marriage feast theme

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abijah`
~dog days~
Posts: 3481

marriage feast theme

Post by abijah` »

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recently i feel i been picking up on what i suspect might be a major theme in the scriptures, so i wanted to make a topic where i can organise and share my thoughts on it.

and perhaps highly pertinent to the last days - which is why many prophets particularly Isaiah go on and on at such length on the topic..

so i wanted to make a thread trying to organise my thougjts on the subject. the broader marriage`feast trope seems to include a few various essential components. gonna colour-code these throughout the post so as to make it easier to see where they come up in the various scriptures I'll be using:

Component 1: Sex/Romance , Flirtatiousness, Kissing, and in the most extreme iterations, even Orgies

Component 2: Food & Drink [usually meat and wine, respectively], including in a celebratory, recreational and perhaps even Sacramental context..

Component 3: Music, Singing, Dancing, and Celebration / Merry-making

But the main idea seems to = covenant-marriage between a deity, and a people-group.

Exodus 32 (false feast to golden calf)
And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.”
And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play
And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves"...
.. When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.”
But he said, “It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.”

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"..And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play..."

"Eating and Drinking" is a general biblical phrase and basically an idiom
meaning the enjoying food, drink and other pleasures, and often in a celebratory, recreational and festive manner.

This is what Jesus meant saying that John the Baptist came "neither eating nor drinking", not meaning that he literally never ate food or drank to sustain himself - but rather that he funxtioned in an ascetic, set-apart role of a strictly-modest diet and overall pleasure-less, un-festive lifestyle, in stark contrast with those who would feast on meat, and get buzzed on drink - the polar opposite of a "glutton and winebibber".

"And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.."

Now, in regards to that phrase "rose up to play..."

(Berean)And the people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to indulge in revelry.

(NASB)
and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and got up to engage in lewd behavior.

Like the phrase "eating and drinking" (and somewhat overlapping w/ it..), so does the word "play" likewise have a range of connotations and associations.

Its often celebratory in context, for festive ovcasions (such as ritual feasts, or military victory &c.). It can apply in both a romantic/sexual context, or in a merely platonic one:
  • Gen`26 (romantic context)
    When the men of the place asked Isaac about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance.
    When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac playing with Rebekah his wife.
    So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’”
^(The verb for "play" happens to be a variation of Isaac's name, which same verb gets used for when he gets found out for lying about Rebekah being his sister, its this same word ^"play" here that allows Abimelech to figure out they are married. subtle and intricate literary wordplays being woven by the scripture author/editor here...)
  • Zech`8 (platonic context)
    Thus says the LORD of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age.
    And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.
  • 1‘Chr`13 (platonic context)
    And David and all Israel were playing before God with all their might, with song and lyres and harps and tambourines and cymbals and trumpets.
In that ^last example in Chronicles, we see that in keeping with the overall celebratory / festive context of this verb, we see an association with music.

I've gone into detail elsewhere on how the sins of the Pre-Flood sinners is somehow closely associated with the Golden Calf sin of the Israelites:
Spoiler
abijah` wrote: November 12th, 2021, 2:38 pm Also, you gotta take into account the context from where this verse comes from (Exodus 32). The usage of the verb "nacham" and its association with "Noah" (and his connected Flood narrative) is likely highly deliberate, and I'll show why that is.

Whats going on in Exodus 32? The Israelites making their own god, the golden calf. Image

Why was the golden calf thing so serious? They are literally consecrating and consuming a false sacraments, and holding a
false marriage-feast / false bridegroom`ceremony
.

