Abstract

This brief contribution considers some of the ways in which the theme of knowledge is treated in the Old Irish apocalyptic text In Tenga Bithnua. These include: the cyclical nature of the mysteries which baffle mankind and of the realities that are disclosed; the idea that the revelation is made in an angelic language (specimens of which are cited) and the treatment of this celestial speech in the manuscript; the claim that what the text reveals goes beyond what God communicated to Moses; and the evocation of further mysteries that are entirely beyond human (in one case, even angelic) capacities of cognition.