Descriptions:
Video Description
This workshop begins with method rather than sermon. Ammon Hillman has the readers work in the TLG, the database of Greek texts, and he starts with a proximity search that joins sphragis (σφραγίς), seal, to the root pharmak-, drug, on the argument that the Christian seal was treated as a medicine. The search returns twelve sources, and the hour uses them to claim that sealing the forehead belonged to medicinal preparations, not to a theological symbol standing alone.
The main hunt is for Satan, and the lesson is that the figure will not be caught by searching only that word. The group follows Satanael and then Beliar, a variant of the same great dragon, and the episode reads the Acts of John, including its exorcisms and a spirit named Kunops, the dog-faced one, a name the lexicon does not record. The students in the room are put to work sight-reading, and the Greek environment of each text is what the session says matters most.
The older and stranger uses come next. The word satan appears outside Christian literature, in Theophrastus, where it names the medlar tree and its astringent, diuretic fruit, and the episode sits the Testaments of the Patriarchs beside the Book of Enoch, where an archon called Satan rules among giants and the spirits of porneia (πορνεία), the unclean and idolatrous kind. Galen’s pneuma (πνεῦμα), the vital spirit, is pulled into the same thread when a reader asks how a person can be baptized in it. The workshop closes by assigning everyone to find Satan for themselves, because the language hides the figure beneath more than one name.
Full Video Transcript
right let’s get started i would like to thank everyone who has come tonight i appreciate that
that is makes me feel great and for that i feel responsible to show you what the workshop can do
so tonight we’re going to deep dive and i want us to be able to really get somewhere so i’ve
asked several of you. I’m going to start with Ion. Ion, do me a favor. Have you been looking
at Satan at all? Have you been doing other things, sir? Give me a report. Yes, I’ve been looking at
Satan. I’ve been looking at some of the apocryphal texts and also Byzantine stuff, trying to look for
that delicious satan oh god that is so sexy i love it give me the now give me the way that
you’re doing this are you doing this on tlg ion yes okay so people were doing searches on tlg
right this is not this is not rocket science right people if i can do it anybody can do we
switch this over to TLG. Can I just go like, hoo-ha? Fantastic. Boom. You really shouldn’t
have to be here, Chewy. I should be able to do it on my own. Keep Ion up there. Ion, I’m going to
ask you a few questions. So, oh, look what I did here, Ion. Oh, God. Tell me what you think about
this, will you? Do you see what I have searched for? I’ve done a proximity search, people. For
those of you who aren’t nerds this is going to get shaky i’ve put in the greek sprague and pharmak
that is seal and drug because people don’t realize the christian seal is a drug and boom
what do we get how many sources we got 12 out of 12 12 out of 12 people this is fantastic look at
this look in the yellow ion read that in the yellow would you yeah that’s that seal people
right oh that seal you know what it’s made of it’s made of a drug this person’s tasting it
love it look people look what sources do we have phil orcas had you ever heard of him no i hadn’t
told you about him had you because there’s hardly anything but here you go ion what do you think of
that four to three bc historian does that get you going i love the jacobi fragments look through
them a lot oh my god is everybody here ion he’s pulling it out big time good job that’s fantastic
okay make me look good plutarch plutarch it’s in his biography one of his biographies right
Galen, what is Galen talking about here?
Aion, what is the, what’s in the yellow?
Spharmacon Helemnia Sphragis.
It’s the, looks like the Lemnian seal.
Correct, correct.
And of course, Galen is talking about that
because that’s, you know, he’s into that.
That’s the princess, not princess.
That’s the priestess of Lemnos.
Oh God.
