The end of my last fully academic paper, written in the Fall of 2005. After this class and paper, and because of it in an inverse influence, I decided to write a book, Religious Syncretism, which was published in 2006. Then I took another set of classes on the Hebrew Bible (no extant papers), and the inverse force worked again, and wrote and published another book in 2009.
Conclusion
The
“scandalous” tales of the Gnostics are put to good use in the PRE, especially regarding antediluvian
times: PRE appropriates the motif of
a divine rebellion against the one true God by lesser divine entities; it
contains a seduction of Eve by Sammael; there is the tale of two races, one
chosen and human and the other of mixed human and divine parentage. Rather than being the sole possession of oral
traditions handed down unchanged and unsullied, as Strousman asserts, the PRE is engaged in active redirection,
reinterpretation, and re-characterization of some of the “Gnostic” tales we
have been discussing. Sammael in the
Nag Hammadi works examined here is clearly a demiurgical entity. He is a lesser God that is guided by
arrogance and folly. PRE takes this image of the arrogant
Sammael found in the “Gnostic” works, reproduces it, but also shifts the
emphasis toward some notions that are key to the PRE’s narrative agenda: Sammael is a lesser entity but other than
the reproductive role that he steals (from Eve), he is not a creator at
all. All his power is derived from God’s
mandate. PRE Sammael steals what he can, and is more powerful than
demiurgual Sammael. Here the “rabbis’
are taking a “Gnostic” notion and molding it to suit their needs; they maintain
Sammael’s role as a lesser divine entity, capable of great power, but strip him
of any demiurgal functions; they do invest him with a healthy does of
legitimacy that notions of Sammael in the Nag Hammadi works often lack. We can see here some of Karen King’s
assessments: the characterization of Sammael in Nag Hammadi is used by PRE in order to supersede them. The result is the opposite of Strousma’s: the
“Gnostic” informs the Rabbinic. Intertextual analysis does not draw exact lines
of transmission from text to text.
Rather, what we have are a series of possible influences rather than
exact lines of communication. If this is
more uncertain than Strousma it leaves more lines of investigation open than
Strousma’s open and shut case.
Notes
[1] Dan, Joseph, “Samael, Lilith, and the
Concept of Evil in the Early Kabbalah,” AJS Review, Vol. 5, 1980, pp. 17-40.
[2] Another
Seed: Studies in Gnostic Mythology,
Strousmsa, Gedalihahu, 1984, E.J. Brill: Leiden.
[3] Pirkve
de Rabbi Eliezer, introduction, Friedlander xvii. Rashi quotes the work in
his commentary of Genesis, Deuteronomy, and Jonah. Yehudah ha-Levi uses it in the Kuzari.
The work is quoted, sighted and used by Maimonides in the Moreh Neubikim.
[4] Rabbi Eliezer seemed to run afoul of
the majority opinion in the Sanhedrin and was placed under the ban.
[5] PRE,
Freidlander xviii. Freidlander
states that the first known reference to the work are from the Geonim of Babylon in the Siddur of Rab Amram around 850 CE xviii. Stroumsa claims that the PRE was redacted in “the early days of the Ummayad dynasty,” around
661 CE, but that it often records “much earlier traditions,” Stroumsa,
Gedaliahu, A. G., Another Seed, 1984,
E.J. Brill: Leiden,
p. 26.
[6] Sammael or Samael appears in Talmudic
and post-Talmudic literature as an accuser, seducer and destroyer. During the
Middle Ages, he was considered a magician, and in the Kabala he was employed
during the preparation of amulets. His
name is etymologized as סםיאל, “the venom of God” or “blind God,” from the Aramaic word for
blind, סוםא, Stroumsa, 44; Kabbalah, Gershom Scholem 385-8.
[7] PRE,
150; here the Hebrew text does not use Sammael’s name, but implies it is
he: נחש ורוכבת אליה בא there seems to be a problem
with chronology here. Earlier in the PRE we are told that the serpent’s legs
are cut off as punishment for his collusion with Sammael, PRE, 99. Yet here, Sammael
is riding the serpent again, as if he was still in the form of a camel.
[8]
Scholem, Gershom, Kabbalah, 385.
[9] Allen, Graham, Intertextuality, 3.
[10]
ibid., 3.
[11]
ibid., 3.
[12]
Aichele, George, The Postmodern Bible,
130.
[13]
ibid., 130.
[14]
King, Karen, The Gospel of Mary, 98.
Bibliography
Aichele, George et al, eds., The Postmodern Bible, 1995, Yale
University Press, New Haven.
Allen, Graham, Intertextuality, 2000, Routledge, London, New York
Bonner-Klein, Dagmar, (trans), Pirke de-Rabbi Elieser, Hebrew and
German, 2004, Walter de Gruyter: Berlin
Dan, Joseph, “Samael, Lilith, and the
Concept of Evil in the Early Kabbalah,” AJS Review, Vol. 5, 1980
Friedlander, Gerald (trans), Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, 1965, Hermon
Press: New York
King, Karen, The Gospel of Mary of Magdala, Jesus
and the First Woman Apostle, 2003, Polebridge Press: Santa Rosa, CA
Layton, Bently (trans), The Gnostic
Scriptures, 1987, Doublday & Company: Garden City.
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Scholem, Gershom, Kabbalah, 1974, Quadragnle/New York Times Book Co: New York.
Stroumsa, Gedaliahu, Another Seed: Studies in Gnostic Mythology, A.G., 1984, E.J. Brill:
Leiden
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