Jesus Foretold the “Glory of God” – Baha’u’llah

The title Baha'u'llah skill "the Glory of God" – and within the book of Revelation, Jesus foretold the coming of the "Glory of God": 

And the metropolis had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the mild thereof. – Revelation 21:23 (emphasis introduced).

Now what – or who – is the "Glory of God"? good query. however, first, why is this verse crucial, especially for Baha'is?

This prophecy from the publication of Revelation seems strikingly comparable to Jesus' prophecies in the Gospels: 

For the Son of man shall are available the glory of his Father together with his angels; after which he shall reward every man in response to his works. – Matthew sixteen:27 (emphasis brought). 

Whosoever hence shall be ashamed of me and of my words during this adulterous and sinful era; of him additionally shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh within the glory of his Father with the holy angels. – Mark eight:38 (emphasis introduced).

For whosoever will be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall are available his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels. – Luke 9:26 (emphasis introduced).

clearly, Jesus and his disciples described his second coming because the "glory of God" and additionally as the "glory of his Father." each seem like equal terms. 

remember, notwithstanding, that the ebook of Revelation become written via John of Patmos, who mentioned that the content came from Jesus, according to the opening verse: 

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which have to almost immediately come to move; and he despatched and signified it with the aid of his angel unto his servant John. – Revelation 1:1.

the key verse in that ebook of the Bible, Revelation 21:23, has delivered importance for Baha'is, in particular because Baha'u'llah quoted it at once in one of his tablets, as considered in right here provisional translation from a pill to Ḥájí Ilyáhú Cohen (the first among the Jews of Kashan, Iran, to include the Baha'i faith), wherein Baha'u'llah proclaims:

at the present time the metropolis of God hath seemed and might be witnessed in excellent adornment. here's the city in which the God of all peoples hath seemed. ponder these words of John, who announced the exquisite and sacred city and referred to: "and i noticed no temple in it; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the metropolis had no want of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the mild of it." – Baha'u'llah, citing Revelation 21:22–23, provisional translation by way of Nahzy Abadi Buck and Christopher Buck, quoted in "The Eschatology of Globalization: Baha'u'llah's multiple-Messiahship Revisited," studies in up to date Religions, religious actions and the Babi-Baha'i Faiths, p. a hundred and fifty.

This makes Revelation 21:23 half and parcel of Baha'i scripture. It's also clear that Baha'u'llah desired to attract consideration to this key verse as a "proof-text" (as scholars say) of Baha'u'llah's own mission. Why? as a result of Jesus – even if especially or symbolically and even coincidentally – foretells the advent of Baha'u'llah by means of name. The Baha'i scholar Stephen Lambden explains:

The Arabic word bahā' is, however, discovered at definite points in Arabic versions of the new testament and in different Arabic writings. an excellent illustration happens in Revelation 21:23 where John of Patmos predicts, "and that i saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of solar or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God (= Bahā'-Allāh) is its easy, and its lamp is the Lamb."

in one of his tablets to a Jewish Baha'i, Bahā'-Allāh [Baha'u'llah] cites this verse in Arabic precisely because it became printed within the London 1858 (1671) edition of the William Watts Arabic Bible for the japanese church buildings. – Stephen Lambden, "The Greek doxa in the New testament and theophanic-messianic splendour in Christian Literatures"

Who was this "Jewish Baha'i," and how do we know about him? He was Ḥájí Ilyáhú Cohen, also known as Abdu'l-Ḥusayn. There are a few references to Cohen in Mousa Amanat's seminal work on the Baháʼís of okayáshán: Mousa Amanat, Bahá'íyán-i-okáshán, edited with the aid of Noura Amanat-Samimi. as an example:

Mousa Amanat identifies Ḥájí Ilyáhú Cohen as one of the crucial Jews who embraced the faith throughout the time of Baha'u'llah, when such Baha'is as Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥaydar-ʻAlí and Mírzá Abuʼl-Faḍl visited káshán to advertise the religion there. – p. 39.

Amanat notes that Baha'u'llah gave Cohen the title of Abdu'l-Ḥusayn. – Ibid.

Amanat describes Cohen as "one of the first to embody the cause in okáshán, the place he would return occasionally. He changed into also energetic in other regions and cities, equivalent to Ṭihrán." – p. 42, translation with the aid of Adib Masumian.

Amanat remarks that his father, Murad Amanat, characterised Cohen—whom he knew individually—as a an open-minded rabbi who believed within the textual content of the historical testomony and within the scriptures of the prophets, and deplored the personal commentaries with which rabbis would customarily conclude their discourses after reciting passages from the ancient testomony. 

in keeping with Mousa Amanat, Cohen might sense that the younger Murad Amanat turned into in a similar way open-minded, and therefore developed a addiction of creating all kinds of modern remarks to him. This begun with Cohen's expression of his dissatisfaction with the aforementioned apply of the rabbis, which then developed right into a disavowal of those features of Judaism that have been now not part of the historical testomony. through this point, Murad had distanced himself from the Jewish clerics. 

Realizing this, Cohen intimated to Murad his acceptance of Jesus Christ, and later his acceptance of Muhammad—a confession which brought on Murad to conduct his personal research. Mousa Amanat notes that, right around that time, Murad went on a company shuttle to Hamadán, the place he got here into contact with some Baha'is of Jewish background, and came to embody the faith after some huge conversations with these Baha'is. – p. 204.

Amanat has written a short biographical account of Cohen on pp. 288–290. This includes an excerpt from a unique account of Cohen, written by means of a undeniable Mírzá Rayḥán-i-Rayḥání, and the text of a Persian pill printed to him by means of Baha'u'llah.

In another tablet, found by using Adib Masumian and addressed to a person named Abu'l-Hasan, Baha'u'llah cites Revelation 21:23 as a proof-text in an identical vein. (Iranian country wide Baha'i Archives volumes, one zero five-volume inner most printing, extent 28, pp. 447–463). The copyist's signature delivered at the end (the "colophon") of this tablet shows that it became transcribed by using Mírzá Áqá Ján Khádim, Baha'u'llah's secretary.

So there you have it! In Revelation 21:23, Jesus foretold the "Glory of God," which Baha'u'llah cites as one proof of his prophetic mission, in at least two separate passages – in his pill to Ḥájí Ilyáhú Cohen, and in his pill to Abu'l-Ḥasan.

observe: For a provisional translation of Baha'u'llah's whole pill to Ḥájí Ilyáhú Cohen, see pp. 34–35 of: Táj-i-Vahháj: Crown of Glory. Memoirs of Jináb-i-Azíz'u'lláh Azízí. Translated from the normal Persian by means of Nahzy Abadi Buck & Christopher Buck. (First published long island, 1988.) English translation edited by Hamid & Sandra Azizi. North Vancouver, B.C., 1991. [Privately published. Peer-reviewed by editors.] published on-line (might also 2, 2016): http://bahai-library.com/azizi_crown_glory. See additionally "pill to the Jews," area #forty seven of Baha'i Scriptures, pp. 116–117, http://bahai-library.com/compilations/bahai.scriptures/2.html#TabletJews. (Courtesy of cosmologist and information scientist, Steven Phelps, can also 23, 2020.)