The secret doctrine in Israel
The personal views of Jean de Pauly on the whole question of Zoharic antiquity are represented sufficiently by his opinion that the three Ideas being The Assembly of the Sanctuary and the Greater and Lesser Holy Assemblies or Synods already named are referable to the second or third century before Christ. M. Lafuma-Giraud says justly that this is rejected by all critical learning.
His personal conclusion is that the Zohar as a whole embodies very old materials combined with much that is of modern authorship, which is precisely my own opinion, as stated in 1902, while this in its turn was merely the sum of preceding scholarly judgment, or a reasonable mean between various conflicting views.
I should add that the Zohar is a literary document in the sense that it bears the marks of its making. It is for the most part, as already indicated, a record of Rabbinical debates, and I suppose that there has been never a champion of its authenticity who dared to say that it was compiled from notes taken on the spot by ear and eyewitnesses.
Within its own hypothesis, it is such of course, but an occasional lapsus memorise determines the value of the implied claim in the negative sense, just as we should expect antecedently, and the unknown editor is found on these occasions reminding
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