d Rabbinic Speculation and Gnostic Parallels The Hellenistic world turned from the cool logic of the philo~ sophers of the Golden Age of Greece to the Dionysian irrational at the turn of the second century BCE, opening to the intellectual currents of the Orient--Chaldean astrology, Zoroastrian dualism, the cults of Mithras and Isis. According to Dodds, it vas the result of a fear of freedom, the freedom that rational thought threatened by making man totally responsible for his own actions,' The end product of this orientalization was,in Jonas' term, the gnostic principle, a flight from the human condition, an existential anxiety, which expressed itself most fully in gnostic cults.” ‘The fundemental characteristic. of this principle is the fecling of being thrown(geworfenheit)into’an existence with which one has no intrinsic connection, The gnostic pneumatikoi,purely spiritual,is flung into a world material and totally alien, and desires only to return home a primordial state of pure being.” Jewish thinkers were not isolated from these streamo;what happened after Alexander's ‘conquests to the Greek world happened in Judea as well While Greek thought is generally accredited with sparking now thought in Judea, there was an equally important part played by oriental culture, which also now penetrated Judea, just as it had begun to penetrate the Hellensitic world, To give only one exomplo,the oft cited"a time to be born" of Beclesiastes is considered a representative of the iron rule of fate, as in the Zepvan of the Persians or the astral rule of the Babylonians, one can discern,in the literature of this period(the wisdom literature of the Bible or the apocrypha) a sense of a gap between dod and man, a gap unknown to pre-exilic Israel. This is reflected in such sources as Job 28, in which wisdom2 is described as an entity separate from God, and in Proverbs 8, in which wisdom is an entity pre-existing creation and is the first consort of Godsit becomes the intermediary between men and God(vs.51). Wisdom "rises from the power of God, a pure effluence from the glory of the Almighty" as in the Wisdom of Solomon 7:25, Wisdom can even here be seen as a tertiary stage, emanating out of "power" and "glory" which bridge the gap between the divine and the mundane, (Wisdom appears as a key facotr later in such gnostic forms as Sophia Prunikos or Aghamot,a corruption of the Hebrew _Hokhmah).? A clear example of such a hypostasis is the logos of Philo and its echo in the first chapter of the Gospel according to John.Flusser suggests that while the original function of the hypostasis was to prevent the anthropomorphization of God, at the same time, Judaism was undergoing a process of ronythologization; these terms were soon perceived as having an existence of their own. Paralleling the rise of the wisdom school in Jewish thought at this period was the growth of apocalyptic circles,a characteristic of whose was to perceive the world in terms of a “dualiom in time", a dualiom of thie world, given over to the forces of darkness, and the world to come, under the rule of good.(In gnostic thought, the time factor would be removed, and the two, this world, and the world to come, co-exist). Peculiar to this apocalypsis is a dwelling on the descript- ion of the secrets of heaven, something that is to be later the center of Merkabah speculation, Thus,as early as the Ethiopic text of Enoch, there is a description of the heavens and the throne on which God sits,® This same theme is found in the texts of Qumran, which reflect theapocalyptic moods, There is, for example, the revelation of the! 'wonder- ful secrets of God", much like the throne specualtion of Enoch, ? These scrolls express the seme desire that is in gnostic literature, alonging to bridge the abyss between man and the divine(or metadivine).-- to stand before God with the heavenly host and to be with those engaged dn song(Thonkegiving Psalm 1QH 11:13-L4) or to hear glorious voices and see the holy angels who hear deep secrets(War_Scrol1,1@M 10:12),2° These sectarians ,in the years following the revolts against Rome, either were reabsorbed by mainstream Jewryjor entered gnostic circles,'! The Gnostics Gnosticism, rather than being a religion in the formal sense of the word, must be considered an umbrella term for a wide variety of movements,all of which reflected the same general moodjit is becoming clearer that many of these groups had Jewish roots,Paradoxically, there is, in gnostic literature, some of the most blatant theologically based anti-Semitism for the age:the God of Israel, the creator of the world, is but the Demiurge,who has burdened the world with his law through his pawns, the Jews;the gnostic must free himself from the world and the Law through possession of the truth,or true knowledge, gnos. It can be discerned in the systems of Basilides,the Cainites,or the Ophites What were their origins? The Ophites were part of a Jewish antinomian group centered in Sephoris in the third and ¢ourth century and may have been instrumental in introducing to the gnostic circles much of Jewish esoteric traditions.!