Also 6– cabala (7 caballa, 9 kabbala). [a. med.L. cabbala, ad. Rabbinical Heb. qabbālāh ‘tradition,’ f. (the biblical) [Hebrew] (in Piel) qibbēl ‘to receive, accept, admit.’]
1. The name given in post-biblical Hebrew to the oral tradition handed down from Moses to the Rabbis of the Mishnah and the Talmud. b. Towards the beginning of the thirteenth century A.D. applied to the pretended tradition of the mystical interpretation of the Old Testament.
1521. Fisher, Wks. (1876), 332. Cabala … is derived fro man to man by mouth only and not by wrytynge. Ibid., 336. Also theyr Cabala that is to say their secrete erudycyons not wryten in the byble.
1653. More, Conject. Cabbal. (1713), Pref. i. The Jewish Cabbala is conceived to be a Traditional doctrine or exposition of the Pentateuch, which Moses received from the mouth of God.
1693. Phil. Trans., XVII. 801. The real Cabala they make Two-fold, i. e. The Doctrine of Sephiroth, and the Doctrine of the Four Worlds.
1837–9. Hallam, Hist. Lit. (1847), I. iii. § 93. 202. In the class of traditional theology … we must place the Jewish Cabbala.
2. gen. † a. An unwritten tradition. Obs.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., I. 47. What was H[enry] 8. of whom a Cabala or tradition goes, that on his death-bed, he confessed, hee had never spared man in his wrath, nor woman in his lust?
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., II. iv. § 4. 157. Though the Jews would fain make the gift of Prophecy to be a kind of Cabala too, and conveyed in a constant succession from one Prophet to another.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect. (1693), III. 38. By making the whole Gospel a mere Tradition and old Cabbala.
b. Mystery, secret or esoteric doctrine or art.
1665. Glanvill, Sceps. Sci., Addr. 13. I could wish there were less reason to suspect them branches of a dangerous Cabbala.
1678. Norris, Coll. Misc. (1699), 59. Nor is it He to whom kind Heaven A secret cabala has given.
1795. Burke, Lett., Wks. 1842, II. 241. Magisterial rabbins and doctors in the cabala of political science.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., III. vi. Eager he read whatever tells Of magic, cabala, and spells.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann., II. IV. ii. 226. Visible signs of some native cabbala.
† 3. Of cabbala with: in the secrets of. Obs.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., I. iii. 11. Astrologers, which pretend to be of Caballa with the starres.
