God's Metaphor in History
The enemies of Gnosis were and are triumphant, but only in the organizational and political sense. Historically they [Babylon, Rome] seem to have won, but all victories over the spirit remain forever equivocal, and the spark or deepest self is never quite snuffed out. - Harold Bloom, Omens of the Millennium The history of the Jewish people is God's metaphor for Gnosis.