*there is new biographical material found on Meni that showd him as having been raised among the Elkasai, a variant form of the Ebionites,the early Judeo-Christians,14 New discoveries make it possible to claim a much larger part forJewish thought in the formation of Gnosticism than had previously been accepted. One Sethian text mentions that the teachers of the doct- rine had come from Sodom and Gomorrah;while it is a gnostic tendency'to senctify the unholy, this is also a geographic statement-that the originators of the cult came from the Dead Sea area, the locus of Jewish sectaries like the Bssenes.2? There exists a gnostic commentary on the Bible that can be understood only in the light of Jewish exegesis of the original Hebrew text.peterson, Haenchen, Quispel,and others claim to discern in the DEad Sea texts a Jewish,pre-Christian gnosticism, which had not yet developed the dualistic outlook of the later gnstice and which still retained the belief in the unity of God;these proto=gnostics upheld the concept of a “primordial man".*?(reflected in Shiur Komah speculation). This emphasis on the "divine man" embodied, for Jonas, a common trait of all gnostic circles, wherein "Man" is above the Doniurge; man was thereby given a new importance in the metaphysical realm, above this world and ite creator.‘ °rhe "primordial man" of the proto-gnostics reflected this new status of man, It must be added that Simon Magus, whom the Church Fathers considered to be the Father of all heresies, himself came from Semaria,the center of the oldest continuing form of"sectarianism",the Samaritans.!9 Haenchen claims that the Jewish character of Simon Magus is clearly recognizable.“ Zewish speculative mysticiem Jewish spéculative mysticism was not limited to fringe groups slike the Essenes, but was to be found in the mainstream of Jewish thought as well, both in terms of throne speculation(Maaseh Merkabah) and speculation on the "body of God", or the "primordial man",5 The throne speculation expressed itself in terms of ascension to the Seven Heavens, which is found in such works as Fourth Ezra or The Ascension of Isatah,*'Being caught up into the different heavens appeared as well in the Slavagictext of Bnoch or the Testament of Levi(which, in its Aramaic rescension, echoes material found in the Genesis Apocryphin of the Dad Sea Scrolls,),Even in the writings of Paul ,we find this concept, of a man"caught up to the third heaven-~ whether in body or note’) .this man was caught up to paradise." ({ICorinthians 12:2-4).Scholem points out the parallel here with the discussion found in the Talmud(Haggigah 14b) of the "Four who entered Paradise", Those four figures mentioned were prime examples of those while yet remaining in the center of normative Judaism, were engaging in in speculation:Rabbi Akiba, Ben Zoma, Ben Azai, ond Elisha ben Abuya, who, initially,was a Rabbinic Jew,@? Ampng those mentioned in speculative literature were the pupils of R, Johanan ben Zakkai;the later Merkabah texts speak in the names of such Tannaitic figures as Eliezer ben Hyrcanus,R, Akiba, R, Ishmale Ha Cohen,R. Nehuniah ben Hakaneh, The descriptions of the Throne must have been part of the esoteric doctrines of the Pharisees towards the ond of the Second Tomple period and shortly thereafter.>> Lieberman contends that speculation on the dimensions and form of God (the "primoridal man") were involved in the statement by Rabbi Aiciba , that the day on which the Song of Songs was revealed waa the greatest event in history.(Mishna Yadayim, end Ch. 3). Around this devolved a discussion among the Rabbis of his time as to God's visual appearance at the RE@ Sea and Mount Sinai, together with the revelation of the Song of Songs, It follows from this that the speculation on the body of God in the fragnents called Shiur Komah(weasurement of Height) represent very early midrashim on the Song of Songs *4and includes other Tannaitic and Amoraic speculstions.@? Yet another aspect of the myteical speculation was the numinous hymn, which repeated over and over, in a hypnotic rythm, the attributes and praises of God, which led to a state of ecstacy just by repetotive recital. Prayer of this sort was not only the function of the mystic, but of all creation,2© the texts of hymns can be placed as early as the thira century; the Babylonian Anora, Rav, was the composer of the prayer YAleinu", which has features characteristic of the numinous hymns, like those of the angelic hYmns of the Dead Sea sect.