Broken Vessels

Theogonies of the Divine Light in Judaism and Christianity

Undertakes a thorough investigation of early Jewish theogonic and cosmogonic traditions found in the Enochic writings and their formative influence on subsequent Gnostic, Manichaean, and Kabbalistic developments.

In Broken Vessels, Andrei A. Orlov offers a comprehensive examination of early Jewish theogonic symbolism as reflected in early Enochic texts and its subsequent influence on Gnostic, Manichaean, and later Kabbalistic traditions. Introducing a new methodological approach to understanding the conceptual foundations of theogonic imagery in Lurianic Kabbalah, Orlov argues that this symbolism was neither a later invention of Jewish mystics nor merely a remnant of Manichaean and Gnostic motifs. Rather, these mystical traditions drew upon authentic Jewish theogonic currents that originated during the Second Temple period. The book further demonstrates that th