The three-fold naming caught my attention this morning. Jesus refers to his "new name"--presumably new to us, since we just have the human name of Savior. He sometimes refers to God the Father as "my God". So what is the relationship of the name of the new Jerusalem to the other two names?
The presence of the Holy Spirit, maybe?
Plausibly. Usually with metaphysical trinities in Greek philosophy you have two things and the third thing 'that holds them together.' By the Revelation of St. John the Divine you'd have substantial Greek influence in Christian thinking. Thus, the Holy Spirit could be the place of the dwelling of the Father and the Son, as metaphorically a city; or, sometimes, the love of the two for each other; or, just whatever it is that holds them together as a single thing even though they are distinct.
ReplyDeleteI doubt that's exactly how the Holy Spirit was conceived by the earliest, Jewish Christians. It's likely a later influence on the thought (though still quite early in Christian terms).