Abraxas or Abrasax (, variant form <small>romanized:</small> ) is a term for the "Great Archon" in Gnostic Christianity. The word is found in Gnostic texts such as the Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit and the Apocalypse of Adam, and also appears in the Greek Magical Papyri. It was engraved on certain antique gemstones, called on that account Abraxas stones, which were used as amulets or charms.
The word may be related to Abracadabra, although other explanations of the latter exist. There are similarities and differences between such figures in reports about Basilides's teaching, ancient Gnostic texts, the larger Greco-Roman magical traditions, and modern magical and esoteric writings.
The initial attested spelling was (). It appears in nearly all the legends on gems; in the Greek writers, Hippolytus, Epiphanius, Didymus (De Trin. iii. 42), and Theodoret; and in Latin writers Augustine and Praedestinatus. The spelling , common today, probably originated in the Latin transliteration, either due to a confusion made between the Greek letters sigma (ã) and xi (ÃÂ), or to a euphemistic inversion. It appears in the translator of Irenaeus and the other Latin authors, and even, though most sparingly, in the magical papyri and engraved stones.
The attempts to discover a derivation for the name, Greek, Hebrew, Coptic, or other, have not been entirely successful:
The seven letters spelling its name may represent each of the seven classic planets.
Perhaps the word may be included among those mysterious expressions discussed by Adolf von Harnack, "which belong to no known speech, and by their singular collocation of vowels and consonants give evidence that they belong to some mystic dialect, or take their origin from some supposed divine inspiration".
The Egyptian author of the book De Mysteriis in reply to Porphyry (vii. 4) admits a preference of 'barbarous' to vernacular names in sacred things, urging a peculiar sanctity in the languages of certain nations, as the Egyptians and Assyrians; and Origen (Contra Cels. i. 24) refers to the 'potent names' used by Egyptian sages, Persian Magi, and Indian Brahmins, signifying deities in the several languages.
Several heresiological works (from 2nd century Proto-orthodox Christianity through the 5th century) describe Abraxas in the context of the Basilidian heresy, but it is uncertain what the actual role and function of Abraxas was in the Basilidian system, as they often show no direct acquaintance with the doctrines of Basilides himself.
In the system described by Irenaeus, "the Unbegotten Father" is the progenitor of Nous "Discerning Mind"; Nous produced Logos "Word, Reason"; Logos produced Phronesis "Mindfulness"; Phronesis produced Sophia "Wisdom" and Dynamis "Potentiality"; Sophia and Dynamis produced the principalities, powers, and angels, the last of whom create "the first heaven". They, in turn, originate a second series, who create a second heaven. The process continues in like manner until 365 heavens are in existence, the angels of the last or visible heaven being the authors of our world. "The ruler" [principem, i.e., probably ton archonta] of the 365 heavens "is Abraxas, and for this reason he contains within himself 365 numbers".
The name occurs in the Refutation of All Heresies (vii. 26) by Hippolytus of Rome, who appears in these chapters to have followed the Exegetica of Basilides. After describing the manifestation of the Gospel in the Ogdoad and Hebdomad, he adds that the Basilidians have a long account of the innumerable creations and powers in the several 'stages' of the upper world (diastemata), in which they speak of 365 heavens and say that "their great archon" is Abrasax, because his name contains the number 365, the number of the days in the year; i.e. the sum of the numbers denoted by the Greek letters in ÃÂÃÂáÃÂãÃÂàaccording to the rules of isopsephy is 365:
Epiphanius (Haer. 69, 73 f.) appears to follow partly Irenaeus, partly the lost Compendium of Hippolytus. He designates Abraxas more distinctly as "the power above all, and First Principle", "the cause and first archetype" of all things; and mentions that the Basilidians referred to 365 as the number of parts (mele) in the human body, as well as of days in the year.
In Adversus omnes haereses (c. 4), the Pseudo-Tertullian likewise follows Hippolytus's Compendium, and adds some further particulars; that 'Abraxas' gave birth to Mind (nous), the first in the series of primary powers enumerated likewise by Irenaeus and Epiphanius; that the world, as well as the 365 heavens, was created in honour of 'Abraxas'; and that Christ was sent not by the Maker of the world but by 'Abraxas'.
Nothing can be built on the vague allusions of Jerome, according to whom 'Abraxas' meant for Basilides "the greatest God" (De vir. ill. 21), "the highest God" (Dial. adv. Lucif. 23), "the Almighty God" (Comm. in Amos iii. 9), and "the Lord the Creator" (Comm. in Nah. i. 11). The notices in Theodoret (Haer. fab. i. 4), Augustine (Haer. 4), and 'Praedestinatus' (i. 3), have no independent value.
