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The relationship between kabbalistic thought and ancient gnostic ideas has been debated by numerous scholars. Early on, Gershom Scholem argued that the rise of kabbalah represents the "reappearance, in the heart of Judaism, of the gnostic tradition."1In his wake, Isaiah Tishby has posited that the concept of the s[ebreve ]firot "emerge[d] and develop[ed] from a historico-literary contact with the remnants of Gnosticism, which were preserved over a period of many generations in certain Jewish circles, until they found their way to the early Kabbalists."2Joseph Dan, on the other hand, maintains that "historical connections" must not be confused with "phenomenological similarities." There is no evidence for the existence of the former, in his opinion; all that may be claimed is a typological correspondence between gnostic ideas and medieval Jewish kabbalistic mysticism. 3Moshe Idel likewise claims that some early Jewish motifs penetrated gnostic texts at the same time they continued to flourish within Jewish circles until they finally found form in medieval kabbalah.4Yehuda Liebes has adopted a corresponding view, although he makes fruitful exegetical use of the relationship and parallels between various gnostic and Jewish sources.5The issue thus remains firmly on the academic agenda.6
Much of this scholarship has been devoted to an examination of theological ideas, such as the relationship between kabbalistic siá¹ra' 'ahra' and the gnostic demiurge and the dualistic perspective that informs this idea, or the doctrine of the s[ebreve ]firot (the male' in Sefer Habbahir) vis-à-vis the gnostic pleroma. The study of the link between certain midrashic traditions in early kabbalistic thought in general--and in the Zohar in particular--and early gnostic concepts has been relatively neglected, however. In this article, I shall focus on one such legend--namely, the idea of Cain as Satan's offspring.7Hoping thereby to contribute to the broad picture of the history of this tradition within the Jewish/gnostic/Christian expanse, I shall analyze how it found its way into the zoharic literature, discuss its various and diverse interpretations therein, and suggest some of the significant new trends that its zoharic evolution appears to have nurtured. I shall also endeavor to illustrate the nature of the Zohar's relationship to these gnostic threads, together with the Zohar's...