Introduction
I wrote this after reading Raphael Patai’s work The Jewish Alchemists, which looks at the long relationship, both historically and legendarily, that has existed between Jews and the practice and craft of alchemy.
Alchemy stands out as one of the oldest and most enduring pursuits in the human quest for knowledge. The earliest cradles of civilization each developed their own traditions of astrology, medicine, metallurgy, and, ultimately, their own alchemy.
In the West, the Greco-Egyptian tradition is the one received from antiquity. Enriched by medieval Arab culture, then passed to Latin Western Europe, this is the alchemy still familiar to Westerners today. However, there is another alchemical tradition—one relatively unknown—which may underlie the history of Western Alchemy from its very beginning. An ancient Jewish tradition has been attested, in every period, from late antiquity to the present day.
Egypt and Zosimos of Panopolis
Perhaps the earliest alchemical writings known today are those of the famed Egyptian alchemist Zosimos.1 Zosimos (c. 250 CE) lived in the city of Panopolis, in the Hellenized Egypt of the late Roman period, where he was employed as a metallurgist and priest.2 His writings are a combination of technical treatises and letters written to students. In Zosimos, is not found the caricature of the blaspheming magician, railing against the religious establishment, but instead a conservative traditionalist, diligently working to preserve the tradition handed down to him by recognized masters of the “sacred art” as he called it.3
Maria the Jewess
A major influences on Zosimos is a person called Maria Hebraea, or “Maria the Jewess.” His regard for Maria is exceptionally high—approaching awe—at times referring to her as “divine.” Maria is credited with inventing or introducing numerous alchemical techniques and apparatus, some of which are still used in modern chemistry and continue to bear her name.4 Though disputed as merely legendary by Gershom Scholem,5 scholars generally accept that Maria was a real person. She may have lived as early as the first century CE or as late as just a few generations before Zosimos himself.
Along with the epithet “Hebraea,” Maria’s Jewishness is attested by pseudo-Olympiodorus who quotes her. “Maria says again: ‘Do not touch it with your hands; you are not of the race of Abraham; you are not one of our race.’” If authentic, such a statement would almost certainly indicate that she was Jewish.
Enoch and King Solomon
Beyond Maria, Zosimos refers generally to a larger Jewish alchemical tradition, for which he insinuates a remote history. He writes to his student, Theosebeia, about a question he had concerning the “ancients” and how he found an answer in “the Jewish books.” He additionally mentions other “Jewish writings,”6 and relates a Hebrew myth from the apocryphal book of Enoch concerning fallen angels who, desiring human women, transgressed and were banished from heaven. According to the story, it was they who taught mankind the art of alchemy.7
Writing “the mystery of the nine letters of King Solomon,” Zosimos invokes the legendary King of Israel. By applying a biblical heritage to alchemy, he participates in a practice that would continue for centuries. Zosimos lived at a time when a Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures had existed for several centuries. The Hebrew bible and its heroes were well known in the Greco-Egyptian world. Moses was esteemed among Greco-Roman pagans, as both a holy man and a powerful magician. He was also believed to be an alchemist.8
In Deuteronomy, Moses takes the Golden Calf and burns it in the fire before grinding it into dust, mixing it in water, and making the Israelites drink it. In this account, alchemists clearly saw a reference to the aurum potable, the “drinkable gold,” or elixir of life.
Arabic Alchemy
In the Middle Ages, the center of alchemy shifted from Egypt to the Arabic world. The “art of the philosophers” would here receive the name alchemy from the Arabic, al-kimiya. During this time, it would realize significant advancement, finding some of its greatest practitioners and commentators.
The Arab alchemists upheld the Jewish reputation as ancient masters. Maria and Solomon remained of the highest authority and were joined by an expanding cadre of biblical figures redrawn as alchemists.
Khalid ibn Yazid
Often listed first among Arab alchemists, Khalid ibn Yazid (c. 668 – 704) was a seventh century prince. Despite his personal interest in alchemy, much of the enormous body of alchemical literature attributed to him is today believed to be pseudepigraphical.
Among the writings of pseudo-Khalid ibn Yazid is one which became very influential to medieval alchemists,the Book of the Secrets of Alchemy (Liber Secretorum Alchimiae). A copy found among an alchemical encyclopedia published in sixteenth century Germany, includes the longer title “The Book of the Secrets of Alchemy by Calid son of Iazich , translated from Hebrew into Arabic and from Arabic into Latin by an uncertain translator.”9 Another copy from eighteenth century Geneva, contains essentially the same title, further reinforcing the idea of a Hebrew original.
