Cloud (νεφέλη, νέφος)
Ruskin says that we never make the clouds a subject of thought, otherwise we should witness ‘scene after scene, picture after picture, glory after glory’ (Frondes Agrestes, 1875, p. 36f.). The Apostolic Church was not blind to the beauty of the ‘brave, o’erhanging firmament,’ which was far from seeming to her a mere ‘congregation of vapours.’ but in her the AEsthetic sense was subordinated to the religious. Her thoughts were to a large extent shaped by those of the great Hebrew writers, who conceived of God as making the cloud His chariot (Psalms 104:3), spreading it for a covering (105:39; 19:1), descending in it (Exodus 34:5) speaking out of it (Numbers 11:25, Deuteronomy 5:22), leading His people in it (Exodus 13:21, Psalms 78:14). She brooded over Daniel’s vision of the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. She heard that when the three disciples were on the Holy Mount a bright cloud overshadowed them, that they feared as they entered into the cloud, and that a voice spake out of the cloud (Matthew 17:5, Mark 9:7, Luke 9:34, Luke 9:35). Thus for the early Church the cloud sometimes served a higher purpose than that of watering the thirsty earth-it was regarded as the vesture of Deity, of angels, or of saints.
1. When Christ had spoken His last words to His disciples, ‘he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight’ (Acts 1:9). His body did not suddenly vanish, as in other post-Resurrection manifestations; nor was His Ascension accomplished in a blaze of glory. He was in human form when He parted from His Church and entered within the veil. The Church still thinks of Him, and prays to Him, as He was when the cloud enveloped Him.
2. St. Paul regards the cloud which indicated God’s presence among the Israelites as having a sacramental virtue to them (1 Corinthians 10:1, 1 Corinthians 10:2). When they were under it, and when they passed through the sea, they were initiated into the service of Moses, as the Christian is initiated by baptism into the service of Christ. ‘They were neither wet with the cloud nor with the sea, much less were they immersed in either … nor is the term baptism found in the writings of Moses. but Paul uses this term with great propriety, because (1) the cloud and the sea are in their own nature water, (2) the cloud and the sea took the fathers out of sight and restored them again to view, as the water does to those who are baptized.… the sacraments of the OT were more than two, if we take into account these extraordinary ones’ (Bengel’s Gnomon, in loco).
3. At one time St. Paul expected that he and other believers, still alive at the Parousia, would be caught up in clouds to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:17). The absence of the art. [Note: rt. article.] indicates that these are no common clouds, but ‘eigne Vehikel’ (Schmiedel, Hand-Kom. in loc .). Whether St. Paul thinks of Christ descending to meet the saints on their way to heaven, or simply of their ascending to join Him in the air- i.e. in heaven-is not made quite clear; but probably the former idea is what is meant. The essential fact is contained in the words which follow: ‘So shall we ever be with the Lord.’ At a later time St. Paul welcomed the thought of joining Christ in another way-‘janua mortis, janua vitAE’ (1 Corinthians 15:51, 2 Corinthians 5:1, Philippians 1:21-23).
4. In the Apocalypse a gigantic angel comes down out of heaven, arrayed with a cloud (Revelation 10:1). Christ Himself comes with clouds (1:7), as in the Danielic vision. He is enthroned upon a white cloud (14:14, 15, 16).
In Hebrews 12:1 the innumerable witnesses for Christ in past ages are compared to a cloud (νέφος) encircling believers who are now running their race. The example (perhaps not without the superadded thought of the real presence) of the multitude who have finished the course and won the prize is an inspiration to the present-day runner.
In Jude 1:12 hypocrites, uttering swelling words of vanity, are likened to mists and clouds which promise abundant showers for the thirsty earth but never give them.
James Strahan.