Origin of the name "Baphomet"?

Factual Questions
1

What’s the origin of “Baphomet”?

I once read that “Baphomet” was a name invented by the anti-Knights Templar pope Clement [number], the word being a corruption of “Mahomet,” being a corruption of “Muhammad,” being the name of the prophet-founder of Islam. So, Pope Clement was basically accusing the Knights Templars of worshiping Muhammad.

But other theories have also come to my attention, including one that states that “Baphomet” is the name of an ancient fertility deity (which, frankly, sets off my BS-meter: I have never heard of a fertility deity with the name of Baphomet in all my studies).

So, what’s the straight dope on this?

WRS

2

One of my ex-roommates had this same question and did some serious legwork in the library to find out. It’s been years since that time, but I think he concluded that your first theory was pretty much it.

If I still hung out with him, I’d ask for clarification, but the guy was something of a jackass. :slight_smile:

3

I believe there’s no generally accepted answer to your question. Each time I read a reference to the “baphomet”, as far as I remember, they mentionned that the origin of the name wasn’t known. The “Mahomet” theory was often mentionned, but, AFAIK, only as an hypothesis.

Though it could make sense, “Baphomet” and Mahomet" don’t sound the same at all, so, personnally, I don’t find this theory very convincing…

4

Is there any record of the earliest reference to “Baphomet”? Was it before or during the anti-Templar persecution?

(Aside: Where does Dan Brown get his spiel on Baphomet?)

WRS

5

This article goes into some detail on the possible derivation of the name Baphomet. The hypothesis presented there is that it derives from an Arabic word, abufihamet (“father of understanding”).

6

By the Hebrew reversal cipher, a favorite method of medieval tricksters, occultists, cryptographers, and wise guys, Baphomet converts into Sophia. The Catalan philosopher Ramon Llull went to town with lots of different ciphers and he built alphabet wheel contraptions to facilitate his hobby.

You just write the Hebrew alphabet backwards, and match the letters in reverse order with the ones in the same position going frontwards. It would be as though you substituted Z for A, Y for B, X for C, and so on. The Hebrew alphabet reversed would go like this, parallel to the frontward order:


a b g d h v z H T y k l m n s ‘ p S q r š t
t š r q S p ‘ s n m l k y T H z v h d g b a

For a letter from the top row, substitute the letter immediately under it. To encode a non-Hebrew word, you have to convert it into Hebrew letters. This is one way that the crafty operator can work in come clever finagling to make it come out the way you want it to.

Sophia is the Greek name for the Goddess of Wisdom, who was accepted in early Christianity as a quasi-Goddess. The Church patriarchs may have interpreted Sophia as a personification of an abstract quality, just as the late Neoplatonic philsopher Boethius wrote of Philosophy personified as a woman in The Consolation of Philsophy.

It’s a simple substitution cipher, so you can reverse a cipher with this table, too. If Baphomet is written with the Hebrew letters b-p-v-m-t (skip most of the vowels and just write consonants, except that in Hebrew the vowel /o/ is usually spelled with the letter v). This reverses to š-v-p-y-a, Sophia. Voilà.

Whoever came up with this finagled the initial letter S in Sophia just a little bit, because that letter usually is read as “shin”… but sometimes it can be “sin” with the value of /s/. Why didn’t they just use the letter samekh, the regular s? In that case the cipher would result in the name Haphomet. Which really doesn’t sound like anything. The Arabic phrase Abu Fahmat (Father of Understanding) does sound like a likely coinage for an occult fraternity in the pursuit of wisdom. It’s intriguing how the Arabic interpretation and the Hebrew cipher dovetail so neatly.

7

P.S. I 'specks Dan Brown used it 'cause he just like puzzles.

8

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baphomet:

9

“Baphomet” made by rendering “Sophia” into the Atbash system - interesting. Of course, this makes me wonder why Hebrew-speaking people would want to do this with a Greek name. Why not “Chokhmah” or “Binah” or “Daat” or something?

Anyway, I guess this is mystery that may never be solved for sure. But I am more convinced than before that the fertility deity explanation is plain bull (no offense to bovine-related deities).

WRS