NAG HAMMADI STUDIES

VOLUME XXIV

NAG HAMMADI STUDIES

EDITED BY

MARTIN KRAUSE - JAMES M. ROBINSON

FREDERIK WISSE
IN CONJUNCTION WITH
ALEXANDER BOHLIG - JEAN DORESSE - SOREN GIVERSEN
HANS JONAS - RODOLPHE KASSER - PAHOR LABIB
GEORGE W. MACRA`k - JACQUES-E. MENARD
TORGNY SAVEE<SODERBERGH

WILLEM CORNELIS VAN UNNIK-t-

R. McL. WILSON

JAN ZANDEE

XXIV
VOLUME EDITOR

FREDERIK WISSE

fi

LEIDEN

E. J. BRILL
1984

ANOTHER SEED:
STUDIES IN GNOSTIC MYTHOLOGY
BY

GEDALIAHU A. G. STROUMSA

.a

.t.eJB.c

LEIDEN

E. J. BRILL
1984

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface .......................................................................................................................

IX

Abbreviations and Methods of Citation ................................................................... XI]

Introduction: Gnostic Mythology and the Sethian Myth .........................................

PART ONE: FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS......

15

Chapter 1: Unde Ma/um: From Apocalyptic Literature to Gnostic Myth ................

Apocryphal Literature ......................................................................................
Rabbinic Texts .................................................................................................
Philo and the Church Fathers .........................................................................
Gnostic Reinterpretation .................................................................................

17

19

25
27
31

Chapter II: The Archons as Seducers .......................................................................

The Daughters of Men ....................................................................................
The Seduction of Eve ......................................................................................
Eve and the Archons in Nag Hammadi Texts ................................................
Eve and the Serpent ........................................................................................
Birth of Cain and of Seth ................................................................................
Norea ...............................................................................................................

35

Barbelo .............................................................................................................

61

The Seduction of the Archons ........................................................................

Giants and Abortions ......................................................................................

62

PART II:.THE GNOSTIC RACE .............................................................................

71

Chapter III: Seth and the Child ................................................................................

Seth ..................................................................................................................

73

73

The Child .........................................................................................................

77

35
38

42
45

49
53

65

Chapter IV: Gnostic Salvation History ...................................................................... 81

The Apocalypse of Adam ................................................................................ 82
The Hymn of the Child ................................................................................... 88
Cataclysms, Steles and Advents of the Savior ................................................ 103

Chapter V: Sacred Geography ................................................................................... 115

Seiris ................................................................................................................. 115
The Promised Land ......................................................................................... 119

Chapter VI: Sons of God or Sons of Seth? ..............................................................

125

PART III: ECHOES AND REPERCUSSIONS ........................................................ 135

Chapter VII: Gnostic Elements in Hermetic Traditions ...........................................

137

Chapter VI1l: Gnostic Myths in Manichaean Garb .................................................. 145

The Figure of Seth .......................................................................................... 145
The Seduction of the Archons ........................................................................ 152
The Abortions .................................................................................................. 158
The Giants and the Book of Gianis ................................................................. 161
Conclusion: The Gnostic Sexual Myth ..................................................................... 169
Bibliography ............................................................................................................... 175

PREFACE
Research on this book, begun in Paris in 1976, was pursued in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. In its original form, the work was submitted in 1978 as a
Ph.D. dissertation at Harvard University. It has subsequently undergone

many revisions, including some major structural changes, although the

main lines of the argument have remained on the whole unaltered. I have
also sought to take recent scholarly contributions into account. The
manuscript was ready in 1982. The delay in its publication has been due
to reasons quite beyond my control; it has not been possible to revise it
further.
The present work bears much upon those trends of Gnosticism, clearly

distinct from Valentinianism, which are often referred to as "Sethian"

Gnosticism. I have tried, however, to avoid this term, which remains
problematic. Much attention has been devoted to Manichaean traditions,
which have tended to be somewhat neglected in recent Gnostic scholarship. The problems related to the origins and development of Gnosticism
notoriously belong to the most difficult questions of the history of religions in the Roman Empire. I have sought here, at least, to avoid the
twin pitfalls of scorn and infatuation, which have too often plagued Gnostic studies. For the student of religion, the analysis of Gnostic patterns of
thought is by no means of an antiquarian character, and its "relevance"
need not be artificially emphasized.
It is with great pleasure that I acknowledge the help, guidance, and
encouragement provided throughout the various stages of this work. The

Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University and its
Directors, Professors Wilfred Cantwell Smith and John B. Carman, have
offered the kindest hospitality and financial support throughout our stay in
the United States.
I also want to acknowledge grants from the Memorial Foundation for
Jewish Culture, as well as a Fellowship from the Warburg Fund. Finally,

a major grant from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem has made this
publication possible. Professors Bentley Layton (Yale University) and
Michel Tardieu (E.P.H.E., Paris) have guided my first steps in Coptic,
Gnostic and Manichaean studies; I owe both of them a great deal. For
strong encouragement to publish this work and for many helpful comments, I am grateful to Professors Birger A. Pearson (University of California at Santa Barbara) and Frederik Wisse (Mac Gill University).
Professor Wisse also graciously accepted the manuscript for Nag Hanmradi
Studies. At Harvard, both Professors George W. MacRae, S.J., my Dok-

torvater, and John Strugnell carefully read previous drafts and protected
me from more than one Charybdis or Scylla. I should like to recall their
vigilance then, which has been as precious to me as their friendship is

now. I greatly appreciate the extremely diligent typing of Mrs. Tilly Eshel,

the editorial advice of Dr. Daniella Saltz, and the impressive work done by
Mr. Gary Bisbee in producing the typeset copy.

Most of all, for her deep interest in arcane topics, her intense support
and her intensive involvement in this work, and for everything else I owe
her, I wish to thank my wife Sarah.
Jerusalem, Fall 1984

ABBREVIATIONS AND METHODS OF CITATION

For the reader's convenience, biblical texts are usually quoted according
to the Revised Standard Version, and Gnostic texts according to the translations provided in James M. Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library
(New York: Harper and Row, 1977). In the case of Gnostic works extant
in several recensions, I refer to the recension translated in The Nag Hammadi Library, unless otherwise stated. Thus, in quoting the Nag Hammadi
writings, reference is made only to plate and line numbers, omitting the
superfluous Codex number (e.g., Eugnostus 71:13 -18 would refer to the
recension of Eugnostus the Blessed found in CG III). In the case of the
Gospel of the Egyptians, however, I do refer to the Codex number (CG III
or CG IV). Some Gnostic works that have no title in the codices have
been assigned a name by their modern editors (the Untitled Treatise which
appears in CG II, 5 and XIII, 2 is now usually called On the Origin of the
World). In the anonymous work of the Bruce Codex, which has neither
incipit nor colophon, the figure of Setheu (Th 6 vc) is prominent. For the
sake of brevity, I refer to this wo
imply as Setheus, thus following a
suggestion made long ago by F. C. Burkitt ("Setheus," JTS 36 [1935],
75). In some cases I give my own translations, either because I disagree
with those provided in The Nag Hamniadi Library, or simply for the sake
of establishing consistency in rendering Greek or Coptic terms. Other
Gnostic texts, as well as Christian, Jewish, and Manichaean sources, are
quoted according to the standard scholarly editions, which are listed in the
Bibliography together with the editions of the Nag Hammadi texts.
Modern scholarly works are identified in full only the first time they are
cited; short titles are used thereafter. The bibliography is limited to works
referred to in the text. For full bibliographical information, see David M.
Scholer, Nag Hammadi Bibliography: 1948-1969 (NHS 1; Leiden: Brill,
1971), with annual supplements in NovT, which is an invaluable tool for
students of Gnosticism. Abbreviations of Gnostic, biblical, rabbinic,
Christian, and classical literatures, as well as those of series and periodicals, are usually those set by the Journal of Biblical Literature.
See
"Instructions for Contributors," JBL 95 (1976), 331-346. Some additional abbreviations are self evident.

INTRODUCTION

GNOSTIC MYTHOLOGY AND THE SETHIAN MYTH

Gnosticism was not only a dualistic, sui generis religion of salvation in

which the soul-the divine part of man-sought to flee the material world,
where it was a stranger and prisoner of the evil demiurge, and to return to
its native Realm of Light. Gnosticism was also an essentially mythological
phenomenon, indeed, the last significant outburst of mythical thought in
Antiquity.' It is to this fact that Gnosis owes its major significance for the
historian of religions,2 for its acute syncretism and its negative attitude to

the material world were typical of the entire late Hellenistic world, not
only of the Gnostic movement. Here is one of the very few creations of
new mythological patterns whose origins and early development do not
vanish into the limbo of prehistory. Both Greek philosophers and Hebrew
prophets attempted, in different ways, to demythologize thought. The
emergence and flowering of Gnosticism, from the 1st to the 3rd centuries
C.E., at the confluence of the Greek and the Hebrew cultural and religious
worlds, can be seen as a bold attempt to reverse this trend. This peculiar
character of Gnostic mythology-both post-philosophical and postbiblical-implies an essential, if subtle, difference between classical and
Gnostic myths, which should be emphasized at the outset. Gnosticism
failed in its attempt to develop an authentic new mythological thought and
remained, in the words of Karl Kere'nyi, "nur halbwegs Mythologie."3
Paul Ricoeur, who also noted the ambiguity of Gnosis, conceives it as an
Agfhebung of myth, so to speak, which destroys it as myth ipso facto.4
A rejoinder to these views has been provided by Michel Tardieu's
detailed structural analysis of some Gnostic myths. Tardieu points out
that "the mythical thought at work in Gnosticism has rationalized and systematized myth."5 In other words, one might say that the peculiarity of
Gnostic mythology lies in its self-consciousness of being both a mythology
1See, for instance, W. Bousset, Kvrios Christos (Eng. trans.; Nashville-New York: Abing-

don, 1970), 267; G. MacRae, "Nag Hammadi and the New Testament," in B. Aland, ed.,
Gnosis: Fesiscbrif/iir Hans Jonas (Ciottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1978), 146.
211. J. W. Drijvers ("The Origins of Gnosticism as a Religious and Historical Problem,"
NedTls 22 11968], 350-351) calls for a comprehensive study of the central Gnostic myths.

3Mydtologie unrl Gnosis (Albae Vigiliae; Winterthur: Akadem. Verlaganstalt Pantheon,

1942 = Eranos, 1941), 41.
4Ricoeur thus tries to recover "the myth as myth, before it slipped into Gnosticism."
This attitude of the philosopher, however, should not be shared by the historian. See his
The Svmbolism
u/ Evil (Eng. trans.; New York: Harper and Row, 1967), 164-165.

5 Trois Myihes Gnosngues: Adam, Eros et les anin:aux d'E,gyple daps un (''crit de Nag Hamniadi
Ut, 5) (Paris: Etudes Augustiniennes,
1974), 48.