so I want to look up sproggies here this is before we jump into Satan I’ve got
I’ve got you here for Satan but want people to also see how the research
works oh oh hey people ion is going to look at this definition with me and just
peruse it and tell me I know what you can get out of it do they have this okay
fantastic what is a spragice i’m saying seal signet so they’re talking maybe a ring or a stone
for a ring or a gem or any mark even a wound yeah yeah tablet at the very bottom tablet of
lemnian medicinal earth yeah some kind of impression right it’s almost like there’s an
image involved and you know what’s going on with the seal yeah dude this is not something in story
story land you know what i mean tablet of lemony and medicinal are certified as such
by bearing an impression of the seal of the lemony and priestess of artemis hey tell me something
have you noticed you said you were reading some apocryphal hoo-ha did you have you noticed artemis
is heavy she’s well to be honest i haven’t run into her quite yet okay oh god just today
you’re taking okay just today let me put something more interesting just today ion i was reading oh
god it’s the axe of john have you read the axe of john the apostle you haven’t if you haven’t seen
artemis because she is in there as well as the acts of philip a lot of the apocryphal acts have
have all of this gorgeous um art artemis cult that they’re fighting in asia minor
right it’s lovely you didn’t know jesus sent out 70 people to fucking kill people did you
that’s why they took it out here’s the here’s the lemnian seals again are we sharing more lemnian
seals though we got a lot of it oh shit look at this ion spragida chrysantes do you like that are
we christing oh yeah what are we christing that seal right people don’t you understand it’s a
Pharmacon. You fucking people. You’ve got it. What is this from? This is from Hippolytus,
the refutation of all heresies. Right? Look, people. Look, people. It’s the power of Pharmakeia,
baby. Look in the blue. Power of Pharmakeia. Oh, God. Lovely. Those Christians. Right? What
madelaine say ah fantastic it’s the seal baby where’s that seal going here’s john damascene
ayan where do you put the seal do you remember this from the cult that you were in oh yeah it
goes the other way cross the forehead across the forehead yeah and why do you want to seal
the forehead because that medicine is going to be running into your eyes now you have placed
or your priestess has placed a mask upon your face that mask is not like skin or something
it’s just a special cream to protect your skin against the burn now your eyes are a different
story oh god this is the you fucking people look at number 16 oh god forget this forget this let’s
go to the devil devil now people i’m gonna put a search in son of a i hope it doesn’t kick me
off people i’ve been using it too much today look what i’m putting in ion satan i’m gonna go more
specific. What have you been putting in your searches, Zion? Just Satan, I think. Just Satan.
Okay. I want the lesson today to be we start with Satan. In order to get all of Satan, we’ve got to
branch. That’s right. We’re looking for groups, clusters. Here’s Satanael. Watch this. If I put
in Satanael, how many do I get? People, do you think I’d get 43? Oh, God. Where am I going?
first oh look here it is here it’s the acts of of john now i just started people just so you know
we’re on the up and up here i just started this today right i knew the acts of john existed i’ve
quoted from it before but um i’ve never taken the time to sit down and read from beginning to end
so i started that today and i got about 30 pages into it and i’m completely fucking blown away
because i got through the strangulation of the little boys and girls i wouldn’t believe what
these fucking christians are doing it’s amazing look there’s the gospel of bart have you ever
read the gospel of bart ion looked into it a little bit and i like that one and then number
four has been intriguing me lately i just started looking in into the life of saint marina of
antioch she’s doing some weird stuff and she dies a virgin yeah what the hell is satanael doing
right in this with the ladies oh god hey look at number five there’s michael sell us people look
look what we’re doing pull madelaine up to let her talk in a second i’m going to pull brian in
if he’s here look people there’s michael sellis for my students
there’s your latin on the working of demons people this is how they work there’s a lot of
that they are going on and who’s involved satanael now people you don’t have to go read all
of michael sellis you don’t have to read this whole document what you have to do is you’re
working with the greek as you’re saying what environments are these words found in right i’m
sure that i’m sure that ion is probably starting to form those skills brian are you there he’s not
there brian oh god is he he was give you a second brian put down that bear and tell me sir number
six with michael salas um in all your work and you’ve done stuff as early as you’ve done stuff
as early as the homeric hymns all the way down to you know a good classical euripides you know
what i mean this is michael salas who is a scholar from the 11th on odomini but i just want you to
take a look brian at his greek and i just want you to tell me it’s not foreign yet at the same
time it has a different feel you can feel i want people to be feeling people who are my greek
students reading I want them to be feeling their way through these
different periods this is damn this is like the 2,000 year spread that I was
talking about people so that’s a real that’s a real advantage it’s a real
advantage here now we’re getting 11 12 hang on Brian I have a question for you
just give me a second okay tell me something in this acts of john pasta my my greek reading
students right i apen look at the end of the first line kai apen top now we’re just trying
to get a read of the general environment does somebody want to translate that not everybody
no no and he saw the penelma right now the spirit said the pasta hey
what is pasta hate doing on this ion it’s like all the power yeah all the power
belonging to satanael it’s katoikei it what it lives there it abides there something like that
it functions. There’s this idea of functionality, katoikeo, like that’s where it operates.