°? what is certain is that as early as the time of the Essenes, there are descri- ptions of the participation of the mystic in the angelic choir praising Goa,28 Together with Scholem's reevaluation of the antiquity of the Merkabah texts, as well as the material that we have in Mishnaic and Talmudic sources, it is possible to place the peak of Merkabah specudition somewhere in the period from the second half of the first century, to the third. century,Cz,%tnvolved were the very people active in the forpation of Rabbinic Judaism, This developenent coincided with the rise and spread of gnostic teaching in the Roman world, Both, it may be presumed, drew on the same sources, yet went in opposite directions, the Jewush mystics remeining solidly in the mainstream,and the ~gnostics becoming openly hostile to Judaien,Mediating between these two camps there was athird group, Jewish, antinomian,dualistic, that may have served to transfer elements from one camp into the other,>> Fragments of Rabbinic discussions can be found spread throughout the Bablonian Talmud, but the greatest sungle concentration is in the Genara following the first Mishna of the second chapter of Hagigah. ‘A few of these fragments can serve as a starting point7 for demonstrating the similarities in tems and even concepts between Rabbinic speculation and gnosticism, Thus, it will be seen to what extent a document of classical Rabbinism parallels the literature of the gnostics, ‘The text of Hagigah and gnostic allusions The opening Mishna(Hagiggah 2:1) limits the spread of the teaching of esoteric doctrine, and warns against speculation of "what is above, what beneath ,what before and what after." Schdlem suggests that this was intended to surpress gnostic speculation rampant at the time,?! Certainly the defeat of Bar Kochba and the smashing of millenial expectations must have required a reassessment of the beliefs and led to the changed mood that thie Mishna reflects, The language of the Mishna is an echo of the very gnostic slogan itself:"who we were, what we become, where we were,whereinto we have been thrown, whereto we speed, wherefrom we are redeemed,what birth is,and what rebirth,"(Exc, Theod, 78,2), It is important to keep in mind that the Mishna,a product of the Jewry of the land of Israel, is devoid of angelology or other mytsical. epeculatinn;the redaction surely reflects the realization that it was the very dabbling in esoterica which led a sage like Elisha ben Abuya astray or drew Rabbi Akiba into support of Bar Kochba, The Babylonian text of the Talmud reflects a different time and spirit, The Amoraim come from a different milieu and, in their discussions, as finally redacted in the Babylonian Talmud, there is a wealth of angelology, denonclogy, folk mythology and magic. They recorded precisely that material which the redacter of the Mishna, be it dudah the Price or one of his teachers before him,wished to expungesalthough, transported hundreds of miles away and transposed from the Hellenized-Roman environment of Israel to the Persian environment of the Baylonian sages, this material appears only as fragnents whose teeth have been removed. The Gemara,in opening reference to the MIshna, quotes Rabbi Eleazar?@ :The first man extended from the earth to the firmament, as it ic said "Since that day that God created man on earth and unto the end of heaven", (Denternamy 4:32) but as soon as he sinned, the Holy One,Blessed be He, placed his hand on him end made him smaller, as it is said,"Thou hast fashioned me(sartani) - a play on words ,intended to mean'made smaller’) after and before, and laid thine hand upon mes(Ps. 33925). (Hogigsh \2*) This image of Adam of also appears in gnostic texts, wherein Adan is a gigantic monster without any intelligence.°*in Genesis Rabbah 8:1, Adan is created on the first day, as soul(the "spirit on the face of the waters! ac mentioned in Gens1:25° The revelation of the true nature of the Universe is made to the Domiurge,"Man exists above thee and so does the Son of Nan" (Sacred ook of the Invisible Spirit) or that the Primal Light is "Father of all, and his name is First Man."99(Thie statement comes from the Ophites, a group with Jewish origins).4° There is no need to be limited to the pure gnostics to see this concept of God in terms of man, This is central to the Shiur Komah specu- lation, wherein God is described from head to toe, For example, a descrip- tion stated in the name of Rabbi Akiba''': the roundness of his head crowned, Hodyah Atsyah,his name, is 300,000 myriad parasangs and 33 1/3 parasangs. . . the diadem on his head,60 myriad parasangs, and it weighs 41,000 myriad and 685 