INTRODUCTION

and a theology. In opposition to primitive, or even to early Greek

mythology, the Gnostic myths arose in a mental world where metaphysical
problems had already been addressed in non-mythological ways, and it
arose precisely as a rejection of these ways. Thence stems the ambiguity
of Gnostic thought, the artificiality of its mythology, whose figures are
often hardly more than hypostasized abstract entities.6 A similar ambiguity
is detected in Indian myths by Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, who notes that
"the pseudo-historical framework is merely a manner of speaking, a metaphor for theoretical ideas about the relation of good to evil, gods to men,
the individual to society."7 As a result of the peculiar self-consciousness

of the Gnostic author, one cannot simply apply to the study of Gnostic
mythology the methods used to analyze primitive myths. Rather, one
should try to delineate the background against which Gnostic mythology
emerged and grew: biblical exegesis as well as Greek philosophy. Late

myths, such as the Gnostic ones, can and therefore must be studied
genetically as well as structurally; that is, the origin of the various elements and their relationships to one another must receive complementary
attention. This will be no mere Quellenforschung, as long as the ultimate
goal remains to unveil the rules and logic proper to the mythology in the
making, and to this hybrid system of ihougfht.
The ambiguity of Gnostic thought is therefore directly reflected in the
method of the inquiry: at once diachronic and synchronic. "There are no

`good' or `bad' versions of a myth," says Claude Levi-Strauss,8 who

insists that the search for the "authentic" version of myths has long been
an impediment to the development of a real science of mythology. LeviStrauss, therefore, proposes "to define each myth by the set (ensemble) of
all its versions."9 This concept of the versions of a myth is central to the
present study. We shall see how some Gnostic myths can be understood
and reconstructed only through the careful interplay of all their versions.
This does not mean, however, that one should not distinguish between
earlier and later versions of these myths; indeed, we shall seek to discern
their evolution and progressive transformation.
The hybrid nature of Gnostic thought is also reflected in its language.
Therefore, Gnostic writings should not be approached as if they were philosophical theology, despite the appearance of reason in Gnostic, and in
particular in Manichaean, etiological mythology, which claimed to be a
totally rational science based on "reason pure and simple," and even able
to account for all physical phenomena.10 The implicit theology found in
6C. G. Stead, "The Valentinian Myth of Sophia," JTS 20 (1969), 75 -104, esp. 103 -104.
7The Origins q( Evil in Hindu Mvthology (Hermeneutics, Studies in the History of Religion
6', Berkeley-Los Angeles-London: Univ. of California, 1976), 9.
8Myihologiques 4, L'Honmie Nu (Paris: Plon, 1971), 565.
9Aiuhropolo,;pie Struccurule (Paris: Plon, 1958), 240.
'Augustine admitted how seductive this claim of rationality was: De Utiliiaie Credencli 2,
also 21, and, for instance, De Moribus Ecclesiae Caiholicae 3 (PL 32, 122). Texts cited by
H.-C. Puech, "The Concept of Redemption in Manichaeism," in J. Campbell, ed., The Mystic' Vision (Bollingen Series XXX, 6; New York: Pantheon, 1968),'265.

GNOSTIC MYTHOLOGY AND THE SETHIAN MYTH

most Gnostic texts is thus not quite comparable to the thought of the
Alexandrian Fathers or of the Middle Platonists-notwithstanding the
obvious similarities and closeness between them. When Gnostic texts
make use of the conceptual language inherited from the various schools of
philosophy-as they often do-the words acquire new, incantatory overtones. Terms drawn from abstract philosophical discourse result in a pom-

pous and emotional "densite du langage, plutot que de la pensee." Father

Festugiere's saying holds true not only for the Hermetic tractates, but for
all Gnostic texts.
Gnostic language is soteriological, not dialectic, and is thus a language
of imagery and/or paradox." It has been said that it should be studied as

"mystical poetry."12 Incantations and images indeed indicate a poetic

form, while the puzzling juxtaposition of paradoxes in some of the texts
points to "mysticism." Even if it uses poetic forms of expression, however, Gnostic language is as essentially different from poetry as it is from
philosophy. As Levi-Strauss observes, myths, as opposed to poems, can
always be translated without any inherent change: their traduttore is no
traditore.13

The notion that Gnosticism is a kind of mysticism, moreover, can lead

to serious misunderstanding. While the mystic strives to internalize
experience within his own consciousness, the Gnostic achieved the opposite: an externalization of consciousness through myth. For the Gnostic,
myth was the only possible way to relate to a world too dreadful to be
confronted with the limited intellectual powers of the individual. In the
historical development of religious thought, mythology and mysticism
belong to two different stages, although, to be sure, one may lead to the
other. It is the mythological structure of the world which the mystic seeks
to internalize. This intuition forms the basis of the second volume of
Hans Jonas's magnum opus, Gnosis and spdtantiker Geist.14 The very nature

of mysticism compels the scholar to focus upon the inner world and the
personal experience of the individual mystic. Central to the unio mystica is
an integrative concept of the personality, of the subject, which does not
and could not exist in Gnostic anthropology. Even when salvation was

presented as the soul's return to the divine realm, the Gnostic vision
denied the relevance of a concept such as "personal experience." The
On the use of paradox in Gnostic writings, see G. W. MacRae, "Discourses of the
Gnostic Revealer," Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Gnosticism, Stockholm,
August 20-25, /973 (Filologisk-filosofiska serien 17; Stockholm: Royal Academy of Letters,
History and Antiquities, 1977), 112-122.
12F.

Wisse, "The Nag Hammadi Library and the Heresiologists," VC 25 (1971),

205-223; B. Pearson, "Anti-Heretical Warnings in Codex IX from Nag Hammadi," in Martin Krause, ed., Essays on the Nag Hanmadi Texts (NHS 6; Leiden: Brill, 1973), 154.
13"La structure des mythes," in Anthropologie Siructurale, 232.
14 Von

cder Mythologie zur mystischen Philosophie (FRLANT 63; Gottingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, 1954). See also "Myth and Mysticism, A Study of Objectification and Interioriza-

tion in Religious Thought," JR 49 (1969), 315-329. On the conditions for the appearance
and blooming of mysticism in any religious system, see also the first chapter of G. Scholem,
Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York: Schocken, 1946).

INTRODUCTION

Gnostics presented their soteriological knowledge as objective; it is more

theosophy or anthroposophy than mysticism.
The study of Gnosticism, therefore, should focus on the discovery and

analysis of the organizing and governing principles concealed in its

mythology. In studying them, the present work will seek to overcome the
hiatus, all too frequent in Gnostic scholarship, between phenomenological
descriptions and the research into Gnostic origins.
Gnostic studies are still marred by the problem of the definition and scope
of their subject. Scholars have known for a long time that their use of
"Gnosticism" as a generic term for the various dualist heresies of the first
Christian centuries covers a spectrum much broader than the specific doctrines of the gnostikoi of heresiological literature.15 Indeed, the main problem in the scholarly use of the patristic accounts is their highly developed
taxonomy of heretical sects. It is often very doubtful whether many of
the labels given to the heretics by the Church Fathers ever corresponded
to a concrete and precisely defined reality.16
The discovery, shortly after the end of the Second World War, of thirteen Coptic codices near Nag Ham adi, in Upper Egypt, brought to light
about 40 new Gnostic texts. This dis ery has radically transformed the
study of a phenomenon known until then almost exclusively through the
polemical writings of its bitter opponents. The new texts have drastically
reduced the previously monopolistic importance of patristic accounts and
have permitted a more balanced appreciation of their value; yet, it has not
destroyed their significance altogether. The accounts of the Church
Fathers still remain extremely precious, despite the role played by hearsay
and slander and despite the categorization of the various heresies, whose
function was ideological, to show that whereas the truth itself was unique,

heresy was by nature as polymorphic as a hydra.17 One of the main

debates in Gnostic scholarship in the last generation has been about the
nature and significance of the phenomenon currently called "Sethian
Gnosticism." The Nag Hammadi codices were even originally described
by Jean Doresse as a Sethian library.18 This almost unqualified assessment
was based upon both the recurrence of the name "Seth" in some of the
tractates and the many similarities, first studied by Henri-Charles Puech,
15R. P. Casey, "The Study of Gnosticism," JTS 36 (1935), 45-60; M. Smith, "The History of the Term gnostikos," in B. Layton, ed., The-Rediscovery Q1 Gnosticism, 11 (Suppl. to
Numen4l; Leiden: Brill, 1981), 796-807.
16See for instance the demonstration of K. Koschorke, Hippolyt's Kererbekdntpfung and die
Polemik gegen die Gnostiker (Gottingen Orientforschungen V1, 4; Wiesbaden, 1975).

'7E.g., Clement of Alexandria, Strom. V11. 17.107.4 (111, 76 Stahlin), or Irenaeus, Ac/v.

Haer.

1.

31.4, where the Gnostic heresies are compared to a wild beast which must be

attacked from all sides.

18"Nouveaux aperFus historiques sur Ies gnostiques coptes: Ophites et Se'thiens," Bulletin

dc' /'/nstitut d'Egypte, 31 (1948-49), 409-419. The original announcement of the find was
made by J. Doresse and H.-C. Puech together: "Nouveaux ecrits gnostiques de'couverts en
Egypte," CRA/BL, Seance c/u 20 Fevrier /948. See also G.'Quispel, Gnosis a/s Weltre/igion
(Zurich: Origo, 1951), 3.

GNOSTIC MYTHOLOGY AND THE SETHIAN MYTH

between other tractates and the doctrines of those Gnostics called

Er)9eavoi, Sethians, in heresiological literature.19 Doresse's description of
the library was soon subjected to serious criticism,20 but the importance of

"Sethianism" as one of the main Gnostic trends has become widely

recognized by scholars. In contemporary usage, in fact, "Sethianism" has
replaced "Ophitism" as a provisional generic term for some of the central,
and perhaps also earliest, trends of Gnostic mythology.21
Since the 19th century, scholars have attempted to organize the
knowledge about early Gnostic sects. While no real consensus has been
reached, the themes that appear under various headings in the patristic

reports have been regrouped into "clusters" within broader groups.

These groups were thought to have split off only in those later stages of
Gnosticism described by the Church Fathers.22 Thus, for instance, R. A.
Lipsius, in his impressive attempt to reconstruct the historical evolution of
Gnosticism, considered what he called "Ophitism" (using the term in a
broader sense than the patristic heresiologists) to have been the first stage
of the Gnostic movement.23 For him, the theology of the early Ophites
was still very much in dialectical interaction with Judaism, and the Sethians described by Hippolytus were a later offspring of the movement.24 In
one way or another, scholars of earlier generations agreed to use "Ophitism" as the main designation for the central mythological teachings of
the early Gnostics.25 In most cases, the Sethians were seen as one of the
main subdivisions of this postulated Ophitism, along with the Barbeloites
(Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1, 29), the gnostikoi (Epiphanius, Pan. 26), the
Archontics (Epiphanius, Pan. 40), the Cainites (Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. I,
31), the Noachites (Hippolytus, Elenchos VIII. 20), or the Naassenes,
Peratae, and Justin's Baruch described in book V of Hippolytus's Elenchos
under the general heading "the Ophite heresies."
19"Les nouveaux ecrits gnostiques decouverts en Haute-Egypte (premier inventaire et
essai d'identification)," Coptic Studies in Honor of W. E. Crum (Boston: Byzantine Institute,
1950), 91 -134, esp. 123ff.
20E.g., F. Wisse, "The Sethians and the Nag Hammadi Library," in L. C. McGaughy, ed.,
SBL, 1972 Seminar Papers (Missoula: Scholars, 1972), 601 -607.

21 /bid, and M. Tardieu, "Les livres mis sous le nom de Seth et les Sethiens de
I'he're'siologie," in M. Krause, ed., Gnosis and Gnosticism (NtIS 8; Leiden: Brill, 1977),
204-210. Tardieu's article is a useful treatment of the status quaestionis, esp. p. 204, n. 1.
His implicit claim that the "Jewish-Christian" elements in Sethianism are later additions to a
pagan core (pp. 209-210), however, is unconvincing.
22But see the remark of F. Wisse, "The Nag Hammadi Library and the Heresiologists,"
221: "The approach of the heresiologists to the Gnostic heretics still dominates Gnostic stu-

dies today...." A good study of early heresiological literature may still be found in the
introduction of A. Hilgenfeld, Die Keirergeschichte des Urclaristentu,ns (Leipzig: Fues, 1884).
23Der Gnosticisntus, sein Wesen, Ursprung and En! wickelungsgang, Separatabdruck aus Ersch
and Gruber's Ailgemeiner Encyklopddie, 1. Sektion, 71. Band (Leipzig, 1860), 140-143.
241bid., 153.
25See
already J. Matter, Histoire critique du gnosiicisme et de son influence sill' k's sectes re/i-

gieuses et philosophiques des six premiers sie'cles de l'ere chrlnenne (Strasbourg-Paris: LevraultBertrand, 1843-44), 11, 165; W. Bousset, Haupiprobleme der Gnosis (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck

& Ruprecht, 1907), 25, cf. 291-320; G. Bornkamm, "Ophiten," PW, XVlll, 1, 654-658.

