Iao

That early Christians and Jews from the same period were not doing what many modern Christians are doing: They were not replacing the name Yahuah every time they saw it in a text or when praying, they were using it. This is consistent with the present because whereas the school that has removed Yahuah (Yahweh's) name from the mouth of the Church and the Jewish people are not the only school out there. There are and always have been religious Jews, and Christians who have retained the use of the name. So today we have the Karaites and the practical kabbalists, Nazarene Jews and some Messianics among the Jews who do use the name, and we have all manner of Christians from Charles Haddon Spurgeon and his readers and others who use a form of the name, usually Jehovah. They could be using the form Yahweh, Y (J)ehovah, Yahuah or Yahwah but they were using a form of the name. In the time of Jesus they were using it in baptisms, temple ceremonies, they recognized it in the sign of the cross, they were using it in oaths (Samaritans) and in reading the scriptures and teaching it and using it to fight the devil.

The purpose of the research was to investigate the evidence that the memorial name of Israel's God Yahuwah/IAO was in use among the Christians in the early Church. The principal result of the research was that there is clear evidence that IAO operated as a transliteration of the Tetragram in what are the earliest strata of the LXX. This Old Testament (LXX) of the early Greek speaking Church was often cited by the New Testament writers. It was also noted that in some parts of the second and third century Church, the name IAO was in use in the Scriptures, in prayers, in Biblical commentaries and in baptisms. The appearance of a form of the Tetragram in a Christian baptism has consequences for the way scholars of the New Testament will read the book of Acts and other texts where kurios is supposed to have replaced the Tetragram in citations from the LXX.

The Adjuration Formulae in Greek Magical Papyri

This paper aims at defining the implications of the recurring usage of ὁρκίζω σε formulae – oral or written- inside de corpus of PGM ritual recipes. Despite of the impression given by the existing bibliography and the modern verb to exorcise, ὁρκίζειν and its compounds is not applied simply to exorcisms, but also – and more frequently - in cases where the assistance of a supernatural being is needed.  In which degree this practice involves a real oath procedure (ὅρκος)? Who are the divine/demonic powers addressed either as object of adjuration or as guarantying witnesses? Does their role rely on an implied hierarchy of the divine world?  Thorough study and comparison of the PGM adjurations with Jewish mystical literature as well as with the Greek archaic conception of god’s oath as a constraint and a boundary reveal some noteworthy aspects of the rhetoric and the ideology of the former.

The earliest Septuagint (LXX) copies—either closer to the "original " Greek translation (OG, " Old Greek ") or part of its subsequent revisions and recensions, dated from the pre-Christian to the Christian era and discovered in Palestine and Egypt—provide clear evidence for the continuous use of manuscripts that included Hebrew forms of the Tetragrammaton within the Greek sacred text. Astonishingly, 4QpapLXXLevb , known also as 4Q120, is the only surviving LXX manuscript that uses a Greek form of the Biblical name of God.

The object of this presentation concerns the question whether the use of Iao (Gr. Ιαω/Ἰαώ) in place of the sacred Tetragrammaton within this manuscript is part of the primary, original translational activity (part of a more general Hellenizing process) or rather part of a secondary, correctional Hebraizing tendency.

Our working hypothesis is that the utilization of the Ιαω theonym within the sacred text of the Greek Torah may have primarily urged from Hellenistic theological conceptions adopted by certain Jewish circles, especially at Egypt. The Maccabean revolt was an uprising against foreign oppression but also a civil conflict between (a) the orthodox and (b) the reformist parties within the Jewish people. These two trends were mutually fighting each other, struggling to keep the Hebrew self-identification from one side against the Hellenistic mental and cultural flood on the other side. In this presentation some of the resulting implications will be investigated.

Silver magic lamella, 3.94 x 2.60 cm (inv. 30664), in Berlin, acquired in 1917 from the widow of German diplomat in Israel and Syria, Julius Loeytved-Hardegg (1874-1917). Roman period amulet with magic names, moon / stars, including IAREOBAZ, IAO SABAOTH IAIOTH, ... IAIA IAO HO ON ("Iaia Iao, the-One-Who-Is" = Ex. 3:14) + Tetragrammaton IHIH, etc.

Co-authored with Jaime Curbera / Barbara Niemeyer

Studiul oferă o privire generală asupra fiinţei compozite Abrasax, simbol al gnosticismului basilidian din secolul II. Se iau în discuţie aspecte legate de originea numelui, relaţia cu numele divin IAO şi răspândirea acestui timp de gnosticism în Dacia.