Thesis 11>7
Latin
Nullus hebraeus cabalista potest negare quod nomen Iesu, si eum secundum modum et principia cabalae interpretemur, hoc totum precise et nihil aliud significat, id est, deum dei filium patrisque sapientiam per tertiam diuinitatis personam, quae est ardentissimus amoris ignis, naturae humanae in unitate suppositi unitum.
The underscore Farmer's OCR shows after 'precise' is an artifact and is omitted (farmer1998:26494). Wirszubski prints 'Hebraeus' and flags the pronoun: 'eum, not id' (wirszubski1989:8207; wirszubski1989:8221). The study cited as kabbalah_paradigma prints 'interpretamur' for 'interpretemur' (kabbalah_paradigma:1939).
English
That the name Jesus, when we interpret it by the method and principles of Cabala, means exactly this whole and nothing besides, namely God, Son of God and Wisdom of the Father, joined to human nature in oneness of supposit through the third Person of the godhead, who is love's most ardent fire: this no Hebrew Cabalist can deny. unverified draft
The main clause is moved to the end for English order. 'eum' is masculine where the neuter 'nomen' would call for 'id'; Wirszubski marks the point (wirszubski1989:8221), and the editor infers that the pronoun lets the interpretation fall on Jesus as well as on his name. 'in unitate suppositi': 'supposit' is kept as the technical term; Copenhaver notes that the noun expressed standard Christological metaphysics and Trinitarian theology (copenhaver2022:4950).
Doctrine
The thesis claims that the name Jesus, read by Cabala's own method, yields the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation in full: the Son, who is the Wisdom of the Father, united to a human nature in one supposit through the Holy Spirit, called the most ardent fire of love (farmer1998:26493). Copenhaver observes that the final phrase, 'naturae humanae in unitate suppositi unitum', uses the noun suppositum in the sense of standard Christological metaphysics, and that 4>13 applies the verb suppositare to a related question debated by Aquinas and other scholastics (copenhaver2022:4950; copenhaver2022:4952). He adds that the three Hebrew letters of the name Yeshu convinced Pico that Jews had to accept the Trinity (copenhaver2022:4949). Wirszubski reads the thesis as leaving no doubt that for Pico the name of Jesus is the key to the Kabbalistic interpretation of the second Person (wirszubski1989:11000). The identification of the Son with Wisdom matters for the sefirotic reading: Wisdom is Hokhmah, the second sefirah, whereas the Tetragrammaton, which 11>6 gives to the Son, as a rule represents the sixth, Tiferet (wirszubski1989:8541). Farmer thinks Pico probably meant to generate part of the thesis with his anagrammatic revolution of the alphabet, the ars combinandi, and refers to 11>14 on the name (farmer1998:26574).
unverified draft
Context
The study cited as kabbalah_paradigma, whose author the corpus registry does not confirm, places the interpretation of the name of Jesus at the centre of the seventy-two theses and decodes it through the Kabbalistic glossaries: yod stands for Hokhmah, divine Wisdom; waw for Tiferet; and shin for the Shekhinah, the indwelling divine presence identified with the tenth sefirah, and for the seraph associated with the fire of love (kabbalah_paradigma:1902; kabbalah_paradigma:1911; kabbalah_paradigma:1481). The same study lists Christian precedents for speculation on the Tetragrammaton and the name of Jesus, among them Arnaldo de Villanova's Allocutio super Tetragrammaton, Porchetus's Victoria, Paulus de Heredia and Rhabanus Maurus (kabbalah_paradigma:1928). Wirszubski notes that the only form of the name of Jesus with shin as its middle letter is YSW, Yesu, and that Pico keeps the name of Jesus distinct from the name of the Messiah, which is YHWH (wirszubski1989:11021; wirszubski1989:11023). The next thesis, 11>8, draws from this one the Pauline claim that Jesus was given the name above every name, at which every knee bends, and calls it highly Cabalistic (farmer1998:26500; farmer1998:26577).
unverified draft
Reception
The thesis was not among those the commission censured; Copenhaver notes that it was one of two uncondemned theses using the metaphysical 'suppo-' vocabulary, and describes it as proclaiming that Pico had turned Kabbalists into believing Christians (copenhaver2022:4938). Blum notes that the Cabalistic theses according to Pico's own opinion went unchallenged (dougherty2008:2808). Copenhaver also notes that the 'suppo-' words, incidental in the Conclusions, became indispensable for the Apology after the condemnation of Q4, that is 4>13, Q6 and other theses (copenhaver2022:4934).
unverified draft
Historiography
Wirszubski takes this thesis as his example of how Pico's arguments can escape recovery, imagining an interminable debate on how Pico might, could or would have argued it (wirszubski1989:8202). He distinguishes it from 11>20: the twentieth gives a Trinitarian interpretation of an existing Kabbalistic symbol, whereas this thesis gives a Kabbalistic interpretation of the second Person of the Trinity (wirszubski1989:8242). That distinction underlies his two patterns of Pico's Christian Kabbala, interpretation of existing texts and application of Kabbalistic methods, the second of which he holds marks the beginning of truly Christian Kabbala (wirszubski1989:8245; wirszubski1989:8617). Copenhaver groups the thesis with 11>4-6 as the core of Pico's Trinitarian Kabbalah (copenhaver2019:18340; copenhaver2019:18360). The kabbalah_paradigma study reconstructs a letter-by-letter reading through the sefirot, which Farmer's note leaves as a probable use of the revolution of the alphabet; neither reconstruction is attested in Pico's own writing (kabbalah_paradigma:1911; farmer1998:26574). In the editor's reading the thesis shows the Christian Kabbalist's move from interpreting Jewish texts to making the Jewish method produce the creed, the move Wirszubski calls a mystical confirmation of Christianity by the methods Jewish Kabbalists use (wirszubski1989:8206; wirszubski1989:8614).
unverified draft
Quotations cited
- “an interminable debate concerning the question how Pico might, could, or would have argued a thesis like the seventh” — Chaim Wirszubski, Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism (wirszubski1989:8202)
- “the name of Jesus is the key to the Kabbalistic interpretation of the second person of the Trinity” — Chaim Wirszubski, Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism (wirszubski1989:11001)
Not established
- Which part of the thesis Farmer italicizes in his translation as generated by the revolution of the alphabet; the OCR does not preserve italics.
- How Pico would have derived the doctrine from the letters of the name; no argument by Pico survives in the sources consulted.
- The author of the study cited as kabbalah_paradigma.
Discussed in
- Brian P. Copenhaver, Pico della Mirandola on Trial: Heresy, Freedom, and Philosophy (2022)
- (author to be confirmed from front matter), Erkenntnistheorie und christliche Kabbalah: Das Paradigma des Pico della Mirandola (n.d.)
- (unidentified), Knots and Spirals I: Pico della Mirandola (n.d.)
- Chaim Wirszubski, Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism (1989)
Farmer's cross-references
- 11>14 Per litteram <W>, id est, scin, quae mediat in nomine lesu, significatur nobis cabalistice quod tum perfecte quieuit, tanquam in sua perfect
- 11>8 Ex praecedenti conclusione intelligi potest cur dixerit Paulus / datum esse Iesu nomen quod est super omne nomen, et cur in nomine lesu dict
- 5>3 Qui nouerit modum illuminationis superiorum super media intelliget idem significare et Platonicos per congregationem animarum in Monte Ida,