derived from the Hebrews, that Plato, Pythagoras and Zoroaster borrowed
their ideas from the Bible, and that traces of the Hebrew language are
to be found in the liturgies and sacred books of all nations. Then
follows an explanation of the four divine names, which are shown to
have been transplanted into the systems of Greek philosophy. The first
and most distinguished of them אהיה אשר אהיה ego sum qui sum (Exod.
iii, 12), is translated in the Platonic philosophy by τὸ ὄντως ὢν. The
second divine name, which we translate by הוא He, i.e., the sign of
unchangeableness and of the eternal idea of the Deity, is also to be
found among the Greek philosophers in the term ταυτὸν, which is opposed
to θατερὸν. The third name of God used in Holy Writ is אש Fire. In
this form God appeared in the burning bush when he first manifested
himself to Moses. The prophets describe him as a burning fire, and John
the Baptist depicts him as such when he says, “I baptize you with
water, but he who cometh after me shall baptize you with fire.” (Matt.
iii, 11.) The fire of the Hebrew prophets is the same as the ether
(αἰθὴρ) mentioned in the hymns of Orpheus. But these three names are in
reality only one, showing to us the divine nature in three different
aspects. Thus God calls himself the Being, because every existence
emanates from him; he calls himself Fire, because it is he who
illuminates and animates all things and he is always He, because he
always remains like himself amidst the infinite variety of his works.
Now just as there are names which express the nature of the Deity, so
there are names which refer to his attributes, and these are the ten
Sephiroth. If we look away from every attribute and every definite
point of view in which the divine subsistence may be contemplated, if
we endeavour to depict the absolute Being as concentrating himself
within himself, and not affording us any explicable relation to our
intellect, he is then described by a name which it is forbidden to
pronounce, by the thrice holy Tetragrammaton, the name Jehovah (יהוה)
the Shem Ha-Mephorash (שם המפורש).
There is no doubt that the tetrad (τετρακτύς) of Pythagoras is an
imitation of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton, and that the worship of the
decade has simply been invented in honour of the ten Sephiroth. The
four letters composing this name represent the four fundamental
constituents of the body (i.e., heat, cold, dryness and humidity), the
four geometrical principal points (i.e., the point, the line, flat and
body), the four notes of the musical scale, the four rivers in the
earthly paradise, the four symbolical figures in the vision of Ezekiel,
&c., &c., &c. Moreover if we look at these four letters separately we
shall find that each of them has equally a recondite meaning. The first
letter י, which also stands for the number ten, and which by its form
reminds us of the mathematical point, teaches us that God is the
beginning and end of all things. The number five, expressed by ה the
second letter, shows us the union of God with nature—of God inasmuch as
he is depicted by the number three, i.e., the Trinity; and of visible
nature, inasmuch as it is represented by Plato and Pythagoras under the
dual. The number six, expressed by ו, the third letter, which is
likewise revered in the Pythagorean school, is formed by the
combination of one, two, and three, the symbol of all perfection.
Moreover the number six is the symbol of the cube, the bodies (solida),
or the world. Hence it is evident that the world has in it the imprint
of divine perfection. The fourth and last letter of this divine name
(ה) is like the second, represents the number five, and here
symbolizes the human and rational soul, which is the medium between
heaven and earth, just as five is the centre of the decade, the
symbolic expression of the totality of things.