shekel. . . his tongue is from one ond of the world to the next . . . the width of his forehead. . . the distance from the right eyeball to the left . . . the white of his oye his left arm, . .bis tocs, . . the total size is two thousand myriad parasang of myriads of myriads of thousands of parasangs high and a thousand thou-10 sands of myriads of parasangs wide, each parasang being three miles, each mile, ten thousand cubits, each cubit, three spans, and each span fills the whole earth." The figures excede all rational dimensions,perhaps to give the feeling of immensity without any thought given to truth in measurement. Had the text merely referrred to such descriptions as "God's crown" or "God's ern", this could have been diswissed as just some expansion on ancient, traditional metaphors, However ,the text emphasizes the minutiae, details ignored in Biblical anthropomorphic statements-—the eyeball, the toes,the tongue,Herein lies the uniqueness of the description in the context of Jewish thought, something paralleling the "body of the Father" and "body of truth described in details by the gnostic Markos of the second century,? According to Scholem and Liebermann, the Shiur Komah speculations antedate Markos and may have well been the source for his descriptions."? The same concept can be discerned in the Poimandres of Hermes Trismagictus, wherein Man, the emanation of the Nous, the Father, reveals his form to Nature, reflected in the waters,which, falling in love with the image, unite to form man(in the human sense) ;compare also the Primal Man in the gnosticism of Mani,/# In these same Shiur Komah fragments, there appears a parallel to th salvational “gnosis! of the gnostics, Gnosis is that which will free the pneumatic from the chains of fleshly existence, In Jewish sources, it is the possession of the secret knowledge of the description of God, Rabbi Akiba,in one text, is quoted, "Whoever knows the measure of our creator(Yotzrenu) and the praise of the Holy One Blessed be He, which is hidden from the people, is guaranteed a place in the world to come and he will lengthen his days in this world," and,adds Rabbi Ichmacl, “he must repeat this "Mishna" every day."#5 the Jewishness is reflected in the traditional phrase of reward for both this life and the next,n a reward which the gnostic would disdain,there is the emphasis on the aquisition of a secret knowledge upon which salvation depends,1t is closer to gnosis than to Pauline salvation, wherein the knowledge is for the entire people, but here, as in gnosticism, it is for a select few, Note that the term for God in the text is 'Creator'(Yotzer) , which appears in the popular prayer,Alenu, as Yotzer Bereshit, the former of the Creation)and would be translated directly into its Greek equivalent, the Demiurge,What Jewish texts did was to invert the anti-Semitic implication of the Demiurge(as the inferior, misleading Elohim) by identifying it with the highest Goa,46 ‘The nature of the secret teaching is reflected in another work, Merkabah Rabbah,Rabbi Ishmael describes the immediate effect on himeelf of the knowledge. . Nehuniah ben Hakanah took me to the Hewn Chamber and made me sewar on the sela of Zeburie} Yahweh, God of Israel, that is Metatron Yahweh, God of Israel, God of Heaven and Earth, God of the Sea and the Continents, and revealed to me the narure of the secrets of the ‘Torah, Immediately my heart cleared, , . when my ears heard the great secret, the world was transformed around me to purity and my heart was as if I had come to a new world,and every day, I fwlt as if I stood before the Throne of Glory.?"there is a strong hint that the possession of knowledge frees one from the world as it is, creating a new world of purity for the recipient of the knowledge, just as the possession of gnossis frees one from the chains of the world,as in a Mandean poem: “From the day we beheld thee/from the day when we hard thy word/ our hearts were filled with peace/.,./All our days we shall not forget thee. . 48 Rabbi Akiba,in the same text,huving risen to the Throne of Glory, was ordered by God to reveal the "Homda"(the Precious) to the creation"?ee The Vemda or Ki Yenda,according to the Arkh Hashalen., refers to Torah, It is sometimes used in the form,Homda Genuza,the Hidden Treasure, or Hidden Torah, It is used in the Talmnd(Shabbat 88a),in a text with strong gnostic overtones, According to Resh Lakish, Moses ascended to Heaven, but the angels refused to agree that he be given the Hidden ‘TReasure(Torah), Moses was afraid of being destroyed by the angels, but God saved him by telling him to hold on to the Throneand refute the angels, This ie suggestive of both the Morkabah specualtion, whereby the way to the throne is blocked by fiery angels and