The Concealment and Disclosure of Knowledge in the Old Irish in Tenga Bithnua

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.