Wednesday, May 09, 2018

Like a dove

The accounts of Christ's baptism, reported in all four Gospels (Mt 3:13–17; Mk 1:9–11; Lk 3:21–23; Jn 1:29-33), record how the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove. If you were there, what would you see?

Perhaps that's the Shekinah. In Scripture, the Shekinah seems to be protean. Sometimes resembling a dust devil or fire devil (the "pillar of cloud/fire"). Sometimes more like a wall of fire (Exod 14:19-20). Sometimes like an electrical storm (Ezk 1). 

Maybe in this case the Shekinah assumes an avian shape, but still clearly supernatural. Incandescent or translucent. 

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