What is “glory”, anyway? Is it a thing, a quality, a mere poetic metaphor?
We don’t think it’s just a metaphor but both a metaphysical and tangible thing in itself.
The ancients described it as divine or kingly authority, power, majesty, importance, honor, splendor through the Hebrew words had and kabod, and the Greek word doxa. We humans are rightly drawn to glory, and sadly often to the point of worshipping it (the famous, the important, the successful, the powerful, whether in people or even in the divine).
Isn’t it interesting that Jesus was a man of no reputation, a man who “had no appearance of majesty or handsomeness to attract us to him, with nothing in his appearance that we should desire him”?*
There are so many conversations to be had in this subject! Today we talked about the gift of glory and how we all carry it whether we know it or not.
Notes
- from Isaiah 53:2. The word for majesty comes from the root ‘had’ and usually referred to kingly majesty. “Handsomeness” is my interpretation of the word ‘marah’, which usually meant incredible physical beauty or handsomeness.
- The Hebrew word ‘kabad’ that often is translated to English as “glory” conveyed heaviness or weightiness. C.S. Lewis explores this so beautifully in his essay The Weight of Glory.
