The Bahir as It Once Was: Reassessing the Transmission History of the Earliest Kabbalistic Book

Sefer ha-Bahir has been studied extensively, usually with the assumption that it is an early—if not the earliest—kabbalistic composition. The main theories about its dating, geographical origins, and conceptual-theological worldview undermine the conception of it as a book with textual integrity. Scholars have discerned multiple layers in it, often attributed to variable source material, and have concluded that it is a poorly edited, fragmentary work. After the fashion of modern Bible scholarship, some studies even carve up sentences in two and assign them to different authors or sources. In my Lecture I will reexamine these theories, especially in light of recent findings concerning the Bahir’s early textual and transmission history.