Note 243 — Chapter VIII · POST-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS: THE OPHITES

That is to say: Jaldabaoth; Iao, which is probably one of the many attempts to represent in Greek the Tetragrammaton יהוה called in English Jehovah; Ailoaios or Eloaios, the singular of the well-known plural name of God in Genesis אלהים “Elohim”; and Adonai, אדני, “the Lord,” which in many parts of the O.T. replaces the Tetragrammaton. Harvey, however, op. cit. p. 33, n. 3, thinks Iao may simply represent the initial of the name of Yahweh coupled with Alpha and Omega to show His eternal nature. He connects this with “I am the first and the last” of Isaiah xliv. 6, and Rev. i. 11. Yet the later Greeks called Dionysos Iao. See the (probably spurious) oracle of Apollo Clarius quoted by Macrobius, Saturnalia, Bk I. c. 18, II. 19 sqq.