The Mystical Abgd

By Hadrian Mr lijah Bar Isral

http://www.marelijah.org

The Semitic alphabets are sometimes called the Abg or

Abgd (Coulmas) a name taken from either their first three or
first four letters: A / B / G / (D) (Fischer, page 90.)
The Abgd was said to exist even before the creation of
the universe and only later was it revealed to mankind as the
substance through the word

In the beginning was the Miltha and the Miltha was God and
God Himself was that Miltha. (John 1:1)

(miltha) (an idiom

This idea of the alphabet as both living and spiritually potent

corresponds with the Jewish concept whereas the Universe
is represented in the twenty two letters of the Ashuri script
in which the Torah was written.

meaning: substance / incarnation / existence or

occurrence) by which God spoke.
The first Chapter of the Gospel of John, reads:

1
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In 1993, American scientists Dr. John and Debra Darnell

found limestone inscriptions at Wadi el-Hol, Egypt, in a
Semitic language which has yet to be fully deciphered. It is
believed that these inscriptions, which date to between 1900
1800 B.C. are the first ever alphabet, partly influenced as
it was by the Egyptian hieratic script. (See BBC) All other
natural alphabets which exist, whether including Latin,
Greek, Cyrillic, or Hindi, et cetera have this proto-Semitic
(i.e. Aramaic) Abgd as their source. (Sampson page 77)
Originally a logographic writing system with graphemes to
directly represent each concept or word; over time an
alphabetic quality developed, whereby each logograph also
took on a phnetic meaning, eventually becoming an
Abgd.

alp

was originally represented by the hieroglyph of an

ox, and thus had the meaning of ox.

So that the ancient Syrian city of Aleppo (modern Arabic

)means ox-yard ibt n Aramaic. Also one might
mention beth-lehem or the house of bread as another
example, whereas the letter bt means house.
Natural wordplay between alp (ox or bull) and alaha,
the word for God in Aramaic produces an interesting result
when applied to Exodus 32:4, where Moshe (Moses) returns
from Mount Sinai with the tablets bearing Gods original
Ten Commandments, only to find his people worshipping a
molten calf.

With the exception of the first letter, the alp, the Aramaic
Abgd is acrophonic (), meaning that the
names of the letters begin with or make the sound of the
letters themselves. These are in turn derived from the word
meanings of their hieroglyph predecessors. (Jensen, page 262)

While the Proto-Semitic speaking Israelites were captives in

Egypt, Sumerian speakers in Mesopotamia had developed
Cuneiform writing, which was the first writing system for a
Semitic language. Sumerian cuneiform however was not per
s alphabetic and did not directly inform what would later
become the Aramaic Abgd.

Although informed by Hieratic, the proto-Semitic

hieroglyphics used their own specific symbols. For example

Both the Phnician and Aramaic Abgd have twenty-two

letters, all of which are either consonants or transitionals, i.e.
those letters which act as vowels, but are not assigned a
specific vowel sound. Instead they use Mater lectionis, a
Latin term indicating consonant graphemes to refer to vowel
sounds. There are seven vowels in Aramaic language, all of
which are represented by alp,

he, waw and

same reason that they are not written down in Aramaic,

although the spirit makes their sounds in your mouth
whenever you speak words...
Symbolically the vowels are the spiritual glue that holds
language together. Those things which naturally emanate
from the physically pronounced consonants to form words.
In this sense, the vowels are the aspirational (i.e. spiritual)
noises, and therefore should not be written, so as not to
offend or confine the working of the spirit. This concept,
while foreign to the speakers of western languages are
foremost in the teachings of the Jews, Mandans, and Drze,
as well as in Syriac Christianity which although it has lost
much of its ancient heritage still maintains some of the
mysterion.

yod.

Mandaic, which is an Aramaic language spoken by the

Mandaeans, also has twenty-two letters, plus adu , which
acts as the relative particle, similar to Arabics , the Coptic
letter "", and the English ampersand & sign. (Hberl pages 5362)

It is thought that because vowels are breathed rather than

pronounced in the way that consonants are, that they have
a spiritual nature. In Aramaic the idiom for breath /
wind / spirit is

There were no numbers in Aramaic, instead letters were used

is 1, and bt 2, gml 3
and so on up to yod which is 10. After yod, kp is 20,
and lamed 30, up to qp which is 100. R is 200,
n is 300, and tw is 400. The final kp is 500, the
final mm 600, et cetera.
to represent them. Thus alp

