A discourse uttered by Apa Seba, the presbyter and anchorite, concerning the mystery of God that is in the letters of the alphabet, which none of the ancient philosophers was able to reveal… for each one of us who believe in Christ to hear this mystery which is concealed in the letters of the alphabet…
An original Coptic text attributed to Saint Sabas of Palestine (439–532), giving an insight into an early Christian approach to the mystical knowledge of the alphabet or grammatosophy, one of the foundational sacred sciences in Gnostic and Kabbalistic lore, known in Arabic as ilm al-huruf. The English translation was published in five parts:
With thanks to Dr Anthony Alcock for the translation, and to Roger Pearse for making it widely available.
Click here to read a review of a recent German edition of a newly found Greek original of the same text.
For the original series of articles published in Le Museon in 1901, including the original Coptic and a French translation, click here (18MB PDF).
For a general article about the text, follow this link.
