Kabbalistic Textual Families
Sefer Yetzirah, the Zohar, and their Latin and occult afterlives.
Sefer Yetzirah is a short early cosmological text of disputed date; the Zohar appeared in thirteenth-century Castile. Christian Hebraists put parts of the Zohar into Latin in Knorr von Rosenroth’s Kabbala Denudata (1677–1684), which Mathers partly translated in 1887.
That chain from Zohar to Kabbala Denudata to Mathers is a real textual relationship. The use of the Tree in later occultism is influence.
The Lineage
Listed in approximate chronological order. The label above each title states how it relates to the rest of the family.
Sepher Yezirah (Book of Formation)
Kalisch’s translation of the Book of Formation.
Sepher Yetzirah, the Book of Formation, and the Thirty-Two Paths of Wisdom
Westcott’s English version, made for occult readers.
The Zohar: Bereshith to Lekh Lekha
Translated portion of the Zohar on Genesis.
Kabbala Denudata
Latin anthology of Zoharic and Lurianic texts.
The Kabbalah Unveiled
Mathers’ English translation of part of the Kabbala Denudata.
The Secret Doctrine in Israel: A Study of the Zohar and Its Connections
A. E. Waite’s study of the Zohar.
Liber 777
Occult correspondence tables built on the Tree of Life.
Relationship Labels
Root text: The earliest surviving text the family is organised around.
Direct textual relationship: Shares or reworks text, or is a translation or edition, of an earlier member (supported by manuscript or textual scholarship).
Similar tradition: Belongs to the same current or genre; no textual dependence is claimed.
Influence: Draws on ideas, names or structures from earlier members without reproducing their text.