Textual evidence suggests the book may actually have come from a Hebrew original and may possibly have been written by a Jewish author.10 Whether or not it was originally written in Hebrew, whoever preserved the work decided it was important to make that claim in the title. The “uncertain translator” was, as scholar Raphael Patai points out, “unwilling to forego the prestige Jewish expertise enjoyed in the alchemical world”11 and so the book’s Hebrew origin is emphasized. That the book was translated, first into Arabic and later into Latin, shows, again, the centuries-long and multicultural span of Jewish influence on Western alchemy.
Hebrew Translations of Arabic Writings
Even when little writing is found from Jewish alchemists, the evidence of a Jewish tradition in alchemy can be seen. Alchemy flourished in the Arab world from the eleventh to the thirteenth century. A wide range of Arabic texts from that period have been found in Hebrew translations. Included are both widely known works and rather obscure ones. The significant effort necessary to produce these translations indicates there was some audience of Jews with more than just a superficial interest in alchemy.
An example of a well-known Arabic text preserved in Hebrew, is the Book of Alums and Salts by al Razi (864 – 925 CE). A relatively obscure one, is the work of Abufalah the Saraqusti.12 Though in both cases the original text is Arabic, in each case the Hebrew copies are noteworthy. The Hebrew version may preserve the oldest tradition of the Razi text. While Arabic copies exist, the surviving Hebrew manuscript seems to be translated from an earlier Arabic original. In the case of Abufalah, the two works for which he is best known—undoubtedly of Arabic origin—now only exist in Hebrew copies. These translations seem to show a continued Jewish participation in alchemy throughout the Arab era.
The tendency to make alchemists out of biblical heroes had, by the end of alchemy’s Arabic sojourn, reached back as far as it could go. A list of alchemists provided by the exceptional philosopher and scientist ibn Sina (980 – 1037 CE),13 begins with Adam and includes Noah and Moses. Also in the list are post-biblical alchemists specifically identified as Jewish. One example, “Jacob the Jew,” presented the Arab physician with, among “many things,” a theory of learning.
“If you want to be a philosopher of nature, to whichever religion you belong,” ibn Sina records the otherwise unknown Jacob as saying, “listen to the instructed man of whatever religion.” In the Muslim context in which this was written, both the confession to having learned from a Jew and the endorsement of Muslims learning from non-Muslims, are striking, and speak to the exceptional regard in which ibn Sina must have unquestionably held his Jewish teacher.
Alchemy in Western Europe
The center of alchemical practice would begin to shift to Western Europe. By the fourteenth century, Europeans were the de facto stewards of alchemy. They, like the Egyptians and Arabs, continued to read alchemical prowess into bible characters. The list of biblical alchemists, already starting with Adam, now included Seth, Tubal-Cain, Abraham, Sarah,14 Jacob, Miriam,15 Korah,16 David, and more.
If connecting alchemy to biblical heroes of the past made it more acceptable to Christians, connecting it at the same time with contemporary Judaism, made it personally deniable. Should there become a need to disavow oneself of alchemy, Jews made a convenient scapegoat. A Christian alchemist could easily deny charges of heresy by decrying the trickery of Jews, who would be accepted readily and without question as the source of evil doing.
The Mysterious Book of Julius Gervasius
A striking example of this is found in a treatise known as The Age-Old Chymical Work. The title page gives a long description, naming Rabbi Abraham Eleazar as the author and crediting Julius Gervasius with the supposed discovery and subsequent publication. The mysterious work contains two parts. The first part contains its own inner title page which describes the alleged author.
Covenant
God without Beginning and End
Abraham Eleazar the Jew, A Prince, Priest, and Levite
Astrologer and Philosopher, born of the stock of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah
The second part bears a title which purports the book to be Eleazar’s copy of the work of Rabbi Samuel Baruch.
Samuel Baruch, the Rabbi, Astrologer and Philosopher, born of the Stock of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah, which teaches the great Secret of the great Master Tubal-Cain, from his Tablet, found by the Jew Abraham Eleazar.
Outside of this publication, nothing is known of Julius Gervasius or the two Jewish sources he names, Eleazar and Baruch. Early scholars concluded that the whole work was written by Gervasius. Later opinion suggests there may be authentically Jewish writing preserved here.
It’s apparent that Gervasius, whoever he was, although compelled to bring these works to print at some cost to himself, and despite having taken considerable effort to provide his own explanatory charts, indices, and a glossary of foreign terms, was in no way sympathetic to Jews.
In his preface, Gervasius mentions the author’s “Jewish blindness” and “Jewish rudeness.” He speaks of the book’s idolatrous and mistaken content and ultimately rejects the “drivel scattered
in the book by this Jew, with which he tries to defile Christendom.” Gervasius’s disdain for the author, is consistent with the low regard he seemed to have for all Jews. General contempt is reflected in his unsympathetic description of the Jewish plight as “the curse that the ancestors of this miserable people wished upon their own necks.”
