Interesting beginning. Sledge has definite opinions on some of the controversies in the field.

1. Homiletics vs Praxis

One of the central bones of contention among early scholars of Merkabah was just how much the tradition is based on actual mystical practice. Homiletics is concerned with theory and understanding. Praxis focuses on the practical steps in the mystical experience. The vision of the Throne is so central that it’s hard to imagine there was no active mysticism involved whatsoever but on the other hand the tradition is rather sophisticated on a literary level. One interesting aspect is that the “ascent” or “descent” is a communal programmatic affair. Meaning that this wasn’t just a bunch of Jewish hippies recording narratives of their trips. There were certain expectations, preparations, destinations. There were experiences you were expected to have. Sights you were expected to see.

It is curious that much of the imagery in Ezekiel’s foundational vision at the River Chebar seems derived from traditional Ancient Near Eastern iconography. Spontaneous? Would it be unreasonable to assume that the prophet had visions that were filtered through a subsequent sophisticated literary interpretive lens? This whole question is by no means a simple one.

Many have expounded upon the merkabah without ever seeing it.
– Tosefta Megillah 3 [4]:28.

2. The problem of influence

Sledge detects no influence from Neoplatonism. Everyone will acknowledge Merkabah’s distinctive characteristics, but none? No influence at all from a thoroughly Hellenized Second Temple Judaism? What about Gnosticism? I need to hear more. I’m also interested in the relationship between Merkabah and Jewish Apocalyptic.

Hooray! The meal is served!

Sledge first advises on the approach to take with the source materials. And then performs the much needed function of going through Ezekiel’s foundational vision in chapter 1 and analyzing it usefully.

He includes his slides in the comments but being ever helpful I post the link here.

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I suspect this file will be updated as he goes along.

Note that the Schafer material is in the original German. It is well regarded but it has not been translated. If you can read German I envy you. In the meantime Schafer has written a book of essays on Merkabah that has been translated that I wholeheartedly recommend. Sledge doesn’t include it in his syllabus but I offer it here. That’s just the kind of guy I am.

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Colin, if you’re genuinely interested best to go to the experts.

** you do not have permission to see this link ** by Alan F Segal.

** you do not have permission to see this link ** by Peter Schäfer.

** you do not have permission to see this link ** by Andrei Orlov

A fascinating subject with major implications for the early development of Christianity. Enjoy!

So the idiom “son of man” could mean that it was an angel or god who had inherited the nature of man?

I’m not sure what you’re asking. In the ancient world the human and the divine existed on a continuum. The divine could become human and the human could become divine.

Good point about the scholarly volte-face on the subject of Zoroastrian influence on Judaism. I still see people talk about it without understanding the change in views.

I think he misspeaks when he mentions the Heavenly “Temple”. If he means chapter 14 of 1En, the Book of the watchers, that is a vision of the Heavenly Throne room not the Temple. Odd, since the goal of Merkabah is the vision of the Throne. Maybe I’m misunderstanding? It is important to realize that when he discusses the Book of Enoch he does include all three texts, which are not consistent. Of course it’s hard to dive too deeply in the time available. This subject is a bottomless pit, pardon the pun.

Part 3b of X (Sledge is numbering his videos by the syllabus so note that there will obviously be more than 10 videos in the sequence. I guess it’s obvious. Seems confusing to me to apply a literary schema to video but I’m old and slow.) More on apocalypticism and Merkavah.

ps Of course it’s entirely possible that ‘X’ is not intended to be the Latin numeral for ten (decem) but a placeholder to indicate that the total number of videos is currently unknown. We’ll see.

Ok now Sledge is getting into the meat of the ancient Jewish mystical tradition. I suspect this is where people’s eyes will start glazing over. But stay with it. It’s fascinating stuff. I’ve always wondered what might have happened if the Jesus movement had remained a Jewish sect instead of mutating into a world religion dominated by gentiles. In many ways Merkabah is the proverbial “path not taken”.

And note that Sledge expands his course slides file at each posting. Look in the comments under the video for links.

It looks like the goal at this point is to wind up with 14 videos. Those with the course materials will make for a nice primer on the subject. I’m not Justin’s brother-in-law or anything but if you’re enjoying this stuff and can afford it, slip the guy a few bucks why dontcha? Like the good book says, “A workman is worthy of his hire”.

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