Monday, January 28, 2019

Obadiah 1:18


Daily Hebrew: 

Burning pile of wheat chaff and straw (Life Photo Collection):

Images of flames and fire are often of rich, multilayered meaning in the Hebrew Scriptures. Even when the primary denotation is judgment/justice and/or destruction, connotations of lively otherness/mystery/the sacred are usually at hand. I think of Ezek 10:7, and its caution that no human authority or cause has control of or even direct access to the fiery numinousness of God. Bestial cherubim and a heavenly attendant stand between God's sacred fire and any contact it might make with terrestrial reality. Artworks sometimes grope to express some of this rich quality of fire to wield symbolic power. In "Sacred Fire" (below) the artist used a very unconventional method of "pouring" paint that awakens a feeling as if the flame is blazing dynamically and numinously before our eyes.

  • Title: Sacred Fire
  • Creator: MOTONAGA Sadamasa
  • Date: 1964
Sacred Fire, 1964:


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