Traditions: Matthean early Christianity; Bahá’í Kitáb-i-Íqán Motif: Apocalyptic clouds and recognition of revelation Connection verdict: Explicit nineteenth-century scriptural citation and reinterpretation Article status: Expanded Date: 2026-11-01
Summary
Bahá’u’lláh quotes Matthew’s sun, moon, stars, and Son of Man coming on clouds as a text requiring interpretation.
Read the two scenes
Matthew’s discourse follows questions from disciples about signs and timing; its cosmic images precede the Son of Man’s arrival and the angels’ gathering. The Kitáb-i-Íqán does not merely repeat the scene. It quotes the Matthean sequence, challenges a literalist expectation, and reads “clouds” through the social and theological difficulty of recognizing a new Manifestation who appears in ordinary human form. Bahá’u’lláh also treats changes of law as a veil. The textual relationship is explicit, but the interpretive conclusion belongs to this later Bahá’í argument.
What connects—and what does not
Matthew 24 addresses disciples about coming upheaval and the gathering of the elect; the Kitáb-i-Íqán interprets clouds as veils created by human expectations, altered laws, and the mortality of a Manifestation.
This is documented Bahá’í reuse of Matthew, not evidence that Matthew anticipated a single later exegesis or that all Christians read it thus.
Why read them side by side?
This documented reception case shows how apocalyptic imagery was repurposed in a specific nineteenth-century revelation discourse without erasing its Gospel setting.
Sources and reading notes
- Matthew 24:29-31 (NRSVUE) — Jesus describes darkened sun and moon, falling stars, and the Son of Man arriving with clouds and angels. NRSVUE English translation; Matthew was composed in the late first century CE; dating details remain debated.
- Bahá’u’lláh, Kitáb-i-Íqán, Part One, paragraphs beginning “These are the melodies” and “By the term clouds” — The 1861–62 Baghdad work cites Matthew explicitly and later explains clouds symbolically as obstacles to recognizing divine manifestation; official Shoghi Effendi English translation.
Research limit
A named parallel can establish literary reuse or related tradition; a general resemblance alone cannot prove borrowing. Linked editions and translations vary. Where a source is identified as secondary orientation, the comparison does not claim direct close reading of that tradition’s primary text.