I mean, look at these words, people. Kai, keep going, Ion Kai, suntoxis. What is suntoxis?
Now here, before you translate, look at this. Look at this. I know you’re doing this as sight,
so everybody who’s sitting there who can’t do this, I appreciate the fact that this is dojo.
soon toxis i’m gonna look it up people soon toxis while it sounds like syntax oh god ion you’re so
ahead of the game right right people what is syntax of putting together an order and arranging
right a system look at number two a system take your mind from and what is this from it’s from
soon tato if you’re athenian you know what i mean fuck that it all comes from cake crops
Right?
Oh, God.
Syntaxis from syntata.
Right?
What are you doing when you’re ordering up your things you got in front of you?
You’re creating an organization.
You got a composition, some kind of treatise, a grammatical putting together of words.
That’s where we’re getting our syntax.
That’s what Ion picked up on right away, which he should.
Covenant, previous arrangement.
Pension.
Look, your pension.
people do you know if you looked up a hebrew lexicon and found their words they would have
one word definitions do you understand what i’m fucking talking about all of these people are
authors plutarch demosthenes right eskenes oh god ion any comments what is syntaxis composition
arrangements. Yeah, yeah. So
there are arrangements in this
place where dwells the power of satanael.
There are syntaxis. And what do these apply
to? They apply netapanton ton archonton.
All that rules? Yes, right? Who are
those ruling powers, right?
They are tied up in the dwelling power of satanael.
And who else?
He mes met autu.
Oh, God.
Are we getting in there, people?
I love this.
This is crazy shit, dog.
Right?
Right?
Oh, God.
What did I just say?
People, ke crops.
That’s my Athenian great-great-great-great-grandfather.
Right?
and he was one of the founding
kings of this fucking place
right now this is not
Kekrops this is
Koolops does anybody
want um Brian
you um look that up
the dog eyed
oh wait it was the dog eyed yes Brian
did you hear that
oh god
people look what are we doing
this word you’re not going to find it
if you look it up in the lexicon
So Brian, who is an advanced fucking student like Ion and like Madalena, right?
Except he’s got a lot of experience.
He’s getting more experience under his belt.
So he’s sharpening himself.
Cuts deep.
Kunops.
Dog face.
Dog visual stream.
Look it up.
You’re not going to find it in the lexicon.
Okay?
Who is this Kunops?
it’s capitalized for a reason listen to me what is a one of you greeklings do you remember
catharsis is it’s like uh cleansing or purification yeah yeah yeah purification
right cleansing exactly both correct that’s catharsis this is a cathartic oh god an a
cathartic spirit. Have you seen her? Did you see her in the, do you remember in the bar when she
was sitting there? She walked over with all the lights flashing, possessed by an a cathartic
spirit. You understand? John orders you, John the apostle, you’re not gonna go out any longer and
injure for the sake of venturing people oh god not in this place so look what he’s doing people
he’s casting out demons look at the end of the sentence it’s an order i’m ordering you to
oh god no longer man you can’t be here this topos is not your topos
does somebody want to help me translate this last line
and immediately
immediately what happened
what do you think that means
any of you three who are mic’d you can
you can speak in
what is somebody who’s
it’s like a plight
something like that
it’s something bad isn’t it
yeah grievous yeah uh-huh something a little bit shameful or disgraceful ugly this isn’t just caca
bad this is poneron that which you don’t want other people knowing about because it doesn’t
paint you in a good light that kind of that spirit ex elfin
what did he do he fled people right oh do you understand what’s going on this is
look people this is what i mean when you read a text that wants you fucking scanning it
and my students
sent another spirit who is this dog face son of a bitch
he came to John
what does he do
spoke to him
he addressed him
why’d you come here he says
for the sake of what
now people notice I’ve not been looking up words
notice I’ve not been looking up words
if this were many many other authors I would have to be looking up words why
what is going on why are we reading this at sight so quickly and the grad
students are like fuck you slow down right no that’s exactly what you should
be doing run behind me until you can catch me
Are we back to the archons? What is Cunops doing? He’s sending out one of the archons.
