Divine Abstract Qualities and God’s Middot in Second Temple and Rabbinic Literature

Abstract

The starting point of the article is a much-studied rabbinic tradition concerning ten abstract qualities by which the world was created. I contend that other rabbinic passages, concerning seven abstract qualities that minister before God’s throne, and seven—or ten—abstract qualities by which the world was created, are all variants of the same tradition. Each of these texts is scrutinized. The tradition embodied in these passages is traced back to the Second Temple period: an apocryphal psalm found at Qumran and a passage of the Damascus Document. The interchange between abstract divine qualities and angels, attested in passages of rabbinic literature, can also be traced back to 1 Enoch 40:9. Passages of the hekhalot literature can be instructively compared with the Testament of Abraham. The article demonstrates the continuity of theologoumena and phraseology concerning the divine in ancient Judaism, from the Second Temple period to late antiquity.