Biblia Cabalistica

BIBLIA CA I ; ALISTICA REV. WALTER BEGLE^ c BIBLIA CABALISTICA OR THE CABALISTIC BIBLE BIBLIA CABALISTICA OR THE CABALISTIC BIBLE SHOWING HOW THE VARIOUS NUMERICAL CABALAS HAVE BEEN CURIOUSLY APPLIED TO THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, WITH NUMEROUS TEXTUAL EXAMPLES RANGING FROM GENESIS TO THE APOCALYPSE, AND COLLECTED FROM BOOKS OF THE GREATEST RARITY, FOR THE MOST PART NOT IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM OR ANY PUBLIC LIBRARY IN GREAT BRITAIN WITH INTRODUCTION, APPENDIX OF CURIOS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY BY THK REV. WALTER BEGLEY EDITOR OF "NOVA SOLYMA," ETC, LONDON PUBLISHED BY DAVID NUTT AT THE SIGN OF THE PHCENIX LONG ACRE , MPCCCCIH PREFACE is little need for an extended preface to this book, for shows its and the nature THEREthe title-page very plainly purport of the contents. I would simply say here, that the following pages are chiefly intended for lovers and collectors of literary curiosities, a class of readers who are, I believe, on the increase nowadays. for the books " People with such tastes do not so much care which," " s should be as for they are told, no gentleman library without," books that are curious, paradoxical, out of the common run, and not before met with in the course of their reading. This book should therefore well meet their requirements. And 1 can only hope that it will also succeed in attracting the attention and satisfying at of that somewhat eccentric band of the curiosity of a few, least, I some and have never bibliophiles whose ranks joined years ago, enlistment. regretted my CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION .... 3 VETUS TESTAMENTUM CABALISTICUM ... 27 APOCRYPHA ... 57 NOVUM TESTAMENTUM CABALISTICUM . 67 APPENDIX : CABALISTIC CURIOS, SCRIPTURAL, PATRISTIC, Ir AND LUTHERAN . 5 BIBLIOGRAPHY . ... 153 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION AM rather afraid that the title will scarcely give a correct idea of the contents of this book, for there is an old cabala and a new cabala, and these two are I very different. The first is mainly Hebrew, and Greek the second is occasionally ; almost entirely Latin, and of much later invention, not being heard of till about A .D. 1530. The old cabala as it per gematriam, was technically spoken of, is well known to Biblical scholars everywhere. The new cabala is mentioned in scarcely any books of reference, and the works con taining specimens of it are rare in the this latter ^ highest degree ; fact for the want of on accounting general knowledge the subject. What I mean by that the title a is saying may convey wrong idea that ninety- nine persons out of a hundred would think of the old Hebrew and Greek cabala and the Jewish fancies therein displayed, whereas our Cabalistlca has to do with the record of Bibha^ mainly Christian fancy on Christian themes ; while here the Latin is the tongue one chiefly used. It matches Biblia and runs my Anagrammatica, on exactly parallel lines with it, a collection of Bible texts treated in this being case cabalistically, as are in that case they anagrammatically, and therefore I could hardly choose any other title. I have not However, failed to notice in an appendix at the end of this book some of the and most strongest interesting examples of the older so I cabala, hope that readers who only expected this will not be altogether disappointed. Moreover, some remarks on general this more ancient part of the are subject needed now, to begin with, as an introduction to the whole. BIBLIA CABALISTICA 4 ANCIENT MYSTICAL AND CABALISTIC NUMBERS IN THE SCRIPTURES OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT. science has been and This curious branch of theological investigated and and recently two discussed by many writers, ancient modern, quite Mr. H. Weldon, have deeply into writers, Dr. Bullinger and J. gone not before noticed. the matter and added many curious coincidences no means of value, and The instances given by them are by equal But their cabalistic deductions from some are not very convincing. and are so some of the numbers of the Bible, notably 8, 13, 153, best of them in remarkable and novel that I have included the my in the To readers not survey of the cabalistic numbers appendix. be a taken in connection conversant with gematria they will surprise, and, sufficient to show that with other instances adduced, will, I think, be be more than mere random fancy in there may very possibly something numbers and names of Writ are used by the the way many special Holy inferences than I claim no more from my original writers. Personally, students much farther. this, although many professed go : Anyhow, the following statement is unobjectionable of numbers in deserves more study symbolical meaning Holy Scripture This is a remark and attention than it