it is to arrive in every given case at a result, and the less wit or thought is required.
Although the canons mentioned above are already applied in the Talmud and Midrash, the Cabalists made a more copious use of them. The names of God became a special object of their fancy. With them they imagined they could accomplish everything and perform miracles, heal the sick, extinguish the fire, etc. The most miraculous effects were ascribed to the Tetragrammaton. Whoever was in possession of the true pronunciation of that name could enter in relation with the upper world and receive revelations. Each letter of the sacred name was considered as something mysterious. The letter Y (of YHVH) referred to the father as creator (abba) and H to the mother (imma). Because the letter H occurred twice, they distinguished an upper and a lower mother. The permutation of the letters of the Tetragrammaton brought about a multitude of new divine names which, either spoken or written, influenced the course and laws of nature. As was the case with the name of God consisting of four letters, so it was with that consisting of twelve, twenty-two, forty-two and seventy-two letters. All were believed to contain great mysteries.23 The names of angels were treated in like manner. Thus the Cabalists greatly misused the Old Testament, especially the Thora. And, as says Professor Wiinsche, by making the Bible a text-book to elicit deeper ideas, the greatest nonsense and rubbish came to light. The so-called hidden mysteries and revelations were nothing but fancies whirling in the heads of the Cabalists. The exegetical literature of the Cabala clearly proves that its representatives had completely lost the sense for a suitable understanding of the words of scripture.24
1 Rabbi Azariel in his commentary on the ten Sephiroth tells us that "the En Soph can neither be comprehended by the intellect, nor described in words; for there is no letter or word which can grasp him." With this compare what Proclus, the neo-Platonist, says in his Theology of Plato, II, 6: "Although the Divinity is generally called the unity (to eV) or the first, it would be better if no name were given him; for there is no word which can depict his nature—he is the inexpressible, the unknown. Isaac ibn Latif (1220-1290) even says "God is in all, and everything is in God."
2 This must not be confounded with "the Aged of the Aged" as the En Soph is called.
3 When the Concealed of the Concealed wished to reveal himself, he first made a single point; the Infinite was entirely unknown, and diffused no light before this luminous point violently broke through into vision." (Zohar, I, 15a.)
4 So called by Rabbi Azariel.
5 He flourished in the first half of the twelfth century and is the author of a treatise on the Emanations (Massecheth Aziluth) reprinted by Jellinek in his Auswahl Kabbalistischer Mystik, Part I. Leipsic, 1853.
6 Graetz, Gnosticismus und Judentum, 1846, p. 44, derives the word from Atera Opovov, because this angel is immediately under the divine throne. Cassel (Ersch and Gruber's Encyklop'ddie, section II, vol. XXVII, s. v. "Juden," p .40, note 84) derives it from metator, i. e., "messenger, outrider, pathfinder." Wunsche also connects it with ticT&rwp. According to the Zohar, I, 126&, Metatron is the first creature of God; the middle pillar (in the essence of God) or the uniting link in the midst, comprising all grades, from top downwards, and from the bottom upwards (ibid.. Ill, 127a) ; the visibly manifested Deity (ibid., Ill, 231a).
7 Zohar, III, 48a.
8 Zohar, II, 70b.
9 Compare Book of Wisdom, VIII, 20; Josephus, Bell. Jud., II, 12, speaks of the Essenes as believing in a pre-existence of the soul. Philo's views are given in his De somniis, I, 642; De gigaiitibus, I, 263 f.
10 According to Josephus (Antiq., XVIII, 13; Bell. Jud., II, 8, 14) it would seem as if the Pharisees held the doctrine of the metempsychosis, but see Schurer, Geschichte des judischen Volkes, vol. II (3d ed., 1898) p. 391; on Philo's view, see ibid., vol. Ill, p. 561.
11 For a strange interpretation of scripture in modern times, the reader is referred to Canon Wordsworth's Commentary on Genesis and Exodus, London, 1864, p. 52.
12 On the interpretation of the scriptures among the Jews in general, see my article s. v. "Scripture, Interpretation of, Jewish," in McClintock and Strong.
13 The word is not like yeufxerpia, as Levy, Neuhebr. tVorterbuch, I, 324, thinks, but is derived from γραμματεία or γράμμα.
14 For a somewhat different mode compare The Open Court, Feb. 1909, p. 88.
15 בראשית
16 פסים
17 פ = Potiphar, ס = Sochrim (merchants), י = Ishmaelites, ם = Midianites.
18 Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτὴρ.
19 ἰχθύς.
20 English translation by M. Dodd, City of God, Edinburgh, 1871, where the Greek letters at the beginning of ; the lines are retained.
21 σταυρός.
22 Hottinger possessed an entire Pentateuch explained on the principle of Athbash.
23 Compare what we stated above in connection with Abulafia.
24 A somewhat different view on the cabalistic treatment of scripture is given by the late Jewish scholar Zunz (died 1886) in his Gottesdienstliche Vortrdge (Berlin, 1832), p. 403: For the passage in English see my article "Scripture Interpretation" in McClintock and Strong, vol. IX, p. 480.
CHAPTER VI.
THE CABALA IN RELATION TO JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY.
Judaism.—It must be acknowledged that the Cabala intended to oppose philosophy and to intensify religion. But by introducing heathenish
