Thanks, DCH
From Attilo Mastrocinque,
'From Jewish Magic to Gnosticism', Mohr Siebeck, 2005:
- nota bene
The term Gnosticism will be used to designate various Christian heresies under the Roman Empire, in the awareness that many scholars have tried to circumscribe and define the actual sphere of Gnosticism and others have demolished their definitions. Consequently, there is now reluctance even just to use the word, lest this be taken as support for the existence of a religious movement called Gnosticism. In this work, the word Gnosticism will be used as a synonym for the heresies addressed by Irenaeus and related heresies of a similar nature ...
Gnostikoi, or followers of Gnosis, have been described as the followers of Prodicus6; certain libertine sects, the Naassene Ophites and the followers of Justin, the sects led by Nicolaus and the Nicolaites9, the Valentinians and those who instructed the Valentinians, those were trained by the followers of Simon Magus", the Carpocratians, the Basilidians and the Cainites The word Gnostikoi in itself was not a specific term: it meant “the wise ones”, and even the Catholic Clement of Alexandria used to describe himself as Gnostic. The Mithraists called themselves the wise ones', which is very nearly a synonym of Gnostikoi. However, all the heretics opposed by Irenaeus disparaged the work of the creator god and tried to distinguish him from the supreme god. This is an important doctrine, which characterized the galaxy of sects opposed by Irenaeus. [pp.4-5]
pp.61-7:
In their passionate quest for the true image of the Hebrew god, Bible scholars must have noticed that the word YHWH resembled the Aramaic HYWAH, “animal”. There are traces of this thinking in 'Gnostic' treatises, in which the Hebrew god, Ialdabaoth, together with the other Archons of the planetary spheres, had the form of an animal, especially that of a lion. It was widely believed by Gnostics that the Kosmokrator, the Lord of the World, had the form of a snake. In the Apocryphon of John (NHC 11,1; III, 1; IV,1; BG 8502,2, 10) we read that Ialdabaoth “had the form of a dragon, the face of a lion with fiery eyes darting lightning and flames... and (Sophia) wrapped him in a shining cloud...”. This corresponds exactly to a description of Chnoubis, as does that of the indomitable lion-serpent, to whom however prayers were offered.
We will now examine the Egyptian interpretation of the Gnostic serpent, in the form of the leontocephalous snake Chnoubis/Chnoumis. On gems his name often appears as Chnoumis, undoubtedly because this god was identified with the Egyptian creator god Chnum. In Egypt Chnum was worshipped mainly in Syene as the god of the Nile flood, which began under his influence in the sign of Leo. Furthermore, the vox magica Harponchnoubis is well-attested; it is a variation of Harponchnouphi, a title given to Horus (Har-), in which, clearly, the name of Chnoubis (-chnouphi > -chnoubis) was recognized. Harponchnouphi was also identified with the Agathodaimon, the Egyptian snake with a human head, the Lord of Destiny.
It may well be that a number of magi and amulet wearers perceived Chnoubis as a great Egyptian astral god, but in all probability in other religious spheres his figure was the subject of further speculation, mainly biblical in nature.
The identification of Chnoubis with the Hebrew god explains the title “he who broke (or stifled) the giants”: the divinity of Elephantine, Chnum, was the god who brought the Nile flood, who ruled over water and all liquid elements, and therefore had also sent the Flood. The Bible frequently mentions Yahweh’s dominion over the waters, particularly the Red Sea and the Nile.
One of the oldest beliefs - found in Enochic literature - on which Gnostic doctrine is based has its origin in an interpretation of a passage in Genesis 6.4, which tells the story of the angels, who were the sons of God and had lain with women and generated children; these children destroyed men and spread evil, so that God repented of his creation and sent the Flood. The angels’ children (the Nephilim) are referred to by the term גבור גבר : GiBoR, GiBWR, which indicates a hero or a great man, but is translated in the Septuagint as γίγας, “giant”, when it occurs in the phrase εχείνοι ήσαν οι γίγαντες οι άπ’ αίώνος, which could also be taken to mean “giants born of, or descendants of the Aion”. The Septuagint also translates Nephilim as γίγαντες. The myth of the birth of the giants and their destruction by God flourished to an extraordinary degree in late-Hellenic Judaic literature (especially in the books of Enoch), in Gnosticism and later in Manichaeism. A biblical Gigantomachy in the East was imagined, coinciding with the destruction of the tower of Babel.
