Note 327 — Chapter IX · POST-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS: VALENTINUS

Hippolytus, op. cit. Bk V. c. 8, pp. 158, 159, Cruice, says simply in speaking of the Naassene writer: οὗτοι εἰσὶν οἱ τρεὶς ὑπέρογκοι λόγοι “Καυλακαῦ, Σαυλασαῦ, Ζεησάρ.” “Καυλακαῦ” τοῦ ἄνω, τοῦ Ἀδάμαντος, “Σαυλασαῦ,” τοῦ κάτω θνητοῦ, “Ζεησάρ” τοῦ ἐπὶ τὰ ἄνω ῥεύσαντος Ἰορδάνου. “These are the three weighty words: Caulacau [the name] of him who is above, [i.e.] Adamas; Saulasau of the mortal one who is beneath; Zeesar of the Jordan which flows on high.” Epiphanius, Haer. XXV. c. 4, pp. 162, 164, Oehler, says that they are taken from the words of Isaiah xxviii. 10, צו לצו קו לקו זעיר שם translated in the A.V. “precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little”; but the resemblance is not very close, and it is more probable that the barbarous words of the text cover some sort of cryptogram. Irenaeus, Bk Ι. c. 19, § 3, p. 201, Harvey, says of the Basilidians: Quemadmodum et mundus nomen esse, in quo dicunt descendisse et ascendisse Salvatorem, esse Caulacau, which Harvey says is unintelligible. See Salmon, s.h.v. in Dict. of Christian Biog., where he tries hard to explain the name and its use. Cheyne, Prophecies of Isaiah, 2nd ed. vol. I. p. 162, would make this Caulacau, however, equivalent to the “word of Jehovah” or Logos. Cf. Renan, Hist. du Peuple d’Israel, Eng. ed. 1897, II. pp. 436, 437.