Which is... the exact same sinful behaviour of the rebels in the days of Noah:
  • Matthew 24
    For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
    For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark
    and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
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The word "God repented" ("nacham", i.e "Noah") in Exodus 32 is very likely being used here specifically to link the golden`calf-sin, the the sin of the antediluvians: false sacraments, and false marriage`ceremonies, as we see in the text:
  • Exodus 32
    And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
    When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.”
    And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play... [the word "play", it basically means like how we in modern times would say "they rose up to party". It carries the connotation of 1) "eating and drinking", unbridled food/meat consumption and wine-imbibing, 2) sexual, sometimes even orgiastic behaviour, which is why some translations render this phrase "rioting and reveling", 3) music-playing, and celebratory dancing, which are core components of the archetypal marriage-feast (specifically a cosmic marriage between a people-group and a deity, be it the true god YHWH, or some other, false god..), something Isaiah addresses all the time, portraying the LORD as basically being the cosmic-scale party-pooper, the wet blanket on the music and celebrations of the wicked, the "rain" that comes down on their "parade" -- literally, in the case of Noah's day :lol: This is why Nephi was so disturbed by the partying, music and dancing of Laman and Lemuel whilst out on the waters, wherein the Leviathan -- again, same hebrew term - "plays"...]
    ...And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves"...
    .. When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.”
    But he said, “It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.”
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The language used in Exodus 32 is deliberately and intentionally reminiscent of the language used in Noah's Flood narrative. They are committing the sin of those whom God wiped out when He withdrew the cosmic waters (both above and beneath the earth) which He had been containing since the Creation account when He separated them and, holding the chaos`waters at bay by the word of His power) resulting in them destroying all the rebellious party-animals, false sacrament-consumers, and engaging in covenant-marriage with a false deity instead of the true God YHWH.

This is more or less equivalent with those who "eat" and "drink" the Sacrament unworthily -- which is why the scriptures take this particular sin so serious --->
  • 3 Nephi 18
    29 For whoso eateth and drinketh my flesh and blood unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to his soul; therefore if ye know that a man is unworthy to eat and drink of my flesh and blood ye shall forbid him.
You even see subtle associations like the dialogue between Moses & Joshua at first about, whether it might be the "sound of battle / warfare"? Both of these hyperlink us back to Noahic Genesis 6, days "full of violence", and days of the destructive, unrestrainable appetites giants who are the first in the Bible to be called "gibborim", typically translated as "mighty men", having the connotation of a "violent warrior" (i.e "my name is Legion.."), bloodshed and violence being hallmarks of the pre-Flood era (according to both the Bible as well as the Enoch literature) and how the watcher/nephilim society dominant there, caused the chaos-dispelling, waters-repelling acts of God's primordial Creation`week to collapse in on themselves, bringing a sudden, Númenoric end to the rebels.

With all that considered, I find this explanation of antediluvian behaviour by Jesus to be particularly illuminating...
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Matthew 24 (antediluvian party animals)
For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark.


^They were having false marriage feasts. False sacramental celebration - idolatrous hieros-gamos rituals between "sons of God" (false Jesus-es) and "daughters of men" (false Marys, and false Zions..), creating a blasphemous, cosmic-scale-cringe perversion of the true Christ, the true Bridegroom and the true Son of God.

additional scriptural examples of this theme being manifested --->
  • Isaiah 5
    Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them!
    They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts, but they do not regard the deeds of the LORD, or see the work of his hands.
  • Isaiah 24
    The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant...
    The wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the merry-hearted sigh.
    The mirth of the tambourines is stilled, the noise of the jubilant has ceased, the mirth of the lyre is stilled.
    No more do they drink wine with singing; strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
  • Matthew 11
    'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.'
    For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’
    The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’
  • Numbers 25 (feasting to false gods, sleeping w/ foreign women)
    While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab[/u].
    These invited the people to eat the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.
    So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.
  • Luke 15 (Return of prodigal son)
    And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
    And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
    But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.
    And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.
    For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.
    “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.
    And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant.
    And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’
    But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him,
    but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.
    But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’
    And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
    It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”
  • 1 Peter 4
    For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.
Last edited by abijah` on November 28th, 2021, 11:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

abijah`
~dog days~
Posts: 3481

Re: marriage feast theme (hieros gamos trope)

Post by abijah` »

abijah` wrote: November 24th, 2021, 2:34 pm "And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.."

Now, in regards to that phrase "rose up to play..."

(Berean)And the people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to indulge in revelry.

(NASB)
and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and got up to engage in lewd behavior.

Like the phrase "eating and drinking" (and somewhat overlapping w/ it..), so does the word "play" likewise have a range of connotations and associations.