has received in recent times." a learned and scholar, who of Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, judicious of an extreme man. It was made was the very reverse in every way made such some and since then the science of theology has years ago, one as well as in other directions, that nowadays rapid progress, in this even the cabala of the Bible deserves can venture boldly to say that It has been dismissed almost more study than it has received. and most of literary follies. universally as the vainest unproductive were in All educated men of evenly balanced minds virtually agreement be or in their view that there was not and could not any magic power and all in or the of a name or text, significance gematria counting were either who took interest in such puerile fancies stupidly people true or in their of what superstitious grossly ignorant conceptions knowledge was. and other As so often happens in the matter of literary judgments, and men were both right judgments as well, these cultivated judicious INTRODUCTION 5 of and wrong. They were right according to the lights and knowledge their age, and their judgment was sane according to the evidence before them. But there was a great deal of evidence not before them, which has since come to light and made their opinion, which was once relatively right, become now relatively wrong. In days gone by, no one thought of looking upon a Primitive Christian in the light of an initiate with mysterious knowledge carefully conveyed and concealed. To all Churchmen, High or Low, Primitive " Christians became " wise unto salvation by about the same or some what similar means as Primitive Methodists become converted men nowadays. This was the current idea true enough in a certain sense, of course, but withal very misleading, for how much of importance was overlooked or unknown ! The various complicated ways in which the earliest Christianity was brought into connection with the Greek, Mithraic, and other mysteries, is almost a study of the last half-century, and has a by no means unimportant connection with mystic names and numbers. And the same may be said of the Essenes, the Neo-Pythagoreans, and all the " many embryonic forms of Gnosticism, which were, like microbes, in the more or less within air," naturally infecting every religious growth not. their sphere of influence, according as the nidus was suitable or The disputants of past generations were unaware of most of these things. And yet the Primitive Christian was an initiate plainly enough, and the Christian had a disciplina arcani even as other initiates. But : them mysteries had this advantage over other mysteries there was with " the door for the " door was in heaven and on open ; behold, opened initiation of a more universal earth. That is to say, Christianity was an character than was allowed in the Eleusinian mysteries or any of the various other mystic rites which multiplied to an unusual extent just before and after the Christian era. In Christ Jesus there was no bar " Whosoever let of birth, nationality, or even of moral conduct. will, " " is neither nor circumcision nor him come ; Where there Greek Jew, uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free." Sinners, slaves, from and outcasts were invited to come freely. Women, too, debarred here on terms. the great mysteries of Paganism, were accepted equal In Christ Jesus there was neither male nor female. 6 BIBLIA CABALISTICA I believe that this acceptance of the woman virgin, wife, and to the rites widow on almost equal terms and ceremonies and religious the to privileges of new religion, had more do with the rapid progress and final triumph of early Christianity than is generally supposed. The great reason is not sufficiently dwelt upon by the critics and historians of the Rise and Progress of our Faith. Women comprise half, or more than half, of the human race, and their susceptibilities to a religion of faith and hope are much stronger and more persistent than those of the sterner sex. Even allowing that with women these feelings are less critical with sceptical and than men, we must not forget that religions rise and advance not by the dry critical faculty so much as by the imaginative enthusiasm of the anima naturaliter pia. Besides, would not a religion of love and peace appeal more to the impulsive woman than to the fierce warrior or the subtle logician ? Many of the early Christians had, no doubt, been initiates, and when converted to the new method of salvation that Soteria so many were seeking in those days of religious revival they would readily understand the mystic or cryptic allusions in the writings of the New Testament, especially when written by converted initiates, as the writers of the Epistle to the Colossians and the Apocalypse most probably were.

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