Kabbalah · Nathan of Gaza (Nathan ha-Azzati) · 17th c. · Gaza · Codex · Sabbatean · Messianism

ספר הבריאה — נתן העזתי

Sefer ha-Beriah — Nathan of Gaza

17th c. · Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Manuscrits — Hébreu 868 (Supplément 149)

A 17th-century manuscript copy of Sefer ha-Beriah — one of the major theological treatises of Nathan of Gaza (Nathan ha-Azzati, 1643–1680), the young Gaza-based scholar who became Shabbatai Tzvi's foremost theologian after their 1665 meeting and authored most of the surviving Sabbatean theological literature. The work sets out Nathan's account of the inner structure of creation in Lurianic terms reframed around the messianic claims of Shabbatai Tzvi. Held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France as MS Hébreu 868 (formerly Supplément 149), 146 leaves on paper, catalogued in Zotenberg's foundational 1866 Catalogues des manuscrits hébreux et samaritains de la Bibliothèque impériale; the present copy is contemporary with Nathan's lifetime but is not catalogued as autograph. A downloadable PDF facsimile is also available.