During a session at Bosch
Baha’i School last year, one of the participants asked where Shoghi Effendi got
the title for his book, God Passes By. The
title for God Passes By, Shoghi
Effendi’s historical overview of the first hundred years of the Baha’i dispensation—first
published in 1944—was provided by George Townshend, one of the world’s great
biblical scholars.
David Hofman’s biography of
George Townshend briefly describes the sequence of events.
The choosing of the title for this ‘survey’, as all the
Guardian’s correspondence called it, taxed George’s imaginative invention. Only
after letters and two cables urging the point had been received did inspiration
come to him. He cabled ‘God Passes By’ and received the instant reply ‘DELIGHTED
TITLE EAGERLY AWAITING LETTER’.
(David
Hofman, George Townshend, p. 69)
George Townshend, (who later,
in 1951, was appointed a Hand of the Cause), was unquestionably familiar with the
biblical passages below, which may well, even if only subconsciously, have inspired
him with the title for Shoghi Effendi’s great book.
The first account, from the
book of Exodus, describes an episode with Moses involving a cloudy pillar, the
tabernacle, stone tablets, and a covenant…
The second account, from I
Kings, relates an episode referring to Elijah and his cave on Mount Carmel. This took place in the area where Baha’u’llah,
the Lord of Hosts, later physically walked and revealed the Tablet of Carmel
and where now sits the Shrine of the Bab.
Within
this Most Holy Land rises the Mountain of God
of immemorial sanctity, the Vineyard of the Lord, the Retreat of Elijah, Whose
return the Bab Himself symbolizes.
(Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith, p. 95)
From Exodus:
33:17 And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing
also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know
thee by name.
33:18 And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.
33:19 And he said, I will
make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the
LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will
shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.
33:20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there
shall no man see me, and live.
33:21 And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me,
and thou shalt stand upon a rock: 33:22 And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will
put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass
by: 33:23 And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but
my face shall not be seen…
34:5 And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with
him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
34:6 And the LORD
passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and
gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 34:7 Keeping mercy
for thousands…
(King James Bible, Exodus)[Emphasis added.]
From I Kings:
19:9 And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there;
and, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What doest
thou here, Elijah? 19:10 And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the
children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and
slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek
my life, to take it away.
19:11 And he said, Go forth, and stand
upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the
mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not
in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the
earthquake: 19:12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the
fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
19:13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped
his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave.
And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here,
Elijah? 19:14 And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have
forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with
the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
19:15 And the LORD said unto him, Go,
return on thy way to the wilderness…
(King James Bible, I Kings) [Emphasis added.]
