SPIRITUALITY / KABBALAH
Primitive Christian Kabbalah, Part III
What do the works of the Apostle Paul mean when explored in their proper Kabbalistic context? Let’s find out…
Taking what we have discussed in Part I and Part II of this series on Primitive Christian Kabbalah, we are now at the point where we can begin to (at least try to) answer the question: if Paul didn’t see Jesus in the kabbalistic experience he described in 2 Corinthians 12:1–4 of the New Testament, and rather saw Enoch/Metatron…what does this mean for Christianity as a whole?
The short answer is this: the Gospels are meaningless at best — and outright forgeries at worst.
Let me explain.
As I stated previously, the Gospels themselves (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John…and frankly we could toss in the gnostic Gospels of Thomas and Judas — among others — while we’re at it) were not actually written by Jesus (most Christians know this), they just record what he may have said. These are later productions, and likely pull from a single source — the much-discussed “Gospel of Q”. This is theorized because particularly the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke copy each other — with varying degrees of expansion — almost verbatim. It’s simply not possible for three texts to be written by three different people to all read the exact same way. It’d be akin to the greatest winning game of “Telephone” of all time.
However, in an absolute must-read and classic book by Alan Butler and Christopher Knight — The Hiram Key Revisited — they discuss an interesting possibility that presents itself out of these very gospels, and was likely expounded upon in the original Gospel of Q. The possibility — and it becomes more in line with historical fact as extant textual evidence is presented — is that Jesus was a very real person (just as I argue), but that he wasn’t meant to be the Jewish Messiah…his cousin John the Baptist was. But as we know, famously John the Baptist was killed by Herod just as, not un-interestingly, Jesus is to take on more fully his “proclaimed” messianic mission.
It’s a fascinating possibility, and it alone calls into question the very “christhood” of Jesus. So the theory continues that the redactors of the Gospels effectively had to rewrite much of this messianic mission, and add in language that gives Jesus his supposed divinity. But as we described in Part II of this series, that language was largely lifted from descriptions of one Enoch/Metatron. Again, this is not to say that Jesus didn’t exist, but it’s more to say that Jesus was not the character that history and Christians claim him to be: he, along with his gospels, is a charlatan.
But then you ask, “Dr. Sovryn, without the Gospels and Jesus Christ, what’s left of Christianity?”
Well, remember in Part I that we discussed how the Apostle Paul is really the originator of this whole thing we call Christianity today — this statement isn’t even controversial among scholars, or even Christians themselves from a cultural standpoint. However, you may want to argue that Paul could only create Christianity from the Gospels and the words he heard from the disciples of Jesus Christ — now the apostles — and so the truth that Paul spread across the Roman Empire still ultimately had its source in the words of Jesus Christ recorded in said Gospels.
Wrong.
And the Apostle Paul tells us this himself. As we discussed in Part I, there is no historical debate that Paul existed — he did — and that his letters (which comprise the bulk of the New Testament) were actually written by Paul. They are occasional letters, the kind of stuff you’d send to a pen pal if your pen pal was an entire church in some far off land. Paul is being vulnerable and transparent in these “books” of the New Testament — he’s writing to dear friends. And in this transparency, particularly in Galatians 1:12, Paul admits this:
“I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.”
Read that again. Do you see what he’s saying? He never read the Gospels. He was never taught “Christianity” by any of the other so-called disciples — he didn’t receive it from any man, nor was he taught! He says he received it from revelation: the very kabbalistic revelation of 2 Corinthians 12:1–4 that we started with. And, as I’m contending, who he calls “Jesus Christ” was actually Enoch/Metatron.
So continuing with this line of thinking, if Christianity was based largely on the works of Paul, and Paul admits that his works are NOT based on the Gospels and the words of Jesus contained therein, then as I said…the Gospels are meaningless.
Christianity — more precisely — is simply what is contained the works of Paul and the apostles confirmed of his day in the 1st century CE (which would include Jude, and perhaps the writer of the Book of Revelations, and others).
To explain the title of this series: Christianity — in its most primitive form — is kabbalah.
It is not the religion of Jesus Christ. It is not what the Catholic Church has deemed it as. It’s not what the Protestant Reformation espoused it to be. It’s not what the Seventh-Day Adventists claim it to be. It’s not what the Mormons say it is. These are all latter-day fictions or ad-hoc power grabs.
Now you may be asking, why did Paul claim it was Jesus Christ that he saw? While we can never know for certain, I would be willing to suggest that it’s because Jesus was the most prominent figurehead for the messianic fervor in the 1st century CE. It made sense for Paul to assume that’s what he saw. Or there could be some other reason — but ultimately, it’s inconsequential, because the endgame of Paul’s “revelation” that he experienced and was espousing was revealed by old, grizzled apostle in 2 Corinthians 3:18:
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” -2 Corinthians 3:18
“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” -Romans 8:29
There are two verses for you confirming the same outcome of the revelation that Paul spread: our physical bodies would not be thrown away, but transformed into a messianic being. Read correctly, Paul is saying we will become like Enoch/Metatron (the “Son of Man”), we will become messiahs ourselves.
That is the very same endgame of kabbalistic practice: to take on the messianic consciousness and long-living body. To become gods — co-creators in our universe.
I’ll leave you with this, and it’s something we will explore in future segments. The works of Paul of Tarsus are diamonds in the rough of Christianity, because they are coming from someone who had clearly mastered much of kabbalistic practice. While not necessary for a kabbalistic education, I think kabbalists and mystics of all stripes would do well to study Paul’s works (and some other New Testament texts — not the Gospels) and integrate the truths of experience that can be gleaned from them. I hope you find them as fascinating in their kabbalistic light as I have.
This article originally appeared in the “Spirituality” section of the Sovryn Technica Newsletter, Issue 24.
