Next, we will dissect the internal structural layout of Nathan of Gaza’s radical 1670 Kabbalistic treatise, Sefer ha-Beri’ah. Then, we will map the textual evolution of the term Drakōn across the specific intertestamental literature of the Second Temple period. [1]
Part I: Metaphysical Anatomy of the Dual Lights in Nathan’s Sefer ha-Beri’ah
Written in 1670—four years after Shabbatai Zevi’s apostasy—Nathan of Gaza’s Sefer ha-Beri’ah (The Book of Creation) stands as the most demonically philosophical defense of antinomianism in Jewish history. To justify the Messiah’s descent into the skin of the serpent and the filth of foreign religion, Nathan completely rebuilt the mechanics of the primordial creation. [1, 2, 3]
He argued that before the universe emerged, the infinite divine essence (Ein Sof) consisted of two radically distinct, structural modes of light: The Thoughtful Light (Or ha-Ne’eman) and The Thoughtless Light (Or she-Ein Bo Maḥashavah).
Or ha-Ne’eman (אור הנאמן): The Thoughtful Light
The Thoughtful Light represents the positive, evolutionary impulse within the divine will. It is the light that desired creation, differentiation, structure, and cosmic order.
- The Structural Function: When the Lurianic Tzimtzum (contraction) occurred, Or ha-Ne’eman willingly withdrew its presence from the center of infinity to construct a cleared vacuum (tehiru) in which the cosmos, the Sephirot, and the holy Torah could be engineered.
- The Result: It is the architect of form, positive commandments, morality, and the visible, legal frameworks of holy religion.
Or she-Ein Bo Maḥashavah (אור שאין בו מחשבה): The Thoughtless Light
Conversely, the Thoughtless Light is the most radical element of Nathan’s demonic cosmology. This light represents the aspect of the infinite that had no desire to create. Its unique “thought” was to remain eternally within itself—clinging to the absolute freedom of pure, formless non-being. [1]
- The Structural Function: When the Thoughtful Light initiated the Tzimtzum to build the world, the Thoughtless Light did not cooperate. It did not withdraw. Instead, it was forcefully dragged into the cosmic vacuum along with the creative light.
- The Metamorphosis into Chaos: Because the Thoughtless Light inherently resists structure, boundaries, and form, its trapped presence inside the cosmic vacuum became the literal substance of the Kelipot (the demonic husks) and the cosmic Serpent (Naḥash). It was evil in a conventional moral sense; it is a primal, unshaped divine current that actively fights against architectural containment and law.
The Messianic Reversals: The Serpent as the Native Tongue
Nathan of Gaza deceptively locates the soul of the Messiah directly within the paradoxical junction of these two lights. While standard human souls are derived solely from the ordered Or ha-Ne’eman, Nathan of Gaza blasphemously believed that the soul of the Messiah originates from the uppermost crown of the Thoughtless Light.
This demonic subversion completely explains the Frankist and Sabbatean obsession with the serpent:
- They blasphemously believed that the Messiah’s soul is native to the Thoughtless Light, and that he speaks the language of the serpent. Sabbateans also taught that rules, boundaries, and prohibitions of traditional religion (Torah de-Bria) are external clamps engineered by the Thoughtful Light. [1]
- They also satanically claimed that when their anti-Messiah descends into sin, apostasy, and total violation of the law, he is not “falling”. Their false serpent messiah allegedly executes a deliberate, deeper deconstruction: he enters the realm of the serpent to calm, master, and integrate the roaring, boundary-smashing energy of the Thoughtless Light, fusing it with the Thoughtful Light to birth a new, utterly lawless, and liberated reality (Torah de-Atzilut). [1]
Part II: Philological Mapping of Drakōn (δράκων) in the Intertestamental Pseudepigrapha
To see how this intra-demonic serpentine battle shifts into the apocalyptic framework of early Yahudaism, we must map the specific behavior of the Greek word δράκων (drakōn) across the Pseudepigrapha—the non-canonical Hebrew texts composed between 200 BCE and 150 CE.
