Pistis Sophia

Pistis Sophia — G. R. S. Mead — Section 15

and the meaning of their names, the development of the dogmas of creation, providence and redemption, as Dulaurier tells lis (op. inf. cit, p. 538). Dulaurier in 1847 promised to publish the text and a French translation of this work, but his labours have never seen the light. To this may be added, as connected with the magical side of the subject, some Greek Papyri mostly in fragments. Two of the Ley den Papyri of the third century have recently been edited, translated, and commentated upon by A. Dieterich (Abraxas : Studien zur Religionsgeschichte des Spatern Altertums ; Leipzig, 1891); the London and Parisian Papyri, of the third or fourth century, have been edited by Wessely ; in 1852 C. W. Goodwin also did some good work on the subject (Fragment of a Grteco-Egyptian Work upon Magic from a Papj-rus in the British Museum, Cambridge Antiquarian Society, Octavo Series, No. 2 ; Goodwin edited, translated and annotated this fragment). Amelineau (P. S., Intr. iv.) says that Rossi (F.), the Egyptologist of Turin, has published a papja'us containing an invocation similar to those in the Pistis Sophia, but I have not been able to find this work. It is not in I Papyri Copti del Museo Egizio di Torino which Rossi transcribed and translated (Turin, 1887-1892). There is also a short Hebrew treatise. The Sword of Moses (Cod., Oxford, 1531, 6; Cod. Heb., Gaster, 178; see Caster's text and translation. Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, 1896, i. and ii.). The above magical works, however, are more connected with the superstitions of sorcery than with magic proper, and when attached to Gnosticism characterise its degrada- tion in the hands of the superstitious and ignorant. We may also mention the Codex Nazareeus, although it is said at earliest to be post-Mohammedan, of which there are no less than four MS. copies, dated respectively 1560, 1632, 1688 and 1730, in the Bibliotheque Nationale alone. This Codex is the scripture of the so-called Sabeeans, or Christians of St. John, or Mandaites, and is known as INTRODUCTION. XXI