INTRODUCTION

Among all these sects, the Sethians were generally seen as belonging to

the "Jewish" (or ascetic) branch of Ophitism.26 Following Theodoret

(Haeret. Fab. Compend. I, 14), the anonymous "others" (alit) whose
theology Irenaeus described in Adv. Haer. I. 30, were identified with the
Sethians. Carl Schmidt identified the Gnostics known by Plotinus (Enn.
II. 9, cf. Porphyry, Vita Plotini, 16) with the group to which the author of

the Anonymous Work of the Bruce Codex (= the Setheus) belonged;

according to him, they were Archontics and Sethians.27

A close analysis of the various patristic reports on the Sethians has

been published recently, and there is no need to repeat here the results of
modern research.28 It should be stressed, however, that at the root of all
later patristic accounts there appear to lie Hippolytus's two accounts, in
Elenchos VI and in his lost Syntagnia. The contents of the latter work are
preserved in outline in Pseudo-Tertullian's Adv. Onin. Haer. and form the
basis of the reports of Epiphanius and Filaster. Hippolytus's Syntagma,
moreover, is closely related to Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. I, 29-31.
The contemporary usage of the term "Sethianism," therefore, is based

upon the assumption that some of the various trends described by the
Church Fathers, as well as many of the Nag Hammadi texts, share enough
in common to make their study under a single rubric fruitful. It is around
this assumption that the International Conference on Gnosticism, held at
Yale University in March, 1978, was organized.29 The core of the Confer-

ence was two seminars, devoted to Valentinianism and Sethianism, in

which some of the leading scholars in the field participated. The parallelism between these two Gnostic trends is justified by the growing recognition of the primary importance-and probably the chronological priorityof those trends which are not Valentinian, but which might have provided
the principal mythological foundation of Valentinianism.30 There is, however, some danger that this parallelism might blur the profound dissimilarity between the two terms. About Valentinianism, we have some reliable
and firm data: the founder of the movement is identified, and the teach-

ings of some of his epigones are known in detail. Sethianism, on the

26Filaster had catalogued the Sethians as a Jewish sect (although they mentioned the com-

ing of Jesus), Divers. Haeres. Libel-, 111 (2-3 Marx). See E. Preuschen, "Die apokryphen
gnostischen Adamschriften aus dem Armenischen iibersetzt and untersucht," Fesigriiss
Bernhard Stade (Giessen: Ricker, 1900), 240; E. deFaye, "Introduction a I'etude du gnosticisme au 11 et au 111 siecle," RHR 45 (1902-1903), 46, quotes an opinion similar to that
expressed by C. Schmidt, ibid., 47. For G. Quispel (,Gnosis als Weltreligion, 4), E. Peterson
("Sethiani," Enciclopedia Cauolica, XI, 433-434), and Doresse ("Nouveaux aperFus,"
417-418), the Sethians are closely related to the 4th century Audians.
27Gnosiische SchriJien in kopiischen Sprache aus dent Codex Brucianus (TU 8; Leipzig: Hin-

richs, 1892), 598-665, esp. 646-648.

28Tardieu, "Les livres mis soul le nom de Seth"; Pearson, "The Figure of Seth in Gnostic Literature," in Layton, ed., Rediscovery, II, 472-504.
29M. Tardieu, "Le Congres de Yale sur Ie Gnosticisme," REAug. 24 (1978), 188-209.
30lrenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1. 11.1 (I, 98-99 Harvey), where Valentinus is said to have

adapted to the peculiar character of his own school the principles (iipkcrs) of the heresy
called "Gnostic."
'

GNOSTIC MYTHOLOGY AND THE SETHIAN MYTH

other hand, remains a category postulated for the sake of convenience.

The obvious danger, in other words, lies in hypostasizing Sethianism, taking, in the heresiologists' fashion, various mythical elements as evidence
of a single and rigid system of thought, indicating a precise sociological
reality-a sect.34
In recent years, scholarly debate has been focused upon Hans-Martin
Schenke's bold attempt to deduce from the fragmentary evidence, the original Sethian system.32 Schenke compares his attitude to that of the
archaeologist, "who is able to reconstruct the original form of a vessel
without difficulty from a surviving handle or fragment of a rim."33 The

corpus of the Nag Hammadi texts which, according to him, present

Sethian characteristics to a greater or lesser extent, comprises the Apocryphon of John, the Hypostasis of the Archons, the Gospel of the Egyptians,
the Apocalypse of Adam, the Three Steles of Seth, Zostrianos, Melchizedek,

Norea and the Trimorphic Protennoia. To this list, which includes the

greater part of the non-Valentinian Gnostic texts of Nag Hammadi, he

adds the Anonymous Work of the Bruce Codex (= the Setheus), Irenaeus,
Adv. Haer. I. 29, and Epiphanius, Pan. 26 and 39-40, which deal, respectively, with the doctrines of the so-called Gnostics, Sethians, and
Archontics.34 The main characteristic of what Schenke considers to be the
Sethian-Gnostic system is the self-understanding of the Gnostics that they
were the pneumatic seed of Seth. Seth, both a heavenly and an earthly
figure, appeared three times during the course of history in order to save
his seed from the repeated attempts of Yaldabaoth, the evil demiurge, to
destroy them. Schenke, moreover, identifies as typically Sethian teachings
about the heavenly trinity of the Father, the Mother and the Son, as well
as about the four Illuminators (Owo npcc).
Schenke's reconstruction of the Sethian system has been strongly criticized. Frederik Wisse, in particular, has developed a series of impressive
arguments against the obsessive search for the Sethians, which he consid-

ers to be logically as faulty as the search for the unicorn in zoology.35

Wisse warns of taking too seriously the heresiologists' categories, noting
that "names such as Valentinians or Sethians were necessary not only for
easy reference, but also to distinguish between truth and falsehood."
Unlike the heresiologist, the scholar should not mistake the Gnostic
31About the sociological context of Gnosticism we still know very little, despite the
recommendations of the Messina symposium in 1966. See U. -Bianchi, ed., Le origini dello
,W10s!icis,no. Colloquia di Messina, /3- /8 Aprile /966; Testy e discussioni (suppl. to Numen 12;
Leiden: Brill, 1967). See K. Rudolph, "Das Problem einer Soziologie and 'sozialen Verorlung' der Gnosis," Kairos 19 (1977), 35-44; and H. A. Green, "Gnosis and Gnosticism: a
Study in Methodology," Numen 24
(1977), 95-134.
32See
"Das sethianische System nach Nag-Hammadi-Handscriften," in P. Nagel, ed., .S'111-

opdca (Berliner byzantinische Arbeiten 45; Berlin: Akademie, 1974), 165-173; idem,
"The Phenomenon and Significance of Gnostic Sethianism," in Layton, ed., Rediscovery, 11,
588-616.
`/"`

331hid.,
341bici.,

594.

588-589.

35"Stalking

those Elusive Sethians," in Layton, ed., Rediscovery, II, 563-576.

INTRODUCTION

authors for sect theologians. Moreover, he adds, if the themes isolated by

Schenke "all go back to one system, it needs to be explained what caused
the present diversity among the tractates."36 In other words, Schenke's
method is vitiated by the unconvincing proposition that the various writings all represent more or less complete and developed forms of one single myth; and his systematic reconstruction appears to be very much an
artificial construct. The Sethians of Schenke seem no more real than
those of Hippolytus.
Although Wisse's arguments carry conviction, his own solution appears
to be less satisfying than his critique. To be sure, many of the recurring

themes noted by Schenke do adhere to a precise pattern of systematic

thinking and argumentation. But this does not necessarily mean that they
are only "free-floating" theologoumena and mythologoumena, and that
no significance should be attached to the correlation between them, or
that the original purpose of these texts was "private meditation"37
(apparently, such a conception would deny altogether the existence of any
rationality or integration of the various themes). Here gain, the problem
stems, it seems to me, from the lack of recogni
the specificity of
mythical language. Wisse's overly skeptical reaction and his unwillingness

to overcome the discreteness of the various themes implicitly deny the

possibility of finding any governing pattern in Gnostic mythology and condemn us, like A. D. Nock, to see in Gnosticism no more than "an aggregate of a series of individualistic responses to the religious situation."38

One of the main problems raised by the list of "Sethian" texts is the
great difference between two different stages in Gnostic thought: while
some of the texts are quite thoroughly mythological, others show pervasive Neoplatonic influences. There is indeed a strong possibility that
texts such as Zostrianos, Marsanes, or Allogenes were read by the Gnostics
opposed to by Plotinus and do not belong to the earlier strata of Gnostic
thought. Surprisingly enough, little attention was devoted at the Yale
Seminar on Sethianism to the evolution of Gnostic thought. Nor does

Schenke's approach offer a convincing explanation of the discrepancy

between the two kinds of texts, for he speaks only of the "encounter
between Sethianism and Philosophy."
If we are to retrieve the dynamics of the development and evolution of

Gnostic thought, a middle way must be found between Schenke's and

Wisse's approaches, both overly static. The belief that such a middle way
exists underlies the present work. While no attempt to draw the lines of a

precisely defined but hypostatic "Sethian system" will be made hereindeed, I shall try to avoid referring to "Sethianism" at all-explanations
will be offered of the recurrence of various mythologoumena in many of
the Gnostic texts. For the most part, the analysis will deal with nonValentinian texts; yet, it should be noted at the outset that some of the
361hid., 574.
371h1d.,

575-576.

38"Gnosticism," HTR 57 (1964), 273.

GNOSTIC MYTHOLOGY AND THE SETHIAN MYTH

themes considered to be typically "Sethian" also occur in Valentinian

texts.39 When the Valentinians speak of themselves as the elect, spiritual
seed,40 coming from the Mother on high,41 or else as the "fourth race,"42

or when they relate Seth to the "spiritual" ones and Cain to the

"material" ones43 who "have the devil for father,"44 we recognize in all
these expressions transformations into Valentinian metaphors of originally
"Sethian" themes.
On another point, however, there was agreement among the members
of the Yale "Sethian". Seminar, reflecting the growing consensus among
scholars. It is indeed a sign of progress that Gnostic scholarship has abandoned its epic journey to Persia in the quest for the roots of Gnosticism.
Research concentrates more and more upon the "proximate channels," to
use a phrase coined by Robert McL. Wilson,45 through which various
motifs reached the point of crystallization into the revolutionary Gnostic
vision, during the 1st or the 2nd century C.E.
Today, it appears more and more probable that Gnosticism must have
first appeared and developed-at least in its earlier phase-on the outskirts
or fringes of Judaism. Some of the links, to be sure, are strictly literary,
and exegetical traditions about the first chapters of Genesis do not, by
themselves, imply direct Jewish influence-since these traditions could
well have been mediated by Christianity. Similarly, one should pay attention to van Unnik's caveat that a Semitic milieu does not necessarily mean

Moreover, it goes without saying that Jewish influences by

themselves in no way provide a complete explanation for the emergence
of such a syncretistic phenomenon as Gnosticism. Nevertheless, the case
for the Jewish origins of Gnosis appears to be very strong. Actually, the
Judaism.

hypothesis of Jewish roots was advanced as early as the 19th century; the
pioneering studies of Heinrich Gratz46 and of Moritz Friedlander47 are the
classic expositions, to which should be added the little known work of
Alexander H6nig.48 Honig argued that the earliest Gnostics were Egyptian
Jews who had turned to heresy through a constant meditation upon the
problem of evil. According to him, these Jews founded the communities
which then became known as the Ophites. Despite some remarkable
39Supra, n. 30.
40Exc. Theod. 1.1; 1.3.

4tlrenaeus, Adv. Haer. III. 15.2 (II, 80 Harvey).

