Bonner, SMA – PDF, 136.

the first alpha is directly over the top of the staff and at first glance might be taken for an ornament belonging to it.

The reverse is fully occupied by the inscription Ια Ιαω Σαβαωθ Αδωναι Ελωαι Ωρεος Ασταφεος; the last two names should be read Ὡραῖος Ἀσταφαιός. The names Iao, Sabaoth, Adonai, Eloai belong to the God of the Hebrews. Iao Sabaoth represents “JHVH (Jahveh) of hosts”; but in Gnostic and magical texts Sabaoth is often treated, not as a modifier of Jahveh, but as the name of an independent being. Adonai is “Lord”; Eloai represents Elohim, God. Iao and Sabaoth occur both together and separately on many scores of magical amulets. Adonai often added to those two, but stones with all four names are not common. The presence of any or all four of them might indicate a background of Jewish influence, but would not suffice to prove a Gnostic origin.

The case is different when we consider the last two names on the reverse. If we take the name Ialdabaoth from the obverse and count it in with the reverse inscription — temporarily disregarding Ia — we have the complete series of seven demon archons to whom the accounts of Irenaeus and Origen assign an important place in the mythology of the Ophite Gnostics — Ialdabaoth, Iao, Sabaoth, Adonai, Eloai, Horaios (Oreus in Irenaeus), Astaphaios.⁶⁰

An adequate account of the origin and the functions of these archons would carry us beyond the limits that can be allowed for the discussion of a single object.⁶¹ In as few words as possible, the genealogy is as follows. The Highest God (First Man), together with his first emanation, the Son (Second Man), generated by their illumination Christ, the Light (Third Man) from the Holy Spirit, here conceived to be feminine, the First Woman. At the generation of Christ the Mother could not contain the whole body of light, part of which therefore descended into the region of matter, and there, taking on a body, was known as Prounikos or Sophia. Before her ultimate return to the primal Light, Sophia brought forth a son. That was Ialdabaoth, who became the creative principle of the world, and gave rise in successive generations to the other six archons, each of whom created a heaven in which he dwelt.

The Ia at the top of the reverse is perhaps best taken as another form of Iao, related to it as Jah (Psalm 68, 4) is to Jahveh. Yet it is to be remembered that in magical papyri and inscriptions Iao often imbedded among other vowel groups, Ia, Iae, Eai, etc. It is also possible that in this particular location Ia is merely a mnemonic abbreviation for Ialdabaoth, made necessary by the narrow space at the top of the oval.

As to the design on the obverse, it is to be noted that Origen, whose account of the seven archons agrees with that of Irenaeus, except that he gives

⁶⁰ Iren. Adv. haer. 1, 28, 1–8 (ed. Harvey); the seven archons in §2 ad fin., 3; Origen Contra Celsum 6, 24–38, the seven archons, 30–32.

⁶¹ For succinct accounts of the Ophite heresies see Liechtenhan, article “Ophiten,” in Herzog-Hauck, Protest. Realencyklopädie; and Bornkamm, article “Ophiten,” in PW XVIII, 1.

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