Simo Parpola

Who is Simo Parpola?

Simo Parpola is a Finnish archaeologist, currently professor of Assyriology at the University of Helsinki. He specialized in epigraphy of the Akkadian language, and has been working on the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project since 1987. He is also Honorary Member of the American Oriental Society.

Simo Parpola has suggested that the oldest versions of the Sephirot extend from Assyrian theology and mysticism. Noting the general similarity between the Sephirot of the Kabbalah and the tree of life of Assyrian mysticism, he reconstructed what an Assyrian antecedent to the Sephirot would look like. Matching the characteristics of Ein Sof on the nodes of the Sephirot to the gods of Assyria, he found textual parallels between these Assyrian gods and the characteristics of the Jewish God.

The Assyrians assigned specific numbers to their gods, similar to the way the Kabbalah assigns numbers to the nodes of the Sephirot. However, the Assyrians used a sexagesimal number system, whereas the Sephirot use a decimal system. Using the Assyrian numbers, additional layers of meaning and mystical relevance appear in the Sephirot. Normally, floating above the Assyrian tree of life was the god Assur—this corresponds to Ein Sof, which is also, via a series of transformations, supposedly derived from the Akkadian word Assur.