Biblical Criticism & History Forum - earlywritings.com

Τίνα δὲ καὶ Μονοΐμῳ δοκεῖ, οὐ σιωπήσομεν.

Monoimus the Arabian was far removed from the glory of the high-sounding poet. (For Monoimus) supposes that there is some such man as the poet (calls) Oceanus, expressing himself somehow thus:-

Μονόϊμος ὁ Ἄραψ μακρὰν τῆς τοῦ μεγαλοφώνου ποιητοῦ δόξης γεγένηται, τοιοῦτόν τινα τὸν ἄνθρωπον νομίσας, ὁποῖον ὁ ποιητὴς τὸν Ὠκεανόν, οὕτω πως λέγων·

"Oceans, source of gods and source of men."
Ὠκεανὸς γένεσίς τε θεῶν γένεσίς τ ἀνθρώπων.

Changing these (sentiments) into other words, Monoimus says that man is the universe. Now the universe is the originating cause of all things, unbegotten, incorruptible, (and) eternal. And (he says) that the son of (the) man previously spoken of is begotten, and subject to passion, (and) that he is generated independently of time. (as well as) undesignedly, (and) without being predestinated [f]or such, he says, is the power of that man.

Ταῦτα ἄλλοις λόγοις μεταστήσας λέγει ἄνθρωπον εἶναι τὸ πᾶν (ὅ ἐστιν ἀρχὴ τῶν ὅλων) ἀγέννητον, ἄφθαρτον, ἀΐδιον, καὶ υἱὸν ἀνθρώπου τοῦ προειρημένου γεννητὸν καὶ παθητόν, ἀχρόνως γενόμενον, ἀβουλήτως, ἀπροορίστως. Τοιαύτη γὰρ, φησίν, ἡ δύναμις ἐκείνου τοῦ ἀνθρώπου.

And he being thus constituted in power, that the son was born quicker than thought and volition.

Οὕτως ὄντος αὐτοῦ τῇ δυνάμει γενέσθαι τὸν υἱὸν λογισμοῦ καὶ βουλήσεως τάχιον.

And this, he says, is what has been spoken in the Scriptures,

Καὶ τοῦτό ἐστι, φησί, τὸ εἰρημένον ἐν ταῖς γραφαῖς

"He was, and was generated."

Ἦν καὶ ἐγένετο, ὅπερ ἐστίν"

And the meaning of this is: Man was, and his son was generated; just as one may say, Fire was, and, independently of time, and undesignedly, and without being predestinated, light was generated simultaneously with the existence of the fire.

Ἦν καὶ ἐγένετο, ὅπερ ἐστίν· ἦν ἄνθρωπος, καὶ ἐγένετο υἱὸς αὐτοῦ, ὥς τις εἴποι· ἦν πῦρ καὶ ἐγένετο φῶς, ἀχρόνως καὶ ἀβουλήτως καὶ ἀπροορίστως ἅμα τῷ εἶναι τὸ πῦρ

And this man constitutes a single monad, which is uncompounded and indivisible, (and yet at the same time) compounded (and) divisible. (And this monad is) in all respects friendly (and) in all respects peaceful, in all respects quarrelsome (and) in all respects contentious with itself, dissimilar (and) similar. (This monad is likewise,) as it were, a certain musical harmony, which comprises all things in itself, as many as one may express and may omit when not considering; and it manifests all things, and generates all things.

Ὁ δὲ ἄνθρωπος οὗτος μία μονὰς ἐστὶν ἀσύνθετος ἀδιαίρετος, συνθετὴ διαιρετή, πάντα φίλη, πάντα εἰρηνική, πάντα μαχίμη, πάντα πρὸς ἑαυτὴν πολέμιος, ἀνόμοιος ὁμοία, οἱονεί τις ἁρμονία μουσικὴ πάντα ἔχουσα ἐν ἑαυτῇ, ὅσα ἄν τις εἴπῃ καὶ παραλείπῃ μὴ νοήσας, πάντα ἀναδεικνύουσα, πάντα γεννῶσα.

