They also contended that "Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold" (Gen. The first men mentioned in Genesis would not have, according to the alchemists, reached such old age, had they not made use of the elixir vitae. The name Me-Zahab ("waters of gold") was interpreted to mean that he knew how to produce drinkable gold ( aurum potabile) and Mehetabel possibly reminded them of the Greek metabole (μεταβολή), "transmutation." Abraham *Ibn Ezra heard this interpretation of Me-Zahab and remarked in his commentary: "Others say it refers to those said to make gold out of brass, but this is nonsense." These alchemists particularly singled out the name Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Me-Zahab (Gen. Tubal-Cain, who lived before the Flood, was considered the father of alchemy since it was said of him that he was "the forger of every cutting instrument of brass and iron" (Gen. Aegidius Guthmann of Augsburg wrote a lengthy "alchemical" interpretation of the first verses of Genesis. Michael Maier, the physician of Rudolf ii, and chief exponent of the Rosicrucian order in Germany in the 17 th century, found its basis in the verse, "the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters" (Gen. The alchemists believed, therefore, that the patriarchs, the prophets, and the kings of Israel possessed the secret of the "stone." Gerhard Dorn (end of 16 th century) contended that the whole art of alchemy was contained in the verse, "God made the firmament" (Gen. Toward the end of the Middle Ages, and later, the connection between alchemy and the Bible and Prophets was strengthened in the view of Christian alchemists who despaired of finding the philosopher's stone by natural means and sought to attain it by the grace of God who reveals His secret only to His faithful. The author of the above-mentioned writings was, most probably, Moses of Alexandria, a famous alchemist, which would explain why they were later ascribed to Moses the Lawgiver in any case it seems certain that the author was a Jew since his writings show traces of Jewish monotheism and other Jewish beliefs. *Bezalel was also considered a proficient alchemist on the basis of Exodus 31:1–5. In ancient Greek manuscripts, which contain lists of writings on alchemy, a number of alchemic and magic writings are attributed to Moses one work is ascribed to *Hoshea, king of Israel. Zosimos, a fifth-century Greek historian, states that the Jews acquired the secrets of the "sacred craft" of the Egyptians and the knowledge of the "power of gold" which derives from it by dishonest means, and they imparted the knowledge of alchemy to the rest of the world. The Jewish association with alchemy dates from ancient times. ALCHEMY, ancient art that was the origin of chemistry.
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