Biblical Poems Research Articles

“OUT THERE, BEYOND…”: THE IMAGE OF THE FUTURE AND THE POETIC IDEAL IN THE WORKS OF S. A. YESENIN IN THE 1910S

The article is devoted to the analysis of the artistic content and the evolution of the poetic ideal in the works of S. A. Yesenin of the 1910s: the subject of the study is both the poet’s lyrical works and his narrative and philosophical prose (the article “Native Word”), as well as biblical poems. The peculiarity of the literary and philosophical toponym “Rus” in Yesenin’s works as an ethical ideal and a symbol of a special national historical path, which is part of “God’s Providence,” is revealed. The polemical unity of toponym “Rus” with the idyllic image of the indefinitely beautiful “there,” which Yesenin drew from the literature of romanticism, along with the mythologeme of the poet’s fateful path, is demonstrated. A conclusion is made about the influence of Symbolist aesthetics on Yesenin’s understanding of art as a visionary experience that allows him to comprehend supersensual reality. By means of comparative analysis of A. A. Blok’s articles “Gogol’s Child” and Yesenin’s “Native Word,” the hypothesis that N. V. Gogol’s image of Russia was perceived by Yesenin in symbolist transcription is substantiated. The poem “Inonia” is considered as a transformation of Russia’s poetic ideal in the context of Yesenin’s religious and philosophical aspirations.

Beowulf, the Wrath of God and the Fall of the Angels

ABSTRACT Beowulf’s anger has typically been viewed either negatively, as a sign of his monstrosity, or positively, as a form of furor heroicus (heroic anger). This article argues that the hero’s battle-fury is a manifestation of the wrath of God. Through comparison with Genesis A and other Old English biblical poems, it identifies the Fall of the Angels as an important new context for Beowulf’s first two monster-fights. Countering arguments that Beowulf is a flawed or even failed hero, it proposes that when read in the light of Old English biblical poetry, Beowulf emerges not as frenzied berserker but as a righteous avenger whose anger is controlled and directed against evil.

An Ancient Sung-Poem and Vehicle for Kabbalah: The Song of Songs in the Hebrew Bible

The biblical poem entitled Shir Ha-Shirim (The Song of Songs) composed by Shlomo, the third King of the united tribes of Israel about 1,000 years before the Common Era was composed in Hebrew. However, it was also translated and sung by numerous bards in ancient Arabic dialects, as well as being translated to Kurmanji Kurdish. The King composed this poem to substantiate the primeval identity of his kingdom and its connection to the expanses leading up to Jerusalem and the mountain range surrounding Jerusalem. The poem’s underlying meaning leans on the King’s knowledge of the ancient science of Kabbalah. The eight chapters included in the Hebrew Bible as debated in the first century CE, and recorded by the mishnaic Sages of Tiberias in the second century CE, now constitute what we have on record of the Song of Songs. The external shell of the poem, the first chapter of which mentions apple-wine and love, and tribal ethics, symbolizes and reminds of the first moment of love’s intoxication and knowledge. The King is mentioned in the Qur’an as the prophet Suleimān and is known in English as King Solomon. This study ends with an original translation of the Song of Songs with Notes.

The Aesthetics of Biblical Acrostics

One of the most formally fixed types among biblical poems is the acrostic. Among the acrostics of the Hebrew Bible, the predominant form has the headword of each line or couplet follow sequentially in alphabetical order. However, there are a couple of striking examples in which the acrostic form is expanded, namely Lamentations 3 and Psalm 119. These expansions reveal different stances of individual poems with respect to the larger tradition. This essay explores the aesthetics of the acrostic as a poetic form and argues that cases in which the form is expanded offer insight into poetic experiment, whereby the tension between convention and innovation is on display. These examples suggest that forms themselves serve as sites of aesthetic exploration for ancient poets, exemplifying the intellectual potential of art, not merely as windows into “life setting” or statements of rhetorical content but also as dynamic, ultimately philosophical endeavors.