This Mother, this Father--two immortal names.

Αὕτη μήτηρ, αὕτη πατήρ, τὰ δύο ἀθάνατα ὀνόματα.

As an illustration, however, consider, he says, as a greatest image of the perfect man, the one jot--that one tittle. And this one tittle is an uncompounded, simple, and pure monad, which derives its composition from nothing at all. (And yet this tittle is likewise) compounded, multiform, branching into many sections, and consisting of many parts.

Ὑποδείγματος δὲ χάριν τοῦ τελείου ἀνθρώπου κατανόει, φησί, μεγίστην εἰκόνα ἰῶτα ἕν, τὴν μίαν κεραίαν, ἥτις ἐστὶ κεραία μία ἀσύνθετος, ἁπλῆ, μονὰς εἰλικρινὴς ἐξ οὐδενὸς ὅλως τὴν σύνθεσιν ἔχουσα, συνθετή, πολυειδής, πολυσχιδής, πολυμερής.

That one indivisible tittle is, he says, one tittle of the (letter) iota, with many faces, and innumerable eyes, and countless names, and this (tittle) is an image of that perfect invisible man.

Ἡ ἀμερὴς ἐκείνη μία, φησίν, ἔστιν ἡ πολυπρόσωπος καὶ μυριόμματος καὶ μυριώνυμος μία τοῦ ῑ κεραία, ἥτις ἐστὶν εἰκὼν τοῦ τελείου ἀνθρώπου ἐκείνου τοῦ ἀοράτου.

The monad, (that is,) the one tittle, is therefore, he says, also a decade.

Ἔστιν οὖν, φησίν, ἡ μονάς, ἡ μία κεραία, καὶ δεκάς

For by the actual power of this one tittle, are produced duad, and triad, and tetrad, and pentad, and hexad, and heptad, and ogdoad, and ennead, up to ten.

δύναμις γὰρ αὐτῇ τὸ ῑ τῆς μιᾶς κεραίας καὶ δυὰς καὶ τριὰς καὶ τετρὰς καὶ πεντὰς καὶ ἑξὰς καὶ ἑπτὰς καὶ ὀγδοὰς καὶ ἐννεὰς μέχρι τῶν δέκα

For these numbers, he says, are capable of many divisions, and they reside in that simple and uncompounded single tittle of the iota.

οὗτοι γὰρ, φησίν, εἰσὶν οἱ πολυσχιδεῖς ἀριθμοὶ ἐν ἐκείνῃ κατοικοῦντες τῇ ἁπλῇ καὶ ἀσυνθέτῳ τοῦ ἰῶτα κεραίᾳ μιᾷ

And this is what has been declared:

Καὶ τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ εἰρημένον

"It pleased (God) that all fulness should dwell in the Son of man bodily."

ὅτι πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα ηὐδόκησε κατοικῆσαι ἐπὶ τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου σωματικῶς

For such compositions of numbers out of the simple and uncompounded one tittle of the iota become, he says, corporeal realities.

αἱ γὰρ τοιαῦται τῶν ἀριθμῶν συνθέσεις ἐξ ἁπλῆς καὶ ἀσυνθέτου τῆς μιᾶς κεραίας τοῦ ἰῶτα σωματικαὶ γεγόνασι, φησίν, ὑποστάσεις

The Son of man, therefore, he says, has been generated from the perfect man, whom no one knew; every creature who is ignorant of the Son, however, forms an idea of Him as the offspring of a woman and certain very obscure rays of this Son which approach this world, check and control alteration (and) generation.