dangerous traps and of gnostic specualtion, wherein the Archons, counterparts to the angels, try to prevent the ascendent pnewmatikoi from reaching the pleroma , and , in both cases, he must resort to special means,chants, or disguises(just as Moses must hold on to the Throne in order to be safe from destructive angels whom God can not force to desist),?! Returning to the text of Hagigat{there is, next in line, a list of all things created on the first day,taken from Gen:1:1-5,and expounded upon, There is "Zohu" which, a Tannaitic source informs, is a "green line that encircles the whole world , out of which emanate darkness.As it is written,"He made the darkness his hiding place around him, (Ps,18:12)" What had been a numinous description has been transformed into a mythological entity, This same verse,Ps.18:12, appears in a later Merkabah work, Masechet Hekhalot. in the thrid chapter, deecribing the Throne of Glory, under which is the Livnath Hesavir, which produces 378 kinds of light.There is a cloud of darkness surrounding the throne, according to the above mentioned verse,"so that the Ministering anhels will not be nourished from the ray of the Presence(Ziy_haShelkhinah) and the Throne,"This same dividing line appears in chapter 7, wherein the "Throne of glory ie suspended from above, with the appearance15 of Hashnal, wrapped in light, a crom with the TEtragranmaton insoribed on His forehead, Half of it is fire, amd half, hail; on his right side, Ife and on hie left, Death; a staff of fire in Kis hand, and a curtain( (Perochet) covers him.Seven angels created at the beginning serve him from within, and seven Guardians sit outside on seven Thrones,?~ (The curtain is sometimes referred to as pargod). our two sources, the Télmud,and the Nerkabah text, place the divid- Ing line in two different places, one around the world, the other,sround God, This dividing line appears in just those same places in the Velen- tinian gnosticisn,.Sophia, having leapedvout of the pleroma by her passion, discovers that her veturn is blocked by Horus(Iimit),a barricade that encompasses cll that is not part of the pleroma, so that it can not be penetrated, just as the green line of Yagigah,emanating darkness, encomapsses the world, It is this same limit that encircles the Father, Rabhys,so that none of the emanations can approach and comprehend him, and it is this very limit that prevented the Sophia from attaining her original goal of uniting with the Father,and had thereby caused her falling out of the pleroma.°-It is this same curtain that keeps the Angels of Ministration(the Means of Valentine) from being nourished by the Light,The Father, surrounded by the Lymit,is inaccessible to even the aeons of the pleroma, as they are give tounderstand by the Holy sSerit(Iren.1.2.5)5 just as in the Merkabah speculation,God is disctanced by an impassable gulf,totally Other, so in Valentinian thought is the Father totally inaccessible.” It is interesting to note that among the disciples of Valentine, there is a dispute as to the origin of the Lymit. While the main account seem to be that it is created by the passion of the aeons in their search for the Father,and by the rash act of Sophia, there are some that maintain that it is existent from the beginning; just as the green line ,Tohu,in our text.4 Returning to the text in Hagigah, we find a quote from the Tanna, Rabbi Josi(ben Halafta, a student of Rabbi Akiba),"Woe to the people who see but do not know what they see,they atand, but Imow not on what they stend."(Hagigah 120), This misery of ignorance is the unfortunate state that man is in before the truth has been revealed to him in Gnost~ icin, Stat does the ‘rest on,Rabbi Josi continues,"On the pillars, the pillars on the waters,,,the waters on the mountain ../ the mountain on the wind,,,the wind on the storm...the storm is suspended on the arn of the Holy One,Blessed be He," The earth is seventh in a chain of suspensions from the Holy One, reminiscent of the series of emanations of the gnostics, This same statement of Rabbi Josi leads to a discussion of the heavens and a description by Rech Lakish ,of each heavens Seeven is a key number in this realm of discourse:the seven planets and their spheres®”, the seven angels who created the world(Saturninus}?the seven Hekhalot(Maaseh Merkabah) 9%and seven Guardians in frontof the Throne seated on seven thrones,as described above.