AMBIVALENSI PEMAKNAAN EKSISTENSIAL DALAM PUISI BIBLIKAL; TELAAH FILOSOFIS TERHADAP KUMPULAN PUISI PERTARUNGAN DI PNIEL

The biblical poems are the poems that takes their inspiration from the Bible. It means the Bible becomes the hyporgram for the poems. One of the poetic signs is the biblical imagery. Cyprian BitinBerek is one of the poets who pays much attention on biblical poems. Pertarungan di Pniel gathers all of poems that take their inspiration from the Bible. This essay is a critical exploration. This critical exploration uses two theories as its apparatus, i.e: exegetical theory and philosophical theory. This essay uses the existential philosophy from Kierkegaard to criticize some poems that covers existential philosophy issues. Finally, the writer finds two critical conclusion, i.e: There are the tendency of subjective extortion that out of the narrative tradition from Old Testament and the ambivalence of existential signification from some biblical poems. In the end of this essay, the writer gives some positive points from Cyprian’s biblical poems.

La Date de Composition de la Bible des sept Estaz du monde de Geufroi de Paris

Among the biblical poems edited by the Équipe de Leyde (founded by Jean-Robert Smeets in 1962), the only text that remained to be studied was the Bible des sept Estaz du monde by Geufroi de Paris. An extensive project, for the text comprises nearly 22.000 verses. Until now, the researchers who examined Geufroi’s Bible have accepted the composition date of 1243 provided by the manuscript on fol. 187rob, where, in the epilogue of his text, Geufroi asserts to have written his Bible at that date. To support that claim, they based their research mainly on the texts that Geufroi used for the composition of his New Testament, especially the narration of the life of Mary (from the Conception till the Assumption). However, the study of the sources for the Bible’s Old Testament (of which we are actually preparing the edition) leads us to another conclusion.

Особенности интерпретации библейских женских образов в лирике А. А. Ахматовой

The article deals with the analysis of biblical female characters in Anna Akhmatov’s works and examines the features of their artistic interpretation in the cycle of Biblical Poems. The focus of the study is the Old Testament images of Lot’s wife, Rachel, Michola, which are significant for Akhmatov’s creativity. Their special aspects are conditioned by historical and autobiographical context of the poetess’s work. Having got through the civil war and revolution like many poets of the Silver Age, she correlated them, firstly, with the events described in the human eternal book, secondly, she passed them through the prism of her own experiences, which allows us to talk about the gender dimension of her reception of biblical female characters. This is evidenced by the architectonics of the cycle and the author’s re-emphasis in the transmission of biblical plots and characters that essentially disputes the biblical interpretation.