42TerapTTfv SE yEVeav ra Q1rEpara ai,TCUv, Exc.

Theod. 28 (118-120 Sagnard). Note

Sagnard's hesitations on the meaning of this fourth race, p. 121, n. 1.
43Exc.
Theod. 54.1 (170 Sagnard); Tertullian, Adversus Valentinianos, 29.2-3, A. Marastoni, ed. and trans. (Pensatori religiosi 10; Padua: Gregoriana, 1971), 88.
44Exc.
Theod. 44. See also Origen, Cont. in Johan. 20.20 (IV, 352 Preuschen), 20.24, pp.
359-360.
45"Jewish-Christianit
y and Gnosticism," Judeo-Christianisme, Recherches historiques et theologiques ... Jean Danielou (Extr. from RSR 60 [19721, 1-320; Paris, 1972). 265,
46Gnosticisntus
and Judentunt (Krotoschin: Monasch, 1846).
47Der vorchrisdiche judische Gnosticisntus (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1898).
48Die Ophiten, Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des judischen Gnosticismus (Berlin: Manner-Muller,
1889).

INTRODUCTION

10

intuitions, however, the authors of these early studies were guilty of making farfetched claims based upon inadequate evidence.

The interest and complexity-as well as the pitfalls-of the problem

have grown in the past generation. The discovery of the Qumran library,
the renewed interest in Jewish Christianity (and in particular the newly
established direct bonds between a Jewish Christian [Elchasaite] community and the origin of Manichaeism), and the recognition of the early dating
of at least some themes and strata of Merkavah literature (and hence its
close links with esoteric trends in rabbinic speculation), all these bear
directly upon
Gnosticism.49

research

on the relationship between Judaism

and

Among the current scholars, Gilles Quispel has strongly and consistently maintained that the principal components of Gnosis must come
from "heterodox Judaism," and that Gnosticism itself is best understood
as an iconic revolt, an "Aufstand der Bilder" inside Judaism.50 The precise sociological context in which the Gnostic revolt occurred, however,
remains unidentified. For some time, Robert M. Grant claimed that
49The literature on the topic, already vast, is steadily growing. For a bibliographical survey, see K. Rudolph, "Gnosis and Gnostizismus, ein Forschungsbericht," TRu 36 (1971),

89-119. See also B. Pearson, "Jewish Elements in Gnosticism and the Devel pment of,
Sel/-Definition, I (LonGnostic Self-Detinition m E. P. Sanders, ed., Jewish and Ch
don: SCM Press, 1980), 151--160, and 240-245 (notes); 1. Gruen' wal2i,."Jewish Sources for
the Gnostic Texts from Nag Hammadi')," Proceedings of the Sixth World Congress of Jewish
Studies, 111 (Jerusalem, 1977), 45-56; ident, "The Problem of the Anti-Gnostic Polemic in
Rabbinic Literature," in R. van den Broek and M. J. Vermaseren, eds., Studies in Gnosticism
and Hellenistic Religions presented to Gilles Quispel (Leiden: Brill, 1981), 171-189. Cf. a
different argument in my "Aher: a Gnostic," in Layton, ed., Rediscovery, II, 808-818. See
also G. MacRae, Some Elements of Jewish Apocalyptic and Mystical Tradition and their Relation

to Gnostic Literature, 2 vols. (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Cambridge Univ., 1966). The
question of the existence of a Jewish Gnosticism is, of course, a different issue. Such an
existence has been postulated by G. Scholem, Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism and Talmudic Tradition (New York: Jewish Theol. Semin., 19652). On Scholem's problematic use of
"Gnosticism," however, see the useful warning of D. Flusser in his review of the book, JJS
11 (1960), 59-68, esp. 65. In this context, Flusser mentions some aspects of the theology
of the Qumran convenanters unduly set aside by Scholem. Both A. Altmann ("Gnostische
Motive im rabbinischen Schrifttum," MGWJ 83 [19391, 369-389) and S. Lieberman ("How
Much Greek in Jewish Palestine'?" Appendix, in A. Altmann, ed., Biblical and Other Studies
lCambridge: Harvard, 19631, 135-141) seek to unveil traces of Gnostic influence in rabbinic
literature. In "Polymorphie divine et transformations d'un mythologe'me: I'Apociyphon de
Jean et ses sources," VC 35 (1981), 412-434, 1 have followed the opposite path, arguing
that Jewish esoteric traditions form the background of some Gnostic themes. In any case,
one should not speak of the "Jewish Gnostic Nag Hammadi Texts," as does J. Robinson,
Protocol of the Third Colloquy gf'the Center.fbr Hernieneutical Studies (W. Wuellner, ed.; Berkeley, 1975); note also the responses of Albert Henrichs, p. 4, and of David Winston, p. 16.

his "Gnosis," in M. J.
Vermaseren, ed., Die orientalischen Religionen int Romerreich (Leiden: Brill, 1981), 413-435.
Quispel argues that on such basic themes as the Gott-Mensch, Wisdom, the unknown God
and the demiurge, or the divine spirit in men, Gnosis is mainly dependent upon Jewish traditions directly received -probably from some Hellenistic milieus-and reinterpreted. See
also his "Exechiel 1:26 in -Jewish Mysticism and Gnosis," VC 34 (1980), 1- 13, and idem,
"Der gnostsche Anthropos and die judische Tradition," EiJb 23 (1953), esp. 196.
50For a recent recapitulation of his basic views on the subject, see

GNOSTIC MYTHOLOGY AND THE SETHIAN MYTH

1I

disillusions and despair among Palestianian Jews after the two blows of 70
and 135 C.E. provided the background for the Gnostic movement, but no
evidence could be brought to support this suggestion.51 For his part, Carsten Colpe has recently suggested-in Weberian fashion-that proto
Sethian (i.e., pre-Gnostic and non-dualistic) groups originated among the
frustrated intellectuals in Mesopotamian sapiential schools.52 The various

efforts to elucidate the precise sectarian milieu out of which Gnosticism

could have first emerged have not been crowned with compelling success.

One of these is an attempt to see in Samaritan circles the cradle of

Gnosticism, and in particular of "Sethian" Gnosticism. Since it bears
directly upon our topic, I would like to discuss this at the outset of the
work. This thesis was, in fact, already propounded by the Church Fathers,

who were unanimous in seeing in Simon-the "magician" of Gitta who

called himself "the Great Power of God" (Acts 8:10), the heresiarch par
excellence-the first false teacher who corrupted the message of Jesus.
Hippolytus, indeed, attributed to Simon the Apophasis Megale, the peculiar

Gnostic work which he quotes at length.53 The appearance of the name

"Dositheos" in the incipit of CG VII, 5 ("The revelation of Dositheos
about the three steles of Seth") has encouraged some scholars to launch
anew the thesis about the Samaritan origins of Gnosticism, or, more precisely, of "Sethian" Gnosticism. Dositheos was, to be sure, the founder
of one of the major Samaritan sects in Antiquity.54 The fact that the name
"Dositheos" was fairly common in Antiquity,55 however, should caution
against a hasty identification of the "Dositheos" in Steles Seth with the
Samaritan teacher.
Walter Beltz, in particular, has specifically argued for Dosithean origins
of "Sethianism."56 Beltz sets out to show that it was the early Dositheans

(whom he calls the Samaritan "Hauptsekte") who first developed traditions about the special status of Seth. According to him, the Samaritans
considered themselves to be sons of Seth already in pre-Christian times
and were so regarded by the Jews. Beltz establishes this claim by linking
51 Gnosticism and Early Christianity (New York: Columbia, 1959), esp. 27-38. For a discussion of the relationships between apocalypticism (in particular Qumran apocalypticism) and

Gnosticism, see K. Rudolph, "Forschungsbericht," TRu 36 (1972), 95-103, where he

points out that what became later known as "the Grant hypothesis" had been already postulated by the German Philosopher H. Blumenberg.
52"Sethian

and Zoroastrian Ages of the World," in Layton, ed., Rediscovery, II, 540-552.
6.9,3-18,7 136-145 Wendland). According to TlG1 ATSafies Dabadie, the
attribution of the Apophasis Megale to Simon is plausible; see his Recherches stir Simon le
13Elenchos

Mage, I (Cahiers RB 10; Paris: Gabalda, 1969), 141-143.

54See

S. J. Isser, The Dositheans: A Samaritan Sect in Late Antiquity (Studies in Judaism in

Late Antiquity 17; Leiden: Brill, 1976).
55See
PW, V, 1605-1609, s.v. "Dositheos," where eleven different occurrences are mentioned.
56"Samaritanertum
and Gnosis," in K.-W. Troger, ed., Gnosis and Neues Tesiamem: S111 11i"11 ails Religionswissenschaft and Theologie (Berlin: Evangelische Verlaganstalt, 1973), 89-95.
Schenke expressed the same views in "Das sethianische System," but later retracted them.
For a recent Forschungsbericlu on the problem of Samaritanism and Gnosticism, see R. Pum-

mer, "The Present State of Samaritan Studies, It," JSS22 (1977), 27-33.

INTRODUCTION

12

the Samaritan tradition according to which Damascus was built by Seth

(Asatir 11.3) to the mention in the Essene Damascus Document (VIII,
18b-21) of the sons of Seth who would be smashed by the scepter of
Israel.57 John Bowman considers the Samaritan biblical paraphrasis called
the Asatir to be "without any doubt an old Dosithean work."58 Beltz
accepts this identification and makes use of the Asatir's concept of the
"pure chain" of the "children of light" extending from Seth to Moses.
From this Beltz argues that the early Samaritans (for him, mainly Dositheans) saw Seth, created in God's image, as their father. In later texts
dependent upon the Asatir, this "pure chain" relates the Taheb of the
Last Days ("he who comes back") and Moses to Adam and Seth. This
Taheb is called "the crown of the sons of Seth," as opposed to "the children of darkness," i.e., the sons of Cain.59 Although Beltz notes that Seth
does not play an important role in other Samaritan works such as the
Memar Marqah, he contends that this indicates a reaction by Samaritan
orthodoxy against the views of the Dositheans, for whom Seth was "the
hero of a cultic legend."60 He claims that to the Sethian four-part division
of history (which he rightly identifies as such) may be related the coming
of the Taheb in the third world-period, and that the great catastrophes of
biblical history, the flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah,
were exegeted by the Samaritans-who considered themselves the true
Israel-as punishments visited upon unbelievers, fist: and foremost the
Jews. Beltz concludes that the Dositheans carried n in Gnosticism the

traditions they had developed about the special role of Seth. As a

hypothesis, he adds that Gnosticism could have emerged, among the
Dositheans, from a clear distinction between the creative and the legal
functions of God.6l
Beltz's argument, however, is marred by several flaws: (1) He dismisses

all the non-Samaritan sources in which Seth plays a significant role and
makes the unwarranted assumption that Seth in such a role implies almost
necessarily a passage to Sethian Gnosticism. We will see in the following
chapters that Seth was important already in very early (indeed preDosithean) Jewish traditions. (2) He does not identify the passage in the
Damascus Document upon which he builds his argument as a quotation
from Num 24:17 and therefore fails to refer to the Essene Sitz im Leben.
(3) He implausibly speaks of pre-Christian Dositheans. (4) He advocates
a very early date for the Asatir (250 C.E., in Egypt!). In this he follows
Moses Gaster, the first editor of the work.62
57"Samaritanertum and Gnosis," 91.
Probleme: Studien zum Verhahnis von Samaritanertum, Judentuni and
Urchrisiennmi (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1967), 51.
59These texts (Maulid al-Nashi, Malef Molad Moshe) are cited by A. F. J. Klijn, Seth in
Jewish, Christian and Gnostic Literature (NovTSuppl 46; Leidep: Brill, 1977), 30-31.
60"Samaritanertum and Gnosis," 90 and n. 6.
b11bid., 95.

