The Letter Stigma

[Joseph D. L.]

I can't speak anymore on this. I did a quick google search on digamma and saw that it would have been pronounced as wau, and just immediately associated it with iao and yah. I have zero knowledge on how Greek works.

I do have a question for you though. Am I completely mistaken in thinking that whoever saw the passage in Daniel about the messiah being cut off is an allusion resh being shaved down or "cut off" and turned into vav? Marcosians seemed to enjoy these kinds of word plays.

[Secret Alias]

The problem with anticipating what mystics MIGHT have thought is that when you come across a mystical writer they always surprise you. Examples https://books.google.com/books?id=-DrED ... al&f=false No one can or could anticipate Marqe.

[Secret Alias]

For me the following questions are pertinent when dealing with the Marcosian section of Against Heresies:

1. is Irenaeus the original eyewitness to the information or has he taken over another person's account
2. are the Marcosians the group identified in 2.21 where it mentions those who develop letter mysticism in Greek
3. who are the Christians identified in the parallel section in the Philosophumena where it says that the Marcosians themselves read Irenaeus's account denied the claim of a 'second' baptism and the author of the Philosophumena agreed to correct Irenaeus's material accordingly?
4. what are the implications of the Marcosians developing a letter mysticism in Greek but liturgical prayers in Aramaic (cf. 1.21) i.e. Basema, Chamosse, Baoenaora, Mistadia, Ruada, Kousta, Babaphor, Kalachthei and Messia, Uphareg, Namempsoeman, Chaldoeaur, Mosomedoea, Acphranoe, Psaua, Jesus Nazaria? Are the Marcosians Greek speaking mystics and the report originally preserved in Aramaic or bilingual mystics?
5. the presence of Aramaic speaking Marcosians in Lyons - " A sad example of this occurred in the case of a certain Asiatic, one of our deacons, who had received him (Marcus) into his house."

[Secret Alias]

When you mention Coptic, there is a 'Marcosian-like' treatise preserved in Coptic which has recently been translated into English - https://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/wp- ... k_2013.pdf This section sounds particularly 'Marcosian' to me:

So, it has become clear that the twenty-two works in the economy of Christ and the twentytwo works of God in the creation are the model of each other, like the twenty-two letters of the alphabet, as we have already said. And of them, the letters, we find seven that are voiced: alpha, ei, hêta iôta, ou, he and ô.

They are called vowels, because in the writing of each one of them they give a voice.

And there are fifteen letters that are unvoiced: bêta, gamma, delta, zêta, thêta, kappa, laula,31 me, ne pi, rô, syma, tau, phi. chi. And these are called voiceless because they do not complete the entirety of a sound in writing.

But those letters are seven only that have a voice, because God created seven things, which are as follows.

The first: the angels.
The second: the soul of reason, with a spiritual voice outside the body.
The third: man with a voice and body.
The fourth: birds of the air that have a voice.
The fifth: all the beasts that have a voice.
The sixth: reptiles that have a voice.
The seventh: all the animals that have a voice.
Two of those we have mentioned are creatures of reason, without a body, simple, invisible
and immortal. that is the nature of the angels and the intellectual soul. They represent the
invisible Father and the immaterial Holy Spirit.

This treatise is odd because it counts 22 letters and makes clear Hebrew is what the author has in mind but then proceeds to discuss Greek letters.

Curiously Irenaeus in Book 2 mentions these mystics who transpose Hebrew letters and words into Greek mysticism and similarly mentions 'fifteen' in a particularly incomprehensible section:

For these ancient, original, and generally called sacred letters of the Hebrews are ten in number (but they are written by means of fifteen), the last letter being joined to the first. And thus they write some of these letters according to their natural sequence, just as we do, but others in a reverse direction, from the right hand towards the left, thus tracing the letters backwards.

Is there some crossover between these two accounts?

[Secret Alias]

What letters did the Coptic text miss?

Α, Β, Γ, Δ, Ε, ϛ, Ζ, Η, Θ, Ι, Κ, Λ, Μ, Ν, Ξ, Ο, Π, Ρ, Σ, Τ, Υ, Φ, Χ, Ψ, Ω.

Red vowels, blue consonants, yellow missing.

There is a clear effort in the treatise to make the Greek alphabet accord with 22. That might be why the episemon/stigma is absent. But that is clearly the counterpart of vav. The desire to make the Greek alphabet 22 letters long can't be rooted in Coptic as the Coptic alphabet has the same 24 characters plus the special numerical character.

[Secret Alias]

Eusebius confirms your suspicions about the seven vowels = the Tetragrammaton:

And any one going over the remaining letters of the alphabet, would find that they have been named among the Hebrews each with some cause and reason. For they say also that the combination of the seven vowels contains the enunciation of one forbidden name, which the Hebrews indicate by four letters and apply to the supreme power of God, having received the tradition from father to son that this is something unutterable and forbidden to the multitude.

And one of the wise Greeks having learned this, I know not whence, hinted it obscurely in verse, saying as follows:

'Seven vowels tell My Name,----the Mighty God,
The everlasting Father of mankind:
The immortal lyre am I, that guides the world,
And leads the music of the circling spheres.' 28

You would find also the meanings of the remaining Hebrew letters, by fixing your attention on each; but this we have already established by our former statements, when we were showing that the Greeks have received help in everything from the Barbarians. [Preparation Evangel 11]

Why doesn't he give his source here?

[Secret Alias]

Also it has been argued that the seven Greek vowels = Yahweh is found in the Nag Hammadi text the Sacred Book of the Great invisible Spirit.

[Secret Alias]

The Greek alphabet: Α, Β, Γ, Δ, Ε, Ζ, Η, Θ, Ι, Κ, Λ, Μ, Ν, Ξ, Ο, Π, Ρ, Σ, Τ, Υ, Φ, Χ, Ψ, Ω.
7 vowels of Secrets of the Greek Alphabet: Α Ε Η Ι Ο Υ Ω
15 consonants Secrets of the Greek Alphabet: Β Γ Δ Ζ Θ Κ Λ Μ Ν Π Ρ Σ Τ Φ Χ Ψ
Letters not represented in the Secrets of the Greek Alphabet Ξ Ψ (both are Coptic letters)

[Secret Alias]

There is a parallel conception in the Sepher Yetsirah:

The foundations are the twenty-two letters, three mothers, seven double, and twelve single letters.