Thursday, December 09, 2010

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The Lion of Judah

 

The United States Library of Congress – Hebraic Section

Presented by His Imperial Highness Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie Haile-Selassie, President of the Crown Council of Ethiopia

 

Good afternoon friends, scholars, and distinguished guests. It is my great honor and privilege to be with you today, here in the renowned Hebraic section of the United States Library of Congress, African and Middle Eastern division.

 

To begin, I will share with you an ancient Ethiopian saying…

“…We must study the past and understand the present to charter a better future for us all…”

I must tell you that I am not a theologian, and make no pretense at being so. Indeed, some, perhaps many of you, already possess extensive knowledge of today’s subject – the origins and religious symbolism of the Lion of Judah. Consequently, I will initially introduce the subject and hopefully end with a robust Q&A period, which I anticipate will prove enlightening and entertaining for us all…

It is with great reverence, humility and some concern that I come before you to discuss and explore our topic. My concern springs from the certain and harsh knowledge that wherever the poetry and magic of myth is interpreted as biography, history or science, it is frequently mortally wounded. The living images become only remote facts of a distant time or sky, and it is never difficult to demonstrate that as science and history, mythology is in large part absurd. Thus, when a civilization begins to reinterpret its mythology in this way – as biography, history or science - the life goes out of it, temples become museums or tourist attractions, and the link between the two perspectives is dissolved. In modern times, arguably, such blight has even descended on the Holy Bible and a great part of the Christian movement.

 

The late and renowned American mythologist, writer and lecturer, Joseph Campbell, has observed that symbols are simply the vehicles of communication; and that they must not be mistaken for the final term, the tenor, of their reference. Thus, no matter how attractive or impressive symbols may seem, they remain but convenient means accommodated to the understanding. Hence the personality or personalities of God -- whether represented in Trinitarian, Dualistic, or Unitarian terms, pictorially or verbally, as documented fact or apocalyptic vision -- no one should attempt to read or interpret as the final thing.

 

The abiding challenge of the theologian is to keep his symbol translucent, so that it may not block out the very light it is supposed to convey. "For then alone do we know God truly," writes Saint Thomas Aquinas, "when we believe that He is far above all that man can possibly think of God." Thus mistaking a symbolic vehicle for its tenor can lead to spilling not only of valueless ink, but of valuable blood as well.

 

To bring the images back to life, one must seek, not interesting applications to modern affairs, but illuminating hints from the inspired past. When these are found, vast areas of half-dead iconography disclose again their enduring and permanently human meaning…

 

THE JEWS:

In the Jewish tradition, the earliest reference to the Lion of Judah comes from Genesis which is the first book of both the Hebrew Bible (Torah) and the Christian Old Testament. The book of Genesis is generally conceded as having been written sometime between 1400 and 1440 B.C. In Genesis 49:9 when blessing his son Judah, the Jewish patriarch Jacob refers to Judah as a “Young Lion”. Thus here we first note the lion’s becoming metaphorically and symbolically paired with Judah and the Jews. It is also from this text that the Lion of Judah further evolves into a titular station or office - defender and leader of the Jewish Tribe, which itself subsequently becomes the basis of considerable messianic expectation and speculation in early Judaism. Indeed, King David the Jewish Messiah becomes inextricably and historically linked in the Judaic and Christian traditions as the reference for the Lion of Judah.

 

We frequently find lion gates in archaeological ruins, from Israel to the gates of Ethiopia’s Axumite empire’s palaces and temples to the Hittite sites in Turkey to the Babylonian and Persian sites in Iraq, or the Assyrian and Egyptian sites. It was a widespread and popular symbol of royalty, as the lion was seen by many as the king of the predators, or even the king of all beasts. In fact we know that Ramses II kept live lions, as did successive Ethiopian Emperors up until the time of my late grandfather, the last Christian Emperor, His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie.

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