A Commentary on the Apocalypse, Vol. 2 (Classic Reprint)

Book excerpt: Excerpt from A Commentary on the Apocalypse, Vol. 2 His second ground of proof is, that 'the Jews so construed Is. 11: 2 as to make seven spirits out of it, all of which belong to the divine na ture.' But there the spirits mentioned are expressly affirmed to belong to the Mssz'a/z. Whence the proof is to come, that the Jews formed out of this passage the notion that God consists of seven spirits, I know not. I have searched in vain for it. The oldest evidence of the Cab balistic interpretation of the Jews, is generally admitted to be the Z0 har; certainly Cabbalism rests mainly on this work. Whether this work is in fact as old as the Mishna, as some have supposed, or even older, must be regarded as very doubtful, when any one reads the Mish na and finds it so full of superstitions and hair-splitting conceits, and yet partaking little or nothing of the spirit of Cabbalism. As the Zohar new is, there are parts of it, beyond all question, of modern date see Nordheimer in Bib. Repos. Of 1839. No. IV. P. 14 (for But conceding the antiquity of the great mass of it, we shall still look to it in vain for the doctrine which Eichhorn asserts. Schoettgen, deeply versed in literature of this kind and not a mere gleaner like Eichhorn. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.