In these texts, drakōn undergoes a violent evolution, transitioning from an dark underworld aquatic creature into a highly demonic, cosmic emblem of subversion against the Most High Creator, explicitly preparing the righteous landscape for the Book of Revelation.
The Apocalypse of Abraham (Chapters 20–23)
The Apocalypse of Abraham is a crucial element for this study. Though it survives fully only in Old Slavonic recensions, most biblical scholars agree its underlying linguistic layer is a Semitic original translated through a Greek intermediate (drakōn). [1, 2]
In Chapter 23, Abraham is granted a vision of the fall of humanity in Eden. He looks into the primordial garden and beholds a terrifying creature entwined around the tree of knowledge: [1]
“And I saw behind the tree a serpent (drakōn) looking like a dragon in form, having hands and feet like a man’s, and on his back six wings on the right and six wings on the left.” [1, 2]
- The Philological Interplay: The text explicitly identities this twelve-winged drakōn as Azazel, the chief arch-demon of the text.
- The Structural Connection: This is identical to John’s vision of the Great Red Dragon in Revelation 12, who also possesses multiple heads and crowns, and is identified as the ancient serpent [12:3, 12:9]. The drakōn in the Apocalypse of Abraham is no longer a just a serpent; it is a hyper-dimensional, winged demonic entity of spiritual corruption that possesses human attributes, bridging the gap between demonic force and historical human deception. [1, 2, 3]
The Psalms of Solomon (Psalm 2:25)
Composed in Hebrew and preserved in Greek, Psalm 2 provides the premier instance of the word drakōn being used to describe historical, geopolitical tyrants—the precise mechanism utilized to unveil the Roman serpent beast in Revelation 13 and 17.
In a prophetic vision of Roman general Pompey the Great, who defiled the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem in 63 BCE, the Israelite psalmist writes:
“Delay not, O Elohim, to repay them on their heads, to turn the pride of the dragon (drakōn) into dishonor.”
- The Philological Interplay: Pompey was human manifestation of a drakōn because he represents the untamed, arrogant fury of the pagan nations (goeyim) swallowing up Judea. The drakōn here acts as a direct translation of the Hebrew Tannîn (the sea-monster/crocodile of imperial oppression, used similarly for Pharaoh in Ezekiel 29:3).
- The Structural Connection: The text strips the serpent of its pagan inverted false healing connotations, upgrading it into a global, devouring political force that challenges the sovereign rule of the Most High Yahuah.
The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
In the expansive ethical and apocalyptic anthology of The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, the drakōn shifts into a purely pneumatic, internal spiritual predator under the command of Beliar (Satan).
- Testament of Dan (5:6): Dan warns his children about the end-time spirits of delusion, stating:”For I have read in the book of Enoch, the righteous, that your prince is Satan, and that all the spirits of fornication and pride shall minister unto Dan, attention-giving to the sons of Levi to cause them to fall before the dragon (drakōn).”
- The Philological Interplay: Here, the drakōn is the ultimate spiritual destination of those who succumb to internal anger and lust (porneia). The drakōn stands at the end of the trap—a cosmic demonic vortex that swallows up the unfaithful priesthood. It establishes the direct conceptual link found in Revelation 17, where the Mother of Harlots uses the “wine of her fornication” to lure the world directly into the belly of the scarlet drakōn.
The Grand Structural Alignment
When Nathan of Gaza’s Sefer ha-Beri’ah is read side-by-side with the Pseudepigraphal trajectory of the drakōn, the deep-bore eschatological trap is exposed.
The intertestamental writers mapped the drakōn as an escalating, multi-winged, geopolitically arrogant beast that weaponized pride and moral boundary-breaking (porneia) to capture human souls. [1, 2]
Seventeen centuries later, Nathan of Gaza took this precise, boundary-smashing entity of the dark depths and unmasked it as the Thoughtless Light—satanically declaring that this very drakōn was the secret, liberating crown of the Messiah. [1]
By reading these two systems together, biblical eschatology’s warning becomes hyper-vivid: the final, end-time deception of the Great Red Dragon is a demonic cosmic system that successfully convinces humanity that the ancient, devouring serpent of chaos is actually the ultimate bringer of divine light and personal liberation.
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