Cabalistic, confirming the Christian religion · thesis 11>67

Thesis 11>67

Latin

Per dictum Cabalistarum quod Caeli sunt ex igne et aqua, simul et ueritatem theologicam de ipsis sephirot nobis manifestat, et philosophicam ueritatem quod elementa in caelo sint tantum secundum actiuam uirtutem.

Copy-text: Farmer 1998, line 27844; 1486 print folio <34v/35r>

The sheet prints a full stop mid-clause, 'simul et ueritatem. Theologicam', which breaks the sentence; read here as continuous, 'simul et ueritatem theologicam', since the following clause has no separate subject of its own.

English

The Cabalists' saying that the heavens are made of fire and water shows us, at once, the theological truth about the sefirot themselves and the philosophical truth that the elements are present in heaven only in their active power.

Pico explains the etymology behind this thesis in the Heptaplus, deriving 'shamayim' (heaven) from 'esh' (fire) and 'mayim' (water); Farmer's note assigns the theological sense to the sixth sefirah, which unites the fifth (fire) and fourth (water) (farmer1998:27902).

Translation: machine-drafted 2026-09-26 by TRANSLATOR-T10b; sense checked against farmer1998:27893; awaiting human check

Attribution: Pico's own opinion (section 11>, Cabalistic conclusions confirming the Christian religion from the Hebrew wise men's principles) · Pico's stance: endorses

Discussed in

• Chaim Wirszubski, Pico della Mirandola's Encounter with Jewish Mysticism (1989)

Mention records in the corpus: 2 (deterministic harvest; see Method).

Farmer's cross-references

• 23.4 Elementa in octo coeli corporibus coelesti modo bis inueniuntur, quae quis inueniet si retrogrado ordine in illa bina numeratione processeri
• 3.4 Ens denominatiue dicitur de deo.
• 7a>10 Quomodo elementa sint in caelo.