God unveils his face of wisdom when he reveals the glory of his presence through his Name, the experience of glory to which prophets and apostles bear witness that should never be confused with visionary apparitions of psychic phenomena or sensual perceptions of objectified appearances (2 Cor 3:18). Glory, being the uncreated energy of God, is not something that comes and goes under arbitrary temporal conditions but is the presence of the glory of God beheld by radiant wisdom whenever the mind turns and sees God at centre, revealed by God in his Name. Christ unveils the Father’s glory in uncreated light, illumining both the mind and the heart of the saints, transmitting his wisdom that awakens to light then glory, by unveiling human faces to Christ’s unveiled Face of hallowing glory (2 Cor 4: 6). This experience of glorification, of radiant illumination and ecstatic praise, is the living heart of all Scripture and Orthodox tradition, by means of which elders hand on the Spirit’s inspiration to the saints, opening all literal mindsets to the uncreated wisdom of the Spirit in the heart. Glory does not consume the body but extinguishes self-centred identification with the body, consuming confusion so as to sustain communion. The mystical body of light and glory is revealed together with the unveiled face, wisdom’s revelation of God in his Name, which opens to the sevenfold mysteries of wisdom in glorification. The deifying perfection (3) of wisdom (7) is the revelation of glory (3×7= 21), wisdom’s twenty-one names realised in expansive, all-embracing glorification (Wisdom 7:22-24) .
Glory purifies the heart as uncreated fire, illumining the heart as uncreated light, unveiling sevenfold mysteries of glorification from the Father, through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Wisdom and glory are uncreated energies of Holy Trinity, not abstractions conceived by the sophisticated mind. The experience of unveiling opens wisdom to glory but the hidden embrace of wisdom and glory in the Holy of Holies is not temporally conditioned but is concealed with Christ in God from before the foundation of the world. The embrace of wisdom and glory is an unconditioned, timeless mystery, transcending all our temporal conditioned states. The unconditioned light of glory extinguishes confusion and leaps right over division, releasing both heart and mind from the dictates of satanic confusion and separation. Wisdom’s sevenfold wholeness expands with God’s thrice-holy liberation as three times seven unveilings of wisdom and glory. This is the hallowing experience of unveiling which hides within Scripture but which is unveiled in Scripture when elders open mysteries of glory to the saints (1 Cor 2: 7). The Apostle Paul imparts hidden wisdom in mysteries of glory, unveiling the light of glory in the unveiled face of Christ, opening our created faces to the uncreated glory God prepared for his saints from before the very foundation of the world.
Christ is wisdom unveiling glory from before the beginning and after the end, the Name being his awareness as wisdom embracing his presence as glory. The glory of ‘I AM’ was hidden when pride exiled wisdom and vainglory subverted glory with vanity. The ‘powers that be’ were enslaved to pride and vainglory, blinded by their pride and vanity. Wisdom was always embracing glory in the Holy of Holies but fallen angelic ‘powers’ were blind and led their peoples into ditch after ditch, darkness which pretends to be light whilst it actually hardens the heart. Wisdom’s divine intent is to complete her sevenfold mysteries of completeness in three unfoldings of the thrice holy hallowing of Holy Trinity. The deifying perfection (3) of wisdom (7) reveals 3×7=21 names of wisdom. These deifying names are unveiled in the ‘Wisdom of Solomon’ as twenty-one attributes of wisdom, wisdom which glory completes as twenty-one deifying, doxological theophanies. The uncreated grace of glorification enlightens saints with the perfection of wisdom and glory, which together open their hearts to the deifying completeness of glorification.
Wisdom is described as an embrace of twenty-one names or attributes (Wisdom of Solomon 7: 22-24), but since wisdom eternally embraces glory, this recital of names also opens wisdom to twenty-one enlightening theophanies of glory. The Holy Spirit of wisdom is 1, ‘Intelligent,’ divinely capable of revealing the pure intelligibility of glory, sustaining pure intelligence with wisdom’s theophanic intellection that glorifies seers. The Spirit of wisdom is 2, ‘Holy,’ hallowing God’s Name as healing glory, source of manifold sanctifying theophanies of glory in the kingdom of God. Wisdom is 3, ‘Only-Begotten,’ so ‘Unique,’ being God’s one and only revelation of glory and so able to do justice to divine uniqueness in all wisdom’s theophanies of glory. Wisdom is 4, ‘Manifold,’ glory’s pure capacity to embrace wisdom’s many theophanies without disintegration into idolatrous reification, conjoining the many with the One, whilst soundly handling divine difference in unity and unity in difference. Wisdom is 5, ‘Subtle,’ revealing glory’s subtle presence in all and wisdom’s subtle co-inherence in all subtle theophanies of glory. Wisdom is 6, ‘Agile,’ being pure capacity for instantaneous action, incisive movement that unveils glory to wisdom in every instant. Wisdom is 7, ‘Lucid,’ being radiant translucence, transparent with glory, communicating crowning glory as the clarity of luminous translucence, incisively enlightening mind and heart. This lucid clarity completes the first of three of wisdom’s hallowing sevens and states the foundation of glorification in the Father to be enlightening wisdom.
