THE FLYING SCROLL AND THE BASKET GONE FORTH In the previous five visions, God proclaimed His joyful work for the salvation of man, by setting His temple in him; and by giving him every exalted heavenly possibility …….. Now, He comes back to warn us against slothfulness with the sin, or making truce with it through the following two visions: 1- The flying scroll 1 - 4 2- The basket gone forth 5 – 11 1- THE FLYING SCROLL: “Then I turned and raised my eyes and saw there a flying scroll” (1); (Or “a flying sickle” according to the Septuagint version). The “scroll”, most probably refers to the proclamation of Justice (Ezekiel 2: 9, 10; Revelation 5: 1; 10: 2). If the people of God, in the last vision, appeared as a lampstand of solid gold, that bears the light of Christ, by the oil of the Holy Spirit; yet her joy in this divine work should be taken cautiously against any sin or slothfulness. Being described as “flying”, is on account of that the evil we commit here on earth, ascends before God as an abhorrent smell; “a curse that goes over the face of the whole earth” (3). Here, God proclaims the responsibility of every believer, as a member in the human congregation; to react to it for blessing or for curse. What he does has its impact upon the life of all. ……….Because of the righteous Joseph, the household of Potiphar was blessed, and even the storehouses of Egypt; And because of Jonah’s escape, the sea was stirred up and many lost their wealth. It is amazing that the prophet saw evil like an open scroll, 20 cubits long and 10 cubits wide. On the earth it was closed shut, and no one knew its hidden secrets; but it will eventually be wide open for everyone to read. Its dimensions, conforming to those of the sanctuary, mean that what man commit will corrupt the sanctuaries of God in him. In the Septuagint version, the prophet sees a “flying sickle” and according to St. Dedymus the blind: [As the divine Judge separates the righteous from the wicked, and deals with each according to his deeds; the Holy Book calls the verdicts under which the oppressors and the wicked fall, sometimes as a “sword” or “arrows” (Deuteronomy 32: 42; 22: 23; Isaiah 34: 5; Amos 9: 10; Psalm 7: 12, 13; Jeremiah 47: 5, 6); and other times as an “ax” and a “sickle” …….by which “every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 3: 10). The sickle, as well, is used to cut off those who produce corrupt fruition, about whom it is said: “For their rock is not like our Rock; even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom; and of the fields of Gomorrah; Their grapes are grapes of gall; their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of cobras” (Deuteronomy 32: 31-33). So the wicked will is likened to a corrupt vine that produces bad fruition, and has to be cut off by a sharp sickle with all its clusters of grapes ……….The prophet sees it, not as a regular sickle, but as a flying one, namely spiritual ….. according to the words of the Lord, saying: “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted, will be uprooted” (Matthew 15: 13). In a commentary on that sharp sickle, St. John Chrysostom says: [Man may probably be able to flee from a flying sword, but from a sickle that falls on his neck and wraps around it like a rope, he would not be able to flee. And to add wings to that sickle, what would be his chances to be saved?]; and he adds: [It is flying, a reference to the close coming of revenge; and its large dimensions, refer to intensity of tribulation. Flying from heaven means that the revenge comes down from the throne of judgment up high, in the form of a sickle referring to the inevitable judgment. As the sickle that falls on the neck will never fail to cut off the head, so will the revenge be, cruel and sure] The prophet goes on to say: “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole earth: ‘Every thief shall be expelled, according to this side of the scroll; and every perjurer shall be expelled, according to that side of it. I will send out the curse, says the Lord of hosts; it shall enter the house of the thief, and the house of the one who swears falsely by my name. It shall remain in the midst of his house, and consume it, with its timber and stones” (3, 4). The Mosaic covenant bore with it a curse that would dwell upon the disobedient (Deuteronomy 27: 15-26; 28: 15-68), a curse that flies in space and threatens the inhabitants of the earth, who received the covenant, but did not keep it, and even betrayed it. Here, he concentrated on two sins: theft and perjury. By the former, man robs his neighbor, and by the later he despises God; the two sins represent breaking the whole law: an offense against God and the neighbor. The former commandment came in the middle of the second tablet; and that of perjury came in the middle of the first one; meaning than man breaks the two tablets in their depths. Although the curse goes out over the face of the whole earth, yet while flying, it aims its arrow toward the house of the sinner, there to abide, and to consume it with its timber and stones; by which he earns the natural fruition of his work. According to St. Dedymus the blind: [Swiftly flying over the earth, that sickle will strike, not only the sinners on earth, but those in the air (the demons), and the wicked wherever they are. It destroys what is in the middle of the house, namely, the heart and mind; and everything in man, like the sword that has split open the middle of judge of Israel, burnt with the evil desire for the righteous Susanna: Daniel said: “The angel of God has received the sentence from God, and will immediately cut you in two” (Susanna 1: 55).Commenting on the destruction of the house of the wicked, St. John Chrysostom says: [his house will be a heap of ruins, for everyone who passes by to see, and knowing the reason, to head the lesson\. 