General

General Thomas Hieke, Christopher T. Begg, and Fred W. Guyette 1. [Erich Zenger; Luke 24:21; Ps 73:23-24] Paul Deselaers, "In den Bruchstellen—das neue Leben," Mit Gott ums Leben kämpfen, 545-47 [see #798]. This is the written form of the sermon D. gave at the funeral of Erich Zenger in 2010. D. interprets the Emmaus pericope (Luke 24:21 in particular) and Ps 73:23-24: "Yet I am always with you; you take hold of my right hand. With your counsel you guide me, and at the end receive me with honor" (NABRE). It was Z. himself who chose Psalm 73 for his funeral. D. also quotes a typical saying by Zenger which he repeatedly uttered after delivering his lectures: "I have said many words, and yet I have always tried to make one thing clear to you: HE, the living one, is the true God."—T.H. 2. [Hermeneutic of the Wūrttemberg Pastoralkolleg] Ernst Michael Dörrfuẞ, "Wende sie hin und wende sie her, den alles ist darin enthalten' (Pirqe Abot 5,25). Zur Hermeneutik des Alten Testaments am Beispiel der Psalmenlektūre im Pastoralkolleg der Evangelischen Landeskirche in Wūrttemberg," Eigensinn und Entstehung, 555-69 [see #789]. D.'s essay provides a report of a post-World War II initiative of the Evangelische Landeskirche in Württemberg, i.e. the "pastoral college" (Pastoralkolleg), in which pastors of the church are offered the opportunity to come together for a 12-day period devoted to prayer, communal Scripture study and sharing personal and pastoral experiences. After remarks on the history of above initiative and the influence of D. Bonhoeffer and G. Merz on its conceptualization and practices, D. focuses on the group work with selected psalms that is a constant feature of the gatherings in which a given psalm is recited aloud in Hebrew, text-critical questions are considered, and translational options explored—all with the intention of expanding the participants' awareness of the psalm's multiple potential meanings. The essay concludes with D.'s observations concerning the "ecclesial-theological exegesis of Scripture" as practiced in the Pastoralkolleg's sessions and that approach's dialectical relationship to academic Bible study and its focus on historical-critical issues.—C.T.B. 3. [Bible in Catholic Liturgy] Ingrid Fischer, "Welche Bibel horen wir im Gottesdienst?" BK 75 (2020) 80-86. F. reflects on the use of "the Bible" in liturgy. After a brief sketch of church history, F. focuses on the new version of the "Einheitsübersetzung" (2016) and its utilization in liturgical books, especially lectionaries. She problematizes the decision that due to "pastoral reasons" certain psalms and other passages will stay banned from liturgical use. According to F., this is a wrong decision and a matter of pastoral paternalism. The liturgical intertextuality needs competent attention by readers and hearers if they are to be open to God's living word.—T.H. 4. [Biblical Ritual] Ottmar Fuchs, "Rituale in der Bibel," BK 75 (2020) 99-105. F. elaborates the "pastoral-liturgical" function of biblical poems. He terms the song of Moses and Miriam in Exodus 15 a "lighthouse" that sheds a certain light on the surrounding [End Page 1] narrative. Psalm 137, on the other hand, seems to be the counterpart to the Exodus hymn and a paradox: the doxology states that no doxology can be sung when one is far from Jerusalem. F. adds some observations also on Psalms 135 and 136. He concludes with remarks about the relationship between remembrance and ritual in biblical texts as a model for the relationship between the Bible and liturgy.—T.H. 5. [Solomon in 20th–21st Century Literature] Susanne Gillmayr-Bucher, "Solomon's Wise Words in Twentieth- and Twenty-first-Century Literature," Essays in Honor of Choon Leong Seow, 189-98 [see #787]. The story of Solomon and his wisdom has inspired many creative writers. Austrian writer Inge Merkel's novel, Sie kam zu König Salomo, retells the story of the Queen of Sheba and her visit to Jerusalem. Each chapter unfolds as a discourse between Solomon and the Queen. In these dialogues...

The Song of Songs Afresh: Perspectives on a Biblical Love Poem, edited by Stefan Fischer and Gavin Fernandes (eds.)

The Song of Songs Afresh: Perspectives on a Biblical Love Poem, edited by Stefan Fischer and Gavin Fernandes (eds.)

IMAJI BIBLIKAL SEBAGAI PENGHAYATAN IMAN PERSONAL DALAM PUISI-PUISI MARIO F. LAWI DAN RELEVANSINYA BAGI PEWARTAAN MELALUI KARYA SASTRA

Mario F. Lawi is one of the most popular young poet in the Indonesian Literary. He is well-known as the “biblical poet” who constantly explores biblical theme in a large number of his poems. This research elaborates biblical imagination as a form of a personal living faith and finds its relevance to the kerygmatic-preaching by the literature. This analysis uses the combination of three theories, i.e: the theory of intertextual semiotics by Michael Riffaterre from literature perspective, the theory of theological aesthetics by Hans Urs von Balhtasar from theology perspective and the concept of the kerygmatic-preaching from “The Letter of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to the Artists” by kergygmatic-preaching perspective. The result of this qualitative research i.e: 1) All of the biblical imagination in Mario’s poems have their references or allusions from the Bible text as their hipogram, 2) By theological aesthetics perspective, biblical imagination which is used by Mario in his biblical poems could be considered as a personal living faith, 3) The biblical imagination in Mario’s poems gives an altenative relevance to the kerygmatic-preaching ad intra (to the Christian readers) and ad exrtra (to the non-christian readers).

ZULU YOUTH INTERPRET AND TRANSLATE METAPHORS IN HEBREW POETRY: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

Biblical poems make extensive use of metaphors which related to the culture of the original writers. This study explores how Zulu youth in South Africa interpret some of these metaphors from their context. It also gave them the opportunity to translate some biblical metaphors for their peer-group, using images that are more meaningful to them. Their compositions show some insightful interpretation of the Hebrew texts, particularly with respect to their use of new metaphors (often in an expanded form). These new metaphors tend to be within the same domain as those in the original text. The ambiguity inherent in metaphor offered space for the Zulu youth to introduce new (and insightful) imagery in translating metaphors from another culture. The process is worth extending to other communities to enrich our understanding of how people from different contexts perceive and think.

