Editing Abraxas (section)

=== Greek ===
* Wendelin discovers a compound of the initial letters, amounting to 365 in numerical value, of four Hebrew and three Greek words, all written with Greek characters: {{Transliteration|grc|ab, ben, rouach, hakadōs; sōtēria apo xylou}} ("Father, Son, Spirit, holy; salvation from the cross").<ref name="Funk and Wagnalls Company">{{Cite book |last1=Herzog |first1=Johann Jakob |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qxEMAAAAIAAJ |title=The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge: Embracing Biblical, Historical, Doctrinal, and Practical Theology and Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Biography from the Earliest Times to the Present Day |last2=Hauck |first2=Albert |last3=Jackson |first3=Samuel Macauley |last4=Sherman |first4=Charles Colebrook |last5=Gilmore |first5=George William |date=1908 |publisher=Funk and Wagnalls Company |pages=17 |language=en}}</ref>
*According to a note of Isaac de Beausobre's, [[Jean Hardouin]] accepted the first three of these, taking the four others for the initials of the Greek ''{{Lang|grc-latn|anthrōpoussōzōn hagiōi xylōi}}'', "saving mankind by the holy cross".<ref name="Funk and Wagnalls Company"/>
* [[Isaac de Beausobre]] derives Abraxas from the Greek ''{{Lang|grc-latn|habros}}'' and ''{{Lang|grc-latn|saō}}'', "the beautiful, the glorious Savior".<ref name="Funk and Wagnalls Company"/>

Perhaps the word may be included among those mysterious expressions discussed by [[Adolf von Harnack]],{{sfn|Harnack|1891|pp=86–89}} "which belong to no known speech, and by their singular collocation of vowels and consonants give evidence that they belong to some mystic dialect, or take their origin from some supposed divine inspiration".

The Egyptian author of the book ''[[De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum|De Mysteriis]]'' in reply to [[Porphyry (philosopher)|Porphyry]] (vii. 4) admits a preference of 'barbarous' to vernacular names in sacred things, urging a peculiar sanctity in the languages of certain nations, as the Egyptians and [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]]; and Origen (''Contra Cels''. i. 24) refers to the 'potent names' used by Egyptian sages, [[Persia]]n [[Magi]], and Indian [[Brahmin]]s, signifying deities in the several languages.{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}}