PISPAH
23G
PISTOJA
Chron. v, 2P>. which is supposed to he a river, and the same with the Ki/.il-l'/cn in Hyrcania. Colonel Ches- ln-y. from the results of extensive observations in Ar- menia, was "led to infer thai the rivers known by the
comparatively l< rn namt - of Halys and Araxes arc
those which, in the book of Genesis, have the nami - oi Pison and Gihon; and thai the country within the former is the land of Havilah, while thai which borders ii] ><>t i the latter is the »t ill more remarkable country of Cush" (ExpetLto Euphr.and Tigris, i, 267). — Smith. Faber incline- to make it the Absarus of Pliny, or Ba- tum of modern geographers, which rises in Armenia and flows into the Black Sea: but Dr. Hales considers the Araxes to have a better claim ; and this last specu- j lation (for nothing better can any of the assigned posi- tions be called I seems to derive support from the author of the apocrypha] hock of I'.oclesia-ticus. who, speaking of a wise man. says that "he tillelh all things with his wisdom," or spreads it on every side, "as Phison and Tigris" spread their waters "in the time of the new fruits," that is. when they are swollen by the melting of the winter snows, thus seeming to indicate a river rising in a cold and mountainous region. The men- tion oi gold as the special product of the vicinity in- clines to the view which regards the Pishon as identi- cal with the Phasis of antiquity; and the resemblance of names confirms this. See Eden.
Pis'pah (lleh. Pispah', riBOB, perh. expansion; Sept. <bao(f>a), the second of the three sons id'. tether, of the tribe of Asher (1 Chron. vii, 38). B.C. cir. 1017.
Pistachio. See Nut.
Pistis Sophia (i. e. the Believing Wisdom) is the name of a newly discovered Gnostic work, fully entitled Pistis Sophia, Opus Gnosticum e codice manuscripta ' 'qp- tico-Latine vertit M. G. Schwartze, edidit ./. //. Peter- mann I Berl. 1851 |. The date is doubtful; it evidently belongs to the period whenValentinian Gnosticism had
readied LtS lull de\ elopment aboul the close, therefore.
of the 2d century. The general dogmas oftheValen- tinian system are found in it. though half buried in a luxurious and monotonous vegetation. The theme is always the same- a gnosis, or hidden doctrine, which brings salvation by simple illumination. Jesus Christ returns from i he heavens into which he had reascended, and appears to his disciples on the .Mount of olives, to reveal to them the sublime mysteries of the truth. They form around him the inner and privileged circle of the spiritual ones, whose charge it is to transmit this hid- den manna to the pneumatic men of future fenerations. All these revelations revolve around the destiny of Sophia, who here symbolizes, far more clearly than an g the early Yaleiitinians, the melancholy con- dition of the human soul, which, as the punishment for having sought to overpass the limits of its original sphere, is tormented by the cosmical powers, among which we recognise the Demiurgus, He produces, i>\ emanation, a terrible power with a lion face, which,
BUrrounded by Other similar emanation-, terrifies the
Hold.' and ardent exiled Sophia, even in the dark re- gions of matter, flashing in lore her eyes a false and misguiding brightness. Nevertheless she doe- not lose courage; she still hopes and believes. Hence she de- serves the name of the Believing Wisdom. Twelve times she invokes the Deliverer in -train- oi passionate and truly Bublime supplication; these .are her twelve Nunc cujus Trvivpa alacre, progreditor,
ut dicat Bolutii m duodecimal fitravoiaq irioreuic ao-
rti'm ." Pist. Soph. p. Tin. Her deliverance is accom- plished l>> mean- of an equal niimher of interventions on the part of Jesus. A- the fall, or sin. is nothing more than an obscuration produced by matter, so salvation
is simply a return to the light This division of the
lameiiiai - of Sophia and the interventions oi J sus
pradiices a wearisome amount of repetition; the aspi- rations of the soul are. however, rendered with a force all the more poetic because bo largely derived from
the Old Testament Tn particular, all the penitential Psalms are applied to Sophia, being wrested from their natural meaning.
"O Lifrlit of lights." she exclaims, "thou whom I have seen from the beginning, listen to the cry of my repeuting" (Lumen lumiuum, cui hriartwa iude ati initio, .-mil i igitnr nunc, hiineii. ineaiu fitrdvotav, ibid. "Save me, O
Light, from my own thoughts, which are evil. I have fall- en Into the infernal regions. False lights have led me astray, and now I am lost in these chaotic depths. I can- : my wim's and return to my place, for the evil powers Bent forth by my enemy, and most of all this non- fat ed power, hold me captive." I have cried for help, hut my voice dies in the night I have lifted up mj the heights, that thou mayest come to my aid, 0 Light Bat I have found none but hostile powers, who n my affliction, and seek to increase it by patting oat the spark ot thine which is in me. Now, O Light of troth, in the sj ni pi icity of my heart I have followed the fal-e bright- ness w hich I mistook for thine. My sin is wholly before thee. Leave me not to suffer longer, for I have cried to