The history of Classical Hebrew: From the invention of the alphabet to the Mishnah

AbstractA lively debate has engulfed the study of the early history of the Hebrew language in the past two decades. Traditionally, scholars classified the language of the Hebrew Bible into three categories: Archaic, Standard, and Late Biblical Hebrew. But recent trends in biblical criticism have tended to date biblical literature much later, and some scholars date almost all of biblical literature to the Persian and Hellenistic periods. This trend undoes traditional linguistic categories for biblical Hebrew and questions the validity of the linguistic dating of biblical literature. In spite of the challenges, a modified and more complex model for the history of Classical Hebrew remains the working consensus model. A lively debate has engulfed the study of the early history of the Hebrew language in the past two decades, especially advanced by the work of Ian Young and Robert Rezetko (e.g., Young & Rezetko, ). Conferences have been organized to address this issue (e.g., Miller‐Naudé & Zevit, ). Young and Rezetko have continued to advocate for their approach in spite of critical reviews (e.g., Joosten, ). Traditionally, scholars have classified the language of the Hebrew Bible into three categories: Archaic Biblical Hebrew (that is, early biblical poems), Standard Biblical Hebrew (the major part of biblical literature), and Late Biblical Hebrew (comprising compositions from the Persian and Hellenistic periods). But trends in biblical criticism over the past several decades have tended to date biblical literature later and later. Now, one can find some prominent scholars who date almost all of biblical literature—and particularly Pentateuchal literature (Sommer, )—to the Persian and Hellenistic periods. This trend raises serious questions about the validity of the traditional linguistic dating of biblical literature. Although some have ignored this linguistic problem, others have offered a variety of rationales justifying the dismissal of linguistic dating. These divergent trends have resulted in continuing debate regarding the historical linguistics of Biblical Hebrew that is addressed in Ronald Hendel and Jan Joosten's recent book, How Old is the Hebrew Bible? (2018).

Heroic Elements in Judges 5

Approaching the "Song of Deborah" in Judges 5 specifically as a "heroic poem," one recognizes some of its motifs, language, and style as features common to its genre, rather than as being unique to the biblical poem itself. That is, while Judges 5 is rightly regarded a venerable relic of ancient Israelite song, it is also a distinctive exemplar of heroic poetry as found in a wide variety of traditions and periods, composed in any number of different languages. Thus, for example, as in other like poems, heroic values are dramatized and promoted in Judges 5 through often ironic contrastive characterizations of what is deemed praiseworthy and blameworthy behavior. The following is a comparative study of Judges 5 and the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) poem referred to as "The Battle of Maldon," supplemented by parallels drawn from ancient, medieval, and later heroic literature.

The Spanish ‘Shulamite Brides’: The Song of Songs in Teresa of Ávila, Mariana de San Joseph and María de Jesús de Ágreda

This essay examines the use and influence of the Song of Songs in the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century writings of three Castilian nuns. The biblical love poem provided a constitutive narrative that shaped the spiritual identity of the early modern religious who sought to become God's perfect spouse through imitation of the Song's protagonist, the Shulamite bride. Understanding the poem primarily as a portrayal of love between God and the soul, Hispanic nuns replicated the Shulamite bride's words, actions, and desires, which they refracted through their early modern spiritual concerns. In Meditaciones, Teresa of Ávila viewed the Song as a script through which to guide her mystical ascent, thereby establishing an interpretive precedent for other nuns and religious to follow. Mariana de San Joseph's unique exegetical commentary, Sobre el libro de los cantares de Salomón, situated the meanings and messages of the Song within the context of daily convent life. In her Mística ciudad de Dios, María de Jesús de Ágreda promoted the Virgin Mary as the quintessential bride and role model. A fertile paradigm for spiritual advancement, the Song of Songs supplied significant elements that shaped and influenced early modern Hispanic spirituality.

