10-03-2024, 01:10 PM
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When doing that research with Cary, one of the first problems we ran into is that our current ideas of "heaven" and related concepts are completely different from the biblical and medieval understanding. So a large part of the post is intended to convey how the Bible, early Church fathers and medieval traditions thought about Heaven and the End Times.
We discovered that a lot of properties of biblical/medieval heaven are reflected in some way in the Rosettes page:
* square plan (even the foldout itself is designed to be square)
* huge, broad walls
* walls made of different materials
* city descends from heaven, and is thus carried by clouds
* city is luminous
This biblical/medieval heaven was not a distant place where one would go after death. It was a situation that would arise on Earth at the End Times. It would coincide with the Apocalypse, the raising of the dead, worldwide destruction of earthly rulers etc.
To the medieval mind, the destruction of the world as we know it and the beginning of God's Kingdom on earth (i.e. the descent of Heavenly Jerusalem, the Civitate Dei) are one and the same event. It is the most important thought in medieval Christianity: if you live well, you too will be raised from the dead when God comes to rule here on Earth. Medieval souls did not "go to heaven" at the end of times. They would become part of God's eternal kingdom here on earth.
I believe the design of the rosettes page is influenced by the philosophy of Augustine, probably the most influential Church Father. He argued that the Church on earth is already, in a way, God's kingdom, strongly linking the concepts of the worldwide Church and salvation at the End Times in medieval thought. That it why it would make sense to the medieval viewer that a, image shows the Church (Christendom) a church (building) and Heavenly Jerusalem all at once, because they are one and the same.
Which medieval source are you basing your views on?
When doing that research with Cary, one of the first problems we ran into is that our current ideas of "heaven" and related concepts are completely different from the biblical and medieval understanding. So a large part of the post is intended to convey how the Bible, early Church fathers and medieval traditions thought about Heaven and the End Times.
We discovered that a lot of properties of biblical/medieval heaven are reflected in some way in the Rosettes page:
* square plan (even the foldout itself is designed to be square)
* huge, broad walls
* walls made of different materials
* city descends from heaven, and is thus carried by clouds
* city is luminous
This biblical/medieval heaven was not a distant place where one would go after death. It was a situation that would arise on Earth at the End Times. It would coincide with the Apocalypse, the raising of the dead, worldwide destruction of earthly rulers etc.
To the medieval mind, the destruction of the world as we know it and the beginning of God's Kingdom on earth (i.e. the descent of Heavenly Jerusalem, the Civitate Dei) are one and the same event. It is the most important thought in medieval Christianity: if you live well, you too will be raised from the dead when God comes to rule here on Earth. Medieval souls did not "go to heaven" at the end of times. They would become part of God's eternal kingdom here on earth.
I believe the design of the rosettes page is influenced by the philosophy of Augustine, probably the most influential Church Father. He argued that the Church on earth is already, in a way, God's kingdom, strongly linking the concepts of the worldwide Church and salvation at the End Times in medieval thought. That it why it would make sense to the medieval viewer that a, image shows the Church (Christendom) a church (building) and Heavenly Jerusalem all at once, because they are one and the same.
Which medieval source are you basing your views on?
![[+]](https://www.voynich.ninja/images/collapse_collapsed.png)