Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Books of Moses
- For the previous numerical grimoire texts attributed to Moses, see Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses
The Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Books of Moses or 8th, 9th, and 10th Books of Moses are grimoire texts attributed to Moses, and popularized by pseudo author Henri Gamache.[1][2]
Publicization
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First published in 1945, Gamache's Mystery of the Long Lost 8th, 9th and 10th Books of Moses theorized an expansion of lost mosaic works beyond the Torah. These works were known for its magic, attributed written works to Moses and used only by him and kept secret from the common populous.[2]
Gamache argued that all Western religions were philosophies developed from Africa. He describes Moses as, "The Great Voodoo Man of the Bible," and a man of both of medical and miracle capabilities. Gamache also argued that Moses was the founding influential basis of religious ideology such as Judaism, Voodoo, Christianity and Hoodoo.[2]
Content
Gamache subdivided thirteen chapters into three sections:[3]
- The first section gives a biographical account of Moses, trying to fill in questionable biblical details. However, these details suggest that Moses kept a surreptitious tradition not preserved in Judaism.[3]
- The second section examines the compositional historicity of the Tanakh, which through the examination, purposely selected inclusions of the traditional Moses.[3]
- The third section discusses Moses as the center of African spirituality.[3]
Manuscripts
According to Gamache, the Eighth Book of Moses was discovered on a papyrus found in Thebes at the beginning of the 19th century.[4] Known as the Leyden Papyrus, the document was known for its magical content. An alternative title was given because of its content known as the Magical Papyrus or Le Papyrus Magique.[4] The text itself displays the title Eighth Book of Moses.[1][4]
A modern translation of the eighth book was published by biblical scholar Hans Dieter Betz.[5] It consists of an initiation ritual where the magician attains communion with a god in order to perform various magical feats, such as resurrecting the dead, invisibility, and other uses. Through examination of the magical procedures, Hans Betz notice an exact similarity between Hermes Trismegistus's book called Wing and the Eighth Book of Moses. To have the god spiritually converse with the summoner, the preparation of seven specific incense had to be present. The exact seven incense Hans found in Hermes's book Wing became the basis of his conclusion that Hermes plagiarized.[5]
In poor condition, another manuscript known as the Sword of Moses contains magical formulas dating to the 13th through 14th century AD. The manuscript contains both the ninth and tenth books of Moses, and was written in Syrian Rabbinical characters, a mix of Hebrew and Aramaic; The manuscript's origin is designated from Palestine, and not from Moses himself.[1][4] The Sword of Moses was first published by Jewish scholar Moses Gaster in 1896, and according to Gaster, the manuscript is based on an even older text.[4][6] A more recent translation by Israeli historian Yuval Harari was published in 2012.[7][8]
See also
References
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