Right. To what? To kill you. Okay people, you see what’s going on? For any words that stick out to
you of significance i’m showing you how to do this right right oh god we’re going to stay in these
daimon these daimones right we’re going to keep with these daimones right oh got myron in there
oh what are we doing he’s sending out other poonops is sending out other two more of these
archons to you to kill you did you know that’s how people let me just stop for a minute did you know
that’s how the yeah go ahead stop screenshot did you know this is how the world of christianity
existed the invisible that is around you put the messages up so i can read
the invisible is this is it up okay people type messages if you want the invisible world around
you is full of this combat, right? Christians are trained in the seeing of the invisible, the aoratos,
and trained in the manipulation of it, right? So remember these people are being called magi. John
at this point is called a magus by everyone he interacts with. There is no question that he has
learned the drug craft, the sex craft, and the magic from Jesus, right? Now Peter is still just
not, he’s just on the cusp of adulthood. So all the other younglings, all the other apostles,
Do you know how they address Peter, who’s the oldest, at just being able to take the adult tax of 20?
Do you know how they address him?
Patia.
Not like the pope, not like a priest, but like a bunch of kids who are the flock of the rock.
Right?
God.
It’s gorgeous.
Right, Father?
Yes.
I just got it.
Right?
Paul said you couldn’t see God with human eyes alone.
probably needed some purple you know that’s how you get to the third heaven right right
peter’s the one who’s always naked on the ship right fantastic fantastic okay people see what
we did i put a couple of students on the hot on the hot seat right there as we looked for text
let’s go back now to satan and let me do what i’ve asked people to do and i just want to people
share and i’m going to start with madalena madalena have you had a chance to put um do
you have first of all you have access to the tlg and if you do have you been looking for satan
i don’t have access to the tlg but um yeah yeah okay that’s a problem how about brian
brian do you have access i do there’s sometimes where i don’t get the same results every time but
um i was just i sorted by date and the one that came up with um earliest was uh theophrastus
actually and not the satan the figure but the word satan is in um one that he uses described
uh it’s called the medlar tree and the fruit of it is actually um used in medicines of all kinds
and it’s an astringent and um it’s uh a diuretic as well so there’s an action happening there and
Outside of sort of the Christian literature, that was the only time that I saw the word, the letters sigma, alpha, tau, alpha, new outside of like proper names that were coming from Persia.
And you said that’s Theophrastus, correct?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Who is Theophrastus?
He’s the student of Aristotle, for those of us who were here who don’t recognize him.
his his works are not commonly referred to you can you can catch classes off guard
by talking about his he’s got two giant multi-volume works on plants he’s a botanist
crazy into the botany so as soon as you hear theophrastus think oh okay um it’s gonna be
some botany just like you heard from brian right right fantastic ion do you have the whole very
good brian very good that’s see what i mean people now brian knows something nobody else does right
just like we’re learning ion do you have the whole tlg yeah i did buy it yep did you buy it people
it’s like 140 how much is it now i think it was last time i paid it was like how much yep 140 and
snail mail you have to send a check to uc irvine yes and and then you gotta email them and make
sure they got it which is what i do right but they were very good with me people and letting me
letting me use it even though my date for resubscribing was up because i had a big
project so i begged them and they let me use it for an extra period of time so i appreciate that
and if you are at all going into the study of greek so i recommend this for all my students
this is your tool if you don’t have this you suck right i mean seriously you will read so much if
you go ahead and fork over to the people at the university um go ahead and give them this and
i hope we’re able to flood there everybody who’s out there at lady babylon is going to hear this
later um if you have an extra 140 dollars this investment is fantastic and you’re doing any
greek whatsoever okay because guess what now listen they’ll kick you off though have you
you been kicked off yet ion yeah hell yeah now what what the it’s something when you do too many
searches in a row or something it says you’re you’re you know you’re wasting it but i’m gonna
and it makes you slow down but this is a great way to get text like look at this so we start here in
this one the septuagint yeah satan the septuagint we all knew that right but look here number four
The Testaments of the Patriarchs.
Other students that I’ve had who are here who want to chime in, tell Chewy that you want to talk.
And in the gallery, there’s four or five of you who are in my advanced reading group, right?
I want you to pipe in, please.
Chewy, pick them up when you see them.