(The description of the earth being suspended over pillars and mountains is reminiscent éf common mythologies of antiquity). It is through the seven heavens that the gnostic must rise in order to attain the Godhead, a trip in which he undersgoes a transformation as he peels off the layers that had been placed on him by the archons and the Heimarmene,In the POimandres, for example, the gnostic peels off, as he passes each zone, growth, cunning,concuspiscience, and other evil traits, 6 something of the reverse happens in other gnostic systems: "robe of glorytin the Hymn of the Pearl lor a ugarment of light! in Manichean texts,6this is what was described as happening to Rabbi he soul acquires a pneumatic body, described as the Akiba as he rose through the Hekhaloth through stages of purification:15 "When I ascended to the First Hekhal, I was Pious(Hasid);when I ascended to the second Hekhal,I was Pure(Tahor);in the third,I was upright (Yashar);in the fourth,Pwrfect(Tamim);in the Fifth, I expressed Holiness(Kedusha )before the Most Kingly;in the sixth,I said "Holiness" before the One who Spoke and the World came into being and he commanded his angels not to destroy me;in the seventh, I stood with all my might and trembled and quaked."(Maaseh Merkabah, #9). Just as the ascendent in the POimandreg is purified, so is the Rabbi and just as the ascendent is in danger from the Archons and must know how to pase then,as in Ophite texts, so Rabbi alba is in danger of being destroyed by the angels;while in this case, it is Gid's comand which saves, in other texts, it is the ability of the mystic not to forget a cingle word that helps in the ascent,"Rabbi Ishmael said,' Arpadas, Angel of the Countenance,told me that whoever wishes to delve in the great mystery should pray this prayer with all his might ,so that he not forget a single word, lest all his limbs be destroyed." (Measeh Meykabah ,Ch,12). Enoch, in the Slavactext,is taken up to the Throne,whereupon his earthly garments are taken off,and he is dressed in the garment of * God's glory( a fiery body). This Enoch is himself a heavenly traveller having been takon on a tour of all the seven heavens.°°There are indicat- ions that this work belongs to a group on the outskirts of normative Judaisn yet from the time of the Second Tomple,because the description of a sacrifice is comparable to that characterized in the Babylonian g6 Talmud as the method of the heretics(minim).°16 The authors of this toxt of Bnoch could have been members of a group that mediated between the Nerkabah mystics and the gnostics, ‘This same"garment of light"is also attributed to God, as in Genesis Rabbah(ed, Theodor, pp.19~20 ‘The Holy One wrapped himself in a white garment and the splendour of his glory shone from one end of the wolrld to the other," Scholem suggests that, as the garment is descré- bed in Hekhaloth literature, it must have formed part of the Shiur Komah tradition, ond the visionary was to have seen just such a garment of light, on which, as in the Greater Hokhaloth, was engraved the Tetragrammaton;°7it is reminiscent of the curtain, the Rargod or Parochet,and again reflects the concept of the green line surrounding the earth and the darkness surrounding God as mentioned above in Hagigah 12a,0n the same theme, the Hymn of the Pearl describes the "robe of glory" "and the image of the King of fings was depicted all over it. . . I saw also quiver all over it the movement of the gnosis, Returning to the text, we next find an account by Rav Aha bar Yaakov, an Babylohian-mora of the third generation(c.300):"There is yet another firmament above the Yayyoth (upon whom: rests the Throne), as it is written, “and over the heads of the living creatures, there was a likeness of a firmament, like the terrible ice, stretched forth over their heads above (Ezek. In Masechet Hekhalot,there is a further expansion, Above the Hayyoth of the Merkabah is a dwelling place like the'firmament like the terrible 322). Up to this point,you may speculate, but not further, (Hagigah 13 ice," On each wheél of the Merkabah is a voice(Bat Kol) which,when the Holy One,Blessed be He,descends from the Heavenliest of Heavens, from 955 firmaments,and sits on the Araboth(the Seventh Heaven)on the Throne of Glory, announces,"Lift up your heads".(Ch.7). This distances God from the world even more than does the eighth Heaven in gnostic literature, the Ogdoas, upon which sits Sophia,(The 955 heavens are der- ived by gematria from the word Shamayim,Heaven; another source suggests17 a more modest 390).