| Summary: | In their quest for legitimacy, Hellenistic and later alchemical authors claimed that alchemy was an art handed down from the major biblical figures. In the course of time it had become for them a basic tenet that alchemy was first revealed by God to Adam, that the long life of the antediluvial heroes of the Bible was due to the Philosopher's Stone which they possessed, and that they passed on the secret of the "Great Work" to a select few of their progeny. Thus Seth, Tubal-cain, Noah, Ham, and Mizraim were all claimed to have been alchemists. Within the framework of this tradition, Hermes, whom the Hellenistic alchemists believed to have been the founder of their art, became a son of Mizraim, and was thus incorporated into the biblical genealogy. Later biblical figures considered alchemists were Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Me-zahav, Job, Miriam, Korah, Gideon, David, Solomon, Elijah, Isaiah, King Hosea, Daniel and Ezra. However, the most important place in alchemical pseudo-history was occupied by Moses, discussed in the second part of the present study.
|
|---|