THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC THOUGHT

Borezazai, Basazaz, Baothoioza, Baozaeeze, Bezazou, Berzaesa, Bozazapoz,
Baozazzaz, Barcha, etc. 55
The use of magical diagrams can also be linked between the Gnostic Books of
Jeu and the Magical papyri as the following examples illustrate:
Figure 1 56
Figure 2 57
The Gnostic Books of Jeu contain a total of 63 magical diagrams alongside the text, as
well as innumerable magical symbols used in the text itself. It is to be noted that
figurae magicae can be traced back to the illustrated rolls of the Egyptian temples. 58
The use of cryptic divine names, sometimes a string of Egyptian words as we
have seen, or the very conception of “Ogdoad” which becomes a divinity (reference),
and palindroms, form a standardised mode of theurgic address to higher powers. PGM
IV.714 conveys a typical entreaty:
Hail, O Lord, O Master of the water! Hail, O Founder of the earth! Hail, O
Ruler of the wind! O Bright Lightener, PROPROPHEGGE EMETHIRI
ARTENTEPI THETH MIMEO YENARO PHYRCHECHO PSERI DARIO
PHRE PHRELBA! Five revelation, O lord, concerning the NN matter. 59
To this can be contrasted the Gnostic Jesus as spiritual teacher standing beside
the ocean with his disciples in the Pistis Sophia:
55
F.Ll. Griffith and Herbert Thompson, ed., The Demotic Magical Papyrus of London and
Leiden, (904; reprint, New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1974), passim; Violet McDermot,
ed., NHS vol. XIII: The Books of Jeu and the Untitled Text in the Bruce Codex (Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1978), passim.
56
57
Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri, 149.
NHS vol. XIII, 50.
58
Samson Eitrem, in Münchener Beitr.19 (1934):248-49: Nicholas Horsfall, “The Origins of
the Illustrated Book of the Dead,” Aegyptus 63 (1983): 202.
59
Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri, 52.