Sefer ha-Zohar as a Canonical, Sacred and Holy Text: Changing Perspectives of the Book of Splendor between the Thirteenth and Eighteenth Centuries

In every literate culture there are books that are perceived as more significant than others in their quality, authority or sanctity. Such privileged books are commonly described by the terms "canonical", "sacred", "classical", and so forth. This study offers a new typology of such books, which is based on a distinction between three major modes of reception of texts. I will suggest using the term "canonical text" to refer to texts that are regarded by a community as a source of authority, "sacred text" to refer to texts whose content is perceived as sacred, and "holy book" to refer to books whose non-semantic (i.e., phonetic, graphic and material) aspects are treated as such. In light of this distinction, I will examine the emergence of changing perspectives of Sefer ha-Zohar (The Book of Splendor) the central work of Kabbalah that became one of the most authoritative and