Unlike Gervasius’s scathing preface, the main text seems to be the work of an apparent Jew, openly sympathetic to the suffering of his people. He provides them the secrets of making gold so that they can satisfy the heavy tax burden set upon them by the “Roman Emperors.” It seems unlikely that Gervasius, or anyone, would write the entire thing only to so vehemently attack it in the preface. It seems more likely that Gervasius, as he claims, edited existing Jewish documents. Given Gervasius’s clear opinion about the writer and the book, Patai asks and answers:
…why did he bother with publishing it at all? The answer, I believe, lies in the great respect that Christian alchemists had for Jewish adepts, despite their unfriendly attitude toward Jews in general…even though his view of Jews was negative, he nevertheless recognized the Jewish author’s alchemical mastery, and considered his book important enough to publish, and thereby enhance his own reputation as an alchemist, while at the same time taking care to emphasize his objections to Jewish views that had nothing to do with alchemy. (Patai, p. 241)
The legend of Nicholas Flamel
Interestingly, there is a possible connection between this story another well known legend; that of Nicholas Flamel. In Flamel is a case where, again, myth preceded truth and the two became inextricably tangled. Much like Khalid ibn Yazid, Nicholas Flamel lived a significant and well documented real life. The historical Flamel (1330 – 1418) was a French book trader, who married a wealthy widow and, together with her, established several legitimate charities. He died an unremarkable death and was buried in the local church.
The legendary Flamel is much more interesting. While trading with a Jewish merchant, he comes into possession of a Hebrew manuscript, the Book of Abraham the Jew. He struggles for years to interpret the text before traveling to seek the help of Jewish scholars in Spain. He is successful, making the acquaintance of a Jewish master who agrees to return home with him. His new teacher however, dies of an illness en route. Nonetheless, Flamel acquires the key to making gold and to everlasting life. As his legend grew, he was alleged to be alive, living with his wife in India, several hundred years after his supposed death.
Teasing out myth from fact in the story of Flamel, thankfully, is not my job. Seen in the story is another famous alchemist, the European Flamel, allegedly owing his alchemical success to a number of Jews: Flamel’s book is written by a Jewish author, received from a Jewish merchant, and deciphered with the help of a Spanish Jew. Whoever invented the legend clearly hoped to convince people of three things: the Jewish origins of Flamel’s knowledge, the impenetrability of it to non-Jews, and the possession of that knowledge by contemporary Jewish adepts.
Returning to Gervasius, he assumed his manuscript was the same one which had frustrated Flamel for so many years. Flamel’s “Abraham the Jew” was likewise assumed to be Gervasius’s “Abraham Eleazar.” Beyond this partial match in the name of the supposed authors, other similarities exist making it possible, if not likely, that Gervasius and Flamel (or pseudo-Flamel) possessed copies of the same document.
One example can be found on the title page of Flamel’s Livre des figures hieroglyphiques. The Jewish author of his manuscript is described in terms strikingly familiar to those in the titles of Gervasius’s manuscripts.
“Abraham the Jew, prince, priest, Levite, astrologer and philosopher of the nation of the Jews…”
Pseudo-Lull and Raymond of Tarrega.
So goes the interesting and rich legend of Flamel, the alchemist who succeeded in making gold and living forever.
Few alchemists, even in legend, would be so successful. An alchemist known as Raymond, was said to have succeeded in making gold, but living forever proved too difficult. Legend had long conflated this “Raymond the alchemist” with the more famous Franciscan missionary, Raymond Lull (1232 – 1315) of Majorca. Modern scholarship has largely sorted out the confusion between the two Raymonds, but not before Lull, the martyred philosopher, became identified with Raymond, the doomed alchemist.
Raymond the alchemist seems probably to have been Raymond of Tarrega, a Marrano.17 He was the author of several alchemical works and was believed to have successfully created gold at the request of King Edward. As the story goes, after first helping fund the king’s military campaigns, Raymond became displeased and refused to make any more gold for him. The king had Raymond imprisoned in the Tower of London, from which he eventually escaped, possibly to France. In his later years, he would make the fateful decision to return to Spain.
In Spain, one of his books, On the Invocation of Demons, came under the notice of an inquisitor general. He was accused and partially tried as a heretic by the Inquisition. Before a verdict would be officially rendered, he was found murdered in his bed.
Despite his unwavering testimony to his own Christianity, trial records show Raymond’s accusers didn’t buy it. They frequently emphasized his Jewishness, repeatedly referring to his conversion having been only recent. This was undoubtedly meant as an indictment of his character.