Literary Forms/Techniques & Methods of Study

Literary Forms/Techniques & Methods of Study Christopher T. Begg and Joseph E. Jensen 754. Uwe F. W. Bauer, "Über die Gematrie des Gottesnamen: JHWH in der hebräischen Bibel, im Midrasch und in der Mystik – eine Skizze," CV 58 (2016) 378-87. "Gematria," the interpretation of Hebrew words on the basis of the numerical value of their component letters is the 32nd interpretative rule of the Tannaitic Rabbi Eleazer. According to C. L. Labuschagne, the gematria of the divine name "Yhwh" functions as a principle in the shaping of OT texts. Gematria also plays a role in the rabbinic and kabbalistic traditions. B.'s article shows how the numerical values 26, 17, and 39 are calculated, gives examples of the use of these numbers and multiples of 26 and 17 in the shaping of OT texts, and calls attention to further associations to which gematria gives rise. B. then considers the number 72, which plays a role both in the shaping of OT texts and in the oral Torah, as well as the number 186, whose presence is limited to the oral Torah. For B., gematria is like a network of different arithmetics, on the basis of which various associations emerge and new meanings are generated. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] [End Page 232] 755. Jonathan Ben-Dov, "Binary Oppositions in Biblical Cosmological Poetry: Amos, Psalms, Job," Beit Mikra 61 (2016) 5-30 (Hebrew). In Biblical Hebrew poetry, the tension between the world order and the dangers to that order is regularly represented with pairs of opposites or complementary natural entities presented in parallel cola or strophes whose deliberately ambiguous or contrastive structure draws attention to the constant interchange of opposites. In biblical poems, this interchange can lead either to equilibrium or to chaos and loss of control, with a fragile border separating the two situations. B.-D. demonstrates these features at work in Psalm 85, the Amos doxologies, and the nature hymns in Job 5, 10, and 26. [Adapted from published abstract—J.E.J.] 756. [Genesis 1–2] Caroline Blyth (with Alex Farrell and Tony Brooking), "Exploring Visual Exegesis: A Conversation between Artist and Beholders," The Bible and Art, 143-61 [see #1173]. Focusing on the artist as creator and interpreter of religious traditions, B. and F. walk us through the process of visual exegesis, a methodological approach to reading the Bible that employs visual images and the creators of those images as sources of biblical interpretation. Through their conversation with Maori artist Tony Brooking, B. and F. seek to demonstrate the fruitfulness of visual exegesis, using Brooking's visual presentation of Genesis 1–2 in his painting titled Te Tīmatanga ("The Beginning") as a medium for shedding new light on the biblical text. What emerges from this conversation is a dialogue involving artist, art work, viewer, and text, in which all participants engage with each other to create a vibrant reading of the creation narrative that is profoundly embedded in Brooking's contemporary context of Aotearoa New Zealand. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 757. Brian Bompiani, "Style Switching in the Speech of Transjordanians," HS 57 (2016) 51-71. Following on his earlier identification of what Stephen Kaufman calls "style switching" in speech by Aramaic speakers in the Bible (HS 55 [2014] 43-57; cf. OTA 38 [2015] #2147), B. examines direct speech for evidence of a similar sensitivity in the case of Transjordanian characters. Although the Bible does not provide sufficient data for Ammonites, the vocabularies of the Edomite Esau and the Midianite Jethro differ from that of Israelite characters. Although this feature is not so clear in the case of the Moabite Ruth, both Boaz and Naomi do change their speech patterns when addressing her, thereby demonstrating that biblical authors took the presence of foreign speakers into account in formulating their discourses.—F.E.G. 758. Bat-Sheva Brosh, "The Transformed Character of the King," Beit Mikra 61 (2016) 31-73 (Hebrew). B. examines the biblical depictions of Saul in 1 Samuel 9–31, of Manasseh in 2 Chronicles 33, and of Amaziah in 2...

Starting at the Beginning with Archaic Biblical Hebrew

The text-critical paradigm of Hebrew historical linguistics provides a new way of approaching the Archaic Biblical Hebrew poetry in the Hebrew Bible. Scholarship has generally proceeded on the assumption that certain non-standard linguistic features of these texts have been preserved over the course of 1000 years from the period when they were living linguistic forms, even though they were no longer used in the language after that very early time. This is not very likely, based on what we know of the history of the text of the Hebrew Bible. Detailed study of the textual evidence strongly supports the conclusion that distinctive, less common linguistic features, such as the archaisms of these poems, were not copied carefully or precisely in the textual tradition. A much more likely theory would be one that explains how such forms were included or continued to be included in the more recent transmission of these texts which led up to the current manuscripts in our possession. I use the analogy with Homeric poetry and South Slavic oral epic poetry, which exhibit a similar mixture of both archaisms and dialect forms alongside more contemporary language forms, to describe a register that is similar to the one that the Archaic Biblical Hebrew poems use

