Home›Open Questions›What older material lies behind the Bahir, and by what route did it reach Provence in the twelfth century?Open QuestionsWhat older material lies behind the Bahir, and by what route did it reach Provence in the twelfth century?Citation FormatsGeneral ReferenceGeneral Reference Citation TextDivinity Atlas. "What older material lies behind the Bahir, and by what route did it reach Provence in the twelfth century?." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/what-older-material-lies-behind-the-bahir-and-by-what-route-did-it-reach-provence-in-the-twelfth-century.Copy General ReferenceAPA StyleAPA Style Citation TextDivinity Atlas. (n.d.). What older material lies behind the Bahir, and by what route did it reach Provence in the twelfth century?. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/what-older-material-lies-behind-the-bahir-and-by-what-route-did-it-reach-provence-in-the-twelfth-centuryCopy APA StyleBibTeXBibTeX Citation Text@misc{divinityatlas-what-older-material-lies-behind-the-bahi, author = {Divinity Atlas}, title = {What older material lies behind the Bahir, and by what route did it reach Provence in the twelfth century?}, year = {2026}, url = {https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/what-older-material-lies-behind-the-bahir-and-by-what-route-did-it-reach-provence-in-the-twelfth-century}, note = {Accessed August 30, 2026} }Copy BibTeXOpen QuestionCross-Tradition ConnectionsSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)Open QuestionScholem argued that the Bahir is an edited compilation rather than a single composition, and that some of its material is older than its Provencal setting and eastern in origin. He could not reconstruct what that material was or how it travelled, and neither has anyone since. The manuscript tradition begins after the book was already circulating in Languedoc, so there is no witness to the stage before editing.What would resolve this A manuscript or a citation predating the Provencal circulation, or a securely dated eastern text sharing the Bahir's distinctive images and its fragmentary form. Comparative work on the Gnostic and Merkavah parallels Scholem noted, done against dated witnesses rather than against reconstructions, would narrow it even without a new manuscript.OpenMedieval Jewish intellectual history, Hebrew and Aramaic codicology, and the study of late antique Jewish esoteric literatureGershom Scholem, translated by Allan Arkush, Origins of the KabbalahCross-Tradition ConnectionsQuestion OnThe Bahir (Book of Illumination), Esoteric Texts Well-attested Source Origins of the KabbalahGershom Scholem, translated by Allan Arkushtier 1SourcesOrigins of the Kabbalahtier 1Gershom Scholem, translated by Allan Arkush, Princeton University Press, 1987View the SourceComments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.View At A Past YearThe atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.Show This Year