Abraxas

Abraxas (Biblical Greek: ἀβραξάς, romanized: abraxas, variant form ἀβράναξ romanized: abranax) is a word of mystic meaning in the system of the Gnostic Basilides, being there applied to the "Great Archon" (megas archōn), the princeps of the 365 spheres (ouranoi).

[1][2][3] The word is found in Gnostic texts such as the Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit, and also appears in the Greek Magical Papyri.

The proper form of the name is evidently Abrasax, as with the Greek writers, Hippolytus, Epiphanius, Didymus (De Trin.

By a probably euphonic inversion the translator of Irenaeus and the other Latin authors have Abraxas, which is found in the magical papyri, and even, though most sparingly, on engraved stones.

The attempts to discover a derivation for the name, Greek, Hebrew, Coptic, or other, have not been entirely successful: Chuvash linguists, the word was translated as Ouroboros Perhaps the word may be included among those mysterious expressions discussed by Adolf von Harnack,[10] "which belong to no known speech, and by their singular collocation of vowels and consonants give evidence that they belong to some mystic dialect, or take their origin from some supposed divine inspiration".

4) admits a preference of 'barbarous' to vernacular names in sacred things, urging a peculiar sanctity in the languages of certain nations, as the Egyptians and Assyrians; and Origen (Contra Cels.

24) refers to the 'potent names' used by Egyptian sages, Persian Magi, and Indian Brahmins, signifying deities in the several languages.

[citation needed] It is uncertain what the actual role and function of Abraxas was in the Basilidian system, as our authorities (see below) often show no direct acquaintance with the doctrines of Basilides himself.

[11] He designates Abraxas more distinctly as "the power above all, and First Principle", "the cause and first archetype" of all things; and mentions that the Basilidians referred to 365 as the number of parts (mele) in the human body, as well as of days in the year.

It is evident from these particulars that Abrasax was the name of the first of the 365 Archons, and accordingly stood below Sophia and Dynamis and their progenitors; but his position is not expressly stated, so that the writer of the supplement to Tertullian had some excuse for confusing him with "the Supreme God".

With the availability of primary sources, such as those in the Nag Hammadi library, the identity of Abraxas remains unclear.

In a final statement on Basilidians, de Plancy states that their view was that Jesus Christ was merely a "benevolent ghost sent on Earth by Abraxas".

According to E. A. Wallis Budge, "as a Pantheus, i.e. All-God, he appears on the amulets with the head of a cock (Phœbus) or of a lion (Ra or Mithras), the body of a man, and his legs are serpents which terminate in scorpions, types of the Agathodaimon.

Budge surmised that Abrasax was "a form of the Adam Kadmon of the Kabbalists and the Primal Man whom God made in His own image".

J. J. Bellermann has speculated that "the whole represents the Supreme Being, with his Five great Emanations, each one pointed out by means of an expressive emblem.

Thus, from the human body, the usual form assigned to the Deity, forasmuch as it is written that God created man in his own image, issue the two supporters, Nous and Logos, symbols of the inner sense and the quickening understanding, as typified by the serpents, for the same reason that had induced the old Greeks to assign this reptile for an attribute to Pallas.

During the last three centuries attempts have been made to sift away successively those gems that had no claim to be considered in any sense Gnostic, or specially Basilidian, or connected with Abrasax.

The subject is one which has exercised the ingenuity of many savants, but it may be said that all the engraved stones fall into three classes:[19] While it would be rash to assert positively that no existing gems were the work of Gnostics, there is no valid reason for attributing all of them to such an origin.

The fact that the name occurs on these gems in connection with representations of figures with the head of a cock, a lion, or an ass, and the tail of a serpent was formerly taken in the light of what Irenaeus says about the followers of Basilides: These men, moreover, practise magic, and use images, incantations, invocations, and every other kind of curious art.

Isaac de Beausobre properly calls attention to the significant silence of Clement in the two passages in which he instructs the Christians of Alexandria on the right use of rings and gems, and the figures which may legitimately be engraved on them (Paed.

The present state of the evidence therefore suggests that their engravers and the Basilidians received the mystic name from a common source now unknown.

[21] In text PGM V. 96–172, Abraxas is identified as part of the "true name which has been transmitted to the prophets of Israel" of the "Headless One, who created heaven and earth, who created night and day ... Osoronnophris whom none has ever seen ... awesome and invisible god with an empty spirit"; the name also includes Iaō and Adōnai.

[21] Then, from various sounds made by Abrasax, there arose the serpent Python who "foreknew all things", the first man (or Fear), and the god Iaō, "who is lord of all".

This word is usually conceded to be derived from the Hebrew (Aramaic), meaning "Thou art our father" (אב לן את), and also occurs in connection with Abraxas; the following inscription is found upon a metal plate in the Karlsruhe Museum:[20]

Abraxas begetteth truth and lying, good and evil, light and darkness in the same word and in the same act.

We may conceive of the name as that of the godhead whose symbolic task is the uniting of godly and devilish elements.Abraxas doesn't take exception to any of your thoughts or any of your dreams.