“In the Beginning Was the Word”: Apocalypse and the Education of the Soul

Abstract

In the writings of Bahá’u’lláh the unveiling of all that lay “hidden” both within scripture and within the soul is metaphorically identified with the húrís or “Brides of inner meaning, “who in their unveiling enact the apocalypse that John of Patmos in the Book of Revelation describes as the New Jerusalem descending as the bride apparelled to meet the bridegroom. Bahá’u’lláh enacts this union as the marriage of the Manifestation with the Maid of Heaven, who releases in the Logos or Word, viewed as masculine, its creative power, viewed as feminine. The Word as uniting within itself its masculine and feminine components acts upon the newly created soul much as the Bahá’í parents in their marriage union act upon their offspring. The relationship between the parents and child in a Bahá’í family thus becomes the human likeness of the divine marriage, which is the apocalypse of Bahá’u’lláh announced in all previous dispensations. The New Jerusalem as the metaphor of the Kingdom of God on earth resides in the mirroring in the human realm of the divine paradigm unveiled by the húrís in the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh.