The Gnostic Crucifixion

Hippolytus summarizes, doubtless imperfectly, from the Docetic document that lay before him, as follows:

"Moses refers to this God as the Fiery God who spake from the Batos, that is to say, from the Dark Air; for Batos is all the Air subjected to Darkness."

That is, presumably, the material Air, Air of the Darkness, as compared with the spiritual Air or Air of the Light. The Docetic writer, Hippolytus says, explained the use of the term as follows:

"Moses called it Batos, because, in their passing from Above, Below, all the Ideas of the Light [that is, the Light-sparks or spirits of men] used the Air as their means of passage (batos)."

In other words Batos, as Air, was the link between Light and Darkness, which Darkness was regarded as essentially a flowing or Watery chaos. The Batos was the Way Down and the Way Up of souls.

We are not, however, to suppose that the origin of thi