Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 519

Chap.

II]

§ 82.

THE INSTRUMENTS OF INSPIRATION

495

God the Lord announces Himself in the vision, that it is He that shows what is seen, and that the visionary person knows that he is dealing with God. Of the content of the vision, it may be

same dream." The congenerally composed from the data which were present

remarks apply to tent

is

it

said that the

as apply to that of the "

in the imagination or in the

memory

of the visionary person

;

composed, and in this counsel of God are shown. the mysteries of way all sorts of and apocaprophetic The difference, however, between the In the first the vision joins itself lyptic vision is apparent. to the historic reality, in the midst of which the prophet but from these data a new drama

is

while in the Apocalypse the drama arises from the hidden world and moves towards him. For which reason the forms and images in the prophetic vision are mostly known and common, while in the apocalyptic vision the images are monstrous, or appear in a wondrous manner, and sternly set themselves against every effort to reduce them to lives,

Recall, for instance, the cherua figure intelligible to us. bim in Ezekiel, or the appearance of Christ to John on

Patmos, as sketched in Rev. i. 13-16. The content, however, of such a vision is not always dramatically realistic, so that There are also visions it contains both speech and action. that are purely symbolical (such as the well-known visions of the olive tree, the flying scroll, etc., of Zechariah), which, just like the symbolical dream, miss their aim unless an interpretation accompanies them. Wherefore, both in

Zechariah and in the Apocalypse of John we find this symbolic vision constantly followed by its interpretation.

The

ecstasy needs

no separate treatment here

nection with prophetical inspiration, order.

Ecstasy

intensity,

is

it

will

;

later, in con-

come

in its

own

distinguished from vision in degree of

but not in kind.

As soon

as the action of the

visionary power communicates itself to the motory nerves,

and consequently withdraws the muscular action from the will of the person, ecstatic conditions follow, which according

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