed to live)

    As a result of the curse, the productivity of the earth is destroyed (Isa 24:7-9) and war, treachery, and disasters will prevail (Isa 24:10-22).

    (This is why the population needs to be culled. according to the new eco-religion. See: http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/scandals/176231/1/The-Gig-is-Up

    In Ezekiel is found a clear example of the use of the messianic banquet theme as a warning of judgment and destruction of the enemies of Yahweh.

    Beyond Isaiah, Ezekiel specifically states that the destruction of the future enemies of Israel is a great sacrifice to Yahweh and food for predators. Thus, two aspects of an eschatological messianic meal emerge. First, the future righteous remnant can expect to receive great prosperity in the messianic kingdom. Yahweh will feed his people. Second, the enemies of Israel are destroyed in a sacrifice to Yahweh. He will feed his enemies to predators. This message is a consolation to Israel because Yahweh himself will take vengeance upon those who have brutally conquered them. These two aspects of an eschatological messianic meal are distinct but related in that Yahweh takes vengeance upon his enemies while blessing his faithful remnant.

    ...ungodly people will become food for the mythological monsters (1 Enoch 60). The blessings of the future age are limited to the righteous and elect ones of Israel. The author of 4 Ezra also limits the banquet to only Israel. Leviathan and Behemoth, as well as the entire universe, were created for Israel. Other nations are of little importance to God (4 Ezra 6:56).

    In part of this tradition, the monsters are served the unrighteous as food on the earth (1 Enoch 60:23, 24), but the righteous are blessed in Paradise (1 Enoch 61:12). Other authors place the literal banqueting of the righteous upon the flesh of the monsters on the earth after a great tribulation (2 Apoc. Bar. 29:3-7).

    There is a range of beliefs surrounding the messianic banquet during the rabbinical period.

    Even with later additional speculation about Leviathan, Behemoth, and the Ziz bird, the underlying point remains that the future feast is a reward for current obedience to the dietary laws of the Torah.

    The later speculation concerning Leviathan, Behemoth, and the Ziz bird highlights the view that Yahweh’s creation was intended for the Jews (Gen. Rab. 19:4; Lev. Rab. 22:10; Pesiq. Rab Kah. 6:8). They have been deprived of the full enjoyment of this created world, but Yahweh has preserved the largest beasts of all of his creation for the future banquet. Thus, the rabbis over-exaggerated the size of the creatures to emphasize the concept of reversal that was inherent in the earlier tradition. The size of the beasts was more important than the duration of the feasting upon their meat. The limitation of the future banquet to only the most faithful or righteous of Jews seems to be the tendency over time in the rabbinical literature.

    This is also true about the location of the future Messianic Banquet. The tendency over time is for the rabbis to emphasize the future feasting in the Garden of Eden (Paradise) rather than the terrestrial blessings of the messianic age (Pesiq. Rab Kah. 6:8).

    The wars of the sea monsters and of Gog and Magog are also part of this terrestrial eschatological preparation for the coming of the Messiah (b. Sanh. 97b). Judgment thus falls upon the enemies of Israel and they will no longer be dominated by the Gentiles. They will enjoy and eat their fill in the future because the world was originally created for their Messiah. The later speculation about the wine preserved since the time of Creation highlights this earlier tradition that the Jews deserve to enjoy what Yahweh originally created for them (b. Sanh. 99a; Num. Rab. 13:2).

    Two details are significant. Jesus calls the Jews, who will be thrown into Hell, “the sons of the kingdom” (Matt 8:12). This is highly peculiar to call an adversary such a title, however it is suggested by the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 7:13-23) and the Parables of the Kingdom (Matt 13).

    The false disciples (Matt 7:15-23; 10:33; 13:38-43, 47-50; 25:1-13), here called “sons of the kingdom” (also Matt 13:38 for true disciples), are Jews who think they are “sons of Abraham” (Matt 3:9, 10).

    Matthew further adds the destination of the “sons of the kingdom” as the “outer darkness.” This is a common Jewish description of Hell (Jdt 16:17; 4 Ezra 7:93; 1 Enoch 63:10; 108:3; Pss. Sol. 14:9; 15:10; Wis 17:21

    Jesus pronounced judgment upon those who considered themselves the rightful heirs of the future kingdom. They will be thrown into Hell because they have become enemies of the King and his true disciples. The fortune of the true remnant that is currently suffering persecution will be reversed.

    (It's a long read if you go to the website. I would be curious what you make of all this.)

  • cameo-d
    cameo-d

    This symbol has certainly been around a long time. I think the above painting is somewhere between c.1400-1500

    Do you think this is the same bird as shown below?

  • cameo-d
    cameo-d

    Hamsterbait: "Unfortunately I don't possess "The Legends of the Jews" by Louis Ginzberg.

    Apparently in Volume 5 of this work (pp 43 - 46) there is a description of the Messianic Banquet, ...

    Hamsterbait, this may be what you are looking for. Below is an excerpt from the title you mentioned above. This is from the chapter titled "The Fifth Day". This is a description of the ziz, but this passage does not describe the banquet.

    -------------------------

    As leviathan is the king of fishes, so the ziz is appointed to rule over the birds. His name comes from the variety of tastes his flesh has; it tastes like this, zeh, and like that, zeh.

    The ziz is as monstrous of size as leviathan himself.

    His ankles rest on the earth, and his head reaches to the very sky.

    It once happened that travellers on a vessel noticed a bird.

    As he stood in the water, it merely covered his feet, and his head knocked against the sky.

    The onlookers thought the water could not have any depth at that point, and they prepared to take a bath there.

    A heavenly voice warned them: "Alight not here! Once a carpenter's axe slipped from his hand at this spot, and it took it seven years to touch bottom."

    The bird the travellers saw was none other than the ziz.

    His wings are so huge that unfurled they darken the sun.

    They protect the earth against the storms of the south; without their aid the earth would not be able to resist the winds blowing thence.

    Once an egg of the ziz fell to the ground and broke.

    The fluid from it flooded sixty cities, and the shock crushed three hundred cedars.

    Fortunately such accidents do not occur frequently.

    As a rule the bird lets her eggs slide gently into her nest.

    This one mishap was due to the fact that the egg was rotten, and the bird cast it away carelessly.

    The ziz has another name, Renanin, because he is the celestial singer.

    On account of his relation to the heavenly regions he is also called Sekwi, the seer, and, besides, he is called "son of the nest," because his fledgling birds break away from the shell without being hatched by the mother bird; they spring directly from the nest, as it were.

    Like leviathan, so ziz is a delicacy to be served to the pious at the end of time, to compensate them for the privations which abstaining from the unclean fowls imposed upon them.

    http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/lginzberg/bl-lginzberg-legends-1-1g.htm

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit