The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme · 99 of 159 · tr. Franz Hartmann
Chapter 10 (part 6)
"The configuration of Sem descended upon Abraham and Isaac, for there the Word of the covenant was manifested and contained within the sound; but Japhet's configuration went through the wisdom of nature in the realm of nature, and from that originated the heathen (intellectual but unspiritual people) who were giving (preeminently) attention to the light of nature (natural things).
Thus Japhet—that is to say; the destitute, imprisoned soul, belonging to eternal nature—lived within the "huts" of Sem— i.e.
, within the covenant—for the light of nature lives in the light of grace, constituting a form or a conceived state of the unformed light of God.
Ham's descending line overshadowed animal man, formed from the Limus of the earth, wherein is the curse, and from that resulted the sodomitic semi-animal race, that pays attention neither to the light of nature nor to that of grace in the covenant." ( Mysterium , xxxiv.
14.) "Noah said, 'Praised be the God of Sem, and Japhet shall live in the huts of Sem.' Here by the expression 'God of Sem,' is meant the holy Word in the covenant, and how it would manifest itself, that the Japhites or heathen—that is to say, those who lived only by the light of nature—would come to the light of grace that was manifested in Sem, and thus enter into the 'huts of Sem' and live therein.
But Ham, the spirit of fleshly lust, was to become a servant of the children of light, according to his quality and selfhood, because the children of God were to force him to become submissive to p.
212 [paragraph continues] Him and take away his scoffing self-will." 1 ( Mysterium , xxxiv.
31.) The name of Abraham had not a terrestrial meaning, and in this, as in many other respects, he was an anti-type of Christ.
2 "The great name which God was to give to Abraham in his seed was not to be taken in an especially terrestrial sense; for Abraham was upon this earth like a stranger, owning no principality or kingdom.
He was to be in the promised seed and blessing a stranger upon the earth, and therein resembled Christ, whose kingdom was likewise not of this world." 3 ( Mysterium , xxxvii.
23.) Nevertheless the sons of Abraham represent the same antithesis as those of Noah and Adam.
"Isaac was not made entirely of celestial essence, but of both—namely, of Abraham's Adamic essence and of the word conceived of faith, or the substance of Christ; but Ishmael was only of Adam's own nature according to the corrupted quality, and not from the conceived word of faith, which was acting with superior strength upon Isaac." 4 ( Mysterium , xl.
13.) p.
213 The same may be said about the sons of Isaac, in whom there is plainly represented an image of the first and the second Adam, and of the final conquest of the first by the second.
1 "Esau and Jacob both, and also the races descending from them, have originated out of one seed.
The former, coming solely out of the Adamic nature, was the greater one, and comparable to the first man whom God created in His own image, which image, however, became corrupted and died relatively to God.
The other one (Jacob) came also from the same Adamic nature; but in that nature was the realm of grace in the essence of faith, constituting a conqueror.
Even if the latter was inferior according to the Adamic nature, nevertheless God was (more) revealed in him, and therefore the greater one was to serve and be subject to the smaller one.
Eckhart's signature doctrine that the Father eternally begets the Son in the ground of the soul; the human interior as the actual site of the divine generative act, distinct from inner_light's static indwelling.
The text speaks of the 'Word... contained within the sound' and the 'word conceived of faith' acting upon Isaac, reflecting Boehme's doctrine of divine generation in the soul.
The Hermetic axiom that the structure of the cosmos is reflected at every scale — 'as above, so below; as within, so without' — making each level a legible map of the others.
Biblical figures (Noah's sons, Abraham) are explicitly interpreted as images or representations of divine principles (Father, Son, external world).
The uncreated luminous quality of the divine, sometimes experienced directly in mystical states; illumination as revelation.
[auto] The text extensively contrasts and connects the 'light of nature,' 'light of grace,' and 'unformed light of God' as primary metaphors for spiritual states.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The fates of the races are described as 'already predicted by Noah' and ordered by God's will regarding the covenant.
A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.
Japhet, Sem, and Ham represent descending images of the Father, Son, and external world, establishing a spiritual hierarchy.
Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.
The passage interprets biblical names and events (Abraham, Noah's sons) as having non-terrestrial, esoteric meanings reserved for spiritual understanding.
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
Human races and biblical figures are presented as images reflecting the structure of divine principles (Father, Son, World).
A spiritual elite who possess the divine spark and are predestined for salvation, contrasted with psychic (faithful) and hylic (material) persons.
[auto] The passage explicitly categorizes humanity into three spiritual states (Sem/Covenant, Japhet/Nature, Ham/Animal) mirroring the pneumatic, psychic, and hylic distinction.
Eckhart's radical reading of Matthew 5:3 — the saint as one who wants nothing, knows nothing, and has nothing, having emptied even the will and the self with which to receive God; distinct from renunciation_of_wealth (material poverty).
Abraham is described as owning 'no principality or kingdom' and being a 'stranger upon the earth,' aligning with spiritual poverty.
The doctrine — central to Eastern Orthodox and Maximian theology — that the human person is progressively transformed into a partaker of the divine nature by grace, not merely justified or united in passing ecstasy.
The text describes the soul constituting a 'conceived state of the unformed light of God' and Abraham resembling Christ as an anti-type.