[241]. ἐπὶ τοῦ κύκλου καὶ τοῦ κέντρου αὐτοῦ κατέγραψε, Origen, οp. cit. Bk VI. c. 25.
[242]. Origen says, loc. cit., that Leviathan is Hebrew for “Dragon.” Cf. Ps. civ. 26.
[243]. That is to say: Jaldabaoth; Iao, which is probably one of the many attempts to represent in Greek the Tetragrammaton יהוה called in English Jehovah; Ailoaios or Eloaios, the singular of the well-known plural name of God in Genesis אלהים “Elohim”; and Adonai, אדני, “the Lord,” which in many parts of the O.T. replaces the Tetragrammaton. Harvey, however, op. cit. p. 33, n. 3, thinks Iao may simply represent the initial of the name of Yahweh coupled with Alpha and Omega to show His eternal nature. He connects this with “I am the first and the last” of Isaiah xliv. 6, and Rev. i. 11. Yet the later Greeks called Dionysos Iao. See the (probably spurious) oracle of Apollo Clarius quoted by Macrobius, Saturnalia, Bk I. c. 18, II. 19 sqq.
[244]. Giraud, op. cit. p. 230.
[245]. πύλας ἀρχόντων αἰῶνι δεδεμένας: Origen, cont. Cels. Bk VI. c. 31. Perhaps we should read διδομένας, “Gates which belong to the age of the Archons,” i.e. while their rule lasts.
[246]. See the quotation from the Gospel of Philip later in this chapter, p. [79], infra.
[247]. This appears to be the sphere of the Sun to which the epithet μονότροπον “one-formed” is not inappropriate. Why he should be called δεσμὸν ἀβλεψίας “bond of blindness,” and λήθην ἀπερίσκεπτον “thoughtless oblivion,” does not appear. πρώτην δύναμιν πνεύματι προνοίας καὶ σοφίᾳ τηρουμένην “the first power preserved,” etc. coincides curiously with what is said in the Pistis Sophia as to the Ship of the Sun and the “Virgin of Light.”
[248]. This seems to be the sphere of Saturn, the furthest or 7th reckoning from the earth and therefore according to the astronomy of the time the nearest to the upper heavens. Was the symbol of life the Egyptian ♀ or ankh? It was of course the jealous Jaldabaoth’s or Ialdabaoth’s wish that no human souls should penetrate beyond his realm.
[249]. So the Pistis Sophia speaks repeatedly of the “Little Iao the Good.” This should be the sphere of the Moon. In the hymn to Attis given in this chapter, see n. 6, p. [54] supra, Attis-Dionysos-Osiris is identified with “the holy horned moon of heaven.” and the name Iao may be connected with the Coptic ⲒⲞϨ ioh or “moon.” He may be called the πρῶτος δεσπότης θανάτου “first lord of death,” because Osiris, like Dionysos, was the first to return to life after being torn in pieces. The φέρων ἤδη τὴν ἰδίαν σύμβολον “bearing my own beard as a symbol” seems to refer to the attitude of the Egyptian dead, who is represented as holding his beard in his right hand when introduced into the presence of Osiris. See Budge, Book of the Dead, 1898 (translation volume), frontispiece, or Papyrus of Ani, ibi cit.
[250]. This may be the sphere of Jupiter, who in one of the later documents of the Pistis Sophia is made ruler of the five planets. Sabaoth is probably the Divine Name צבאות “[Lord of] Hosts” which the Greeks took for a proper name. It, like Iao, appears often in the later documents. The πεντὰς δυνατωτέρα “mightier Pentad” may refer to the Three Men (Adamas, his son, and Christos), and the Two Women (the First Woman and Sophia) placed at the head of the universe by the Ophites.