Section 27

1 The Lower Spirit, the This-World-Mother. 2 Sc . of light; cp. the great light that shone on Jordan at the baptizing of Jesus in 'The Gospel according to the Hebrews,' Tatian's Diatessaron (Syriac, 2nd half of 2nd cent.) also preserves this feature. Bar Ṣalibi ({d.} 1171) glosses this as follows: "And immediately, as the Gospel of the Diatessaron testifies, a mighty light flashed upon Jordan and the river was girdled with white clouds, and there appeared his many hosts that were uttering praise in the air; and Jordan stood still from its flowing, though its waters were not troubled, and a pleasant odour therefrom was wafted." There is a strong Mandćan flavour about this gloss, which doubtless rested on early tradition. See F. C. Burkitt, Evangelion da-Mepharreshe (Cambridge, 1904), ii. 115. This is the Christian and not the M. 'cross,' as e.g. used in the baptismal ceremony, which is made of a number of long sticks or wands, the ends of which are stuck in the ground and the tops crossed one over the other to represent rays of light. 3 The Jordan is white for the MM.; the various colours signify heresies. 4 L. thinks that this stands for Paul, and this is very probably so. But at the same time he informs us that 'Paulus,' as Lorsback has shewn, is the equivalent of a Persian word meaning 'Deceiver.' It therefore may mean simply the Messiah Deceiver. 5 Evidently a 'font.' p. 52 1 The original suggests a head-covering. 2 We should have expected 'crosier.' Is there word-play in all these terms? 3 The celestial spheres. 4 The World-Mother-Spirit.