Γέγονεν οὗν, φησίν, ἀπὸ τοῦ τελείου ἀνθρώπου ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, ὃν ἔγνωκεν οὐδείς, φαντάζεται δέ, φησίν, ὡς γέννημα θηλείας ἡ κτίσις
πᾶσα τὸν υἱὸν ἀγνοοῦσα, οὗ υἱοῦ ἀκτῖνες ἀμυδραὶ πάνυ ἐμπελάζουσαι τῷδε τῷ κόσμῳ συνέχουσι καὶ συγκρατοῦσι τὴν μεταβολήν, τὴν γένεσιν

And the beauty of that Son of man is up to the present incomprehensible to all men, as many as are deceived in reference to the offspring of the woman.

Τὸ δὲ κάλλος ἐκείνου τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου μέχρι νῦν πᾶσίν ἐστιν ἀκατάληπτον ἀνθρώποις, ὅσοι περὶ τὸ γέννημα τῆς θηλείας εἰσὶ πεπλανημένοι

Therefore nothing, he says, of the things that are in our quarter of creation has been produced by that man, nor will aught (of these) ever be (generated from him). All things, however, have been produced, not from the entirety, but from some part of that Son of man.

Γέγονεν οὗν, φησίν, ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐκείνου οὐδὲν τῶν ἐνθάδε, οὐδὲ ἔσται πώποτε, τὰ δὲ γεγονότα πάντα οὐκ ἀπὸ ὅλου, ἀλλὰ ἀπὸ μέρους τινὸς γέγονε τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου.

For he says the Son of man is a jot in one tittle, which proceeds from above, is full, and completely replenishes all (rays flowing down from above). And it comprises in itself whatever things the man also possesses (who is) the Father of the Son of man.

Ἔστι γὰρ, φησίν, ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἰῶτα ἕν, μία κεραία, ῥυεῖσα ἄνωθεν, πλήρης, ἀποπληροῦσα πάντας, ἔχουσα ἐν ἑαυτῇ, ὅσα καὶ ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἔχει, ὁ πατὴρ τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου.

Marcovich https://books.google.com/books?id=nh8VA ... 22&f=false

First some questions. What are the scriptures mentioned here:

1. "He was, and was generated." Ἦν καὶ ἐγένετο, ὅπερ ἐστίν" ????
2. "It pleased (God) that all fulness should dwell in the Son of man bodily." ὅτι πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα ηὐδόκησε κατοικῆσαι ἐπὶ τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου σωματικῶς (= Col 1:19)

κεραίᾱ • (keraíā) f (genitive κεραίᾱς); first declension

antennae of the crayfish or of insect



anything projecting like a horn, hence:

(nautical) yardarm



projecting beam of a crane



projecting parts of the huckle bone
branching stake of wood, used as a pale in palisades



(in the plural, astronomy) horns of the moon
(in writing) apex of a letter
leg of a pair of compasses



projecting spur of a mountain



(anatomy) supposed teat-like projections inside the womb

My guess is that κεραίᾳ = the overbar (horizontal line) above the nomina sacra and iota is a vertical line. Marcovich demonstrates the latter. But it is often ignored that the range of meaning for κεραίᾳ include 'antenna' cf. the horizontal lines



Greek antenna company: keraies-tv.eu

Does everyone see where I get my idea that the iota and keraia are really the iota and the bar of the nomen sacrum Ish?





So when spin says that IC has to only be in the nominative form. No. Monoimus attests to the understanding that the iota of IS was understood to be both monad and decad. A kind of embodiment of the 'perfect man' Ish.

There seems to be some relationship between overbars in antiquity and modern keraia

This practice continued in Asia Minor well into the Roman period.[9]) In ancient and medieval manuscripts, these numerals were eventually distinguished from letters using overbars: α, β, γ, etc. In medieval manuscripts of the Book of Revelation, the number of the Beast 666 is written as χξϛ (600 + 60 + 6). (Numbers larger than 1,000 reused the same letters but included various marks to note the change.) Fractions were indicated as the denominator followed by a keraia (ʹ); γʹ indicated one third, δʹ one fourth and so on. As an exception, special symbol ∠ʹ indicated one half, and γ°ʹ or γoʹ was two-thirds. These fractions were additive (also known as Egyptian fractions); for example δʹ ϛʹ indicated 1⁄4 + 1⁄6 = 5⁄12.

