ABRAXAS, or ABRASAXAS, a mystical word, sup posed by St Jerom and other writers to denote the supreme God of the Basilidian heretics, though it is the opinion of Irenxus that it was the first of their 365 heavens, or the prince of the angels that inhabited them. According to Beausobre, tt is derived from cts'edc and seacd, which may be made to signify magnifi cent Saviour. See Aloft faucon's Pal.rographia Grxca, lib. ii. cap. 8.
The term ?lbraxas is also the name of small statues of plates of metal or stones, on which are engraven fi gures of the Egyptian deities, combined with Zoroas tric and Jewish symbols, and a strange mixture of He brew, Phmnician, Greek, Coptic, and Latin characters. In the PaIxographia Grxca of Montfaucon, may be seen engravings of a great number of these gems, which he has arranged into different classes. Their origin and use have been much disputed among anti quarians. Montfaucon is of opinion, along with St Jerom, that Abraxas was the god of the Basilidians ; and that the gems of that name were amulets worn by these and other heretics in the early ages of the church.
Bcausobre and L3 rdner, however, have examined care fully- the various specimens given by Montfaucon, and have shown pretty clearly, that they are of heathen origin ; that Abraxas was not the god of the Basili dians ; that this term signifies nothing but the sun, which was never worshipped by these heretics ; that the figures are for the most part Egyptian ; that there is no evidence of their having belonged to the Basili dians ; that those which have the words lao, Sabuot4, Łec. upon them, were the works of magicians who never professed the Christian faith ; and that some of these figures derived their from the Sinonians and Ophites, who did not even profess christianity. Treatises on the abraxas have been published by Mo carius and J. Chiflet, to whom Montfaucon has been indebted for many of his figures. Several of these gems are in the National Library a; Paris, Beauso here's History (.2f the Manichrans, vol. ii. p. 55 ; and Lardnrr's Works, vol. ix. p. 190. (7v)