Thesis 28.24
Latin
Cum dixit Iob, qui facit pacem in excelsis suis, aquam intellexit australem et ignem septentrionalem, et praefectos illorum de quibus non est ultra dicendum.
Copy-text Farmer 1998 (farmer1998:17969-17971), u/v as Farmer prints them. The 1486 print punctuates 'Cum dixit.Iob.qui' (farmer1998:17981). Wirszubski inserts the reference Job 25:2 and a comma after 'illorum' (wirszubski1989:2313-2315).
English
In saying 'who makes peace in his high places', Job had in view the water of the south and the fire of the north, together with those placed in command of them, of whom no more may be said.
'qui facit pacem in excelsis suis' is the Vulgate of Job 25:2 (farmer1998:18050). 'praefectos' is rendered 'those placed in command'; Farmer, following a Bahir passage, identifies them as the archangels Michael and Gabriel (farmer1998:18051-18053). 'non est ultra dicendum' is a gerundive of obligation, 'no more is to be said', and can carry a prohibition as well as a reticence (editorial note on farmer1998:17970-17971).
Doctrine
The thesis glosses Job 25:2, 'he makes peace in his high places' (farmer1998:18050). Wirszubski notes that this interpretation of the verse is traditional, incorporated in the Aramaic version of Job and in Rashi's commentary (wirszubski1989:2317-2318). The Bahir passage that he prints explains the verse by the two archangels: Michael stands at God's right, with water and hail, Gabriel at his left, with fire, and God makes peace between them (wirszubski1989:2354-2360). Farmer glosses 'southern water' and 'northern fire' as common symbols of the fourth and fifth sefirot, the ten emanated states of God's nature in the Kabbalah (farmer1998:18050-18051, 17608-17609). Recanati's system, as Corazzol reconstructs it, gives the fourth sefirah the property of piety and the fifth that of judgment (corazzol2019:474-480). Farmer adds that the north is the standard symbol of the fifth sefirah, one of whose properties was power and which was regularly associated with Satan and the origins of evil (farmer1998:27408-27410). Read with the Bahir, the thesis makes the peace of Job 25:2 a balance between the two opposed divine properties and their angelic governors (editorial inference from wirszubski1989:2354-2360 and farmer1998:18050-18053). The closing clause withholds the names of the governors, and the Bahir supplies them (editorial inference from farmer1998:17970-17971 and wirszubski1989:2357-2359).
Context
Wirszubski found that Pico could have read the Bahir passage in three of his manuscripts: the Chigi manuscript that once contained the whole of Ma'areket ha-Elohut, the Vatican Hebrew manuscript 191 that includes the Bahir, and the lost translation of Recanati, who quoted the passage (wirszubski1989:2318, 2344-2348). Because the first and third translations are lost, he refrains from naming the direct source and quotes the Vatican text only by way of illustration (wirszubski1989:2349-2351). The larger dispute over Pico's dependence on Flavius Mithridates' translations bears on this thesis: Farmer argues that Mithridates' version of Recanati was completed only after the theses were printed (farmer1998:17441-17451). The verse returns in Pico's Oration, where Job, asked what God most desires among the myriads that attend him, answers peace, 'Qui facit pacem in excelsis' (borghesi2012:1593-1596). There Empedocles, the philosopher, interprets the words of Job, the theologian, through the twin natures in the soul, strife and friendship, war and peace (borghesi2012:1597-1601). Edelheit observes that in the Oration discord is contrasted with a peace related to God, which is why Empedocles becomes relevant as an interpreter of Job (edelheit2008:16242-16246).
Reception
Borghesi, Papio and Riva, commenting on the Oration's use of Job 25:2, cross-refer the reader to this thesis (borghesi2012:1656-1657). Pico's own second Cabalistic set turns the same pair of symbols to Christian ends, claiming that the Cabala shows 'most openly' why the Son of God came with the water of baptism and the Holy Spirit with fire (farmer1998:27335-27336). Farmer links the two theses and points to 28.1 and 11>11 for the mystical role of Michael, the priest who sacrifices rational souls (farmer1998:18050-18055, 17532-17533). No response to 28.24 by the papal commission or by Pico's contemporaries is recorded in the sources consulted (see not_established; farmer1998:17969).