( rucha or "ruha), and it is this

word which is translated into English as Spirit as in the

Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost.
While consonants represent constants in the physical world,
vowels represent constants in the spiritual. This is also the

The Hebrews believe that The twenty-two sounds and

letters are the Foundation of all things... He hath formed,
weighed, and composed with these twenty-two letters every
soul, and the soul of everything which shall hereafter be.
These twenty-two sounds or letters are formed by the voice,
impressed on the air, and audibly modified in five places; in
the throat, in the mouth, by the tongue, through the teeth, and
by the lips. These twenty-two letters which are the
foundation of all things..." (Sefer Yetzirah 2:1-4)

until a structure was built up, composed of twenty-four kings

who held themselves together so that their edifice might not
be destroyed." (Buckley)
Notice here the concern for the completeness of the alphabet,
the emphasis on harmony and co-work.
The Crown of the Syrians, Saint Ephraim wrote in acrostic
style in Hymn 22 of his Against Heresies
Like the form of the alphabet,
Which is complete in its parts
It lacks no letter
Nor does it add another
So, too, is the truth written
In the holy Gospel
With the letters of the alphabet,
A perfect measure that admits
Neither lack nor surplus.
Blessed is your image that is in the alphabet!

'Each of the letters of the Abgd are said to represent a

specific spiritual reality. According to at least one extant
Mandan tradition, the Abgd is seen to represent a sacred,
intertwined and ordering principle, the method by which the
Universe itself was ordered; whereby Beth emanated from
alp, and when it emanated, it turned to alp and praised it.
And Gamal emanated from Beth, and when it emanated it
turned to Beth and praised it. And Dalet from Gamel and soon, so that every letter emanated from the one that came
before it, and turned and gave it praise, until these together
formed a house, composed of malki (i.e. kings).

(Against Heresies, 1A)

Jesus referred to Himself as letters, saying,

According to the emanationist principle, "Each king (malka)

praised and worshipped him who was anterior to himself,

I AM the Alpha and the Tau, the first and the other. (Revelation
22:13)

Thus the Alphabet represented the whole of the Earth and all
of the nations thereof, for

The Earth is the LORD'S, and all it contains, The world,
and those who dwell in it. (Psalm 24:1)
The Geez language of Ethiopia is also a Semitic language,
which came from Sabaean a language of the South Arabian
subgroup of the Semitic language group, and shares a great
deal in common with Aramaic.

Letter

Phnician

Aramaic

Syriac

Mandaic

Geez

Number

Meaning

1.

lep

ox

2.

bt

house

3.

gml

camel

4.

dlet

door

5.

window

6.

ww

hook

7.

zayin

weapon

8.

kt

wall, fence

9.

wheel

10.

yd

10

arm, hand

11.

kp

20 - 500

palm of hand

12.

lmed

30

staff

13.

mm

40 - 600

water

14.

nn

50 - 700

fish

15.

mek

60

support / prop

16.

ayin

70

eye

17.

80 - 800

mouth

18.

tsd

90 - 900

hunt

19.

qp

100

needle

20.

200

head

21.

300

tooth

22.

tw

400

mark

BIBLIOGRAPHY
BBC News, Oldest alphabet found in
Egypt,
originally published
15
November 1999, retrieved from
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_ea
st/521235.stm on 15 June 2015

C.G. Hberl, Iranian Scripts for

Aramaic Languages: The Origin of
the Mandaic Script. Bulletin of the
American Schools
of Oriental
Research 341: 2006

Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley, The

Mandaeans: Ancient Texts and
Modern People, Oxford University
Press, 16 October 2002, ISBN
9780195153859

Hans Jensen, Sign, Symbol, and

Script, G.P. Putman's Sons, New
York, 1969

Florian
Coulmas,. The
Blackwell
Encyclopedia of Writing Systems.
Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, Ltd.,
1996, ISBN 0-631-21481-X
Steven Roger Fischer, A history of
writing. Reaktion Books, 2004, ISBN
9781861891013

Adam C. McCollum, Ephrem,

Against Heresies, Hymn 22, retrieved
from
http://www.rogerpearse.com/weblog/wpcontent/uploads/2012/10/ephrem_co
ntra_haer_22.mellel.pdf on 15 June
2015
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University Press,
8047-1254-9

1985,

ISBN 0-

W. W. Westcott, Sepher Yezirah (

), London, 1893