The Origins of Jewish Mysticism

by Peter Schäfer

The Origins of Jewish Mysticism offers the first in-depth look at the history of Jewish mysticism from the book of Ezekiel to the Merkavah mysticism of late antiquity. The Merkavah movement is widely recognized as the first full-fledged expression of Jewish mysticism, one that had important ramifications for classical rabbinic Judaism and the emergence of the Kabbalah in twelfth-century Europe. Yet until now, the origins and development of still earlier forms of Jewish mysticism have been largely overlooked.

In this book, Peter Schäfer sheds new light on Ezekiel's tantalizing vision, the apocalyptic literature of Enoch, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the writings of the Hellenistic Jewish philosopher Philo, the rabbinical writings of the Talmudic period, and the esotericism of the Merkavah mystics. Schäfer questions whether we can accurately speak of Jewish mysticism as a uniform, coherent phenomenon with origins in Judaism's mythical past. Rather than imposing preconceived notions about "mysticism" on a great variety of writings that arose from different cultural, religious, and historical settings, he reveals what these writings seek to tell us about the age-old human desire to get close to and communicate with God.

Genres: Religion, Theology, Judaica, Judaism, History

413 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2009

About the author

Peter Schäfer is a prolific German scholar of ancient religious studies, who has made contributions to the field of ancient Judaism and early Christianity through monographs, co-edited volumes, numerous articles, and his trademark synoptic editions.

Reviews

[Therese · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very scholarly survey of early Jewish texts containing mystical elements. The book begins with the apocalyptic accounts in Ezekiel and Daniel and covers apocryphal Second Temple period writings, the Qumran documents, Philo, the Mishna and Talmud, and the Hekhalot ("palaces") and Merkabah ("chariot") literature.

This was a very tough book to get through and I definitely wouldn't recommend it for the casual reader who's just generally interested in mysticism or Judaism. One problem is that Schafer seems to assume a lot of familiarity on the reader's part with the literature in question, despite the fact the most of it with the exception of the Biblical texts is fairly obscure, and only likely to have been read by graduate students and scholars. He throws around highly tehcnical terms like "nomina barbera" and "macroforms" and uses quite a bit of transliterated Hebrew, Aramic, and Greek. There is almost no hand-holding whatsoever for the generalist reader who just wants to learn what "early Jewish mysticism" might entail - no friendly introductions or readable overviews.

Instead, from the very beginning the book reads like a series of scholarly articles written in response to myriad other scholarly articles, which is more or less what it is. One the plus side, this makes it a thorough guide to a lot of secondary literature for anyone who wants to dig deeper.

Schafer's method for surveying the texts is exegetical and philological, which means that he'll start out by quoting a paragraph or two from whichever text he's looking at, and then gives his own summary of what the paragraph means, and then provides a detailed commentary and copious footnotes about various translations of different words and all the different ways other scholars in the past have read the passage. Unless you happen to have recently read the whole text he's discussing and/or have it open on your desk in front of you (which I never did, as I came to the book hoping for a nice readable survey), this can be hard to follow and one's eyes tend to glaze over. Now, this is considered standard and very rigorous scholarly practice, and on that level, Schafer achieves a perfectly fine book and an acadmically important one.

As for the substance of the book, from the get-go Schafer is very concerned about the use of the term mysticism to describe the phenomena in Jewish literature that the book covers. He discusses in a very lengthy introduction the question of whether this term is so loaded with Christian meanings that it is wrong to apply it in the case of Judaism. Specifically, the Christian sense of mysticism as scholars have tried to define it tends to center around an experience of union (unio mystica) between the human spirit and the Divine. Schafer sees the Jewish literature as much more concerned with what he calls "liturgical union." That is, those who make the ascent to a behold the divinity are not going there for the sake of achieving union, but rather for the sake of participating in worship rituals at a higher level. His conclusion to the whole book is that the term mysticism is of only limited use when discussing early Jewish phenomena.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had hoped for a digest of historical practices - what people thought, what they did, when and why. Instead, this book is a textual analysis, going in-depth on a number of documents, explaining what other scholars have said about them and what they may mean. Feels academic, and useful for students of these texts looking for an overview of the history of analysis of them. Note: it could be useful to have read the texts discussed, or have them handy, though the author does provide a fair amount of quotations, which helps a lot.

[Caleb Greenwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have used this book for two different purposes, one was in University class which analyzed ascension texts and the second was for a personal study of mysticism as it relates to the Jesus Mystics of today. The book was information for both.

This book is supplemental to the texts it analyses and the wise reader will read such items as the Apocalypse of Abraham and Hekalot literature in conjunction with Origins, otherwise the available depth may be lost. Perhaps more valuable than the commentary on the ancient texts themselves is Schafer's commentary on his peers and existing scholarship. I am simply a layman in mystical studies, but Schafer appears to be a leader in the field and I never felt like he begged the question.

I rate the book three stars as it was a good quality or research and reference. It wasn't gripping nor did it provide me any astounding insights which I require for higher ratings- nor was it necessary the book's intention.

I don't feel there is much more for me to say, if you are looking at this book you likely know its uses and I affirm it's quality. This is deep and sufficient for an in-depth analysis of mysticism and its associated texts; layman will likely wish to avoid, but I doubt they would be drawn to this work by mistake. Pick up the Gnostic Bible so you can read the texts referenced here side-by-side and you'll be in good hands.

[A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A significant scholarly achievement. Schäfer cements his status as one of the most careful and astute scholars of things Jewish working today. The significance of this achievement is magnified due to the vexing subject matter. The final chapter, a broadside attack on the 'Jewish binitarian' hypothesis (expounded most forcefully by another Jewish studies luminary, Daniel Boyarin), is especially interesting.