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Liturgical Fragments on Gnostic Amulets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2011

Campbell Bonner
Campbell Bonner
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Extract

For some time past I have been impressed with the importance of the so-called gnostic gems, more accurately called syncretistic amulets, as an aid to the study of Greek magical papyri, and have examined them wherever I could find them. During the summer of 1931 I was permitted to study the large collection in the British Museum, a favor for which I am indebted to the courtesy of Dr. George F. Hill, the Director, and Mr. Sidney Smith, the Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities. Mr. Smith and his associates in the Department gave me every facility for a minute examination of the stones and allowed me to have casts made from several of them. I have in preparation a group of studies of some amulets in the British Museum and others in various American collections, which I hope to publish with illustrations and interpretations. A preliminary account of two of the British Museum specimens seems to fall within the province of this Review.

Type
Notes
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , October 1932 , pp. 362 - 367
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1932

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References

1 See Montfaucon, L'antiquité expliquée, vol. II, part 2, plate CLVII; Catalogue of the Southesk Collection of Antique Gems, vol. I, no. N50. Two stones (chalcedony) in my collection have similar designs.

2 Kaufmann, C. M., Handbuch der Christlichen Archäologie (Paderborn, 1922), p. 363.Google Scholar

3 In his Sol Salutis (Liturgiegeschichtliche Forschungen, Heft 5), F. C. Dölger has gathered much material illustrating this tendency and its effect upon liturgical practice and hymnological formulas. See also H. Schrade, Zur Ikonographie der Himmelfahrt Christi, p. 119 (Vorträge der Bibl. Warburg, 1928–29). Schrade points out that the application of the language of Ps. 19, 4–5 to Christ is as old as Justin Martyr (Apol. i. 40 and 54). Among the significant passages collected by Dölger, note Clem. Alex., Protr. 9 (p. 63 Stählin), where, after quoting the ancient hymn from Ephesians 5, 14, he continues ὁ τῇς ἀναστάσεως ἤλιος … ὸ ζωὴν χαρισάμενος ἀκτῖσιν ἰδίαις; [Epiphanius], Hom. in magn. Sabb. (Migne, P. G. XLIII, 440 C), ἔδυ Θεὸς ἤλιος Χριστὸς ὐπὸ γῆν; Firmicus Maternus, De errore prof. rel. 24, 4 omnipotens deus Christus splendidioribus solis radiis adornatur. Dölger cites also (p. 30, n. 1) ἔδυ Θεὸς ἤλιος Χριστὸς ὐπὸ γῆν ἀναθεματίζω τοὺς τὸν Χριστὸν from a long series of anathemas against heresies published by Cotelerius, Patrum qui temporibus apostolicis floruerunt opera (Amsterdam, 1724), I2, p. 544; I find it in the Antwerp edition of 1698, I, p. 538.

4 P. Berl. 9794 in Berliner Klassikertexte, Heft VI (Altchristliche Texte), pp. 110 ff.

5 R. Reitzenstein and Wendland, P., Zwei angeblich christliche liturgische Gebete (Nachrichten, Göttingen Academy, Phil.-hist. Kl., 1910, pp. 324 ff.).Google Scholar

6 ρειγοι is for ῥίγει; cf. Mayser, Gram, der griech. Papyri, I, 111–112.

7 The same inscription is found, with slight variations, in Montfaucon, op. cit., II, 2, pl. CLII.

8 Aischylos, Interpretationen, p. 172.

9 Wagner, W., Das ABC der Liebe, Leipzig, 1879, p. 42.Google Scholar

10 P. 291 f. Stählin.

11 Acta Apost. Apocr. ed. Lipsius and Bonnet, part 2, vol. I.