Fallen Angels: Soldiers of Satan's Realm

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN New Paths: The Visionaries

The Visionaries • • • 117 marry, the Moslem story knows usually of but a single charmer, who lures the angels to spiritual ruin, while she is translated to the skies. This last is a familiar mythological motif; moreover, the names given to the lady are those of goddesses, associated particularly with the planet Venus. In some versions, she is a heavenly being who takes earthly form just long enough to tempt the angels. This, as well as the names Harut and Marut, represents a borrowing from Persian—perhaps ultimately from Babylonianlore . Other new elements are the inclusion of drunkenness among the sins of the angels—reflecting Mohammed's ban on intoxicants —the choice given to the angels as to when they shall be punished, and the notion that they continue to instruct men in sorcery. Many of these new variations recur in later Jewish sources. In Islam, however, the belief in fallen angels, though persistent, was not very important. Some Mohammedans, both in medieval and modern times, have rejected the whole tale and explained that Harut and Marut were human beings.14 The belief in Iblis and his fall, clearly stated in the Koran, could not be so readily dismissed; but it never had anything like the importance which the same doctrine had in Christian theology. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN New Paths: The Visionaries F:or centuries after the Talmud was completed, world Jewry had its spiritual center in the academies of Babylonia. The presidents of these academies, from the sixth century onward, bore the title of Gaon, "Excellency." The period up to about 1000 is known in Jewish history as the Gaonic period. The writings we shall now consider come from the age of the Gaonim (for convenience we shall include a few later works), but little of this literature is by the Gaonim themselves. Those dignitaries devoted themselves chiefly to exposition of the law as laid down in the authoritative Babylonian Talmud. A few— 118 • • • Fallen Angels notably Saadia, Sherira and Hai—pioneered in biblical and talmudic philology, and in history, literature and philosophy. But the books we are to examine emanate from circles somewhat removed from these sober legalists, circles with a tinge of heterodoxy . The Gaonic period, like the centuries just before the Christian era, witnessed great intellectual and religious ferment. The Karaite author, Al-Kirkisani (tenth century), enumerates no less than seventeen Jewish sects, most of which still existed in his own day. The rise of Islam with its different contending parties no doubt stimulated sectarian trends in Jewry. The parallel with the pre-Christian age is surprisingly complete . The Rabbanites headed by the Gaonim correspond to the Pharisees and represent the main body of Jewish thought. The Karaites, who rejected popular tradition and interpreted the biblical text with strictest literalness, remind us of the Sadducees. The pre-Christian Essenes have their counterpart in the later "Mourners of Zion" and the mystical "Chariot Travelers"—devotees of an ascetic, other-worldly piety. The parallel extends also to Jewish literature in the pre-Christian and the post-talmudic ages, especially the literature which came from circles not quite sectarian, but slightly off the beaten track of orthodoxy. In both periods this literature took three distinctive forms: First, apocalypses: visions of the end of days, the Messiah, the final judgment and the resurrection. Second, mystical books, quasi-Gnostic in tone, about the divine Chariot-Throne, the angels and the ascent into the presence of God. Third, unorthodox aggada-books. Jubilees is a good instance from earlier times; in the Gaonic period, the Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer are the outstanding example. These resemblances are neither formal nor accidental. There is a true inner relation between the Old Testament pseudepigrapha and what we may venture to call the talmudic pseudepigrapha . It was not a matter of direct literary borrowing; few of the old apocrypha were in Jewish hands during the Gaonic period. But there was a continuous living tradition of mystical and messianic doctrine. The rabbis rejected the Outside Books for various reasons. The Visionaries • • • 119 They considered certain ideas in these works objectionable, other ideas dangerous. Thus the talmudic writings are in substantial agreement with the apocalypses in their expectations of the future; but in the rabbinic books these topics are given but limited space. Some of the scholars, moreover, voice stern warnings against excessive preoccupation with the mystery of the end of days. They wished not to combat, but to...