Thesis 11>15
Latin
Per nomen Iod he uahu he, quod est nomen ineffabile quod dicunt Cabaliste futurum esse nomen messiae, euidenter cognoscitur futurum eum deum dei filium per spiritum sanctum hominem factum, et post eum ad perfectionem humani generis super homines paraclytum descensurum.
Farmer's apparatus records the 1487 reading 'jod he vahu he' (farmer1998:26723). Wirszubski prints 'Iod he uau he' and commas after 'ineffabile' and 'Cabalistae' (wirszubski1989:8465). The study cited as kabbalah_paradigma omits 'nomen' before 'messiae' (kabbalah_paradigma:1990).
English
From the name Yod He Vahu He, the ineffable name which, as the Cabalists say, is to be the Messiah's, one learns plainly that he is to be God, the Son of God, become man by the Holy Spirit, and that after him the Paraclete is to descend upon mankind to bring the human race to perfection. unverified draft
'Iod he uahu he' spells out the four letters of the Tetragrammaton, YHWH, the ineffable name (wirszubski1989:11023). 'paraclytum': the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit (farmer1998:26738). The futures ('futurum', 'descensurum') are kept: the thesis reads the name as prophecy.
Doctrine
The thesis takes a dictum it ascribes to the Cabalists, that the ineffable name YHWH will be the name of the Messiah, and reads from the name the Incarnation of the Son through the Holy Spirit and the later descent of the Paraclete for the perfecting of the human race (farmer1998:26703). Farmer refers to his note on 11>14, where yod and vav, the first and last letters of the Hebrew name of Jesus, are also part of the ineffable name YHVH that Pico associated with the Messiah (farmer1998:26736; farmer1998:26733). He supposes that, like most of Pico's longer Cabalistic secrets, this one was to be shown by the revolution of the alphabet or by that method combined with letter symbolism (farmer1998:26736). Wirszubski stresses that the name of Jesus and the name of the Messiah are distinct in Pico's theses: the first, in 11>14, can only be YSW, Yesu, the one form with shin in the middle, while the second is the Tetragrammaton (wirszubski1989:11004; wirszubski1989:11021). The German study cited as kabbalah_paradigma, author unconfirmed, reconstructs a letter-by-letter reading in which yod is Hokhmah, the first he Binah and the Holy Spirit, waw Tiferet and the Messiah, and the final he the Shekhinah, the indwelling presence identified with the tenth sefirah (kabbalah_paradigma:1966; kabbalah_paradigma:1973; kabbalah_paradigma:1481).
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Context
Wirszubski finds the dictum in the Babylonian Talmud, in Midrash on Psalm 21 and on Lamentations, in the Zohar, and in Raymundus Martini's Pugio fidei, the work from which, on his account, Christian Kabbala inherited both its purpose and its method of Christianizing interpretation (wirszubski1989:8491; wirszubski1989:8592). He argues that Pico's use of letter symbolism for Trinitarian ends is inconceivable without the equation of the Tetragrammaton with the second Person, stated in 11>6 (wirszubski1989:8452). In the Busi and Ebgi volume, the section signed 'R.E.' notes that the link between the Tetragrammaton and the Messiah looks like Pico's invention but is attested in Abulafia's Sefer Otzar Eden Ganuz, which is not among the works surely translated for Pico, and in the Great Parchment, which Pico certainly read in Latin (busi2014:21970; busi2014:21986; busi2014:22003). The same section traces Pico's path from the sun to Tiferet, to YHWH, to the name of the Messiah and so to Christ (busi2014:22025).
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Reception
The thesis was not among those the commission censured; Blum notes that the Cabalistic theses according to Pico's own opinion went unchallenged (dougherty2008:2808). Wirszubski notes that the attribution of the ineffable name to Jesus Christ is of paramount importance for the history of Christian Kabbala, as Reuchlin's De verbo mirifico shows (wirszubski1989:8537). He allows that 11>14 and 11>15 may have inspired Reuchlin's pentagrammaton YHSWH, the Tetragrammaton with shin inserted, but insists that it did not yet exist when Pico wrote and so cannot explain Pico's theses (wirszubski1989:11025; wirszubski1989:11028).
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Historiography
The editor infers that, on Wirszubski's evidence, the thesis belongs to the older of his two patterns, the Christianizing interpretation of existing texts, since the dictum is rabbinic and already in the Pugio fidei (wirszubski1989:8491; wirszubski1989:8586). The Busi and Ebgi volume looks instead for a Kabbalistic source and finds Abulafia and the Great Parchment, adding that Abulafia's text could have reached Pico orally or in a lost codex, though this is uncertain (busi2014:21984; busi2014:22003). Wirszubski also notes a tension: the Tetragrammaton as a rule represents the sixth sefirah, Tiferet, while several theses make the Son the second, Wisdom (wirszubski1989:8541). The kabbalah_paradigma study, noting that all the sefirot can be found in the Tetragrammaton, distributes its four letters over four sefirot at once, which sidesteps that tension (kabbalah_paradigma:1970). Farmer leaves the method as presumed rather than known (farmer1998:26736). The thesis joins the rabbinic Messiah to the Christian Trinity through a single name, and so shows how much of Pico's Christian Kabbala rests on the equation of YHWH with the Son (wirszubski1989:8452; farmer1998:26570).
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Pico's sources
- The rabbinic dictum that the Messiah will be called by the name YHWH: Babylonian Talmud, Baba Batra; Midrash Tehillim on Psalm 21; the Midrash on Lamentations; Zohar II, fol. 59v; and Raymundus Martini's Pugio fidei, pp. 653-655: the dictum Pico attributes to the Cabalists, according to Wirszubski (wirszubski1989:8491)
- Abraham Abulafia, Sefer Otzar Eden Ganuz: 'the name of the Messiah is YHWH', citing Jeremiah 23:6: closest Kabbalistic parallel found in the Busi and Ebgi volume, not among the translations known to have been made for Pico (busi2014:21974)
- Yeri'ah gedolah (The Great Parchment), in Latin: the warrior whose name is Iod he vau he addressed as redeemer: a text Pico certainly read in Latin that links the Tetragrammaton with the redeemer, according to the Busi and Ebgi volume (busi2014:22005)
Quotations cited
- “Nomen Iesu is thus quite different from nomen messiae” — Chaim Wirszubski, Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism (wirszubski1989:11023)
- “Il nome del Messia รจ Yhwh” — Giulio Busi and Raphael Ebgi, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: Mito, magia, Qabbalah (busi2014:21984)
Not established
- Which Kabbalistic text, if any, Pico drew the dictum from; Wirszubski gives rabbinic and Christian witnesses, the Busi and Ebgi volume Kabbalistic ones.
- How Pico would have derived the descent of the Paraclete from the name; Farmer's account of the method is a presumption.
Discussed in
- Giulio Busi and Raphael Ebgi, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: Mito, magia, Qabbalah (2014)
- (author to be confirmed from front matter), Erkenntnistheorie und christliche Kabbalah: Das Paradigma des Pico della Mirandola (n.d.)
- Chaim Wirszubski, Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism (1989)
Farmer's cross-references
- 5>6 Ideo amor ab Orpheo sine oculis dicitur, quia est supra intellectum.