Sethianism

Sethian is also a Finnish progressive metal band.

The Sethians were a group of ancient Gnostics, that date their existence before Christianity. [1] Their influence spread throughout the Mediterranean into the later systems of the Thomasines, the Basilideans and the Valentinians. Their thinking, though it is predominantly Judaic in foundation, is arguably strongly influenced by Platonism. Sethians are so called for their veneration of the biblical Seth, third son of Adam and Eve, who is depicted in their myths of creation as a divine incarnation; consequently, the offspring or 'posterity' of Seth are held to comprise a superior elect within human society.

Sethian texts

Pre-Christian texts

• The Apocalypse of Adam
• The Apocryphon of John

Christian texts

• The Apocryphon of John
• The Thought of Norea
• The Trimorphic Protennoia
• The Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians
• The Gospel of Judas

Later texts (arguably with a Platonist influence)

• Zostrianos
• Three Steles of Seth
• Marsenes

The Sethian or 'Classic' gnostic myth

Commonly, the Sethian cosmogonic myth describes an intended prologue to the events of Genesis and the rest of the Pentateuch, which by its emendation brings about a radical reinterpretation of the typical orthodox Jewish conception of creation, and the divine's relation to reality. This myth is typically presupposed by Sethian manuscripts, and occasionally by those of later schools. Though many of their concepts derived from a fusion of Platonic and Neoplatonic concepts with the Old Testament are not unique since Philo also engaged in the same behavior.

The Sethian cosmogony as most famously contained in the Apocryphon ('Secret book') of John describes an unknown God, the same as Paul had done in the Acts of the Apostles chapter 17 verse 23. The latter conception defines God through a series of explicit positive statements, themselves universal but in the divine taken to their superlative degrees: as well as being explicitly male, he is omniscient, omnipotent and truly benevolent. The Sethian conception of God is, by contrast, defined through negative theology exclusively: he is immovable, invisible, intangible, ineffable; commonly, 'He' is seen as being hermaphroditic, a potent symbol for being, as it were, 'all-containing' but identity wise hermaphroditic. Though by attaching such descriptions to God would be cataphatic since saying what God is in its self is the opposite of apophatic. See Essence Energies Distinction.

This negative theology mode of thinking about God is found throughout Gnosticism, Vendantic Hinduism, Platonic and Aristotelean theology as well. It may be seen in Judaic sources as well. In essence, Sethianism posits a God that may not be described in any rational sense; much like Plato (see Parmenides) and Philo had also stated earlier in history but it is only possible to say what God isn't, and the experience of it remains something, again, in defiance of rational description. Apophatic or Negative theology is also a strong and prominent tradition in the Greek Orthodox church's theology. Note in Greek Orthodox Christian theology, the Father of the Trinity is only called "Father" to connotate first origin or primordial origin of the Trinity. The Father apophatically of the Trinity is beyond sexual identity — beyond "being" itself.

The emanation of the spiritual universe

This original God went through a series of emanations, during which its essence is seen as spontaneously expanding into many successive 'generations' of paired male and female beings, called 'aeons'. The first of these is the Barbelo, a figure common throughout Sethianism, who is coactor in the emanations that follow. The aeons that result can be seen as representative of the various attributes of God, themselves indiscernible when not abstracted from their origin. In this sense, the Barbelo and the emanations are akin to a poetic device allowing an otherwise utterly unknowable God to be discussed in a meaningful way amongst initiates. Collectively, God and the aeons comprise the sum total of the spiritual universe, known as the Pleroma.

At this point in the myth the universe is still entirely non-material. However, the increasing fragmentation of the nature of God into more and more aeons led, eventually, to instability within this primordial universe. This growing problem reached its climax with the appearance of the lowest aeon, called Sophia (Gr. "wisdom"). In most versions of the Sethian myth, Sophia attempts to surmount the rigid hierarchy of the divine nature, trying to approach close to the God that resides at its centre. In other cases, Sophia imitates God's actions in performing an emanation of her own, without the prior approval of the other aeons in the Pleroma. In both cases, this intransigence causes a crisis within the Pleroma, leading to the creation of Yaldabaoth, a 'serpent with a lion's head'. This figure is commonly known as the demiurge, after the figure in Plato's Timaeus (Gr. demiurgos - "one who shapes" or "craftsman" [typical translation]; "Tame Worker / One Who Domesticates" [literal translation]). This being is at first hidden by Sophia but subsequently escapes, stealing a portion of divine power from her in the process.

The creation of matter

Using this stolen power, Yaldabaoth creates a material world in imitation of the divine Pleroma. To complete this task, he spawns a group of entities known collectively as Archons, 'petty rulers' and craftsmen of the physical world. Like him, they are commonly depicted as theriomorphic, having the heads of animals. At this point the events of the Sethian narrative begin to cohere with the events of Genesis, with the demiurge and his archontic cohorts fulfilling the role of the creator. As in Genesis, the demiurge declares himself to be the only god, and that none exist superior to him; however, the audience's knowledge of what has gone before casts this statement, and the nature of the creator itself, in a radically different light.

The demiurge creates Adam, during the process unwittingly transferring the portion of power stolen from Sophia into the first physical human body. He then creates Eve from Adam's rib, in an attempt to isolate and regain the power he has lost. By way of this he attempts to rape Eve who now contains Sophia's divine power; several texts depict him as failing when Sophia's spirit transplants itself into the Tree of Knowledge; thereafter, the pair are 'tempted' by the serpent, and eat of the forbidden fruit, thereby once more regaining the power that the demiurge had stolen.

As is evident, the addition of the prologue radically alters the significance of events in Eden; rather than attributing the fall to human weakness in breaking God's fiat, Sethians (and their inheritors) locate the ultimate cause of the fall in the instability of the divine nature itself, in the actions of Sophia that precipitated the entire cosmic drama. The 'fall' of Adam and Eve thus becomes something of a redemption, and the serpent in the Garden of Eden becomes a heroic, salvific figure rather than an adversary of humanity or a 'proto-Satan'. Eating the fruit of Knowledge is the first act of human salvation from cruel, oppressive powers.

References

• Studies in Neoplatonism: Ancient and Modern, Volume 6, Wallis & Bregman (Editors), SUNY Press, (1991), Chapter: Negative Theology in Gnosticism and Neoplatonism by Curtis L. Hancock p. 167 ISBN 0-7914-1337-3
• Gnosticism and Platonism: The Platonizing Sethian texts from Nag Hammadi in their Relation to Later Platonic Literature, John D Turner, ISBN 0-7914-1338-1.

See Also

• Gnosis
• Gnosticism
• Nag Hammadi
• Plotinus
• Neoplatonism and Gnosticism
• Knights of Seth

External links

• The Sethians
• John D Turner translations of the Sethian Nag Hammadi text and history