*"-■ and Jesus took the form of Simon, a. id looked on, laughing at the folly and ignorance of the Jews ; after which lie ascended into heaven. But it is not certain, or even likely, thai the charge is well-founded. Ba- silides farther taught thai men ought not to confess
to him who was actually crucified, but to Jesus, who was sent to destroy the works of the makers of this world. The soul only was to be saved, not the body. The prophecies are from the makers of the world ; the law was given by the chief of them, who brought the people out of Egypt. It is said that the fol- lowers of Basilides partook of things offered to idols without scruple, and all kinds of lewdness were es- teemed indifferent, and that they practiced magic and incantations.
One of the most marked features of the system of Basilides was his distribution of the local positions of the three hundred and sixty -five heavens, according to the theories of mathematicians, the prince of which is called Abraxas, a name having in it the number three hundred and sixty-five. See Abraxas,
The system has been thus briefly stated: "Basili- des placed at the head of his system an incomprehen- sible God, whom he called non-existent (oi'K wv), and the ineffable (appi)Toc), the attributes of whom he made living personified powers, unfolded from his per- fection ; as the Spii-it, Reason, Thought, Wisdom, and Fccer, who were the executors of his wisdom. To these he added the moral attributes, showing the activ- ity of the Deity's almighty power, namely, Holiness and Peace. The number seven was a holy number with Basilides ; besides these seven powers, in accord- ance with the seven daj's of the week, he supposed seven similar beings in every stage of the spiritual world, and that there were, like the days of the year, three hundred and sixty-five such stages or regions, which were represented by the mystical number A bi-ax- as, the symbol of his sect. From this emanation- world sprung the divine principles of Light , Life, Soul, and Go d but there was an empire of evil, which as- saulted the divine principles, and forced a union of un- divine principles opposed to each, namely, Darkness to Light, Death to Life, Matter to Soul, Evil to Good. The Divine Principle, to obtain its original splendor, must undergo a process of purification before it can ef- fect its reunion with its original source ; hence arose a kind 'of metempsychosis, in which the soul passed through various human bodies, and even through an- imals, according to its desert, and this by way of pun- ishment, Basilides also supposed the passage of the soul through various living creatures, in order to a gradual development of spiritual life. The Creator of the world he supposed to be- an angel acting as an in- strument under the supreme God ; and to redeem hu- man nature, and to make it fit for communion with Himself and the higher world of spirits, He sent down the highest yEon (Nous) for the fulfilment of the work of redemption, who united himself to the man Jesus at his baptism in Jordan; but the Nous did not suffer, only the man Jesus." The sect flourished for a long time, and did not become extinct till the fourth cen- tury. The newly-discovered MS. of Hippolytus (q. v.) gives quite a thorough account of the doctrines of Ba- silides, which is set forth by Jacobi, in Badlidis Philos. GnosUci, etc. (Berlin, 1852), and Uhlhorn, Das Basili- dianiscke System (Gotting. 1855). See also Neander, Genet. EnUi-ichehmrj d. vorn. Gncstisclun Si/st. (Berl. 1818); Ch. Hist, i, 413 sq ; Mosheim, Ch. Hist, i, 143; Comm. i, 41G-424 ; Lardner, Works, viii, 349 sq. ; Mat- ter, Llist. du (iiiosticisme. ii, G3 ; Schaff, Ch. Llist. i, 227- 237; Hase, Church History, p. 694; Dorner, Person of Christ, Per. I, Epoch 1 ; Gieseler, in Stud. u. Kr'U. 1830, p. 403. Sec Gnosticism.
Basilisk. See Cockatrice.
Basin (in the old editions "bason"). The follow- ing words in the original are thus rendered in the English version of the Bible. See also Cur; Bowl; Dish, etc.
1. "5X, aggan', prop, a trough for washing, a laver (Exod. xxiv, 6); rendered "goblet" in Cant, vii, 2, where its shape is compared to the human navel ;
BASIRE
687
BASKET
"cup" in Isa. xxii, 24. In the New Test. (John xiii, 5), vmri)p, a ewer (q. v.).
2. "1123, kephor', from the etymology, a covered dish or urn, spoken of the golden and silver vessels of the sanctuary (1 Chron. xxviii, 17; Ezra i, 10; viii, 27).
3. p^?1?, mizrak', a vase from which to sprinkle any thing ; usually of the sacrificial bowls (and so oc- casionally translated); twice of wine-goblets ("bowl," Amos vi, 6 ; Zech. ix, 15). It seems to denote a me- tallic vessel. The basins for the service of the taber- nacle were of brass (Exod. xxvii, 3), but those of the Temple were of gold (2 Chron. iv, 8).
4. The term of the most general signification is "0, siph (of uncertain etymology; the Sept. renders vari- ously), spoken of the utensils for holding the blood of victims ("bason," Exod. xii, 22; Jer.lii, 10; "bowl," 2 Kings xii, 13), and the oil for the sacred candlestick ("bowl," 1 Kings vii, 50); also of "basons" for do- mestic purposes (2 Sam. xvii, 28), and specially a drinking-" cup" (Zech. xii, 2). The Targum of Jona- than renders it by ?SD, an earthenware v:tse, but in some of the above passages it could not have been of this material.