This is the testament that includes Pate.
Pate, I want to hear from Pate as well.
this is the testament of the patriarchs how many people have heard of the test
testaments of the patriarchs the 12 patriarchs to say in the chat will you people how many me
wretch of course because you study this stuff wrench nice job madelaine has heard of it yep
ion yep rich no okay good rich good skimmed over it right see somebody’s noticed it out there but
yeah they’re not really diving into it you know what i mean yes yes okay jason wants to share some
goodies fantastic uh uh ofix sotera yes right heard of them from previous youtube right so from
from somebody on youtube right was talking about these probably me right because people don’t read
these testaments of the patriarchs that’s not canonical it’s not canonical people are you people
nuts right second bc what do you think about the date brian it says second bc to 83 what kind of
feeling does that give you not a very good one it’s a lot of a lot of time yeah it’s a little
bit worrisome right now but this goes along with what i was talking to you about before when i said
notice that I’ve been looking up a lot of words right if this were known as I’d
be looking up every third word because that’s how he is these not at all why
because these are falling within kind of a late Hellenistic early Koine Greek in
a while you’ll get something that’s heavily Koine so we know that their
texts can be added to over time, right?
And that’s what it looks like is going on
with the Testaments of the Patriarchs.
It looks like people are actually adding to them.
So the language is changing just the slightest bit,
you know, from the Hellenistic to the Koine,
and getting kind of rotten.
The Koine gets rotten the longer you go, right?
and that’s why people like galen are trying to pump it up with some good old-fashioned attic hey
uh madelena who is this what is this in bibloid and how would you translate that
the book of enoch yeah look where we are yeah well and who is who who is enoch
he is to decay you is that just yes right he’s saying the just right
who is our archon our archon is who satan do you understand where the giants are and what
they’re doing people i’m telling you this stuff just pops right out of the text somebody translate
one of my students you bitches jason who’s jason was there he wanted a shot now all i want you to
say jason is i want you to repeat this phrase and tell me how you would translate give it a shot
in blue all right it looks like it says ta new mata tastes porneas this is this is the spirit
of the pornea right of the the shameful of the unclean thing the sex the idolatrous
the idolatrous semen producing seed producing orgiastic orgy sex these are the spirits
of that pornea don’t you understand now she wants their ponta it’s all of them
what oh my god people the testimony the testaments of the patriarchs is scary
notice those spirits right can you say something on penelma because galen tells me that sperma is
penelma right do you see the vital essence that’s right listen to ion preach the gospel of galen
right now how are you ion how the fuck did you are you picking up shit from this ancient dead
author i mean yeah lovely yeah i went looking for the penelma because i’m like how come you
can be baptized in it what’s that what does that have to do you know right and then all of a sudden
i’m reading on pseudo aristotle about elephants and their seed and how there’s oh look there’s
penelma in that yeah what right and the more ion reads the more he follows this rabbit trail right
right down into the hole he’s going to come into a world that’s totally new and he’s going to have
an understanding because now he’s a pioneer now he can tell your pastor or your priest exactly what
the fuck these texts are talking about because he’s seen it right he’s developed an understanding
of it, right?
Ah, I love it, right?
Right?
Look at the
testaments the patriarchs are telling us to do.
Hey,
kiddies, fear the Lord
and proceed
without
Satan
and his spirit.
You’re supposed
to come together. Let’s all get together,
right? So that we’re
away from satan and his powers right don’t don’t you’ve gotta you gotta avoid him right
people look at the just look at the greek look at the greek here right this is the death without
the men all right this is not on the one hand on the other but it’s pretty close to it right
He wants you to fear.
It’s a command, right?
You got to fear the Lord, right?
You got to stay away from Satan and his spirits.
Oh, we need power, too.
Satan and his spirits.
And engizete, engizete de, right?
But it’s a little bit on the other hand, but not quite.
But you should be staying close to God.
Hi, toy, on your life, right?
Oh, God.
and to his angel.
All right.
Oh, my God.
I think we’re having a…
Joey, can you put that…
People, that’s the testaments of the patriarchs.
Look what we’ve gotten over and over.
We’ve got this.
I think we’re going to have to go on pause.
I’ve got to take a 10-minute break, people.
I’ll be back in 10 minutes.
Source: Lady Babylon