nation to form a
correct idea of the mystic eccentricities to which this awful practice
must have led those who frequently indulged in it. Rabbinical mystics,
like modern trance-speakers, gave vivid descriptions of the interior
splendor and grand sceneries of heaven and of the conversations of
angels. One of those descriptions is preserved in _Pirke Rabbi Eliezer_,
and others in various fragments of the _Talmud_.

Among those particularly noticed in the _Talmud_ as having been in
heaven or paradise there is also Acher, or Paul, who states so himself
in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians (xii.). That passage gave rise
to the story of Jesus appearing in person to Paul, just as the
rabbinical mystics claimed to have had frequent intercourse with the
prophet Elijah, who had been transported alive to heaven.

So Paul passed the transition from the law school of the Pharisees to
the new school of mystics. In this state of trance he discovered that
central figure of the Cabalistic speculation, the _Metathron_, the
co-regent of the Almighty; or, as he otherwise was called, the
_Synadelphos_, the _confrere_ of the Deity, or Suriel, the "Prince of
the Countenance," whom the Cabalists imagined to be the chief marshal
or chief scribe in heaven; who was once on earth, as Enoch or as Elijah,
and was advanced to that high position in heaven.

It is the Demiurge, the highest magistrate in heaven, whom the gnostic
Valentine calls a godlike angel, and of whom the rabbis said, "His name
is like unto the name of his Master."

This central figure, blended with the messianic speculations of that
age, with the doctrines of Peter and the nascent Church, combined in
Paul's mind to one mystic conception of the "Son of God," intelligible
to pagan ears. So he went forth and proclaimed Jesus of Nazareth the Son
of God. In substance, the expression is about the same as Metathron and
Synadelphos, and the office which Paul ascribed to Jesus is precisely of
the same nature with that which the Cabalists ascribed to the angel who
was the _Saar Haolom_, the prince or ruler of this world, who stands
before God, or also sits before him, as Paul's Jesus stands before God
or sits at his right hand. It is precisely the same in both systems, the
names only are changed; so that it is difficult to decide whether Paul
was or the rabbis were the authors of the metathronic speculations,
especially as these two angels only have Greek names, while all others
ar