THE EGYPTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF GNOSTIC THOUGHT

alteration of name-endings. 82
The Jewish element, as such, derives from Hellenistic
syncretistic Judaism – specifically Alexandrian in all likelihood 83
– and not from
Jewish religion at the time of the Old Testament. 84
The phenomenon of an anti-
Jahweh cosmology filled with Jewish-sounding divine personages, but not exclusively
so, is shared in part by both the Magical papyri and Gnostic thought, in particular socalled
Sethian Gnosticism.
The figure of Abrasax, ubiquitous in the magical papyri, and the cosmic egg
(PGM III.145 for example) are both to be found in the thought of the Gnostic
Basileides of Alexandria (see Appendix B). The reports of Irenaeus (adv. haer. I 19,1
& 4), Hippolytus (Refut. 7 26,6), Epiphanius (Panar. 24.76), and Pseudo-Tertullian
(adv.omn.haer. I.4), while not at all agreeing on the nature of Basileides’ thought,
agree that Abrasax was not a creation of Basileides, but was picked up for
numerological reasons among others.
The Greek section of Papyrus Carlsberg 52 mentions the three “chastising
archons of the Abyss, Chla, Achla, and Achlamou”. 85
which recalls the punishing
archons of Chaos in the Pistis Sophia: “Now it happened that when the emanations of
the Authades realised that the Pistis Sophia was not raised up from the Chaos, they
immediately turned again and tormented her greatly” (I.47 85.14-17) 86
. The Coptic
part of Papyrus Carlsberg depicts a lion-faced divinity, Petbe, god of retribution and
revenge living in Nun (Pshai, the Late-Period god of Fate, is also presented as living
in Nun in a demotic magical papyrus 87
). The name of the chaos-god Authades in the
Pistis Sophia (“self-willed”) describes a principle of arrogant wilfulness. This power
is described as lion-faced, “whose one half was fire and whose other half was
darkness, namely Yaldabaoth” (I.32 46.14-17) 88
. Arioth, a god of the depths in
Papyrus Carlsberg 52 89
, also shows up in The Pistis Sophia (IV.140.362) as the
female archon Ariuth. Finally, it might be mentioned that the Pistis Sophia describes
The Outer Darkness as a great dragon encircling the earth with its tail in its mouth,
and the common motif of the Uroboros is found pictorially presented in PGM
VII.590.
82
Brashear, Magica Varia, 22 n.5: “Greek and Coptic magicians gave their texts a semitic
flair by strewing them with almost any root, word or name and adding the endings -el, -ath
or -oth.”
83
Harrauer identifies the passage in PGM III.43ff as “definitely... from Alexandria”. The
syncretistic elements allow for this conclusion, especially the Babylonian underworld
goddess that Harrauer identifies. Meliouchos, 54.
84
Betz, “Magic and Mystery in the Greek Magical Papyri,” in Magika Hiera, ed. Christopher
A. Faraone and Dirk Obbink (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), 249.
85
Brashear, Magica Varia, 40.
86
Coptic transcription from NHS, vol. IX: Pistis Sophia, ed. Carl Schmidt (Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1978), 170.
87
PDM xiv.30; Betz, Greek Magical Papyri, 197. See also H.J. Thissen, “Ägyptische Beiträge
zu den griechischen magischen Papyri”, 300.
88
Coptic transcription from NHS, vol. IX, 92
89
Brashear, Magica Varia, 40.