From: Dr. Blake Nelson (bnelson301@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Nov 04 2003 - 08:20:50 EST
--- RFaussette@aol.com wrote:
(SNIP)
> "At the time when the Mishna was edited, there
> existed a secret doctine
> concerning the Creation and Divine Nature. There was
> agreement on its manner of
> study and division, and its name excited a kind of
> religious awe even among
> those who could not have known it. But how long had
> this doctrine existed? And
> if we cannot determine that precisely, is there
> any way of telling when the
> deep shadows formed that shrouded its origin? This
> is the question which we
> will now attempt to answer.
> In the opinion of the most reliable historians, the
> editing of the Mishna
> came to an end no later than the year 3949 after
> Creation, 189 years after the
> birth of Christ.
Which reliable scholars are these, exactly?
Do you really believe that tradition of the kabbalists
has been uninterruptedly transmitted by the mouths of
the patriarchs, prophets, elders, etc., ever since the
creation of the first man?
The Book of Creation has been claimed by many
Kabbalists to go back to Abraham and, as you have
indicated above it has also been ascribed by others to
Rabbi Akiba (d. A.D. 120). The former claim has no
support. The latter is a matter of great controversy.
The Zohar, is accepted widely as being a compilation
by a Spanish Jew, Moses of Leon (d. 1305). To the
extent that some of its contents reflect eralier
thoughts, it reflects a potpourri of the philosophy of
Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, the neo-Platonists of
Alexandria, the Oriental or Egyptian Pantheists, and
the Gnostics of the earliest Christian era. Of
course, all these sources were available to Spanish
Jews at the time, thanks to Arab preservation of the
hellenistic literature. Isn't it much more
historically and logically supported to believe that
the Zohar is just an eclectic collection of beliefs
that Moses of Leon put together based on his available
sources?
(SNIP)
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