° The Bighth Heaven of the gnostics,was, as Scholem points out, the highest, being the dwelling place, above the archons( ¥ayyoth end ministering angels are often referred to in the literature as "Sarin", which would be translated directly into the Greek, Archon)of Sophiasichanoth(Wisdom,in the school of the Valentinians),but above the Ogdoas is the pleroma, beyond which resides the true God,’!one can not help but fecl that the Jewish version, which speaks in terme of 955 or even 390 heavens ,is directly reflecting the works of such a gnostic as Basllides, who counts 365 heavens, only in the bottom-most of which reside’ the angels who created the world. ’*Similarly, the Poimandres describes God as being above the Eighth Firmament. Just as the Hekhalot text describes God's temporary descent to the seventh heaven to sit on the Throne, so in the Valentinian system,there is a temporary, intentional descent from the pleroma to the Bighth Frimement, to confer with Sophias Rabbi Ahe''s eighth firmament appears in the Hekhaloth works as Shem Hashminiyoth(the Name of the Bighth)which has its Greek equivalent in the term Ogdoas,for the Eighth Firmament,or Azbogah YHWH(a corruption of Ogdoas jwhich is used in gnostic texts as Ogdoas Theos,a lietral translation of Azbogah_YHWH),7 It is worth noting that in the Masecheth Hekhaloth, when God descends fromthe 955 heavans to reign in the seventh heaven, he reigns in the name of Yah,the letter Yod referring to the world to come, and the letter Heh, this world, This text,one of the last of the Merkabah Literature, Saescribes God as Yahsthe gnostic cognate,lao, refers to one of the seven angels, the. creators of the world, as at the bottom of Basilides 365 heavens. ©18 In the Valentinian speculation, Iao is one of the seen powers set over the heavens, Paccording to Irennaus(1.4.1)when the fallen Sophia tries to reenter the pleroma,the Limit obstructs her and exclaims "Iao"(taken to mean the world spirit,the product of the passion of Sophia) {¥taus »Zah and Iao sit immediately above the seventh heaven, yet below the pleroma, There is a wealth of gnostic material in the following verses of Hagigah.For example,on l3a,a description of the distance from earth to the firmaments,and from there to the ¥ayyoth and to God and to whom and how this secret is to be convoyed;the function of Sandalphon onl3b; on la, the creation of ministering angels out of the fiery stream; comparative verses from Daniel and the Song of Songs; miracles occuring at the recitation of the secrets on 14b;the four who entered Paradise alive;Elisha ben Abuya's speculation on two divinities(15a);Rabbi Akibats ascent, All are fragments of fuller texts or discussions of mytsical speculation that later took shape as the Merkabah and Shiur Komah texts;all are echoed in gnostic literature, What we have in the Gemara has been diluted, either by an original attempt to censor or remove potentially heretical elements from the discussion,or by the attrition -that time and distance played on the original material as it was displaced both over the course of the gen- erations and over the expanse of territory from Israel to Babylon, Tannaitic sources show little patience, in accord with the spirit of the Mishna.Thus,in our chapter,one of the Rabbis,annoyed at Rabbi Akiba''s interpretations, says,"Got away from aggadoth(tales) and -“igol- to the problems of ritual purity."(1ja) The above quoted R.Aha bar Yaakov,after stating the existence of an eighth firmament, warne:eg “Beyond this you have no right to speculate!",reflecting the attitude of the Amoraim in Babylonia to the dabbling in the occult--the Divine is itself off limits, The effect of this attitude is to such an extent, that, in later years, in what is to become mainstream Judaism in Gaonic Babylonia,a rationalist philosopher such as Saadiah Gaon can interpret the strongly gnostic Sefer Yetzirah as if 1t were a purely philosophical treatise on the lines of his own Euunoth V'Deoth. The two forms of speculation, Merkabah,still within the confines of Judaism, and Gnosticism,fully at odds with every accepted system of belief and thought, strongly anti-Judaic and anti_Jewish,both arose from common intellectual and spiritual trends of their day, both drew from common sources, and each nourished and absorbed concepts from the other,as has been shown through the analysis of these fragments of an once more widespread Jewish mysticiem *still retained in the Talmud,Notes 1. E.R, Dodds, The Greeks end the Irrational, Boston:1957,p.252. 2, Hans Jonas,The Gnostic Religion. Boston: 1963,p.26. 3. opecit, "Epilogue" pp. 320-340. 4, J.Pederson,"Scepticisme Israclite",Rewe de Histoire de Philosophie Religoise, Cited in Zvi Adar,Haghkafot Haolam Shel Hatanakh 5. Jonas,p.186. 6. C.H. Dodd,The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel_,Cambridge:1953, Chapter on Philo, 2, David-Flusser,lecture,Jan.18, 1973,in course at Hebrew University “From Jesus to Paul." 8, Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism.New York:1954,Pelihe 9. Gershom Scholem, "Kabbalah", Incyclonedia Judaica, ¥ol.10,p.497.Jerusaloms4 10. Flusser,"Gnosis", Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol.7,p.637. 11.3.0, Milik, Zen Years of Discovery in the Wildreness of Judes. Naperville, I11.:1959,p.97- 12, Jean Doresse,The S,cret Rooks. of the Egyptian Gnostics,New York,1960. p.60. 