A second Christian Rosencreuz? Jacob Böhme’s disciple Balthasar Walther (1558- c. 1630) and the Kabbalah. With a bibliography of Walther’s printed works

Abstract

In the eighteenth chapter of his commentary on Genesis, entitled Mys­terium Magnum (completed 1624), the Lusatian theosopher Jakob Böhme (1575–1624) made a startling declaration concerning the reception of the Ten Commandments atop Mount Sinai. According to the account of Exodus, God had commanded Moses to hew two tables of stone upon which He would inscribe the text of the Decalogue for the instruction of His chosen people. This Moses did, ‘and it came to pass... Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony’ (Ex 34:29). Böhme’s account, however, differed significantly. For, according to the cobbler, the text of the new covenant was not recorded on ‘two tables of stone. Already during his lifetime, Böhme had been persecuted on several occasions by Lutheran authorities in his home-town of Görlitz on account of his enthusiastic tendencies. In 1613, following the distribution of manuscript copies of his first work, Aurora, Böhme was forbidden to record or further disseminate his ideas. In 1624, the local pastor Gregor Richter accused him of being the Antichrist.

Keywords

• Esotericism
• Occult sciences
• Secret societies
• Kabbalah and Christianity
• Böhme, Jakob, 1575-1624
• Mysticism -- Judaism