As for the numerous commentaries on the Book Of Formation, the earliest were written between the tenth and thirteenth centuries. The most important is that of Saadia ben Yoseph, Gaon (i.e., leader) of Sure, an academy in Babylon.³ At the same time, many other commentaries exist, although most are as yet untranslated. The Book was itself not published until the latter part of the sixteenth century, when it appeared first in Latin in 1582 and then in Hebrew in 1592. It enjoyed much interest, especially among Christian mystics and scholars, such as Pico della Mirandula and John Reuchlin. With the fall of the pseudosciences and the rise of empiricism in the seventeenth century, however, interest in the Book Of Formation gradually waned.
Turning to the topic of content, the Book Of Formation purports to describe the creation of the universe by Yah, a demiurgic deity, through the agency of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The letters serve somewhat, in this creation story, as types of Platonic Forms—although this characteristic is certainly not stressed here—after which are patterned the World, Man, and the Year. In the World, the letters yield the three elements of Fire, Water, and Air; the seven Astrological Planets; and the twelve signs of the Zodiac. In Man, they yield the Head, Belly, and Chest; the seven sense-organ holes (e.g., the ears, etc.); and the twelve organs (e.g., the stomach). And finally, in the Year the twenty-two letters bring forth the three Seasons (Hot, Cold, and Wet); the seven Days of the Week; and the twelve Months of the Hebrew Year.
As for the layout of the text, Chapter One is introductory, presenting the basic ideas invovled, and giving the fundamental characteristics of the Ten Spheerote or Enumerations. Chapter Two is dedicated to explaining the whole of the Twenty-Two Letters, and to some highly enigmatic procedures for forming both things and words from these elementary builiding blocks. Chapters Three, Four, and Five are each elaborations of one of the three groups into which the Twenty-Two Letters are divided: the Three Mothers, the Seven Doubles, and the Twelve Simples, respectively. And finally, Chapter Six concludes the book with an explication of the syzygial nature of the Thirty-Two Wonderful Paths of Wisdom. These, then, are the main themes of the Book Of Formation, although there are many other curious, and even fascinating, ideas, such as the suggestion that the Holy Spirit is manifest in the vowels, consonants, and breath of human language. These notions, however, are secondary to the main themes.