TY - JOUR

T1 - The concept of the universe as a divine "Imprint" in Plato's Timaeus and in doctrines of medieval Jewish Thinkers

AU - Tantlevskij, Igor

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2019 Plato Philosophical Society. All Rights Reserved.

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - The article deals with the concept of the universe as an "imprint / impress" (ekmageion, ektupōma), made by the god-demiurge according to the "prototype" (paradeigma). This Plato's metaphor could have influenced the formation of a number of creationist and emanational emergent theologico-philosophical systems of medieval Jewish thinkers. A correlation of the verb tāba' (to 'make an imprint', 'impress', 'mint') with the cognate noun teba' (originally 'mintage on a coin', something formed - an 'element', 'creature', but also 'mater', 'substance', later 'nature') is repeatedly atested in the medieval Jewish philosophical literature. In many contexts, the term teba', used in the sense of 'nature', implicitly reveals its root meaning of 'imprint'. As a result, the notion teba' was interpreted as referring to the world as an "imprint". The verb tāba' was used by the Jewish philosophers both in active and passive stem forms, especially in combination with the noun teba', producing the notion of "nature imprinted". It may be assumed that some of them (in particular, Y. Gikatilla) could have correlated the Tetragrammaton with Plato's god-demiurge in their doctrines of the world's origin, referring "God" ('Elōhîm) to the "prototype", by which the whole cosmos is "imprinted", in terms oflikeningthismodeltothe "father" of the world, and the "nature" (hat-teba'), regarded as a divine "imprint", to the universe as an "imprint" of the "prototype". The image of nature as an "imprint" of 'Ělōhîm may have guided some Jewish medieval philosophers to think of the universe as the expression of God in His impression.

AB - The article deals with the concept of the universe as an "imprint / impress" (ekmageion, ektupōma), made by the god-demiurge according to the "prototype" (paradeigma). This Plato's metaphor could have influenced the formation of a number of creationist and emanational emergent theologico-philosophical systems of medieval Jewish thinkers. A correlation of the verb tāba' (to 'make an imprint', 'impress', 'mint') with the cognate noun teba' (originally 'mintage on a coin', something formed - an 'element', 'creature', but also 'mater', 'substance', later 'nature') is repeatedly atested in the medieval Jewish philosophical literature. In many contexts, the term teba', used in the sense of 'nature', implicitly reveals its root meaning of 'imprint'. As a result, the notion teba' was interpreted as referring to the world as an "imprint". The verb tāba' was used by the Jewish philosophers both in active and passive stem forms, especially in combination with the noun teba', producing the notion of "nature imprinted". It may be assumed that some of them (in particular, Y. Gikatilla) could have correlated the Tetragrammaton with Plato's god-demiurge in their doctrines of the world's origin, referring "God" ('Elōhîm) to the "prototype", by which the whole cosmos is "imprinted", in terms oflikeningthismodeltothe "father" of the world, and the "nature" (hat-teba'), regarded as a divine "imprint", to the universe as an "imprint" of the "prototype". The image of nature as an "imprint" of 'Ělōhîm may have guided some Jewish medieval philosophers to think of the universe as the expression of God in His impression.

KW - Cosmogony

KW - Creationism

KW - Medieval Jewish philosophy

KW - Plato

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85075950346&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.25985/PI.10.1.09

DO - 10.25985/PI.10.1.09

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85075950346

VL - 10

SP - 158

EP - 171

JO - ПЛАТОНОВСКИЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ

JF - ПЛАТОНОВСКИЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ

SN - 2410-3047

IS - 1

ER -