With the availability of primary sources, such as those in the Nag Hammadi library, the identity of Abraxas remains unclear, but it appears lower on the cosmological hierarchy, than in the heresiological sources. Scholars have grouped three texts that allude to him under Sethian gnosticism.
The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit, for instance, refers to Abraxas as an Aeon dwelling with Sophia and other Aeons of the Pleroma in the light of the luminary Eleleth. In several texts, the luminary Eleleth is the last of the luminaries (Spiritual Lights) that come forward, and it is the Aeon Sophia, associated with Eleleth, who encounters darkness and becomes involved in the chain of events that leads to the Demiurge's rule of this world, and the salvage effort that ensues. As such, the role of Aeons of Eleleth, including Abraxas, Sophia, and others, pertains to this outer border of the Pleroma that encounters the ignorance of the world of Lack and interacts to rectify the error of ignorance in the world of materiality.
In the Apocalypse of Adam, Abrasax is sent along with Sablo and Gamaliel to bring some of the Gnostic people "out of the fire and the wrath, and take them above the aeons and the rulers of the powers, and take them away [...] of life [...] and take them away [...] aeons [...] dwelling place of the great [...] there, with the holy angels and the aeons. The men will be like those angels, for they are not strangers to them."
A vast number of engraved stones are in existence, to which the name "Abraxas-stones" has long been given. The subjects are mythological, and chiefly grotesque, with various inscriptions, in which ÃÂÃÂáÃÂãÃÂàoften occurs, alone or with other words. Sometimes the whole space is taken up with the inscription. In certain obscure magical writings of Egyptian origin á¼ÂòÃÂñþìàor á¼ÂòÃÂñÃÂìþ is found associated with other names which frequently accompany it on gems; it is also found on the Greek metal curse tablets (defixiones), among other mystical words.
The meaning of the legends is seldom intelligible: but some of the gems, if not all, are amulets. Antiquarians from the 17th-19th centuries developed a thematic classification of the artefacts, some bearing Abrasax as inscriptions and some related only by iconography. Today they are often studied as part of a wider class of magical objects.
In a great majority of instances the name Abraxas is associated with a singular composite figure, having a Chimera-like appearance somewhat resembling a basilisk or the Greek primordial god Chronos (not to be confused with the Greek titan Cronus). According to E. A. Wallis Budge, "as a Pantheus, i.e. All-God, he appears on the amulets with the head of a cock (Phà Âbus) or of a lion (Ra or Mithras), the body of a man, and his legs are serpents which terminate in scorpions, types of the Agathodaimon. In his right hand he grasps a club, or a flail, and in his left is a round or oval shield." This form was also referred to as the Anguipede. Budge surmised that Abrasax was "a form of the Adam Kadmon of the Kabbalists and the Primal Man whom God made in His own image".
Some parts at least of the figure mentioned above are solar symbols, and the Basilidian Abrasax is manifestly connected with the sun. J. J. Bellermann has speculated that "the whole represents the Supreme Being, with his Five great Emanations, each one pointed out by means of an expressive emblem. Thus, from the human body, the usual form assigned to the Deity, forasmuch as it is written that God created man in his own image, issue the two supporters, Nous and Logos, symbols of the inner sense and the quickening understanding, as typified by the serpents, for the same reason that had induced the old Greeks to assign this reptile for an attribute to Pallas. His headâÂÂa cock'sâÂÂrepresents Phronesis, the fowl being emblematical of foresight and vigilance. His two hands bear the badges of Sophia and Dynamis, the shield of Wisdom, and the scourge of Power."
In the absence of other evidence to show the origin of these curious relics of antiquity the occurrence of a name known as Basilidian on patristic authority has not unnaturally been taken as a sufficient mark of origin, and the early collectors and critics assumed this whole group to be the work of Gnostics. During the last three centuries attempts have been made to sift away successively those gems that had no claim to be considered in any sense Gnostic, or specially Basilidian, or connected with Abrasax. The subject is one which has exercised the ingenuity of many savants, but it may be said that all the engraved stones fall into three classes:
While it would be rash to assert positively that no existing gems were the work of Gnostics, there is no valid reason for attributing all of them to such an origin. The fact that the name occurs on these gems in connection with representations of figures with the head of a cock, a lion, or an ass, and the tail of a serpent was formerly taken in the light of what Irenaeus says about the followers of Basilides:
Incantations by mystic names were characteristic of the hybrid Gnosticism planted in Spain and southern Gaul at the end of the fourth century and at the beginning of the fifth, which Jerome connects with Basilides and which (according to his Epist., lxxv.) used the name Abraxas.
