Note 472 — Chapter X · THE SYSTEM OF THE PISTIS SOPHIA AND ITS RELATED TEXTS[459]

Pistis Sophia, p. 16, Copt. The five words are zama, zama, ôzza, rachama, ôzai. Whatever they may mean, we may be quite sure that they can never contain with their few letters the three pages or so of text which are given as their interpretation. It is possible that the letters are used acrostically like the A G L A, i.e. ניבר לעולם אדני (? Ahih ? אהיה) אתה Ate Gibor Lailam Adonai, “The mighty Adonai for ever” (or “thou art the mighty and eternal Lord”) commonly met with in mediaeval magic. Cf. Peter de Abano, Heptameron, seu Elementa Magica, Paris, 1567, p. 563; or, for other examples, F. Barrett, The Magus, 1801, Bk II. pp. 39, 40. The notable feature in these mysterious words is the quantity of Zetas or ζ’s that they contain which points to the use of some sort of table like that called by Cabalists ziruph, or a cryptogram of the aaaaa, aaaab, kind. It should be noticed that Coptic scribes were often afflicted with what has been called Betacism or the avoidance of the letter Beta or β by every means, which frequently led to the substitution for it of ζ as in the case of Jaldabaoth = Ιαλδαζαω given above (Chap. VIII, n. 3, p. 46 supra).