62 The

Asatir: The Samaritan Book of the "Secrets o/' Moses" (London, 1927), see 160. The

same opinion is expressed in J. MacDonald, ed., Memar Marqah; the teachings of Margah, I
(BZAW,84; Berlin: Topelmann, 1963), XXI.

GNOSTIC MYTHOLOGY AND THE SETHIAN MYTH

13

Yet Zeev Ben-Hayyim, who has produced a new edition of the Asatir,63
while admitting that some of its traditions may be much earlier, thinks
that both language and contents point to the 10th century or thereabouts,
a time when Aramaic had been superseded by Arabic.64 Since the Memar
Marqah, considered by Beltz to have been redacted later than the Asatir,
was in fact written at an earlier date and does not preserve traditions about
a special role of Seth, Beltz's main argument does not stand. Indeed

Klijn, who devotes a few paragraphs to the scant evidence on Seth in

Samaritan literature,65 is unable to reach any positive conclusions about
the significance of this material for the Gnostic Seth. Last but not least,
Isser's study uncovered no traces, in any of the sources, of a special role

for Seth or for any idea that could have been directly used and
transformed by the Sethian Gnostics. These negative conclusions corroborate Edwin Yamauchi's summary of earlier research: "There is no indication that Dositheus himself was a Gnostic."66 They do not, of course,
preclude finding any connections between

Gnostic and Samaritan

traditions-but this remains a task for the future.

This inquiry will first provide an analysis of some Gnostic solutions to the
crucial question unde ma/um? in the myths of the Urzeit. We shall recog-

nize the major role played by the Gnostic interpretation of the Fallen
Angels (Gen 6:1 -4). Various aspects of Gnostic Heilsgeschichte will then
be studied. The periodization of history and meta-history will be analyzed
mainly through the Apocalypse of Adani and in particular its hymnic section, which I venture to call the Hymn of the Child. Through this analysis,
new conclusions about the relationship between Apoc. Adam and Christianity will be reached. The figure of "the mysterious Seth," as Nock
calls him, has been thoroughly investigated in recent years, especially by
Klijn.67 There will be no attempt to present, even in summary form, what
63Tarbiz 14 (1943), 104-125, 147-190; ibid., 4.5 (1944), 71-87.

See also ummer, "The Present State of Samaritan tudies," 30. Since the Asatir
belongs to the Moslem period, it should be noted that the concept of the "pure chain" also
appears in Islamic context. According to Muslim writers the "light of Muhammad" was
transmitted from Adam to the Prophet in the seed of pure men and carried in wombs of
pure women. Mas(udi (Les Prairies c/'Or, 1, 67-70) describes the transmission of the light to
the pure Eve when she conceives Seth, and then from Eve to him. On the Shiite concept
of the Nur Muhammad, which may have Gnostic origins, see 1. Goldziher, "Neuplatonische
and gnostische Elemente in Hadit," ZA 22 (1909), 329ff., and U. Rubin, "Pre-existence and
Light; Aspects of the Concept of Nur Muhammad," Israel Oriental Studies 5 (1975), 62-119.
The relationship between these two "chains," however, remains unclear; it may have been
indirect.

"Seth, 29-32.

66 Pre-Christian
67 Seth.

Gnosticism: A Survey q1 the Proposed Evidence (London: Tyndale, 1973), 57.

For the Latin medieval legends, see E. C. Quinn, The Quest o/'Seth for the Oil of
Li%e (Chicago:
Univ. of Chicago, 1962). In the past, there have been attempts to relate the
Gnostic Seth to the Egyptian
God Typhon-Seth, but see B. A. Pearson, "The Egyptian Seth
and the Gnostic
Seth," in P. J. Achtemeier, ed., SBL, 1977 Seminar Papers (Missoula: Scholars, 1977), 25-44, which deals
a blow to this speculation. To Pearson's bibliography, add
A. Procope-Walter, "IAO and SET (Zu den Figurae Magicae in den Zauberpapyri)," ARW

14

INTRODUCTION

has been said elsewhere. Only those few aspects where I feel I can contribute some precision will be dealt with here. Certain trends in Jewish and
Christian exegesis considered the "Sons of God" of Genesis 6 to be the
"Sons of Seth." The investigation of this puzzling interpretation can shed
new light on the origins of Gnostic mythology. Finally, the repercussions
of the Gnostic sexual myths analyzed in the first part of this work will be
examined.

The study of Gnostic myths needs to be both genetic and structural.

As a radical reinterpretation of Jewish conceptions, Gnosis might indeed
be compared to Christianity; both may be called Jewish heresies. In
Christianity, the transformation of religious experience developed from
the singling out of some Jewish values and elements. In Gnosticism, the
same values and elements are not simply singled out, but inverted. Yet
this inversion, it would appear, did not occur at once; rather, it was the
result of a gradual process, a process which may sometimes be unveiled.

30 (1933), 34-69.

PART I
FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL
TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

CHAPTER ONE

UNDE MALUM: FROM APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE

TO GNOSTIC MYTH

At the root of the Gnostic rejection of the material world and its creator
lies an obsessive preoccupation with the problem of evil. On this issue,

the Gnostic texts fully confirm the testimony of the Church Fathers.
According to Eusebius, for instance, the problem of evil was "so much
traversed by the heretics,"' while Tertullian recorded that heretics, just
like the philosophers, constantly asked the same questions: uncle malum et
quare? and unde homo et quomodo?2 The same point was also made by
Epiphanius, among others.3 To be sure, preoccupation with the problem

of evil did not originate with Gnosticism. The Greek philosophers had
long devoted considerable attention to the nature and source, of evil. In
the Academy, in particular, the close links between evil and matter were
emphasized. In that sense, indeed, one can agree with A. D. Nock's dictum that Gnosticism is a "Platonism run wild." The Gnostic investigation of the problem of evil clearly reflects a Platonic heritage. Yet, as
important as this heritage may be, it apparently did not give rise to Gnostic mythology, but rather influenced its literary expression or provided
philosophical and conceptual background.4

It is notoriously difficult to determine the origins of a phenomenon as

syncretistic as Gnosticism; nonetheless, one must attempt to single out

and analyze the individual elements which lie at the root of Gnostic
mythology. Thus Hans Jonas tried to identify two kinds of Gnostic dualism.

For the first, which he calls "Iranian" and which is represented

chiefly by the Mandaean and Manichaean writings, the opposition of the

realms of evil and good is eternal; the cosmic process was set into motion
by the fortuitous encounter of these two realms. In the other type of
Gnosticism, which he calls "Syro-Egyptian" and to which most of the Nag
Hammadi texts and the systems described by the Church Fathers belong,
i ifist. Eccl. 5.27.
2De Praescr. Haer. 7.5; see also Adv. Marc. 1.2 (on Marcion and many other heretics).

3Pan. 24.6.1 (on Basilides). H.-C. Puech has written a fine phenomenological treatment
of the theme, En quete de la gnose (Paris: Gallimard, 1978), 1, 201ff. and p. 197 for further
references.
4The scope and the precise nature of the Platonic influence on Gnostic thought is bound
to become clearer after the publication of all Nag Hammadi codices. See, for instance, C.
Elsas, Neup/atonische and
gnostische Weltablehnung in der Schu/e Plotins (Berlin: De Gruyter,
1975)

and B. Pearson, "The Tractate Marsanes (NHC X) and the Platonic Tradition," in B.

Aland, ed., Gnosis, 373-384.

18

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

the forces of evil and darkness as well as cosmogony both stem from a fall
which happened in the divine realm, a "tragic split" in the Deity.5 This is
not the place to offer a detailed criticism of Jonas's taxonomy. Let us
only remark that rather than speaking of two types of Gnosticism, it might
be possible to discern some patterns of evolution or even transformation.
Such patterns would adequately account for the different emphases placed
on the emergence of evil or its established existence. Moreover, the basic
polarity in Gnostic texts is not between two hypostasized good and evil
principles (as the "Iranist" school contended), but between the world and
the spiritual realm of the higher God.6
More than Platonic tradition, Jewish apocalyptic and pseudepigraphic
literature seems to provide a rather precisely defined literary milieu against
which the emergence of the Gnostic mythological confrontation of evil
may be better understood. Some rather striking similarities between Jewish apocalyptic thought and Gnostic thought have already been noted. In
particular, C. A. Keller, pointing to several close literary parallels, has
drawn conclusions about the similar sectarian milieus in which these two
bodies of literature find their Sitz inn Leben.7 According to Keller, the deep
seated frustrations in these milieus engendered radical "responses to the
world" and this explains the emphasis put upon the problem of evil.
The following pages, however, will not attempt jto investigate the sociological background of Gnostic mythology. RatherF, my analysis will focus
on some of the literary expressions of the mytfts_-of evil. It is a wellknown fact that intertestamental literature already represents a rather farreaching process of remythologization. It is even possible that this trend
lies behind the ambivalent rabbinic attitude towards many apocryphal and
pseudepigraphic writings. Apocalyptic literature based its reflections on
the origin of evil upon two biblical myths of the Urzeit: the sin of Adam

and Eve, and the descent of the "Sons of God" from their heavenly
abode and their copulation with the daughters of men (Gen 6:1 -4). It is
the latter myth which especially attracted the apocalyptic writers, and
through which they confronted the problem of evil. Whether the myth
was originally Persian, as Bousset argues, or a Middle Eastern (Ugaritic?)

version of the Greek myth of the Titans, its elusive ultimate origin

is

1939),
SH. Jonas, Gnosis and spatantiker Geist, I (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht,
256-257, and esp. 328-331.
6For a succint discussion of this problem see K. Rudolph, Die Gnosis, Wesen and
1978), 73. HowGeschichte einer spatantike Religion (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht,
ever, I cannot agree with Rudoph when he says that the new evidence from Nag Hammadi
dispels the theory of the Iranian origins on this basis. Indeed, it has now been shown that
even the dualism of Sassanian and of Gathic Zoroastrianism is qualified. In the Iranian
sources, the "Wise Lord" remains ontologically superior and chronologically prior to the evil
principle. See S. Shaked, "Some Notes on Ahreman, the Evil Spirit, and his Creation," in
Studies in Mysticism and Religion presented to Gershom G. Scholem (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1967),
227-234, esp. 232. See also D. Winston's "Response," in W. Wuellner, ed., Jewish Gnostic

Nag Hanimadi Texts, 17.

7"Das Problem des Bosen in Apokalyptik and Gnostik," in M. Krause, ed., Gnosis and

Gnosticism (NHS 8; Leiden: Brill, 1977), 70-90.

UNDE MALUM

19

beyond the scope of this work.8 What I shall try to show is that a radical
transformation of this myth forms the basis of the Gnostic mythological
consciousness of evil. In the course of the argument, it will become clear
that the two major elements described by Jonas as belonging to the two

"types" of Gnosticism-the encounter between the two realms and the

fall from the divine realm-are both present in the Gnostic transformation
of the myth of the Fallen Angels.
At this point, it might be useful to present a brief review of some Jewish and Christian sources. These various versions of the myth provide the
background for the Gnostic reinterpretation and permit an appreciation of
its specificity. Moreover, a preliminary examination of apocryphal, rab-

binic and patristic treatments of the myth of the Fallen Angels will
highlight the various ways in which this myth was linked to that of
Adam's sin and fall; this link occurs in the Gnostic traditions as well.