The Middle English Iacob and Iosep and the Medieval Popular Bible

ABSTRACTThe neglected thirteenth-century English poem on the subject of Jacob and Joseph is striking for the addition, within the brief (and fragmentary) but lively narrative, of material that is not found in the Vulgate, and as such forms part of the popular vernacular tradition of the Bible. The text can be related to an Anglo-Norman or French narrative pattern represented in a number of (larger) biblical poems, though it is not as close to the Bible of Herman de Valenciennes as has been suggested. The relationship with the later English Cursor Mundi is also complex. Some of the extra-biblical elements are matched in iconography. In spite of the focus upon the much-retold romance of Joseph, the central figure is Jacob, something made clear at several points. The clearly didactic work (by a clerically trained poet or minstrel) may have been intended for a baronial audience as a warning against injustice.

Mary Sidney's embroidered psalms

AbstractThis article examines ways in which Mary Sidney's psalms demonstrate an intertextual play between pen and needle. Her translations are a linguistic embroidery of the biblical poems: attention to colours and to cunning, to ornamentation and to pattern characterizes Sidney's psalms as much as they do any priestly girdle or linen ephod. To demonstrate this, I reference criticism regarding women's words and needlework as ‘interrelated’; next, I argue that these female textualities are linked biblically, making Sidney's choices particularly appropriate for biblical translation. The merging of literary and material texts in Sidney's psalms is driven home in the demonstration of how her translations and linguistic word‐play mirror needlework practices.

LA POETICA DELL’EPICA SACRA TRA CINQUE E SEICENTO IN ITALIA

Over the course of sixteenth century and in the early seventeenth century, a remarkable number of biblical poems were written in Italy. Their authors attempted to outdo classical authors by replacing, within the highest literary genre (e.g. epic), the false pagan divinities with the authentic Christian God. Along with these attempts came an extremely interesting, and thus far neglected, reflection on the specific features and problems raised by biblical epic. By resorting to a variety of sources (poetical treatises, letters, discourses) I deal in this article with such issues as the problem of matching poetry and sacred history; the difficulty of dealing with supernatural events and representing the invisible; the role of allegory and of the so-called meraviglioso. These are some of the most relevant poetic problems connected to biblical epic, which were also discussed at length outside Italy during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Finally, I deal with the increasing relevance of the allegorical meaning attached to these poems and to the consequent devaluation of the importance of ‘action’, arguing that this eventually contributed to the exhaustion of the Western tradition of epic, helping to pave the way for the new genre of the novel.

ИКОНОПИСНАЯ ЦВЕТОПИСЬ В БИБЛЕЙСКИХ ПОЭМАХ С. А. ЕСЕНИНА

The Biblical poems by Sergei Yesenin are full of pathos of theurgic reforms and creation of the new world. All components of these poems (images, spatial-temporal organization, colour symbolics) stressed the importance of ongoing changes. The colours in small poems not only correspond to normal natural colors, but also bear a symbolic meaning, drawing the reader to the iconographic mysticism. The colourful preferences correspond to the tradition (of the Old or New Testaments, iconography or liturgy, as well as scenic tradition), which Yesenin follows in his poetry. Creating images of cosmic transformation, the poet turns to the traditional icon color combinations and reinterprets the Old and New Testaments images. It puts the cases of prophet Sergei Yesenin in line with the acts of the biblical prophets. All poems in their colour scheme are consistent with iconographic tradition. In these poems three basic colours are used which repeat the colours of thematically close icons. So, The Coming coloristic associated with an icon of the Nativity, The Transfiguration corresponds to the eponymous icon of Christ. The colours show the relationship and the parallelism of the processes occurring in earthly and heavenly worlds. It emphasizes the unity of the poetic world, the engagement of the Earth and the Heaven in the conversion process. The consideration of Yesenin’s revolutionary epic in line with biblical and iconographic symbolism allows 470 for more detailed and deep analysis of originality poetic recreation of the World and enables to reveal philosophical and esoteric content of the works.