Kabbalah-of-the-Golden-Dawn-Pat-Zalewski - D Ank Unlimited

CHAPTER FOUR
The Early Books
SEPHER BAHIR22-23
Most scholars of Hebraic literature are of the view that the Kabbalah was
not committed to paper until the the end of the 12th century when the
manuscript Bahir, or "Book of Brilliance" first appeared. It is also believed
by the majority of Kabbalists that the book can originally be ascribed to
Rabbi Nechunjah ben Hakana (around 75 B.C.). As such it is considered
to be the very earliest Kabbalistic document. One of the founding Chiefs
of the Golden Dawn, Wynn Westcott, made a deep study of the Bahir,
and in 1896 he produced a translation under the title Book of Brilliance.
There is little doubt that the concepts of the Bahir, like those of the Zohar
or the Hekaloth texts, were applied by Westcott to the Sephirotic and
Kabbalistic schemata of the Golden Dawn.
Because many concepts of the Bahir are expanded upon in the Zohar
(as published in Rosenroth's translation), some have considered the Bahir
II. For English translations see Bookof Brilliance, translated by Wynn Westcott (privately printed.
(896), and The BahiT. translated by Rabbi Kaplan (Weiser, 1979).
I' The name Bahir is given in Job 27:21 "And now men see not the bright light which is in the
clouds."
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