It is therefore not unlikely that some Gnostics used amulets, though the confident assertions of modern writers to this effect rest on no authority. Isaac de Beausobre properly calls attention to the significant silence of Clement in the two passages in which he instructs the Christians of Alexandria on the right use of rings and gems, and the figures which may legitimately be engraved on them (Paed. 241 ff.; 287 ff.). But no attempt to identify the figures on existing gems with the personages of Gnostic mythology has had any success, and Abraxas is the only Gnostic term found in the accompanying legends that is not known to belong to other religions or mythologies. The present state of the evidence therefore suggests that their engravers and the Basilidians received the mystic name from a common source now unknown.
Having due regard to the magic papyri, in which many of the unintelligible names of the Abrasax-stones reappear, besides directions for making and using gems with similar figures and formulas for magical purposes, it can scarcely be doubted that many of these stones are pagan amulets and instruments of magic.
The magic papyri reflect the same ideas as the Abrasax-gems and often bear Hebraic names of God. The following example is illustrative: "I conjure you by Iaà  Sabaà Âth Adà Ânai Abrasax, and by the great god, Iaeà Â". The patriarchs are sometimes addressed as deities; for which fact many instances may be adduced. In the group "Iakoubia, Iaà Âsabaà Âth Adà Ânai Abrasax", the first name seems to be composed of Jacob and Ya. Similarly, entities considered angels in Judaism are invoked as gods alongside Abrasax: thus "I conjure you ... by the god MichaÃÂl, by the god SouriÃÂl, by the god GabriÃÂl, by the god RaphaÃÂl, by the god Abrasax Ablathanalba Akrammachari ...".
In text PGM V. 96âÂÂ172, Abraxas is identified as part of the "true name which has been transmitted to the prophets of Israel" of the "Headless One, who created heaven and earth, who created night and day ... Osoronnophris whom none has ever seen ... awesome and invisible god with an empty spirit"; the name also includes Iaà  and Adà Ânai. "Osoronnophris" represents Egyptian Wsir , "Osiris the Perfect Being". Another identification with Osiris is made in PGM VII. 643-51: "you are not wine, but the guts of Osiris, the guts of ... Ablanathanalba Akrammachamarei Eee, who has been stationed over necessity, Iakoub Ia Iaà  Sabaà Âth Adà Ânai Abrasax." PGM VIII. 1-63, on the other hand, identifies Abraxas as a name of "Hermes" (i.e. Thoth). Here the numerological properties of the name are invoked, with its seven letters corresponding to the seven planets and its isopsephic value of 365 corresponding to the days of the year. Thoth is also identified with Abrasax in PGM LXXIX. 1-7: "I am the soul of darkness, Abrasax, the eternal one, MichaÃÂl, but my true name is Thà Âouth, Thà Âouth."
One papyrus titled the "Monad" or the "Eighth Book of Moses" (PGM XIII. 1âÂÂ343) contains an invocation to a supreme creator God; Abraxas is given as being the name of this God in the language of the baboons. The papyrus goes on to describe a cosmogonic myth about Abraxas, describing how he created the Ogdoad by laughing. His first laughter created light; his second divided the primordial waters; his third created the mind; his fourth created fertility and procreation; his fifth created fate; his sixth created time (as the sun and moon); and his seventh and final laughter created the soul. Then, from various sounds made by Abrasax, there arose the serpent Python who "foreknew all things", the first man (or Fear), and the god Iaà Â, "who is lord of all". The man fought with Iaà Â, and Abrasax declared that Iaà Â's power would derive from both of the others, and that Iaà  would take precedence over all the other gods. This text also describes Helios as an archangel of God/Abrasax.
The Leyden Papyrus recommends that this invocation be pronounced to the moon:
Abrasax (, occasionally , , etc.) is also found in several Semitic sources, extending into the middle ages: late antique Aramaic (or bilingual) magical texts from Palestine; Incantation bowls from Mesopotamia; Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew magical texts from the Cairo Genizah; the Hebrew Sefer HaRazim which has been reconstructed from the Genizah - here Abrasax is the first among some thirty angels directing the sun during the day; Aramaic-Hebrew The Sword of Moses (?); and possibly in an Arabic charm from Aswan (as ).