107 



where professors of all three religions dwelt together, and seem 

 to have endeavoured to harmonize their respective systems.* 

 Along with Jao, Jao Sahaoth and the names of Jewish angels, 

 the Gnostic gems exhihit the names and figures of the Egyp- 

 tian gods, Osiris, Isis, Athor, Phre, Chon, Chnouphis, Tat, 

 (Thoth) Anubis, Harpocrates.f We also find words which are 

 undoubtedly Coptic, mixed sometimes with Greek, sometimes 

 with Hebrew words in the inscriptions on these stones. Thus 

 one of them J exhibits Chnouphis (Agathodsemon) under the form 

 of a serpent with a lion's head encircled with rays, and the 

 legend, Chnouhis Anoh SemefsJ eilampsfej ; " I am Chnou- 

 bis ; the Sun (Christ the True Light) has shone." Here anok 

 is the Coptic pronoun of the first person ; semes the Hebrew 

 for sun, and hKa.f/.^'e the aorist of Xa/*7r(u augmented after the 

 analogy of >^a(^^a.vu and 'Kayxa.yu. On another ,§ Chnouphis is re- 

 presented under the form of a mummy with a radiated head, 

 and the legend is Anok Choi Chnouphis. Matter remarks the 

 addition of Choi to the name, and says " cette designation 

 speciale pent repondre a ce que la composition offie d' extraordi- 

 naire." Chol^ in fact, signifies in Coptic, " amicire, involvere 

 fasciis vel alia re cadaver"|| and is therefore exactly descriptive 

 of the peculiarities of this representation. One of the gems 

 called Abraxas from exhibiting these letters, (which, according 

 to the Greek notation, made up 365), has on the reverse, the 

 words TaXa, a^aio, oa^ao^o, vtox, v^at, which Bellcrmann, by whom 

 it has been published, renders from the Coptic, Protector, 

 Creator, Ruler, Thou, Lord. I know not on what authority 

 their sense is assigned to the two first words ; but oer is very 

 common in the hieroglyphic texts, in the sense of great** chief, 



* " Qui Serapin colunt Christiani sunt ; et devoti sunt Serapi qui se Christi 

 Episcopos dicunt." Hadrian in Vopisc. Saturn. 8. Gnosticism was already rife 

 in Egypt in the reign of Hadrian, See Sharpe's Egypt under the Romans, p. 67. 



+ Examples of all these may be seen in the plates to Matter's Work, before 

 referred to. 



I Matter, plate ii. a. 



§ Matter, plate ii. 10. 



II Peyron Lex. Copt, sub voce. 



•* 'AfVfjfK;, the title of the god of Apollinopolis, is Har-oer, Horns the great. 



