Flight to Egypt and The Life of Moses

Matthew 2:13-14

Christians must never ignore the words spoken by angels. Like Tiresias who always speaks the truth of the gods in Greek myth, so messages spoken by angels are binding, with "every violation and disobedience" receiving its just punishment, so "how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? (NIV, Hebrews 2:2-3). Joseph knew to obey the word given by angels. Three times he received messages: once to marry Mary, once to flee to Egypt, and once to return from Egypt. Every time Joseph received his message while he was sleeping, thus in the dark. Joseph is a neglected figure in mystical tradition, but his knowledge of God in the dark is as strong a symbol of union with God as Mary.

The cloud of darkness is where the mystic finds union with God, arriving at a point where he, or she, knows God, but knows God is unknowable. This is not only the life of Joseph, but the life of Henry Tanner, and of Moses. Tanner's dark place was World War I. "Tanner's art was based on his idealized, mystical concept of the brotherhood of man under Christ. Suddenly these ideals were shattered by the ugly realities of World War I with both sides proclaiming God was on their side." (Matthews 54). Yet he emerged with a more spiritual art, and yearning to go deeper. "He made no innovations but carried to further development trends begun before the war. His forms became more ghostlike, his colors more suggestive of the mysticism that, to him, was the essence of life" (Mathews 192). Moses, like Joseph and the Shepherds, heard from God alone, and the people had to take his words on faith. What Moses learned of God himself is that "none of those things known by human comprehension is to be ascribed to him" (Gregory bk. 1 par. 166).

Tanner painted several works entitled Flight Into Egypt, but the green one is the unique. The destination of the travelers is the one of the two darkest figures in the painting. Their goal is Egypt, and they do not know what they will find there. The mystic's destination is God, and he is unknowable as well. The only figures as dark as the destination is Joseph, Mary and Jesus. Although they have a long path to travel, Tanner has pictured them in the same color and near God's darkness, symbolizing union.

The painting does contain light, however. Tanner illuminated the donkey, showing that God does not hide the means to joining him. The path is also well lit, again showing Tanner's biblical knowledge, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path" (NIV, Psalm 119:105). The moon is also bright as to be the initial focus of the painting. Any illumination in the work comes from the moonlight. The moon is also symbolic of God because the Shekhinah, in the Jewish Sefirot, is the Moon. The Shekhinah is also Earth perhaps showing a union between God and green earth. Even in a painting showing God in the dark cloud, light must be present. For God is not darkness, "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all" (NIV, 1 John 1:5). The darkness is his transcendence and incomprehensibility, not his being.

Christians know, worship and serve God from their innermost being. In biblical thought that is the heart. The green Tif'eret is at the center of being in the Jewish Sefirot. Green is also symbolic of growth, and the Bible commands the Christian to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (NIV, 2 Peter 3:18). Green is also the life of creation. A new creation comes with the coming of the Messiah, "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (NIV, 2 Corinthians 5:17).

Gregory of Nyssa. The Life of Moses. Trans. Everett Ferguson and Abraham J. Malherbe. New York: Paulist Press, 1978.

Mathews, Marcia M. Henry Ossawa Tanner: American Artist. Negro American Biographies and Autobiographies Series. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1969.

The New International Version Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984.

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