Wisdom’s second series of seven names begins with 8, ‘Undefiled,’ pointing to wisdom’s pure union with unsullied glory, well able to purify the heart of all impurity. Wisdom is 9, ‘Clear,’ lucidly transparent in all its reflections of glory and plainly translucent in its theophanies of glory. Wisdom is 10, ‘Inviolable,’ always capable of freely embracing glory, free of the violations of satanic confusion and invulnerable to the diabolic violence of separation. Wisdom is 11, ‘Benevolent,’ always loving the goodness of glory embracing all, expansive glory beloved by the goodness of wisdom. Wisdom is 12, ‘Keen,’ therefore shrewd in her discernment of true glory, sharp in her discrimination between glory and vanity. Wisdom is 13, ‘Irresistible,’ unhindered by intrusion and unobstructed by distraction, one with glory without interference or disruption. Wisdom is 14, ‘Beneficent,’ keen in her kindly grace and reliable in her generous accomplishment of the good, which is glorification of all in wisdom. Solomon’s second series of seven wisdom attributes expresses the enlightening intent of wisdom’s generous scope, opening light in the Son to glory in the Kingdom come.
The third series of wisdom’s twenty-one names concerns glorification as the realisation of wisdom’s universal embrace. Wisdom is 15, ‘Kindly,’ so always humane in her embrace of all who suffer, opening glory to glory as love’s unconditionally generous grace. Wisdom is 16, ‘Steadfast,’ therefore sure in her love of glory, utterly worthy of our whole-hearted trust. Wisdom is 17, ‘Secure.’ so unfailing in her witness to glory, utterly dependable in her inclusive union with glory for the benefit of all. Wisdom is 18, ‘Peaceful,’ therefore untroubled in her tranquil stillness, revealing glory serenely centred in God, untouched by worldly cares. Wisdom is 19, ‘Almighty,’ therefore all-powerful in her glorious presence, with boundless capacity to glorify what wisdom embraces. Wisdom is 20, ‘All-seeing’ in her all-surveying care, with infinite capacity to communicate glory’s generous omnipresence and wisdom’s all-inclusive omniscience. Finally, wisdom is 21, ‘All-pervading,’ all-permeating in her intimate embrace of glory, penetrating all intelligent, pure and most subtle spirits with love’s infinite, deifying glory, Solomon’s third series of seven names of wisdom completes the deifying perfection (3) of wisdom (7) with 3×7=21 names of wisdom, envisioning wisdom’s series of three sevens in the light of her embrace of glorification, God’s wondrous consummation of the completeness of wisdom and glory revealed in the Holy Spirit through his Name.
The unveiled face of Christ glorified is the unveiled face of wisdom’s sevenfold completeness of glory, reflected through the threefold prism of Holy Trinity. The Thrice-Holy Hymn, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is I AM,’ unveils the glory of wisdom’s sevenfold completeness, expanding from wisdom’s sevenfold expanse into glory’s three times sevenfold completeness. Solomon’s wisdom brings to this unfolding of twenty-one mysteries of glory, a wisdom of Seven and of Three grounded in deifying Oneness that transcends number. The ‘I AM’ of Christ’s glory is wisdom’s hidden secret revealed at the heart of Scripture and of Orthodox wisdom tradition, wisdom which elders transmitted in the desert, imparting glorification to Name hallowing saints. Sacred numbers and inspired words are not ends in themselves but symbols or signs which signify mysteries of glory infinitely transcending them. Since wisdom is quicker than any motion, she pervades and permeates these mysteries with the glory that she loves. The purity of her glorious presence delights wisdom wherever she manifests and both this wisdom and this glory are the delight of God, the awareness and presence of Holy Trinity. The completeness of wisdom’s glory crowns wisdom with uncreated light wherever she turns. Her names and attributes unveil God’s thrice-holy completeness in such a way that the unveiled face of Christ transmits mysteries that only his hidden wisdom knows. The unveiled face of wisdom welcomes home the unveiled face of glory at the heart of the Name, opening wisdom to glory, fulfilling Scripture in illumination and opening illumination to glorification. Elders transmit the Name through wisdom’s luminous names as theophanies of glorification in the saints, completing wisdom’s enlightening sevens with glory’s threefold deifying completeness.