Already in its brief and cryptic biblical version, the myth is essentially
etiological: it purports to account for the moral depravity of mankind.
From the union of the Sons of God and the daughters of men were born
the "giants," the "mighty men" (gibborinr), who brought evil upon the
whole earth. Indeed the biblical text proceeds to describe the corruption
of human ways and God's decision to send the flood. The same myth is
elaborated upon in various ways in apocryphal literature. Nowhere is the
slightest doubt cast upon the identity of the Sons of God, the nepi/im:
they are angels of the Lord.9
Apocryphal Literature

In the Ethiopic Book of Enoch, chapters 6 -10 are devoted to the story of
the sin committed by the Sons of God (or angels) and their subsequent
punishment. These chapters are part of the so-called Book of Watchers
[i.e. angels], which includes chapters 1-36 of I Enoch, and seems to have
been written in Palestine towards the middle of the 3rd century B.C.E.10 In
8See W. Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums in neuiestamentlichen Zeitalier (Berlin: Reuther

& Richard, 1903), 382, 560. For a discussion of various versions of the myth of the Titans
in Greek mythology and at Ugarit, see F. Dexinger, Stur: der GdnersOhne oder Engel vor der
Sintflut? (Wiener Beitrage zur Theologie 13; Vienna: Herder, 1966), 25-87, and P. Grelot,
"La le'gende d'He'noch clans les apocryphes et dans la Bible: origine et signification," RSR 46
(1958), 1-26, 181-210.
9This identification, which implies a very complex exegetical tradition, must be older
than its first datable appearances. See P. Alexander, "The Tar untint and Early Exegesis of
`Sons of God' in Genesis 6," JJS 23 (1972), 60-61.
10J. T. Milik, The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments o/' Qumran Cave 4, with the collaboration of Matthew Black (Oxford: Clarendon, 1976), 28. This title, given to the first 36
chapters of / Enoch, is derived from the form of the quotation in Syncellus's Chronography:
EK

Toy rrpwrov $c$kiov (or: Xoyov) 'EvciX mpl r&_Jv Eypgyopwv (Syncellus, Chronographia ed.

W. Dindorf; CSHB; Bonn: Weber, 1829), 20ff.; also Milik, Enoch, 22-23. On the use of
Eyp'lyopoc in Greek translations of the Bible, see Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Genesis Apoc'lYphon of Qumran Cave t; A Commentary (BibOr 18A; Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute,
19712), 80. For a detailed survey of the theme in apocryphal literature, see also Devorah
Dimant, "The Fallen Angels" in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphic

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

20

the days of Jared (Mahalalel's son and Enoch's father in the Sethite
genealogy of Genesis 5), 200 angels descended from their heavenly abode
to Mount Hermon, so named "because they had sworn and bound them-

selves by mutual imprecations upon it."11 Their leader is said to have

been Semihazah,12 but in the description of his evil deeds, he is in fact
associated with 'Asa'el.13

The purpose of the angels' errand seems to have been twofold. On the
one hand it is clearly stated that they came down upon earth to copulate
with the daughters of men:
And the angels, the children of heaven, saw and lusted after them
[i.e., the daughters of men] and said to one another: "Come, let us
choose wives among the children of men and beget us children...."
(I Enoch 6:1-2)

Yet this already seems to be a variant of an earlier form of the myth,

which interpreted the sexual intercourse as secondary to the original civilizing mission of the angels. It seems, indeed, that in the original myth,
the heavenly figures bringing knowledge and culture to humans were seen

as "heros civilisateurs" rather than as negative figures. But we do not

know how this early version evolved into a "negative" myth identifying
the origin of civilization with that of evil.14 Chapte 8 consists entirely of a
list of the crafts and sciences the angels taught t e race of men:
And 'Asa'el taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields,
Books Related to then, (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Hebrew University, 1974 [Hebrew]).
11 / Enoch 6:6. Unless otherwise stated, apocryphal literature is quoted according to the

translations provided in R. H. Charles, The Apoc,ypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1913). When the author takes Jared to come from yrd, to go down,

and Hermon to conic from Win, to swear, he is in fact playing upon the Hebrew roots of the
proper names. The story of the angels coming to the earth, however, was itself traditional
(Genesis 6).
121n Charles's translation from the Ethiopic, the names of the angels' leaders are given as
Semjaza and Azazel. Yet the Qumran fragments reveal that their original names were Semihazah and 'Asa'el. The identification of 'Asa'el with the biblical Azazel is not original.

How 'Asa'el first became associated with Semihazah remains unclear: "And Serihazah,
who was their leader . . ." (l Enoch 6:3); "And Semihazah, to whom Thou hast given
authority to bear rule over his associates" (I Enoch 9:7).
131 Enoch 8:1:

"And `Asa'el taught men to make swords ..." 9:6: "Thou seest what
`Asa'el hath done, who hath taught all unrighteousness on earth
."; 10:8: "And the
whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by <Asa'el: to him
.

ascribe all sin."

14This

"negative" version is very widespread and appears in completely unrelated cultures. See Milik, Enoch, 28-29. On the problems of the mythical background of the Book
pf Giants and of the contamination of traditions, see now P. D. Hanson, "Rebellion in
Heaven, Azazel and Euhemeristic Heroes in / Enoch 6-11," JBL 96 (1977), 195-233, and
G. W. E. Nickelsburg, "Apocalypse and Myth in I Enoch 6-11," JBL 96 (1977), 383-405.
These two detailed studies attempt to determine different stages in the accretion of the various elements in the Semihazah story. Nickelsburg's article includes a brief survey of the
possible influences from Greek mythology (p. 395-397).

UNDE MALUM

21

and breastplates, and made known to them the metals (of the earth)
and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the
use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of
costly stones, and all colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray,
and became corrupt in all their ways....

Other angels taught enchantments, "root-cutting," astrology, knowledge

of the clouds, the signs of the sun, and the course of the moon. As a
result of the copulation between the angels and the women were born the
giants,

who brought catastrophe upon the whole earth. They consumed all
the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain
them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. And
they began to sin against birds, and beasts and reptiles, and fish, and
to devour one another's flesh, and drink the blood. Then the earth
laid accusation against the lawless ones. (1 Enoch 7:3-6)

Thus, various sins of the angels may be distinguished (I Enoch 9:8 -10) :
(1) They "defiled themselves" by sleeping with the women.
(2) "They revealed to them all kinds of sins."
(3) And finally, they begat the giants, through whom "the whole earth
has ... been filled with blood and unrighteousness."

Chapter 10 relates their punishment. God sent his four archangels,

Michael, Uriel, Raphael and Gabriel,15 who had appealed to him on behalf

of the souls of men (9:1), and ordered them to bind the sinful angels
"hand and foot" and to cast them "into the darkness" or "in the valley
of the earth" ( = the underworld?) until the day of the great judgment,
when "they shall be led off to the abyss of fire." Raphael was sent to

bind 'Asa'el, while Michael was ordered to bind Semihazah and his associates (1 Enoch 10:4, 11). Later in the text, Enoch saw in a dream, "a
place chaotic and horrible. And there . . seven stars of the heaven
bound together in it" (21:3-4). Uriel revealed to him that those stars
were in fact the angels "who have transgressed the commandment of the
Lord." He then showed Enoch a place more horrible still, "the prison of
the angels," where "they will be imprisoned for ever" (21:10).16
The same themes are reflected in other parts of the Enochic corpus, as
well as in other apocryphal texts. The identification of the stars with the
Fallen Angels, for instance, is stated explicitly in I Enoch 88:1 -3, when
one of the four archangels
.

"These archangels also appear in other strata of apocalyptic literature, e.g. I Enoch
40:1-41:2, where the four (with Uriel replaced by Phanuel) are said to be "different from
those who sleep not" (i.e., the Watchers): Cf. Apoc. Mos. 40:1 -2.
16According to Charles (note ad loc.), this apparently refers
to the final prison of the
angels.

22

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

seized that first star which had fallen from the heaven, and bound it
hand and foot and cast it into an abyss ... and gathered and took all
the great stars whose privy members were like those of horses, and

bound them all hand and foot, and cast them in an abyss of the
earth."

Thus the star which "fell from heaven, and .

arose and ate and pastured amongst those oxen" is clearly the leader of the angels (I Enoch
86:1). The portrayal of the sinful angels as stars has some bearing upon
our investigation. We shall see in the course of this work how the "star"
.

metaphor will be used subsequently in a seemingly very different context.

The Book of Watchers was already known to the author of Jubilees18
(written around 130 B.C.E.). There, we find an interesting development of

the theme of the angels' descent. The original goal of their errand is
described in terms indicating a version of the myth typologically earlier
than that preserved in the Book of Watchers.19
For in [Jared's] days the angels of the Lord descended on the earth,
those who are named the watchers, that they should instruct the children of men, and that they should do judgment and uprightness on
the earth. (Jub. 4:15)

The story of the angels, of their copulation with the daughters of men, of

the evil doings of their progeny, and of their punishment is told in

chapters 4-7. Some of the details differ from the Ethiopic version of
Enoch, but the story remains basically the same.20 In addition to the
nepilinf and gibborint as sons of benei 'elohim in Genesis 6, there is a third
class of quasi-celestial beings: "The Giants, the Napil and the Eljo" (Jub.
7:22), or rather the nepilinr and the eliud, as preserved in Syncellus' Greek
version of I Enoch.21
"For the judgment of the Fallen Angels, see / Enoch 55:3-56:4, 90:20-27. In 103:7, this
abyss, the place of their punishment, is identified as She'ol. Cf. Jub. 7:29, and / Enoch
18:14, where the prison of the stars ( = angels) is located at "the end of heaven and earth."
18Charles, Pseudepigrapha, 170, referring to his own edition of the Book of Judilees (p.
LXIX).
19Milik, Enoch, 29.

20Charles has clearly shown the parallelism of the two versions in his Pseudepigrapha,
176-177, where he cites relevant passages from the two texts in parallel columns. A very
similar account of the story appears in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies 8:11 -15; see below,
p. 66.
21Chronographia, 21.

Eljo might be a truncated form of celyon (cf. Dan 7:17). For the
puzzling etymology of nepilinr, see Fitzmyer, Genesis Apociyphon, 81: "Since npl is found in
Ps 58:9 in the sense of 'miscarriage,' the word Nephilim has been explained as `superhuman
beings emerging from miscarriages' (Gen. R. 26.7). In the Targum of Isaiah on 13.10 (ed. J.
F. Stenning, 45) we find the word used to designate constellations or some sort of heavenly
bodies, perhaps meteors." As to the meaning of the word in Tg. Isa., it might explain the
identification of the Fallen Angels with stars in / Enoch 21, as well as in the dream book.
See also /sa 14:12: "How you fell (napalta) from heaven ..." Regarding "miscarriage,"
one might remark that Kasdeja, one of the fallen angels, teaches ways of practicing abortions: "this is how he showed the children of men all the wicked smitings of spirits and

UNDE MALUM

23

A new version of the myth appears in the Testaments of the Twelve

Patriarchs, a text written around the beginning of the Christian era. The
Testament of Reuben raised a theological problem: how could spiritual
beings, such as angels of God, have sexual relations with women'? This
problem was resolved by placing the primary guilt (lust) upon the women:
For thus they allured the watchers who were before the Flood; for as
these continually beheld them, they lusted after them; and they conceived the act in their mind; for they changed themselves into the
shape of men, and appeared to them when they were with their husbands. And the women, lusting in their minds after their forms, gave
birth to giants, for the Watchers appeared to them as reaching even
unto heaven. (T. Reub. 5:6-7)22

An important, albeit indirect, reference to the myth occurs in the

Genesis Apocryphon found at Qumran. In this text, Lamech was so
impressed by the lofty appearance of his newborn son, Noah, that he
approached Batenosh, his wife, with the suspicion that the child was not
his but rather begotten by the Fallen Angels.
So when' l thought in my mind that the conception was due to the
Watchers or that it was due to the Holy Ones, or to the Nepitilim
.. . and my mind wavered because of the child. Then I, Lamech,
became frightened, and I went to Bitenosh, my wife, and said
(1 QapGen II, 1 -3)

...

It is interesting to note that both the Watchers and their sons, the nepilim
(as well as the "Holy Ones"), beget children from women. We shall see
in Part III how the functions and ultimately the figures of the Watchers
and their offspring merged in the Manichaean texts.
Batenosh answered Lamech's doubts:
I swear to you by the great Holy One, by the king of the heavens, that
this seed is from you, from you is this conception, and from you the
planting of (this fruit ...) and not from any stranger, nor from any of
the Watchers, nor from any of the sons of heaven
(1 QapGen II,
14-16)23

...