13, Scholem, "Kabbalah" ,p.498. 14,Flusser,lecture,Feb.15, 1973. 15. Doresse,p.270. 16,Michael Stone,lecture presented in course conducted by R.J.Zwi Werblowsky "Phenowenology of Religion", ¥ebrew Uiversity, Dec.11,19' : The text referred to is the Testimony of TRuth, Codex IX 2. 17, Scholem,"Kabbalah: ,p.506. 18.Jonas,p.296. 19,opecit,p.103 20, Flusser,lecture,Feb,15,1973. 21,Scholem,Major TRends, p.53. 22,Scholem, Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticiem, and Talmudic Tradition New York:1960, pp. 14-19. 23,Scholem, Major TRends,n.0. 2h,Seul Lieberman, Mishnath Shir Hashirim.pp.118-126 in Scholem, Jewish Gnosficeim . 25,Scholem, Jewish Gnosticiam, pp. 36-42. 26,Scholem, Major Trends,pp.57-61.This same was the function of the aeons according to Valentinus,The Holy Spirit taught them the hidden21 nature of the Father, which led to their hymn,See Quispel,"The Original Doctrine of Valentine.” Vigilae Christianae.1(1947)ppe42-73. 27,Scholem, Jewish Gnosticism.p.29, 28, J, Strugnell,"The Angelic Liturgy at Qumran:4Q,Serek Sirot HasSabbat", Suppl.Vetus Testamentum VII,1960. pp. 318-345. 29, Scholem, Major Thends,p.l0. 30. opscits,,p.351.These are presumably the minim (sectarians), (Insert #1) Bl. opacit.p.73. 32, Scholem, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism .New York:1965.p.162, sug- gests that this is R,Hliezer ben Azariah, the cnntemporary of R, Alciba, 33,Louis Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, Philudghphia:Jewich Publication Society.Vol. 7,p.79. Cites Iren V.22.2. Bho Opecite sD. 7h. 35,Scholem,Qn the Kabbalah,p.162, B6-ibias'. .” « B7eQDe Ct, »pPsl64-165. 38, G. Quispel,"The Original Doctrine of Valentine," Vigilae Christ. 4anab.1(1947).pp.42-73.Cites IrensI.l.leand BxceTheod. 47.1. 39, Jonas,p.296, 40 .Scholem ,"Kabbalah",p.498.Also v. Jonas,"The Divne Origins of Man" ,opeCit, pp. 154-156, 1, Shlomo Musayev,Merkabah Shlomo ,32b-33a, Jaraselen, 1VIE 42, Scholem,Major Trends, p.63. 43, Scholom, Jewish Gnosticien.p.li. lhe Jonas,p.151 and 217, The Primal Man is identifled,in this case, in the Iranian context, with Ormuzd,end, in all probability reflects a direct traffic of ideas from the Jewish to the Zeroastrian and vice versa, ¥.Doresse,D.270.22 45.Musayev, 38b, 46.Scholem, Major TRends,p.65. 47. Musayev, hb. 48, Jonas,p.89. Ginza 60, 49 .Musayev, 5a. 50.Scholem, Jewish Gnosticien,p.15. Dl. Jonas,pp.135-136. 52.Adolf Jellinek, Bet Hamidrash, Vol.II, "Masckhet Hekhalot', 53. Quispel, cites IreneIehel y1e2020 06 5h, Szholem, Major Trends,p.53. 55. Quispel,locscit. 56, Jonas,pp. 68-73. S7eQnecit. 7.259, S8.opecit. ,p.132. 59. Scholem, Jewish Gnosticism, Apendix C,#6,pp.106-107, 60, Jonas,p.153. 6l. Opecit. ,p.115, 62.opecit. ,p.122, 63. Scholem , Jewish Gnosticism ,p.107. 6h. Jonas, pp.168-169. 65.Avraham Kahana, Hasefarim Hahitzonim, Vol.1,p.l15,9:20,Ch. 3-9. Tei Ave tee. 66,Shlomo Pines, "Enoch-Shavonie" aincyclopedia Judaica ,Vol.6,P. 7968. 67,Schilen, Jewish Gnosticism,p.60. 68. Scholem, Najor TRends,p.72. 69. Jonas,p.115, 70.Scholem, Major Trends ,p.63,note 78, Tl. Scholem, Jewish Gnosticism,p.66. 724 SONS, Pol 336 73« Qispel, from Iren.t.4.1,23 7h, Scholem, Jewish Gnosticism,p.70. 15 00ReSits yB-B. 76. Jonas,peb3. Te QPeCite yP.201. 78. Quispel. References Dodd, C,H, The _Interpreta ¢ the Fourth Gospel, Cambridge,1953. Dodds, B.R.,The Greeks and the Irrational, Boston,1957. Doresse,J. The SEcret Books of the Eéyptian Gnostics, New York,1960. Flusser,David, "Gnosticism", Encyclopedia Judaica, Jerusalem,1971.Vol.7. -,lecture course,"From Jesis to Paul",Hebrew Ujiversity,1972-73. Ginzberg,Louis,Legonds of the Jews,Phialdelphia, Jewish Publication Society. Grueniald;Tthanar, “Knoirledge Hak Vieion';Tékael Oriental Society, Vol.3,fel Aviv Univ Jellinek, Adolf. Bet Hamidrash, Jerusalem:1938. Jonas, Hans, The Gnostic igion, Boston:1963. Kehana, Abraham, Hasefa Liebettian, Saul, Miskmat Shir Hashirim,in Scholem, Jewish Gnosticism. Milik, J.T. Milik, Ten Years of Discovery in the Wilderness.o? Judea, Naperville, 111:1959. : i‘ Musayev, Shlomo, Merkabat, Shlomo, Jerusalem:1972. Hakitzonim, Tel Aviv:1960. Pederson,J,Sceptici lite,Revue de Histoire de Philosophe Religiose.cited in Zvi Adar,Hashkafot Haolam shel Ha tanakh, Quispel, G.' The Original Doctrine of Valentine, Vigilae Christianae,1,1947. Scholem, Gershom, Major TRends in Jewish Mysticiem,New York:1954. 198 on.Now Yor! udic Tyadi tic ism, Merkabah Mysticism,and Tal ____; "Kabbalah" , Encyclopedia Judaica, Jerusalem:1971.Vol:10. Stone,Michael,lecture in course of R.J.Zwi Werblowsky, "Phenomenology of Religiop,Hebrew Universi ty,1972~73. Strugnel,J. "The Angelic Liturgy at Qumran", Supp,Vetus Sostamentum, VIT,1960