Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–94) was a first Christian, expert in Kaballah.
- God has two roles: the visible God and the hidden God, called the Infinite.
- “The Infinite, reveals himself not only in the Bible but also through ten emanations or attributes,” the sacred Sefirot
- Myths are components of Sefirot.
- Images are components of Myths.
- Letters and numbers are subkinds of images.
The following OntoUML diagram shows the main structure of Pico’s model:
| Class | Description | Relations |
|---|---|---|
| God | Mosaic or Christian God. | |
| TheInfinite | “Many Kabbalists believe that the Hidden God, called the Infinite, reveals himself not only in the Bible but also through ten emanations or attributes, the Sefirot.” | role of God |
| VisibleGod | God visible to all | role of God |
| Sefirot | “Many Kabbalists believe that the Hidden God, called the Infinite, reveals himself not only in the Bible but also through ten emanations or attributes, the Sefirot. […] Kabbalists regard the meaning of God’s sacred speech, the Hebrew text of the Bible, as infinite, finding significance even in its smallest particles—not only the divine words but also their letters (which are also numbers) and even the shapes of those letters. The most powerful words are God’s names, the holiest of which, the Tetragrammaton, cannot be uttered; written as YHWH, it is pronounced Adonai, a spoken name like Elohim, Ehyeh, El Shaddai and others used of God in the Hebrew Bible. Other words of great power are the names of the Sefirot, which are unknown, as such, to the Bible; they are names not of God but of aspects or manifestations or emanations of divinity. | componentOf Myth; is sacred |
| Sacred | Sefirot is sacred. | |
| Myth | Hypostasized in myths, made concrete by images and symbolized by letters and numbers, the Sefirot are at the core of Kabbalist speculation, whose other major focus is the names of God and their resonance in words of scripture.” | componentOf Image |
| Image | Hypostasized in myths, made concrete by images and symbolized by letters and numbers, the Sefirot […] | |
| Letter | Hypostasized in myths, made concrete by images and symbolized by letters and numbers, the Sefirot […] | subkind of Image |
| Number | Hypostasized in myths, made concrete by images and symbolized by letters and numbers, the Sefirot […] | subkind of Image |
Pico’ Sefirot
Sources
- Copenhaver, Brian, “Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
First published: 20/10/2022
Philosophy Models 