The Sabbatean Prophets

From Mystical Vision to Prophetic Eruption 93
from a convent. Yet, what could she have known of Shabbatai Zvi This
caused a great furor, and when letters later came from Shabbatai Zvi everyone
believed that [Shabbatai’s messiahship] was for real, for it had been immediately
before that the episode of the girl occurred, and all had seen the
marks on her flesh. Shabbatai Zvi believed the story to be true and knew
the girl was coming from these lands, so he came out to meet her, a truly
wondrous thing. 5
Finally, a short note containing other rumored details is found in the Hebraist
Johannes Braun’s book Bigdei Kehuna, De vestitutu sacerdotum Hebraeorum
(Amsterdam, 1698).
All the world, I suppose, knows the tasteless tale which the Jews, who believe
any story, still relate as true history. A few years ago, the wife of that
new impostor, Sabbathi Zebi, got the coat of skins that Eve made almost six
thousand years ago. Embroidered with many names of saints and patriarchs
and adorned with letters of gold, it was by a stupendous miracle lowered
down from heaven in a field to which she was led naked by the spirit of her
father who had been a Jew while she herself only knew she was born a
Christian. Whether that heavenly garment was kept undamaged in a chest
by the new bride of the new messiah...andtowhat use it has been put today,
I own I do not know. 6
These stories present Sarah prophesying in several matters and contexts.
The first source of her prophecy, at least in some versions, is the dream in
which her deceased father appears to her, giving her instructions to return
to the Jewish people. In Arezzo’s account there is a specific prophetic datum,
one that is not given to the girl directly, but rather appears on her coat when
she is found by the Jews: Sarah is destined to marry the messiah. In Leib ben
Oyzer’s account the message is communicated to her directly in the dream,
with the addition of the messiah’s name—Shabbatai Zvi. This would make
her the first person outside of Shabbatai and his immediate circle to name
him as the messiah. The specificity becomes a central point in Leib’s narrative:
Shabbatai’s messianic claims were believed in Ashkenaz because he was
already identified as the messiah in Sarah’s prophecy. His acceptance as the
messiah depended entirely on prophetic revelation. Thus, while in some
versions of the story the dream was a supernatural phenomenon that did
not carry any prophetic message, in others it was the source of essential
knowledge. .