A 14th-century Byzantine map of the British Isles from a manuscript of Ptolemy's Geography, using Greek numerals for its graticule: 52–63°N of the equator and 6–33°E from Ptolemy's Prime Meridian at the Fortunate Isles.
Although the Greek alphabet began with only majuscule forms, surviving papyrus manuscripts from Egypt show that uncial and cursive minuscule forms began early.[clarification needed] These new letter forms sometimes replaced the former ones, especially in the case of the obscure numerals. The old Q-shaped koppa (Ϙ) began to be broken up (Greek Koppa cursive 02.svg and Greek Koppa cursive 03.svg) and simplified (Greek Koppa cursive 04.svg and Greek Koppa cursive 05.svg). The numeral for 6 changed several times. During antiquity, the original letter form of digamma (Ϝ) came to be avoided in favour of a special numerical one (Greek Digamma angular.svg). By the Byzantine era, the letter was known as episemon and written as Greek Digamma cursive 02.svg or Greek Digamma cursive 06.svg. This eventually merged with the sigma-tau ligature stigma ϛ (Greek Digamma cursive 07.svg or Greek Digamma cursive 04.svg).

In modern Greek, a number of other changes have been made. Instead of extending an over bar over an entire number, the keraia (κεραία, lit. "hornlike projection") is marked to its upper right, a development of the short marks formerly used for single numbers and fractions. The modern keraia (´) is a symbol similar to the acute accent (´), the tonos (U+0384,΄) and the prime symbol (U+02B9, ʹ), but has its own Unicode character as U+0374. Alexander the Great's father Philip II of Macedon is thus known as Φίλιππος Βʹ in modern Greek. A lower left keraia (Unicode: U+0375, "Greek Lower Numeral Sign") is now standard for distinguishing thousands: 2019 is represented as ͵ΒΙΘʹ (2 × 1,000 + 10 + 9).

I think keraia was originally the name of the overbar that came off the iota of the first nomen sacrum IC.

So let's start at the beginning. The author of the Philosophumena cites Homer as

"Oceans, source of gods and source of men."
Ὠκεανὸς γένεσίς τε θεῶν γένεσίς τ ἀνθρώπων.

When in fact the original is:

Oceanus, from whom the gods are sprung
Ὠκεανόν τε θεῶν γένεσιν

The author of the Philosophumena adds the bit about men just as he accuses Monoimus of substituting 'anthropos' for 'Oceanus':

Changing these (sentiments) into other words, Monoimus says that man is the universe.

But the actual Greek is

Changing these into other words, Monoimus says that man is all (είναι το πάν). This is an adaptation of Xenophanes:

One is everything and God is inside everything
έν είναι το πάν καί τον θεόν συμφυή τοις πάσιν

Of course Xenophanes was famous for criticizing human beings for imagining that God or the gods were took human form. So there is clearly some conscious effort to make Monoimus borrow from a source which denied his first principles i.e. that the source of all things was Man or a man.

My theory about what the keraia is - the horizontal bar above the iota which, I believe, was originally a symbol used to denote the Greek letters should be taken as numbers. Later both the symbol and the name was changed to denote ' because of a new interpretation of the material (= to the



The variant found in Against Marcion 4:

So then let heaven and earth pass away, as have the law and the prophets, more quickly than one tittle of the words of the Lord

Transeat igitur caelum et terra citius, sicut et lex et prophetae, quam unus apex verborum domini

εὐκοπώτερον (δέ ἐστιν) τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν παρελθεῖν ἢ τῶν λόγων μου μίαν κεραίαν (πεσεῖν) Harnack