chapter two
When one of them falls ill or is bitten by a snake, he gets into water and
invokes the names in Elxai—heaven and earth, salt and water, winds and
“angels of righteousness” as they say, bread and oil—and begins to say,
“Help me, and rid me of my pain!”
(Pan. .., trans. Klijn & Reinink ).TheBook of Elchasaihas not survived but its basic contents can be
deduced from Hippolytus’, Eusebius’ and Epiphanius’ references.^29 It
was originally Jewish, probably written by a Mesopotamian Jew around
ce, during Trajan’s Parthian war. The book predicted an apocalyptic
war in the near future, “when three years of the reign of the emperor Tra-
janareagaincompleted,”anditpromisedthatthosewhotookanoath
in front of seven witnesses not to sin any more would be saved at the
Last Judgment. The protection was provided by a huge angel whose mea-
surements were given in detail. The angel was connected to, or perhaps
even named, the “Hidden Power” (Pan. ..; Aramaic:hayil kesai→
Elchasai). The huge angel-like figure was also known as Christ and “Great
King”—atleastintheversionthatwasavailabletoEpiphanius—but
Epiphanius was not able to say if the author was referring to “our Lord
Jesus Christ” or to someone else (Pan. ..). This comment also indi-
cates that there was nothing specifically Christian in the contents of the
book.
Gerard Luttikhuizen, who has studied theBook of Elchasaiexten-
sively,^30 argues that the book was later used by Transjordanian and West-
Syrian Jewish Christians who applied the oaths and witnessesof the book
to their purification rites and baptism(s). We learn from Hippolytus that
one representative of this branch of Jewish Christianity was Alcibiades,
from Apamea in Syria, who preached in Rome around ce Similar
“Elchasaite” Jewish-Christian missionaries were also known in Caesarea
some ten to twenty years later when Origen referred to them in his ser-
mononPsalm(Eusebius,Hist. eccl..).Hippolytus’reportonAlcib-
iades’ activities suggests that the rites prescribed for thoseafflicted by dis-
eases and animal bites were not described in theBook of Elchasaiitself,
although the oaths of these rites were sworn in the form—and in front
of the witnesses—described in the book. Obviously, their intention was
to call forth the protection of the “Hidden Power”/Christ. Alcibiades is
said to have written instructions on how to use the oaths, incantations
(^29) For an overview of the book, see Luttikhuizen .
(^30) See Luttikhuizen , .