2- THE BASKET GONE FORTH: Once again, God warns us against sin, by letting the prophet see “a basket that goes forth” (6) The “basket” is the largest measuring unit of volume used by the Jews. Being described as “gone forth” refers to corrupt measures; namely “corrupt discernment”. The prophet saw: “a basket gone forth; …….here is a lead disc lifted up, and this is a woman sitting inside the basket. Then he said: This is wickedness! And he thrust her down into the basket, and threw the lead cover over its mouth” (6 – 8). Sin is likened to lead that weighs the soul down to the depth of the pit. As it came in the song of praise uttered by Moses: “They sank like lead in mighty waters” (Exodus 15: 10). According to the scholar Origen:[About the wicked it is said that they sank like lead in mighty waters; ……….but the saints will never sink but will even walk on the water; ….. for they are not weighed down by sin]. And according to St. Gregory, bishop of Nyssa: [Everyone goes according to his own status: one walks light, and the other sinks in the mighty water. Virtue is so light to float; those who live it, according to the prophet Isaiah, fly like cloud and dove (9: 8); whereas sin is heavy and weighs man down like lead]. And according to St. John Chrysostom: [Nothing will give man wings, like the enjoyment of righteousness and virtue]. The prophet saw the lead disc lifted up; namely saw how sin was exposed before all; and evil appeared like a woman sitting in a basket gone forth. Commenting on likening wickedness, as well as virtue to a woman, St. Dedymus the blind says: [It is not strange that the Holy Book calls the bad nature, the corrupt mind, and the vicious power, by the name “woman”; and in the book of proverbs he calls ‘foolishness’’ by the same name. Teaching his disciple, the wise man says: “My son, pay attention to my wisdom, lend your ear to my understanding, that you may preserve discretion, and your lips may keep knowledge. For the lips of the immoral woman drip honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil. But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps lay hold of hell” (Proverb 5: 1-5). In the same book of proverbs, filthy conduct is likened to “a woman” (Proverbs 7: 7 – 27). ...But as the iniquities are likened to a woman, so are the virtues: For, about wisdom, the wise man says: “I loved her and desired to take her for my bride” (Wisdom 8: 2). Getting back to the vision, we find that the weight of lead was cast into the mouth of the woman; for sin most probably concentrates in the mouth; that man would have a tongue heavy on the soul, by which he destroys himself and reproaches the others; contrary to the righteous man about whom is said: “The tongue of the righteous is choice silver” (Proverb 10: 20).. It is as though the wicked bears in his mouth a tongue of lead that utters wickedness; whereas the righteous bears a tongue of pure silver that utters “the pure words of the Lord, like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times” (Psalm 12: 6). The prophet goes on to say: “Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were two women, coming with the wind in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven” (9). The two women here, probably refer to the two iniquities: robbery and vain swearing (perjury), as we saw in the last vision; namely, robbing God and the neighbors. Saying “with the wind in their wings”; namely their wings are full of wind or of the spirit spoken of by the apostle, saying: “the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2: 2); the unclean spirit about which the Lord Christ says that, when driven out of someone, will come back to find the place from which he was driven out, swept and put in order; then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first (Luke 11: 26). And lest it would be thought that the two women set forth up to heaven, he confirms that their wings are like those of the stork, and not like those of the dove. For according to St. Dedymous the blind: [The stork, according to the law is an unclean bird (Leviticus 12: 19; Deuteronomy 14: 18), has her home in the fir trees (Psalm 104: 17); a migratory bird (Jeremiah 8: 7); of two kinds: the white stork ‘Ciconia alba’ that spend the winter in middle and south Africa; and migrate in spring in huge swarms to Europe, Palestine, and north Syria.; and the black stork ‘Ciconia nigra’, that are found in Palestine, common in the region of the Dead Sea, feed on frogs and little reptiles; and if not found, on dead corpses and filth. On that, St. Dedymus the blind comments saying: [the two women, representing wickedness and symbolizing the devil, the antichrist, and the words of the heretics, live near tombs to feed on dead corpses; to be like the whitewashed tombs which appear beautiful outwardly, while inside they are full of the bones of the dead and all uncleanness (Matthew 23: 27). Making its nest in unclean places, the young of the stork come out in the same filthy atmosphere. So it is for those who walk in wickedness and live in the corrupt interests of the body; they have the wings of the stork, will be drawn to the tombs and uncleanness, contrary to those who have the wings of a dove; namely, the work of the Holy Spirit who appeared in the form of a dove during the epiphany of the Lord; as according to St. Dedymus the blind: [who is this blessed man who bears the wings of a dove that raises him above this world?] Saying that “the two women went to build a house for it in Shinar (bound to Babylon – see Genesis 10: 10), refers to their intention to settle down in the location where evil in the old was stirred up against God Himself by people; whom He confused their tongues, and caused them to have internal disturbance. I wish we bear the wings of a turtle dove, and not those of a stork, to flee from Babylon (Isaiah 48: 20) where evil is, to find our comfort in the Lord Himself, and to dwell in His eternal bosoms.
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