This passage develops a theme already present in the "Noachite fragment" of I Enoch. In chapter 106, the anxious Lamech begged his father
Methuselah to ask his own father, Enoch, about the origin of the newborn
demons, and the smitings of the embryo in the womb, that it may pass away ..." (l Enoch
69:12).

22Same

interpretation in T. Naph. 3:5.

23Quotations are according
to Fitzmyer's translation (Genesis Apoccyphon, 51 -55).
Fitzmyer does not say on what grounds he vocalizes the name of Lamech's wile Bitenosh
(rather than Batenosh). He dates the work as "probably from the first century B.C." See

also another mention of the Watchers' fall in Ch. Rabin, ed., The Zac/okite Documents,
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1954), 8-9::'Dw '-J'p 15t31.

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

24

Noah. The appearance of the child was so exceptional that Lamech feared
lest he was a child of one of the Fallen Angels, who produced "on the
earth giants not according to the spirit, but according to the flesh."24
In some later texts, traditions about the angels who descended from
heaven and about the fall of Satan and of his host became mixed and were
integrated into a new synthesis. It might be due to a later confusion
between these two myths that the descent of the angels was presented in
later literature as a fall, and that Satan was even connected to the angels
of Genesis 6. In the later recension of the Slavonic Secrets of Enoch
(18:3-4), the leader of the Fallen Angels became Satanail.
These are the Grigori, who with their prince Satanail rejected the Lord
of Light, and after them are those who are held in great darkness on

the second heaven, and three of them went down on to the earth
from the Lord's throne, to the place Ermon.25

As Mathias Delcor has aptly remarked in his thorough study of the

etiological function of the myth in apocalyptic literature,26 the Books of
Adam and Eve provide an ingenious combination (unique in apocryphal
literature) of the themes of the fall of Satan and the fall of the angels, and
of both with the fall of Adam. Satan was banished-and fell from heaven,
with his host of angels-because he did not want to worship Adam; and
he himself then made Adam sin.27 Note that here the two biblical myths
about the origin of evil are linked, one becoming the consequence of the
other.

In the Apocalypse of Abraham, the sin of the angels is mentioned only

indirectly. The text presents a structural inversion of the positions of
Abraham, whose place is in heaven, and Azazel, who now belongs to
earth, since "he has made it the dwelling-place of his impurity," probably
an allusion to the descent of the angels (chap. 13). In chapter 23, the
rites (p. 81): "In the text
which has been preserved we are not told why Lamech was(so disturbed, but the reason ...
24/ Enoch 106:1. In his commentary to lQapGen, Fitzm

was probably something like the extraordinary things which the infant does in Enoch 106."
This is not a completely satisfactory explanation, however. In / Enoch (e.g., chap. 65) Noah
is saved from the flood because he is the only one on earth who did not learn "all the
secrets of the angels" (v 6), i.e., sorcery, witchcraft, and similar arts. For the tradition
adopted by the author of lQapGen, Noah was unlike other men in his generation in that he
was the son of his mother's husband-and not of one of the angels. F. Rosenthal's interpretation (JNES 18 119591, 83), as quoted by Fitzmyer (pp. 81-82), is probably closer to the
truth: ". . the frightening possibility that Noah might not be his child. This, of course,
would have tainted all Israel with the intolerable blemish of illegitimacy." We shall come
back to Batenosh, Noah's mother, later.
25The Grigori obviously are the egregoroi ((irin): Watchers. This source, called A by
Charles, is presented by A. Vaillant as "additions du reviseur"; see his edition and translation, Le livre c/es secrets el'Hnnoch (Textes public's par l'Institut d'Etudes Slaves 4; Paris,
1952), 94-95.
26"Le mythe de la chute des tinges et de l'origine des geants comme explication du mal
dans le monde dans l'apocalyptique juive; Histoire des Traditions," RHR 190 (1976), 48.
.

27Adam and Eve, 12-17, esp. 14:3, 16:1.

UNDE MALUM

25

same Azazel is said to stand between Adam and Eve in Paradise. He is

described as a beast with a snake's body, human members, and wings,
standing behind the tree. That is to say, he plays the role attributed in
rabbinic literature to Sammael (Pirqe R. El. 13). Here too, therefore,
there seems to be a connection between Satan and the leader of the sinful
angels.28

In a different way, the Syriac Apocalypse qfBaruch also insists upon the
link between the sin of the angels and the first generation: "For he [man]

became a danger to his own soul: even to the angels he became a

danger." It is the women who seduced the angels (and not vice versa, as
in the original tradition attested by the Book oJ' Watchers). Succumbing to
temptation, the angels lost the freedom with which they had been created
(2 Apoc. Bar. 56.10-14). It must be pointed out that in this context, the
sin of the angels is paralleled to the transgression of Adam (2 Apoc. Bar.
56.5).29 It is not conceived of as an accident happening early in the history
of mankind, rather it is projected back to the anthropogonic process.

Finally, the punishment of the sinful angels is mentioned twicealthough not elaborated upon-in the New Testament. One of the references is Jude 6:

And the angels that did not keep their own position but left their
proper dwelling have been kept by him in eternal chains in the nether
gloom until the judgment of the great day.

A similar idea is expressed in 2 Pet 2:4 (the whole document is dependent

upon Jude).30
Rabbinic Texts

Despite the development of angelology in apocalyptic literature-or rather,

as a reaction to this trend-one can detect in rabbinic texts, side by side

with many an affirmation of the importance of angels, a systematic fight
against angelology.31 The downgrading of the angels' role is particularly
apparent in the exegesis of Gen 6:1 -4. As will be seen in another
28See G. N. Bonwetsch, trans., Die Apokalypse Abrahams (Studien zur Geschichte der
Theologie and der Kirche I; Leipzig: Deichert [Bohmel, 1897), 24, 33. In this text Azazel
plays the role of Eve's seducer in paradise, a role which is attributed to Sammael in other
Jewish texts. In Pirge R. El., for instance, he is described as "riding the serpent"; see E.
Urbach, The Sages, Their Concepts and Beliefs (Eng. trans.; Jerusalem: Magnes, 1975), I,
167-170, and corresponding notes in vol. If.
29For

a short discussion of the problem of the Fallen Angels in 2 Apoc. Bar., see

P.

Bogaert, ed. and trans., Apocalypse de Baruch, II (SC 145; Paris: Cerf, 1969), 109.
30As Fitzmyer convincingly argues, I Cor 11:9-10 does not seem to refer to the Fallen

Angels of Genesis 6; see his "A Feature of Qumran Angelology and the Angels of I Cor
11:10," NTS 4 (1957-58), 48-58, repr. in his Essays on the Semitic Background o/'the New
Testament (Missoula: Scholars, 1974), 187-204.

31E.g., A. Marmorstein, "Anges et hommes clans l'Aggada," REJ 84 (1927), 37-50;

Urbach, The Sages, chap. 8: "The Celestial Retinue" (text in vol. I, notes in vol. II).

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

26

chapter, the Rabbis made special efforts to challenge the identification of

the benei 'elohini as angels; yet some texts do consider them as Fallen
Angels-32

(Pseudo-Jonathan) on Gen 6:4 already reads,

The Targum
"Shemhazai and Azael, those who fell (*g3) from heaven" (instead of
linking their descent to Jared's name, as does the Book of Watchers).
A remarkable exegesis of Gen 6:1-4 occurs in Pirqe Rabbi Eliezer, a
midrashic work probably redacted in the early days of the Ummayad
dynasty, but which often records much earlier traditions. In chapter 22, it
is said in the name of Rabbi (2nd century, Palestinian), that
the angels who fell from their place of holiness in heaven saw the
[feminine] offspring of Cain, with their genitals exposed and their
eyes painted like prostitutes; they were led astray by them, and took
wives from among them.33

R. Joshua added that angels have bodies of fire,34 but that in order to sin
with the Cainite women, they had to put on bodies of flesh. The children

of these unions were the giants (:'pzr),35 who were prone to various
crimes, including bloody ones (146 Rigger). According to R. Levi, these

giants were born "like reptiles, six by six." Like their fathers, they too
committed sexual sins; in order to prevent mankind from growing, they
adopted onanistic practices, as they themselves told Noah (146 Higger).36
320n the problem of the Fallen Angels in rabbinic literature, see M. Grunbaum, "Beitrage
zur vergleichenden Mythologic aus der Agada," ZDMG 3 (1877), 224-235, 243-244; iden:,
Gesaniniehe Aufsdize zur Sprach- and Sagenkunde (ed. F. Perles; Berlin: Calvary, 1901),

59-61, 63-66, 70-75, 442-448;

B.

Heller, ",La chute des anges," REJ 60 (1910),

202-212; L. Jung, "Fallen Angels in Jewish, Christian and Mohammedan Literature, A

Study in Comparative Folklore," JQR 15 (1924-25), 467-502; 16 (1925-26), 45-88,
171-205, 287-336; B. J. Bamberger, Fallen Angels (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society,

1952); and especially Alexander, "Early Exegesis of 'Sons of God.' " Ginzberg states that
traces of the myth occur "in the non-authoritative writings of the synagogue" (The Legends
, n. 57). This language,
of the Jews, V [Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 192 ,
however, is somewhat misleading, since it would suggest a clear-cut distinction, alien to rabbinic Judaism, between orthodox and heterodox views, expressed respectively in authoritative and non-authoritative writings. Moreover, Ginzberg himself remarks that the dependence of some of those "non-authoritative" texts upon the Talmud is "obvious" (ibid,
170). Ginzberg refers here to a short text known, in a few slightly different medieval recen1

sions, as the Midi-ash of Shenrhazai and Azael. We shall deal with this work in a later section,
since the myth does not appear there as a direct exegesis of Gen 6:1 -4.
33This appalling description of the deeds of the Cainites is also given by R. Meir (Horeb 9,

145-148 Higger). See G. Friedlander's translation (repr. ed., New York: Hermon, 1965),
158-163.
34Cf. Pseudo-Clementine Homilies VIII.12-13, paraphrased below.
35The

new name given to the giants of Gen 6:1-4 shows a contamination of other (biblical) legends about giants, for instance the benei lanag7ni of Deut 1:28. yiyac is the only
term used by the LXX to translate gibbon, nepilinr, and (anaq.
36The accusation of sexual sins made against the giants also appears in Gen. Rab. 27.4, J.

Theodor, ed. (Berlin: Itzkowsky, 1903), 253-254, where the name nepilinr is exegeted as a
reminder of the numerous aborted fetuses issued from their dissolute sexual practices:

lmSnv1 o5ipn 1n *c21 nhign nK 15'c'nw : &t

prow '-I oms -tt&, 'n nns

27

UNDE MALUM

The Testament of Reuben, like Pirqe Rabbi E/iezer, offers a version of

the myth which accuses both the angels and the women of being sinners.
However, this is apparently the only text to specifically identify the

women who attracted the angels as Cainites. Since the beginning of

chapter 22 insists upon this crucial distinction, in all generations, between
Sethites and Cainites, and since R. Joshua also mentioned the fact that the
children of Israel were called Sons of God (147 Higger), this may well be
a later attempt to harmonize two exegetical traditions, the one identifying
the "Sons of God" with angels and the "daughters of men" with women,

and the other identifying the former with a category of "good" men
(Sethites) and the latter with "evil" women, i.e., Cainites.
The passsage in Genesis 6 remained puzzling for later Jewish exegesis
as well. An Oxford Ms. of 'Aggadat Bereft mentions that the Sons of God
were 'Uzza and 'Uz'el (both clearly derived from Azazel), who came
down to earth from their place in the firmament. However, the same text

subsequently identifies them as "sons of Cain," whereas earlier in the

text, they were said to be not angels, but "the generation which sank
loW."37

Apocalyptic literature manifested a particular attraction for a myth

related but once in the biblical text. Its clear "remytholo.gization "
including acceptance of foreign myths (or mythologoumena), might have
been one of the reasons for the rabbinic rejection of apocalyptic
literature.38

Philo and the Church Fathers

The Father's attitude towards the myth of Gen 6:1-4, like that of the
Rabbis, was generally reserved. Indeed, we shall see in another chapter

how rabbinic and Christian exegetes, in the light of their opposition to

mythology, later interpreted the "Sons of God" and their fall in such a
fashion as to destroy very clearly and consciously the myth itself. Suffice
it here to note that Philo was the first witness of this demythologizing exegesis. In his work De Gigantibus, he developed an allegorizing interpretation of Genesis 6:
It is Moses' custom to give the name of angels to those whom other
philosophers call demons [or spirits], souls, that is, which fly and
hover in the air. And let no one suppose that what is here said is a
myth.39

nn5m n,3rn In n,5c3 th ri nK

37Sh. Buber, ed., Agadat Bereshii (repr. ed., New York: Menorah, 1959), introduction,
37-39. Ginzberg, Legends, V, 170 also mentions occurrences of the same theme in kabbalistic literature: Zohar 1, 96, 126a; Zohar III, 208a; Zohar Ruth, 99a.

