Penman: Balthasar Walther, Jacob Boehme and the Kabbalah

LEIGH T. I. PENMAN

A Second Christian Rosencreuz?

Jakob Böhme’s Disciple Balthasar Walther (1558–

c.

1630) and the Kabbalah. With a Bibliography of Walther’s Printed Works*

Introduction

In the eighteenth chapter of his commentary on Genesis, entitled

 Mys-terium Magnum

(completed 1624), the Lusatian theosopher Jakob Böhme (1575–1624) made a startling declaration concerning the reception of the Ten Commandments atop Mount Sinai. According to the account of Exodus, God had commanded Moses to hew two tables of stone upon which He would inscribe the text of the

Decalogue

 for the instruction of His chosen people. This Moses did, ‘and it came to pass . . . Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony’ (Ex 34:29).

Böhme’s account, however, differed signicantly. For, according to the

cobbler, the text of the new covenant was not recorded on ‘two tables of stone.’ Rather, Böhme asserted, God had given Moses ‘another writing upon a globe (

Kugel

).’

1

To would-be defenders of Böhme’s orthodox Lutheran character in the years after the shoemaker’s death, this particular passage, which  brazenly contradicted the sacred word of scripture, posed a decidedly *

 Elements of this article were presented at the Association for the Study of Eso-tericism Conference, University of California, Davis June 8–11 2006, where I re-ceived stimulating feedback from Arthur Versluis (Michigan State) and Marsha

Keith Schuchard that encouraged further research upon Walther. Further ad

-vice was offered by Prof. Charles Zika (Melbourne). I would also like to thank Matthias Wenzel (Oberlausitzische Bibliothek der Wissenschaften, Görlitz) and Dr Robert Schweitzer (Bibliothek der Hansestadt Lübeck) for their friendly as-

sistance during the preparation of this article, as well as Ilona Fekete (Eötvös

Loránd University, Budapest) for her invaluable bibliographical help and com-ments upon the manuscript.1 Böhme 1730,

VII: 121: ‘[G]leichwie Moses die Tafeln zerbrach, und Gott Mose eine andere Schrift auf eine Kugel gab.’

A S

ECOND

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HRISTIAN

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OSENCREUZ

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thorny problem. Already during his lifetime, Böhme had been perse-cuted on several occasions by Lutheran authorities in his home-town of Görlitz on account of his enthusiastic tendencies. In 1613, following the

distribution of manuscript copies of his rst work,

Aurora

 , Böhme was forbidden to record or further disseminate his ideas. In 1624, the local pastor Gregor Richter accused him of being the Antichrist. That same

year, Böhme’s rst printed work, the

Weg zu Christo

 (Way to Christ) had  been decried by one Lutheran theologian as actually consisting the ‘weg von Christo’ (way from Christ) (Widmann 1624: 5). As an open invita-tion for further accusations of heresy, it was therefore important for the shoemaker’s followers to explain away this curious assertion concern-ing a globe of the covenant.

2

 The editor of the so-called Toruń edition

(

thorner Ausgabe

) of Böhme’s work (8 vols, 1652–74), one of the most systematic early attempts to defend Böhme’s theosophy from accusa-tions of heterodoxy, therefore directly addressed this dangerous pas-sage.

3

 Next to the crucial citation, the editor hastily inserted the follow-ing marginal notation:

What the author [Böhme] here states appears to contradict the clear text of Moses, Exodus 34:1, Deuteronomy 10:1 and 1

st

 Kings 8:9, which expressly speak of stone tablets. This may be explained thusly: the thoughts of the blessed, deceased Jacob Böhme concern-ing the two globes [

sic

! Böhme only mentioned one] upon which the law was recorded derived from a conversation with Dr. Balthasar Walther, who read it in Reuchlin, and lived with Böhme for an entire quarter-year.

4

2 In England the problem was avoided altogether, for the passage in John Ellistone and John Sparrow’s 1656 translation (

 Mysterium Magnum

 , London: Lodowick Lloyd, ch. 18, §21, p. 81) egregiously mistranslated

Kugel

 as ‘table of stone’. This choice echoed the words of the King James Bible: ‘And God gave Moses another Scripture upon a Table of stone. . .’.

3 For a bibliographical description and analysis, see Buddecke 1937, I: 80–6 (Item

32).

4 ‘Merckwürdigkeiten’ 1730, X: 91: ‘Es ndet sich in den Collectaneis des jüngern

Richters eine dienliche Anmerkung/ so in dieses Buch Myst. Mag. gehört/ und zwar zum 19. Cap. § 20 [

sic

! the reference should be to Chapter 18 § 20] der letzten Zeilen wo Autor schreibet: Wie Gott Mose eine andere Schrifft auf eine Kugel gab. Dabey besagter Collector folgends erinnert: Daß allhie, der Autor scheinet wider den klaren Text Mosis, Exod 34:1, Deut 10:1, 1 Reg 8:9 zu schreiben/ der von steinern Taffeln expresse schreibet/ damit verhält sichs

L

EIGH

 T. I. P

ENMAN

156

The passage does indeed exist in Reuchlin’s

De arte Cabalistica

 , where the

Pforzheimer wrote that ‘the kabbalists believe that God rst recorded

his covenant (

legem

) onto a ery globe, applying dark re to white re.’

And as Reuchlin’s citations make clear, this idea had indeed an even longer history amongst older kabbalistic authorities (1517: fol. lx–ii

v

). But despite claiming to have read ‘works of many high masters’ (

viel hoher Meister Schriften

) Böhme could not speak Latin, let alone Hebrew, and therefore could have had no direct access to Reuchlin or his sources. So who then was this Balthasar Walther, portrayed here by the editor of

the Toruń edition

not only as an apparent expert in kabbalistic tracts, but also as someone who had poisoned Böhme’s pious Lutheran thoughts with its teachings and perhaps also with other heretical material?

The denitive biographical account that we possess concerning Bal-

thasar (also Balthazar, Baldasar, Baldassar, Baltzer, Paltzer, etc.) Wal ther

was rst printed in the early 1650s by the Silesian noble Abraham von Franckenberg, as part of his extensive report upon Böhme’s life.

Of those learn’d men that convers’d with [Böhme] in the greatest familiarity, was one

Balthazar Walter

 , this Gentelman was a

Silesian

 by birth, by profession a Physician, and had in the search of the an-tient Magick learning, travell’d [for six years] through

Egypt, Syria

and the

Araby’s

 , and there found such small remainders of it, that he return’d empty, and unsatisfy’d, into his own Country, where hear-ing of this man, he repair’d to him, as the Queen of

Sheeba

 with King

Solomon

 , [to] try him with those hard Questions, concerning the soul [i.e. Böhme’s

Psychologia Vera

] . . . from whence, and from frequent discourses with him, he was so satisfy’d that he there stay’d three months, and profess’d, that from his converse, he had reciev’d more solid answer to his curious scruples, than he had found among the  best wits of those more promising Climats, and for the future, de-tested from following rivulets, since God had open’d a fountain at

his own door (Franckenberg & Hotham 1654: fol. E2

r-v

.

)

In as much as this account mentions Walther’s three-month stay with Böhme, and indeed his interest in ‘antient Magick learning’, it undoubt-

also: des sel. Jacob Bœhmens Teut. Meinnung von den 2. Kugeln/ darauf das Gesetz geschrieben/ rühret her aus mündlicher Conversation mit Dr. Balthasar Walthern, der es beym Reuchlino gelesen/ und ein ganz viertel Jahr beym J.B. gewohnet.’