A very recondite but ingenious explanation of the Gnostic name Abrasax is given by Harduin in his notes to Pliny’s “Natural History.”[186] He sees in the first three letters the initials of the three Hebrew words signifying father, son, and spirit (_ab_, _ben_, _ruah_), the Triune God; the last four letters are the initials of the Greek words ἀνθρώπους σώζει ἁγίῳ ξύλῳ or “he saves men by the sacred wood” (the cross). This seems rather far-fetched, it must be confessed, and yet to any one familiar with the vagaries of Alexandrine eclecticism, and with the tendency of the time and place to make strange and uncouth combinations of Greek and Hebrew forms, there is nothing inherently improbable in the explanation. Indeed, the Hebrew and Greek words in this composite sentence might have been regarded as typifying the union of the Old and New Testaments, and such an acrostic would certainly have been looked upon as possessing a mystic and supernatural power. [Illustration: ANTIQUE JADE CELT CONVERTED INTO A GNOSTIC TALISMAN.] Enclosed within the outlines of the 18 leaves are as many names of the personifications of Gnostic Theosophy.] Many explanations have been offered as to the origin and significance of the characteristic figure of the Abrasax god engraved on a number of Gnostic amulets. There seems to be no doubt that this figure was invented by Basilides, chief of the Gnostic sect bearing his name, and who flourished in the early part of the second century A.D. While the details of the type as perfected were undoubtedly borrowed from the eclectic symbolism of the Egyptian and western Asiatic world it is almost impossible to conjecture the reasons determining the selection of this particular form. A jasper engraved with the famous Gnostic symbol was set in the ring worn by Seffrid, Bishop of Chichester (A.D. 1159). This ring was found on the skeleton of the bishop and is now preserved in the treasury of the Cathedral of Chichester. Undoubtedly the curious symbolic figure was given a perfectly orthodox meaning, and, indeed, it was not really a pagan symbol, as the Gnostics were “indifferent Christians,” although their system was a fanciful elaboration of the doctrines of the late Alexandrian school of Greek Philosophy and an adaptation of this to the teachings of Christian tradition. In many cases, however, gems with purely pagan designs were worn by Christians, designs such as Isis with the child Horus, which was taken to be the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus.