views that he taught the transmigration of souls (Origen in Ep. ad Rom. lib. v.; Opp. de la Rue iv. 549; cf. Clemens, Excerpta ex Theodoto, § 28). Isidorus set up celibacy, though in a modified form, as the ideal of the perfect (Clemens, Strom. iii. 1 § 1, &c.) Clemens accuses Basilides of a deification of the Devil (θειάζειν τὸν διάβολον), and regards as his two dogmas that of the Devil and that of the transmigration of souls (Strom. iv. 12 § 85: cf. v. 11 § 75). It is remarkable too that Isidorus held the existence of two souls in man, a good and a bad (Clemens, Strom. ii. 20 113); with which may be compared the teaching of Mani about the two souls, which it is impossible to follow F, Ch. Baur in excluding,[1] and also the teaching of the Pistis Sophia (translated by C. Schmidt, p. 182, &c.). According to Clemens (Strom. ii. 20 § 112), the followers of Basilides spoke of πνεύματά τινα προσηρτημένα τῇ λογικῇ φυχῇ κατά τινα τάραχον καὶ σύγχυσιν ἀρχικήν: that is to say, here also is assumed an original confusion and intermingling. Epiphanius too tells us that the teaching of Basilides had its beginning in the question as to the origin of evil (Haer. xxiv. 6).
Now, of this sharply-defined dualism there is scarcely a trace in the system described by the Fathers of the Church. It is therefore only with caution that we can use them to supplement our knowledge of the true Basilides. The doctrine described by them that from the supreme God (the innatus pater) had emanated 365 heavens with their spirits, answers originally to the astronomical conception of the heavens with their 365 daily aspects (Irenaeus i. 24. 7; Trecentorum autem sexaginta quinque caelorum locales positiones distribuunt similiter ut mathematici). When, therefore, the supreme God is called by the name Αβρασαξ or Αβραξας, which contains the numerical value 365, it is worthy of remark that the name of the Persian god Mithras (Μείθρας) also was known in antiquity to contain this numerical value (Jerome in Amos 3; Opp. Vallarsi VI. i. 257). Speculations about the Perso-Hellenistic Mithras appear to have been transferred to the Gnostic Abraxas. Further, if the Pater innatus be surrounded by a series of (from five to seven) Hypostases (according to Irenaeus i. 24. 3; Νοῦς, Λόγος, Φρόνησις, Σοφία, Δύναμις; according to Clemens, Strom. iv. 25 § 164, Δικαιοσύνη and Ἐιρήνη may perhaps be added), we are reminded of the Ameshas-spentas which surround Ahura-Mazda. Finally, in the system of Basilides, the (seven ?) powers from whom this world originates are accepted as the lowest emanations of the supreme God. This conception which is repeated in nearly every Gnostic system, of (seven) world-creating angels, is a specifically oriental speculation. The seven powers which create and rule the world are without doubt the seven planetary deities of the later Babylonian religion. If, in the Gnostic systems, these become daemonic or semi-daemonic forces, this points to the fact that a stronger monotheistic religion (the Iranian) had gained the upper hand over the Babylonian, and had degraded its gods to daemons. The syncretism of the Babylonian and the Persian religion was also the nursing-ground of Gnosticism. When, then, Basilides identified the highest angel of the seven, the creator of the worlds, with the God of the Jews, this is a development of the idea which did not occur until late, possibly first in the specifically Christian circles of the Gnostics. We may note in this connexion that the system of Basilides ascribes the many battles and quarrels in the world to the privileged position given to his people by the God of the Jews.[2]
It is at this point that the idea of salvation is introduced into the system. The confusion in the world has meanwhile risen to such a pitch that the supreme God sends his Nous, who is also called Christ, into the world (Irenaeus i. 24. 4). According to Clemens, the Saviour is termed πνεῦμα διακονούμενον (Strom. ii. 8 § 36) or διάκονος (Excerpta ex Theodoto, § 16). It is impossible certainly to determine how Basilides conceived the relation of this Saviour to Jesus of Nazareth. Basilides himself (Strom. iv. 12 § 83) knows of an earthly Jesus and denies the principle of his sinlessness (see above). According to the account given by Irenaeus, the Saviour is said to have appeared only as a phantasm; according to the Excerpta ex Theodoto, 17, the Diakonos descended upon Jesus at His baptism in the form of a dove, for which reason the followers of Basilides celebrated the day of the baptism of Jesus, the day of the ἐπιφανεία. as a high festival (Clemens, Strom. i. 21 § 18). The various attempts at combination probably point to the fact that the purely mythical figure of a god-saviour (Heros) was connected first by Basilides with Jesus of Nazareth. As to what the conception of Basilides was of the completion of the process of redemption, the available sources tell us next to nothing. According to an allusion in Clemens, Strom. ii. 8 § 36, with the mission of the Saviour begins the great separation of the sexes, the fulfilment and the restoration of all things. This agrees with the beginning of the speculation of Basilides. Salvation consists in this, that that which was combined for evil is once more separated.
Among the later followers of Basilides, actual magic played a determining part. They hand down the names of the rulers of the several heavens as a weighty secret. This was a result of the belief, that whoever knew the names of these rulers would after death pass through all the heavens to the supreme God. In accordance with this, Christ also, in the opinion of these followers of Basilides, was in the possession of a mystic name (Caulacau＝קַו לָקַו Jes. xxviii. 10) by the power of which he had descended through all the heavens to earth, and had then again ascended to the Father. Redemption, accordingly, could be conceived as simply the revelation of mystic names. In this connexion the name Abraxas and the Abraxas gems must be remembered. Whether Basilides himself had already given this magic tendency to Gnosticism cannot be decided.
Basilides, then, represents that form of Gnosticism that is closest to Persian dualism in its final form. His doctrine is most closely related to that of Satornil (Saturninus). From most of the other Gnostic sects, with the exception perhaps of the Jewish-Christian Gnosticism, he is distinguished by the fact that with him the figure of the fallen female god (Sophia Achamoth), and, in general, the idea of a fall within the godhead is entirely wanting. So far as we can see, on the other hand, Basilides appears actually to represent a further development of Iranian dualism, which later produced the religious system of Mani.
Accounts of the teaching of Basilides are to be found in all the more complete works on Gnosticism (see bibliography to the article Gnosticism). The original sources are best reproduced in Hilgenfeld, Ketzergeschichte des Urchristentums (1884), pp. 195-230. See also Krüger, article “Basilides,” in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie, ed. 3. (W. Bo.)
BASILISK (the Βασιλίσκος of the Greeks, and Tsepha (cockatrice) of the Hebrews), a name given by the ancients to a horrid monster of their own imagination, to which they attributed the most malignant powers and an equally fiendish appearance. The term is now applied, owing to a certain fanciful resemblance, to a genus of lizards belonging to the family Iguanidae, the species of which are characterized by the presence, in the males, of an erectile crest on the head, and a still higher, likewise erectile crest—beset with scales—on the back, and another on the long tail. Basiliscus americanus reaches the length of one yard; its colour is green and brown, with dark crossbars, while the crest is reddish. This beautiful, strictly herbivorous creature is rather common amidst the luxuriant vegetation on the banks of rivers and streams of the Atlantic hot lands of Mexico and Guatemala. The lizards lie upon the branches of trees overhanging the water, into which they plunge at the slightest alarm. Then they propel themselves by rapid strokes of the hind limbs, beating the water in a semi-erect position and letting the long rudder-like tail drag behind. They are universally known as pasa-rios, i.e. ferrymen.
BASIM, a town of India, in the Akola district, Berar, 52 m. S.S.E. from Akola station of the Great Indian Peninsula railway. Pop. (1901) 13,823. Until 1905 it was the headquarters of the district of Basim, which had an area of 2949 sq. m.; but in that
- ↑ The materials are in Baur, Das manichäische Religionssystem (1831), p. 162, &c.
- ↑ Whether the myth of the creation of the first man by the angels, which recurs in many Gnostic systems, found a place also in the system of Basilides, cannot be determined with any certainty. Philastrius, however, says: hominem autem ab angelis factum asserit, while according to Epiphanus xxiv. 2, men are created by the God of the Jews.
