THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC THOUGHT

Hear me, my Father, thou father of all fatherhoods, thou infinite Light: aeiouo,
iao, aoi, oia, psinother, thernops, nopsiter, zagoure, pagoure, nethmomaoth,
nepsiomaoth, marachachtha, thobarrabau, tharnachachan, chopochothora, ieou,
sabaoth (Book IV 353.8-12) 60
The appeal, the formula, magical word plays, and figure of Sabaoth link the
Pistis Sophia to the same religious milieu. We are given insight into the workings of
the magical-oriented mind in its appropriation of Egyptian and Greek concepts and
gods as with, for example, the cryptic divinity “Psinother” called upon after IAO by
the Gnostic Jesus. Psinother also appears in PGM IV.828 at the very end of the spell
cited above, along with Nopsither and Thernopsi, also mentioned in the Pistis Sophia.
PGM IV, as noted above, details the correspondence of various Egyptian divinities
with the twelve hours expressed in the form of animals; so, too, the Pistis Sophia lists
the twelve dungeons each with a ruler whose face changes every hour from one
animal to another (IV.317.16-319.10). 61
Equally interesting is the appropriation of
the Greek psi, “greatest”, hence Psinother as “greatest god” which is also Egyptian for
“the sons of god”. 62
As well, the psi-sound to the Egyptian ear registered as “nine”
(Coptic ΠCI), a number expressing the quintessence of plurality to Egyptian
sensibilities. 63
As with the appropriation of the Greek horus (boundary) to the
Egyptian Horus, the bilingual mentality behind this cultural fusion attempted to create
an entirely new middle ground: the aeon Horus in Valentinian thought was not an
opaque dynamic of god, neither was he the full-blown figure of Egyptian myth. So
too, this bilingual religiosity naturally fused the Greek psi as greatness with the Coptic
ΠCI bespeaking “nine-ness”, attaining a synthesis of Ψ and the Egyptian p3š3. The
hidden linguistic attributes of such names as BAINCHOOCH, Psinother, or
Teilouteilou 64
, confirm this referring-back to Egyptian religious sensibilities in
magical thought.
Gnosis
The means of receiving special knowledge of the divine in the Magical texts
has a number of important connections with Gnostic thought. The ascent to the
pleroma and return of the spiritual master to teach is found in PGM IV.482, the socalled
“Mithras Liturgy”. The author writes of the mysteries
60
Coptic transcription from NHS, vol.IX, 706.
61
See also DuQuesne, A Coptic Initiatory Invocation, 21
62
Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri, 54.
63
See Harrauer, Meliouchos, 81 n.88. The Pistis Sophia (I.126.6-10) lists out a number of
sacred sounds that are to be taken as “interpretations of the names of these mysteries”. The
third one listed is Ψ.
64
See Jan Quaegebeur, “A propos de Teilouteilou, nom magique, et de Têroutêrou, nom de
femme,” Ench 4 (1974): 19-29.