... the destroyer of giants was the god with the form of a snake. As we have read in the passage from Irenaeus describing Ophitic doctrine, in which the heresiologist asserts that the serpent, son of Ialdabaoth, but also an instrument of the divine Mother, introduced Adam and Eve to gnosis in the Garden of Eden, so that Jaldabaoth was angered and drove out the first men and also the serpent ...
In the Ophite myth the Serpent surrounded himself with demons, his children, and caused harm to humankind. He was, therefore, the Devil, according to Irenaeus. In the speculations of Hebraizing magi sympathetic to Ophite ideas and worshippers of Chnoubis, the repentant creator of the Bible became the serpent that “broke and stifled” the giants, who were the angels’ children. In Gnostic texts the serpent is the creator’s disobedient son, while in Judeo-Egyptian doctrine Chnoubis is the creator himself, who sent the Flood to destroy the whole of creation, except for the few righteous men, by water.
pp.184-6:
Aberamentho
§ 54. The snake-headed god
One category of magical gems, on which very little research has been done, depicts a snake-like god with human legs. It is linked through the accompanying inscriptions to Aberamentho, a name that some 'Gnostic' groups - as we shall see - gave to Jesus Christ. We know of two iconographic variations on this serpentiform god. In one (on four gems) the god has a man’s legs and a snake’s upper body, while in the other variation, in an Egyptianizing style (on 8 or 9 gems), the same god has a man’s form and is wielding an
ankh and a
was sceptre; or is sitting on a throne and has a snake’s neck and head, in two cases with long hair. On one gem with the first type of iconography, he
[Aberamentho] is
standing on a cosmic globe and identified with Iao and the Agathodaimon, the Alexandrian snake-lord of destiny. This god is also depicted in some ancient Egyptian bronzes and a papyrus in the act of adoring the sun god.
The gems with the second type of iconography were produced in Egypt and incorporate Egyptian mythology, since the god appears beside Harpocrates on the solar barque or in an attitude of adoration with the baboon.
In both iconographies we find the words Ρψφ and Αερθεμινω. The latter is an attribute of Seth and is accompanied by the logos Αβεραμενθω [Aberamentho], which appears on the reverse of a gem with the second type of iconography. This is a palindromic logos, and is pronounced Αβεραμενθωουλερθεξεθρελνοωθνεμαρεβα; it starts with Αβεραμενθω, a word formed from Αβερ(ρ) and Αμενθ(ω), in which
Amenth- indicates the West and the kingdom of the dead in Egyptian thinking.
§57. Jesus Aberamentho
In the Gnostic treatise
Pistis Sophia Αβεραμενθω is identified with Jesus. It is unlikely that the author of the
Pistis Sophia intended to link Jesus through that magic name to the world of the dead, Amente, in referring to his descent into Hell. By using the name Aberamentho the author attributed to Jesus all the theological concepts encapsulated in the palindrome: he was the sun god who manifests himself in various forms in the four sectors of the cosmos, according to a doctrine also held by the Peratae. Besides, in the
Pistis Sophia among the ‘barbaric’ words uttered by Jesus to the Father, we find “Zakourax Akouris”, which are the well-known magical
voces meaning “pure light” and “flow of light.”
Moreover, in the
Pistis Sophia Christ also pronounces the
vox magica ΘωβαρραΒαυ, which recurs in various magical documents and in Hebrew means “the deposit is good”. Probably the author intended to make him invoke the Holy Spirit, which St Paul described as the “earnest” given by God to humankind.
To conclude, Jesus was merged with the magical Egyptianizing god known as Aberamentho because he was a serpentiform god residing in the celestial pole in the extreme North, and was also a solar deity.
