WORD
STUDY
HANDKERCHIEFS
–
HEALING
Acts 19:12: So that from his body were brought unto the sick
handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them,
and the evil spirits went out of them.
II Kings 2:14: And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from
him, and smote the waters, and said, where is the LORD God of
Elijah? And when he also had smitten the waters, they parted
hither and thither: and Elisha went over.
I was recently reading a book about vibrations by a quantum
physicist who presented his theories in a nice dumbed down
fashion so that even an average Joe like myself could almost
figure out what he was talking about. As this scientist
presented his theory of vibrations, I began to think about a
possible connection between the mantle of Elijah and Acts
19:11 where people took Paul’s handkerchief (Gk. Soudaria) and
apron (GK. Simkinthia) and used these objects of linen to heal
people when Paul was not even present.
The basis of the theory presented by this scientist was that
everything that exists in the natural universe is made up of
vibrating atoms and molecules. When God created a tree, He
spoke a certain vibration and that vibrated the atoms to form
a tree.
It is sort of like the synthesizer you find on Star
Trek where Captain Picard speaks to the computer and orders a
hot cup of tea. The computer vibrates the molecules in the
air to the exact order for a cup of tea and suddenly a cup of
tea appears. Such a machine is scientifically possible but
nowhere near a development stage at this time.
Still, it
might explain some strange words in the Hebrew used in II
Kings 2:14.
First I would like to look at Acts 19:12 where people took
handkerchiefs and aprons from Paul and used them to heal the
sick.
The Greek word for handkerchief is soudaria which
means a cloth or piece of linen used to wipe the sweat from
one’s face and the word for apron is simikinthia which is
merely an apron, something worn to protect ones under
clothing.
Now if we take these Greek words we end up with
people like the old boy I met on a bus in Chicago who had sets
of handkerchiefs that he was peddling.
He said they were
blessed by a bishop and bore different colors. One color was
for healing, another for casting out demons etc. I suspected
the one spotted with certain stains suggested his nose also
added a little blessing.
end of my little study.
I will get back to this idea at the
Checking my Aramaic Bible I find the words used for
handkerchiefs and aprons are really words which express the
borders of his garments. The word for garment is katan is the
Aramaic and is the exact word used today for the tallit katan.
The tallit katan is a garment worn for possibly thousands of
years by the Hebrews as a prayer shawl which had on its
borders tzitzits or tassels. Most likely people snatched the
tassels off of Paul’s tallit katan and used these for
healing.
One particular tassel or thread, as we all know or
are aware, is that purple thread or the tekhelet the blue
thread. The origin of the blue dye used for this thread was
lost in the dispersion, but recently rabbis are convinced they
have rediscovered the source of the original blue dye which
they say came from a certain type of snail. Scientists have
found that this dye from this snail does contain certain
medicinal value, particularly for cancer. Research is ongoing
and there is plenty on the internet for you to browse if you
are interested.
For my purposes I believe that what these
people took from Paul were the tassels for his tallit katan.
I believe the mantle that was left by Elijah and passed on to
Elisha may very well have been a tallit katan. To be fair,
there is considerable debate that the tallit katan was
actually in use during the time of Elisha.
The word used in
Hebrew for the mantle is ‘adareth.
This word is really
another word for glory. It is often used to express something
that is glorious or marvelous, but there is no reason that it
cannot be used as a noun and simply mean the glory. In other
words Elijah could very well have left some sort of prayer
garment which he used when in prayer.
Remember I Kings 19:11
when he left a cave and covered his face with his ‘adareth or
mantle.
I don’t believe he was using it to protect him from
the elements, but to enter into a deep prayer or devekut or an
intimate time with God.
Elisha picked up this ‘adareth and said: “Where is the God of
Elijah.”
There is a curious use of words here following this
question. It is aph hu in Hebrew and remains untranslated in
many translations.
Some have assume it would be rendered as
“he also” which is a literal rendering. Some would say: “Here
he is” or as used in the Greek Septuagint apspso which means
“yea he.”
Just that alone would suggest that the glory of
the Lord encompassed this ‘adareth (mantle) and brought about
the following miracles as it did with the threads of Paul’s
tallit katan (handkerchiefs and aprons). Jewish literature
teaches that this mantle was placed in a special closet in the
holy place of the temple after Elisha’s death.
It might
explain why the angel appeared to Zacharias in the holy place
of the temple and why people thought John the Baptist was
Elijah as his father may have been instructed by Gabriel to
remove Elijah’s ‘adareth (mantle) and give it to his son as he
would be the forerunner for the Messiah as prophesied that
Elijah would return before the Messiah came. Maybe Paul, as a
member of the Sanhedrin and leader of the Jews took possession
of Elijah’s mantle or tallit katan from John the Baptist after
he was executed. Ah, but such is fodder for Urban Legend and
if I put that out over the internet, low, some preacher may
start an expedition to discover Elijah’s mantle for last day
miracles. Forget I even mentioned it.
Yet, I am given pause to wonder about this scientist and his
talk of vibrations.
He said everything, rocks, trees,
mountains, people, animals and even stars and planets give off
vibrations.
In fact they have been able to record these
vibrations and listening to the vibrations and it is like
listening to beautiful music. The scientist further explained
that everything that exists has its own song and everything
and everyone has a different song. It would not stretch the
imagination to conclude that an infinite God could have
infinite songs that he could give to every object, animal or
person in the universe. Everything would have its own song.
Perhaps Elijah’s ‘adareth (mantle) and Paul’s tallit katan
(handkerchief and apron) each contained a song and people were
healed with a song from God.
Remember when the woman touched
the hem of Jesus’s garment and was healed (Mark 5:25-29)?
Jesus said virtue went out from him.
In Aramaic the word
virtue is chayla which literally means vibrations.
Oh, one last thing, remember aph hu (yea he or here he is)?
Aph comes from the Hebrew root word aneph which means to
breathe through the nostrils. Hu is the pronoun he.
So when
Elisha asked: “Where is the God of Elijah?”
The answer came
in aph hu ‘adareth – God breathed though his nostrils into the
mantle (‘adareth). Remember ‘adareth actually means glory so
more precisely, “God imparted his glory (‘adareth) in a
mantle.”