Before his trial and death, Raymond enjoyed a seemingly fine reputation as an alchemist. His works were cited for many years, albeit with credit usually being wrongly attributed to Lull. In fact, most, if not all of Lull’s legendary reputation as an alchemist, rightly belonged to this other Raymond; the converted Jew from Tarrega.18
Kabbalah, Alchemy, and Christianity
In the fifteenth century, European Christians were introduced to Kabbalah by Italian Jews. Among those Jews was Johanan Alemanno, well known for his interest in alchemy and as the teacher of Pico della Mirandola. Starting with Pico, the Renaissance tendency toward syncretism would connect Kabbalah with every system known. An association with alchemy was inevitable.
This retrofitting of Kabbalah with alchemy—sloppy, inconsistent, and incomplete as it was—would nonetheless become so widespread that the two terms became virtual synonyms in the parlance of the time.
Though alchemy, in reality, exerted little influence on Kabbalah, certain concepts of Kabbalah had a significant impact on alchemy. Gematria, a form of numerology, and the Kabbalistic belief in the magical power of the Hebrew language, were widely adopted by Christian alchemists, among whom “kabbalistic alchemy” developed.
To Cornelius Agrippa (1486 – 1534 ) and Paracelsus (1493 – 1541), two looming figures of the time, Kabbalah and alchemy were conceptually interchangeable. They weren’t alone. Christian alchemist and reported teacher of Paracelsus, Solomon Trismosin claimed to have learned the secrets of alchemy—including that of everlasting life—from “kabbalistic and magical books.”
In the seventeenth century, Rosicrucianism became identified with alchemy. Heavily steeped in Hermeticism and Paracelsian alchemy, it extended its claim further to include Kabbalah. It’s been speculated that the popularity Kabbalah enjoyed among Christians may have been due, at least in part, to their preference to label a concept as “kabbalistic” rather than call it “Jewish.”19
The end of an era
By the time of Isaac Newton (1643 – 1727)—to some, the last alchemist—the reputation of Jews in alchemy was well established. As alchemy began to pale to modern science and medicine, and its practice diminished in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the tradition of Jewish alchemical excellence, by then, bore 1,800 years of attestation by Greeks and Egyptians, Arabs and Europeans, pagans, Christians, and Muslims.
The Jewish Position on Alchemy
After all this, it’s unclear how much Jewish involvement there really was in the development of alchemy in the West, though it seems difficult to dismiss such a long and varied record of attestations. The ancient attributions to Maria place Jews in the earliest alchemical records. The continued acknowledgment of Jewish excellence in alchemy among Muslims and Christians—despite often coinciding with an open contempt for Jews—adds another layer of complexity to the picture of Jewish role in alchemy.
Finally, you may ask, what was or is the Jewish position on all this? I’ll leave you to consider the words of Patai, describing the Jews own view on their alchemical legacy:
One notices a…correspondence between the general evaluation of alchemy and the Jewish view on the Jew’s participation in it. Once alchemy came into disrepute, was considered a false science, a fraudulent art–this is how it was viewed by nineteenth century scholarship–the position of Jewish historians and other scholars was that Jewish participation in it was minimal. However this…was preceded by a long period, some fifteen centuries long, in which alchemy was considered the greatest of arts and sciences… During this long period, Jewish scholars generally emphasized the seminal role Jews played in alchemy.
Notes:
1. The texts, written in Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Syriac, are collected from Byzantine and Syriac catalogs of Greco-Egyptian alchemy.
2. Shannon Grimes, Making Gold, p. 17
3. The term alchemy is of a later Arabic derivation and did not yet exist
4. Bain marie
5. Scholem, Alchemy and Kabbalah
6. By authors named Apilis son of Gagios and Theophilus son of Theogenes
7. 1 Enoch 8:1-4
8. There was an alchemist of late ancient Egypt named Moses, of whom Zosimos was clearly aware, and with whom the biblical Moses should not be confused.
9. Iazich is obviously a corruption of Yazid
10. Raphael Patai, Jewish Alchemists, p.126
11. Scholem, Alchemy and Kabbalah
12. Abufalah of Syracuse, Sicily
13. Known in the West as Avecinna
14. Abraham’s wife, who one legend has discovering the famed Emerald Tablet
15. The sister of Moses, identified with Maria the Jewess
16. The husband of Miriam, who learned alchemy from her and profited greedily before being punished.
17. A crypto-Jew. A Jewish adherent who pretended to convert to Christianity.
18. To be clear, none of it belonged to Lull, however other pseudo-Lullian works exist which are not believed to belong to Raymond of Tarrega.
19.Joseph Dan, A Very Short Introduction to Kabbalah