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> So what is the status you assign to the citation I gave from WOB/
> SWAB? Are you saying Shoghi Effendi was wrong and this is actually
> based on a pilgrim's note?
No Don, the text is an authentic tablet. If you read the "7 candles"
tablet carefully, you will see that it does not refer to the 20th
century. It refers to "this century."
The five pilgrims' notes I listed refer to the 20th century, or to
specific dates in the 20th century. I do not think that either Abdu'l-
Baha or Shoghi Effendi thought in such terms; in fact when he was
asked (in 1946, presumably about the 1957 and 1963 dates) Shoghi
Effendi said we do NOT know of a date for the Lesser Peace or the
Most Great Peace. Shoghi Effendi and Abdu'l-Baha were not in the
business of setting timetables for God.
So where did the "twentieth century" business come from?
Do you remember the New Testament story about the birth of Jesus in
Bethlehem, and the three wise men that came? If you read that
carefully, you will see it doesn't say "three". It just says:
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod
the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen
his star in the east, and are come to worship him. (Matthew 2:1-2)
So where does the "three" in the 3 wise men come from? Well, 3 is one
of those magic numbers that crops up in stories. "There was once a
miller, and he had three sons ... "(and the youngest gets the cool
cat for a portion). But also from the needs of the Christmas card
designers, who have "they presented unto him gifts; gold, and
frankincense and myrrh." and find it easiest to give each wise man
one gift.
In much the same way as "three" creeps into that story, I think the
Bahais heard what Abdu'l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi were saying, but
understood from it what they themselves expected to hear. People read
what the "7 candles" text says, but see what they expect to see, not
what is there. So we have the Research Department asserting that
Abdu'l-Baha promised "both orally and in writing, that the unity of
nations will be established during the twentieth century" and the UHJ
saying that "Abdul-Bahá made statements linking the establishment
of the unity of nations to the twentieth century" and citing the '7
candles' tablet as its source.
I've been asked a couple of times which language I think young Bahai
scholars should learn first, Persian or Arabic? When asked in France,
I replied, "French;" when asked in England I replied, "English." By
that I mean that a study of the literature of your mother tongue is
the best training for "close reading" of a text, and close reading is
the most important skill for scholarship of all kinds. No amount of
esoteric knowledge can substitute for the simple ability to read what
a text says, and notice what it does not say, and draw sensible
conclusions
Sen
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--
Sen McGlinn
***
In reality, the radiant, pure hearts are the Mashrak-el-Azcar
and from them the voice of supplication and
invocation continually reacheth the Supreme Concourse.
Tablets of `Abdu'l-Baha Abbas, p. 678
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