Forerunners and rivals of Christianity : $b being studies in religious history from 330 B.C. to 330 A.D., Vol. 2 (of 2)Legge, Francis
Religion
Forerunners and rivals of Christianity : $b being studies in religious history from 330 B.C. to 330 A.D., Vol. 2 (of 2)
Legge, Francis
Christianity and other religions; Religions
Including in that name some who attained to high office in the
Catholic Church. Thus Hatch, _H. L._ p. 255, says with apparent truth
that Clement of Alexandria “anticipated Plotinus in conceiving of God
as being ‘beyond the One and higher than the Monad itself,’ which was
the highest abstraction of current philosophy.” The passage he here
relies on is in Clement’s _Paedagogus_, Bk I. c. 8. Hatch goes on to
say, “There is no name that can properly be named of Him: ‘Neither the
One nor the Good, nor Mind, nor Absolute Being, nor Father, nor
Creator, nor Lord’”—expressions to be found in Clement’s _Stromata_,
Bk V. c. 12. Clement’s orthodoxy may be called in question; but no
fault has been found in that respect with Synesius, Bishop of
Ptolemais and the friend of Hypatia. Yet in his Hymns he uses
expressions which would have come naturally to the lips of any Ophite.
Thus:
Σὺ δ’ ἄρρην, σὺ δὲ θῆλυς,
Σὺ δὲ φωνά, σὺ δὲ σιγά,
Φύσεως φύσις γονῶσα,
Σὺ δ’ ἄναξ, αἰῶνος αἰών,
Τὸ μέν, ᾗ θέμις βοᾶσαι;
“Male thou and female,
Voice thou and silence,
Nature engendered of Nature,
Thou King, Aeon of Aeons,
What is it lawful to call thee?”
and again
Πατέρων πάντων
Πάτερ, αὐτοπάτωρ,
Προπάτωρ, ἀπάτωρ,
Υἱὲ σεαυτοῦ....
Μύστας δὲ νόος
Τά τε καὶ τὰ λέγει,
Βυθὸν ἄρρητον
Ἀμφιχορεύων.
“Father of all Fathers,
Father of thyself,
Propator [Forefather] who hast no father,
O Son of thyself....
But the initiated mind
Says this and that,
Celebrating with dances
The Ineffable Bythos.“
(Hymn III)
The ineffability of divine names was an old idea in Egypt, especially
in the Osirian religion, where it forms the base of the story of Ra
and Isis. So the name of Osiris himself was said to be ineffable. See
Eug. Lefébure in _Sphinx_, Stockholm, vol. I. pp. 99-102. The name of
Marduk of Babylon is in the same way declared ineffable in an
inscription of Neriglissar, _Trans. Roy. Soc. Litt._ 2nd series, vol.
VIII. p. 276. The name of Yahweh became ineffable directly after
Alexander. See Halévy, _Revue des Études juives_, t. ix. (1884), p.
172. In every case, the magical idea that the god might be compelled
by utterance of his secret name seems to be at the root of the
practice. Cf. Erman, _Life in Ancient Egypt_, Eng. ed. p. 354.
Footnote 133:
The whole account of Ophite doctrine as to the origin of things is
here taken from Irenaeus, Bk I. c. 28, pp. 226 _sqq._, Harvey.
Footnote 134:
Genesis i. 8.
Footnote 135:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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