THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC THOUGHT

informed those who live in the Abyss (NOYN)”, (NHC XIII 37.15) 27
. Typhon,
although usually associated with Seth, at various points appears to take on Nun’s
characteristics: “boiler of the waves, disturber of the sea’s great depth”. Sacred names
that are appealed to as great powers at times are clearly derived from Nun: e.g.
NINOUNO, NOUNI, NOUNAITH, NIOU, NAUNIN, NOUN; likewise a spell to
cause separation, strife and war, invokes the sacred name APOPSS, obviously the
Apophis snake. In a sacred book entitled “The Eighth Book of Moses” an emanation
hierarchy is depicted as follows:
1. Light
2. Watery Abyss
3. Mind (Nous)
4. Generation (Procreation)
5. Fate
6. Time
7. Soul (Psyche)
8. IAO (Demiurge) 28
The second level is described as a god in charge of the watery abyss: “without
him water neither increases nor decreases”. The eight levels depicted in this
remarkable text suggest the Hermopolitan Ogdoad and this is rendered quite explicit
in another spell wherein “the eight guards” are mentioned, including the pairs of
NOUN/NAUNI and AMOUN/AMAUNI. 29
Elsewhere there are specific references to
Nun and to the “serpent who came forth from Nun” and various references to the
primeval waters. What is interesting is of course the entire worldly context that these
spells presuppose. Gone is the abiding faith in Ma’at as bound up in legitimate native
rule. Instead we have the Hellenistic antipathy towards the dark forces of Fate and the
concern with appeasing these powers through submission, bribery, or working of
efficacious spells.
Nun is to be equated with these darker forces although there is a lingering
numinous afterglow which continues to surround his figure. In ending the traditional
trajectory of Nun our last textual example can be cited, that of the Leyden Magical
papyrus which was composed in Demotic some time in the early third century C.E.. In
this text the following injunction appears: “Open to me Arkhah before every god and
every man... For I am the serpent that came forth from Nun”. 30
The Hermetic Poimandres, the most Gnostic of all Hermetic texts, is also
directly inspired by the Egyptian view of chaos, from which creation proceeds. The
27
Coptic transcription from NHS, vol. XXVIII, 406.
28
From PGM XIII.162. Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri, 176-78.
29
The name BAINPHNOUN is also mentioned and is a good example with which to illustrate
a point. Most of these names continue to be viewed by many scholars as nonsensical,
however it is clear that BAINPHNOUN, taking the Bohairic direct article before NOUN
here, and BAIN as BA N “soul of,” is BA N PE NOYN, the “Spirit of the Abyss”, NUN.
30
F.Ll.Griffiths and Herbet Thompson, The Leiden Papyrus, 69, 71.