Its often celebratory in context, for festive ovcasions (such as ritual feasts, or military victory &c.). It can apply in both a romantic/sexual context, or in a merely platonic one:
  • Gen`26 (romantic context)
    When the men of the place asked Isaac about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because she was attractive in appearance.
    When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac playing with Rebekah his wife.
    So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’”
^(The verb for "play" happens to be a variation of Isaac's name, which same verb gets used for when he gets found out for lying about Rebekah being his sister, its this same word ^"play" here that allows Abimelech to figure out they are married. subtle and intricate literary wordplays being woven by the scripture author/editor here...)
  • Zech`8 (platonic context)
    Thus says the LORD of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age.
    And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.
Another curious instance where this verb "play" gets employed..:
  • Psalm 104
    Here is the sea, great and wide...
    There go the ships, and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it.
So bear in mind the ^word "play" in many instances can have a certain marriage-festive connotation.

I think this all has do with Laman and Lemuel's partying whilst on the Leviathan-territory of the high seas...
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  • 1 Nephi 18
    8 And it came to pass after we had all gone down into the ship, and had taken with us our provisions and things which had been commanded us, we did put forth into the sea and were driven forth before the wind towards the promised land.
    9 And after we had been driven forth before the wind for the space of many days, behold, my brethren and the sons of Ishmael and also their wives began to make themselves merry, insomuch that they began to dance, and to sing, and to speak with much rudeness, yea, even that they did forget by what power they had been brought thither; yea, they were lifted up unto exceeding rudeness.
    10 And I, Nephi, began to fear exceedingly lest the Lord should be angry with us, and smite us because of our iniquity, that we should be swallowed up in the depths of the sea...
There are many more associations as well, and generally speaking thruout between the variables of leviathan, music, celebratory marriage-feasting rites, the "waters" etc etc.

abijah`
~dog days~
Posts: 3481

Re: marriage feast theme (hieros gamos trope)

Post by abijah` »

🤔 satanic version/counterfeit of the marriage-feast, perhaps...?
  • Isa 9
    For wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and thorns; it kindles the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke.
    Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts the land is scorched, and the people are like fuel for the fire; no one spares another.
    They slice meat on the right, but are still hungry, and they devour on the left, but are not satisfied; each devours the flesh of his own arm...
This is most ultimately-fulfilled, in the timeline of the fulness-of-times/end-of-days context. How do we know this? A couple clues.

First one is all the references to "burning", "scorched" and "kindles like a fire" are referring to the Earth's Fire-version of Noah's Flood - the Earth's Baptism of Fire.

Another one is the "rose in a columm of smoke" language, like how John and Joel use it in their apocalyptic dreams of the culmination of history -
  • Rev 9
    And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.
    He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft.
  • Joel 2
    And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.
Seemingly tracking onto the same vein here as Isa`9:18-20`, this idea of the Lord somehow flipping the tables on them - and to their horror - their marriage`feasting and wine-imbibing gets turned on themselves, the proverbial ditch being filled with the diggers thereof.
  • Isa 49
    I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the LORD your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

abijah`
~dog days~
Posts: 3481

Re: marriage feast theme

Post by abijah` »

abijah` wrote: November 21st, 2021, 8:32 am Can't wait till marijuana (not sure what Mary and John have to do w/ it 🤔) is old news. This stuff all had its origins with fallen angels teaching about this world's botany and technology.

Zion will have her version (the good wine at the end of the feast), angels revealing New`Creation botanies and technologies, and I bet they'll be lit.
I think it fits, my application of the ^marriage-festive theme.

Think about it..

This is how Jesus describes the antediluvian rebels:
  • Matthew 24
    For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark...
^Marriage-feast language, about a people who are ultimately destroyed by water.

So I think its significant that Jesus does his first miracle at a marriage-feast, in Cana.

🤔 He turns the water into wine...
still not quite sure how to interpret it all

But he serves the "good wine" at the end of the feast...

I think that we are -- in the last days -- perhaps the beneficiaries of the true versions of all the stuff the antediluvians enjoyed in their Atlantean, pseudo-edenic collective pipe dream.

They had fallen angels, teaching fallen technologies and fallen arts.

What might we hope to receive then, from true messengers, bringing true technologies and arts..? 🤔

Not at the beginning of the feast ("what does this [days of Noah] have to do with me? my hour is not yet come" [His wine doesnt come in Noah's day - it comes at the end of the feast, aka the LAST DAYS)

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