Historiography
Wirszubski's discussion establishes three things: the exegesis is traditional, the Bahir supplies the angels, and the exact channel to Pico cannot be fixed (wirszubski1989:2317-2318, 2349-2351). Farmer adds the sefirotic reading, fourth and fifth sefirot, and takes over the identification of the commanders with Michael and Gabriel 'if we follow' the Bahir passage that Wirszubski cites (farmer1998:18050-18053). Farmer's conditional marks the angelic identification as dependent on a single source text (editorial observation on farmer1998:18051-18053). The Oration's pairing of Job and Empedocles, read beside Pico's own thesis 3>71 that proportions Empedocles' strife and friendship to two sefirot (wirszubski1989:9641-9645), shows Pico treating the peace of Job 25:2 as a point where Hebrew theology and Greek natural philosophy say the same thing (editorial inference from borghesi2012:1597-1601).
Pico's sources
- Sefer ha-Bahir (section 9 in Scholem's edition), on Job 25:2 and the archangels of water and fire: the doctrine the thesis reports; Pico could read it in three manuscripts, and Wirszubski declines to name which he used (wirszubski1989:2344)
- Recanati, Commentary on the Torah, folio 4vb, quoting the same Bahir passage (lost Latin translation): one of the three possible channels (wirszubski1989:2347)
- Ma'areket ha-Elohut (De Proportione Divinitatis), in the Chigi manuscript: one of the three possible channels (wirszubski1989:2344)
Quotations cited
- “This interpretation of Job 25:2 is traditional” — Chaim Wirszubski, Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism (wirszubski1989:2317)
- “I shall refrain from suggesting which of the three was Pico's direct source” — Chaim Wirszubski, Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism (wirszubski1989:2349)
- “Docet quod Michael archangelus dextre dei sancti et benedicti Aque et Grandinis” — Chaim Wirszubski, Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism (wirszubski1989:2357)
- “common symbols of the fourth and fifth sefirot” — Stephen A. Farmer, Syncretism in the West: Pico's 900 Theses (1486) (farmer1998:18050)
- “Empedocles becomes relevant as an interpreter of Job” — Amos Edelheit, Ficino, Pico and Savonarola: The Evolution of Humanist Theology 1461/2-1498 (edelheit2008:16246)
- “Scitur in cabala apertissime” — Stephen A. Farmer, Syncretism in the West: Pico's 900 Theses (1486) (farmer1998:27335)
Not established
- Which manuscript (the Chigi Ma'areket ha-Elohut, the Vatican Bahir, or the lost Latin Recanati) was Pico's direct source: Wirszubski declines to decide (wirszubski1989:2349-2351).
- Whether 'de quibus non est ultra dicendum' is Pico's own reticence or a formula of his source: not established by the sources consulted.
- Any reaction to this thesis by the papal commission or by Pico's contemporaries: not established by the sources consulted.
Discussed in
- Borghesi, Papio, Riva (eds.), Oration on the Dignity of Man: A New Translation and Commentary (2012)
- Amos Edelheit, Ficino, Pico and Savonarola: The Evolution of Humanist Theology 1461/2-1498 (2008)
- Chaim Wirszubski, Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism (1989)
Farmer's cross-references
- 11>11 Modus quo rationales animae per archangelum deo sacrificantur, qui a Cabalistis non exprimitur, non est nisi per separationem animae a corpo
- 11>45 Scitur in cabala apertissime cur dei filius cum aqua baptismi uenerit, et spiritus sanctus cum igne.
- 28.1 Sicut homo et sacerdos inferior sacrificat deo animas animalium irrationalium, ita Michael sacerdos superior sacrificat animas animalium rat