38See for instance Delcor, "La chute des tinges," 53. The extent to which apocalyptic
literature expresses new patterns of thought, or rather publicizes older patterns which were
not represented in the highly selective canon, remains a matter for personal judgment.
39Kat rfbeis vrroAa(3 I jt 9ov eivat eipi p Pov, De Gig. 11, 7. Again in II, 58: "Some may
think that the Lawgiver is alluding to the myths of the poets about the giants, but indeed

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

28

In Quaestiones in Genesin 92, he added:

And he relates that their [the giants'] creation was a mixture of two
things, of angels and mortal women. But the substance of angels is
spiritual; however, it often happens that they imitate the forms of
men and for immediate purposes, as in respect of knowing women for
the sake of begetting Haiks.40

According to these two different-but not incompatible-interpretations,

Gen 6:2 in some way refers to the descent of souls into certain human
bodies.

The Philonic exegesis was known to Origen, among others. In his Contra Ce/sum, he explicitly adopted Philo's exegesis in De Gig. II, 6:18:
We shall convince those who are able to understand the meaning of
the prophet that one of our predecessors referred these words to the
doctrine about souls who were afflicted with a desire for life in a
human body, which, he said, is figuratively called "daughters of
men. "41

Elsewhere, however, he was less affirmative and simply stated Philo's

view, without explicitly accepting or denying it:
Some have supposed that this descent would indicate in a covered way

that of the souls into the bodies-the earthly vase being metaphorically referred to by "the daughters of men."42

A similar demythologizing attitude is also found in a text of the Middle

Platonist Alexander of Lycopolis. The passage is of particular significance,
myth-making (p.vOo7rkacrreiv) is a thing most alien to him, and his mind is set on following

in the steps of truth and nothing but truth." On this text, see Valentin Nikiprowetzky, "Sur
une lecture demonologique de Philon d'Alexandrie, de Kigantibus, 6- 8," in G. Nation and
Ch. Touati, eds., Honlnlages a Georges Vajda(Louvain: Peeters, 1980), 3-71, esp. 71.
40The beginning of the text reads: "The poets relate that the giants were earthborn, children of the earth. But he [Moses] uses this name analogically and frequently when he
wishes to indicate excessive size of the body, after the likeness of Haik." (Haik is "the
name of the Armenian eponymous hero for Greek Herakles" and thus refers to "giant";
see It Marcus's note in his translation for the Loeb edition, 61). Prof. John Strugnell suggests that Philo might play here on yriyh'ctc and yiyavres. Philo admits afterwards, however, that "Sons of God" is a name which can be given to good and excellent men too. We
shall conic back to this interpretation in Part If. The Giants of Greek mythology are sometimes called Gegeneis-so for instance in Apollonios Rhodios; H. J. Rose, A Handbook of
Greek Mythology (London:- Methuen, 19586), 57.
411

quote the translation of H. Chadwick, Origen: Contra Celsuni (Cambridge: University,

1965), 307. Text in M. Boret's edition, Origene, Contre Celse (SC 147; Paris: Cerf, 1969),
152.
42 C0111.

in loh. VI.42.217-218 (C. Blanc ed., SC 157; 294-296); also XIII. On this ambiguity in Origen's teaching, see L. R. Wickham, "The Sons of God and the Daughters of
Men: Genesis VI 2 in Early Christian Exegesis"; Language and Meaning. Studies in Hebrew
Language and Biblical Exegesis, papers read at the Joint British-Dutch Old Testament Conference

held at London, 1973 (OTS 19; Leiden: Brill, 1974), 142-143.

UNDE MALUM

29

since its context is his controversy against Manichaeism, written towards

the end of the 3rd century. Alexander wrote:
For example, when the history of the Jews speaks of the angels who
consorted with the daughters of men in order to have sexual intercourse, this way of telling the story hints at the nurturing faculties of
the soul which comes down hither from above.43

Despite the importance of this allegorizing tendency, the myth of the

Fallen Angels and their sin of lust did not completely disappear from early
Christian literature. As late as the 4th century, clear echoes of the myth
were heard. For Justin and for Athenagoras, for instance, the progeny of
the angels and the women were demons.44 Irenaeus, for his part, interpreted the angels' fall from heaven as a consequence of their disobedience. From his wording, it appears that overtones from the story of

Satan's fall had permeated the theme of the angels' descent.45 This amalgamation of myths is explicit in the Acta Archelai, the archetype of most
Christian refutations of Manichaeism, which was written by Hegemonius
in the 4th century:
Hence also some of the angels, refusing to obey God's command,
resisted His will; and one of them fell like a flash of lightning upon
the earth [he is then identified as the devil], while others, "harrassed
by the dragon" (a dracone adflicti) united (admixti) with the
daughters of men.46

Tertullian, for his part, condemned in strong language the sin of the
angels, to which he referred on several occasions.47 Clement of Alexandria

referred to another detail stemming from apocalyptic literature (1 Enoch

7:1), when he said that the angels taught the women secrets.48 Like Alexander of Lycopolis, both Lactantius and Eusebius expressly referred to
Greek mythology. Lactantius quoted Hesiod,49 while Eusebius claimed to
follow Plutarch's interpretation and identified the giants of Genesis with
43Contra Manichaeos, XXV, quoted according to P. W. van der Horst and J. Mansfeld, An
Alexandrian Platonist Against Dualism: Alexander of Lycopolis' Treatise "Critique of the Doctrines

o/' Manicheus" (Leiden: Brill, 1974), 95. Text in A. Brinkmann's edition (Leipzig: Teubner,
1895), 37.
44Justin, Apologia 115 (PG 6, 451). Athenagoras, Legatio 24,5 (PG 6, 947).
45Adv, Haer. IV, 16.2 (11, 190 Harvey), where the angels (qualified as transgressors) are put
in opposition to Enoch, the righteous (see also IV, 36.4; 11, 279 Harvey).
46Hegemonius, Acta Archelai 36.3 (ed. C. H. Beeson; GCS; Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1906), 51.
47See for instance De 'idolatria 9 and De Oratione 22.5, Opera I (ed. A. Reifferscheid; CSEL
20; Vienna: Tempsky, 1890), 194, 365; De Virginibus Velantis, Opera IV (ed. Bulhart; CSEL
76; Vienna: Tempsky, 1957), 89. Cf. Pseudo-Cyprian, De singulitate clericorum, Opera Onmia
(ed. G. Hartel; CSEL 3; Vienna: Geroldi, 1871), 204.
48Strom. V,1, Clemens Alexandrinus, Werke 11 (ed. O. Stahlin; GCS; Leipzig: Hinrichs,
1906), 332. Cf. Paedag. 111, 2.14 (ibid., I; Berlin: Akademie, 19723), 244.
49Divinae /nstitutiones II, Opera (ed. S. Brand, G. Laubmann; CSEL 19; Vienna: Geroldi,
1887), 162 -163.

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

30

"the gods about whom the Greeks tell tales of fights," just as Plutarch
had identified these gods with Egyptian deities.50
By far the most detailed treatment of the myth of the Fallen Angels in

early Christian literature, however, is found in the Pseudo-Clementine

Homilies. The close relationship of Pseudo-Clementine literature to Jewish Christianity (its substratum is the Ebionite Ketygmata Petrou) and its
gnosticizing tendencies are significant in this respect.51 Purporting to argue
against Simon Magus's dualism, the Homilies actually developed a veiled
attack against Paul's theology. Indeed, for the Homilies, the myth of the

Fallen Angels answered the problem of the origin of evil, whereas Paul
referred to Adam's sin (Rom 5:12).52 In the Homilies, Peter presented the
angels' descent as a punishment visited upon men for having deserted the
Law of God (Hour. VIII.11). The angels, taking human (and animal)
forms, first went down to earth with the intention of preaching to men
and asking them to repent and obey God. But they soon fell prey "to the
power of the flesh and of lust"; they united with the women, and, thus
soiled, lost their proper and pure fiery nature, so that they were unable to
return to heaven (Hone. VIII.12-13). It is significant that at the origin of
this fall stands not a revolt in heaven, but rather lust, as the real source of
evil.

In its attempt to harmonize the traditions reflected in I Enoch 6ff. (and

in Jub.), the text added that the angels first attracted the women by
changing themselves (through their divine power), into various things
such as pearls, precious stones, and gold (Hom. VIII.12). But after their
sin, having lost this power, they were unable to give these gifts to their
lovers, and so they themselves discovered precious stones, gold, and other

metals in the earth and taught men techniques of magic, astronomy,

etc.-all things which the human mind would never have discovered. In a
word, all ornaments or pleasures of women are inventions of the demons

fettered in the flesh (Hom. VIII.14,2-3; 127 Rehm). The offspring of

on account

their illegitimate mixis were bastards (voGot) later called

of their height. They did not revolt against God, as related in the
blasphemous tales of the Greeks, but did have an irre tible impulse to
i

taste blood; thus, they were the first anthropophagites (Hone. VIII.15-16).
50 prep. Evang. 5.4 (ed. and trans. E. H. Gifford; Oxford, 1903), 1, 186d, p. 244. Cf. De
Isis et Osiride 25, 360c (ed. J. G. Griffith; Cardiff: Univ. of Wales, 1970), 154. See also Com-

modianus, who in the 5th century retold the myth in verse form: Instuctiones I. adversus
Gentiunr Deos III, Carnrina (ed. B. Dombart; CSEL 15; Vienna: Geroldi, 1887), 7.
51On the Jewish-Christian theology as it appears in the Pseudo-Clementine writings, see
mainly H. J. Schoeps, Theologie and Geschic/ne des Judencc/rristentums (Tubingen: Mohr,
19642), and G. Strecker, Das Juc/enchristeniunr in den Pseudoklenrentinen (TU 70; Berlin: Akademie, 1958). For the Gnostic affinities, see 0. Cullmann, Le probl2enre liueraire et lnsvoriyue
c/u roman pseudo clenreniin (Paris: Alcan, 1930).

520n the Homilist's treatment of the problem of evil, see H. J. Schoeps, "Der Ursprung
des Bosen and das Problem der Theodizee im pseudo- klementinischen Roman," in Jud/'oChrisdanisme, Recherches
J. Danielou, 129-141. It should be noted that the theological
conceptions embodied in the Kerygniaia Peirou are very close to those of the Elchasaites
among whom Mani grew up.

...

UNDE MALUM

31

This theme, already found in I Enoch 7:6, is an important element in subsequent developments. As a result of their behavior the earth became
poisoned by so much bloodshed, men began to die early, and venomous
beasts appeared. God decided to put an end to this deteriorating state of
affairs, which threatened to corrupt all humanity to a point where no one
would remain to be saved, and thus sent the flood in order to cleanse the
world (Hont. VIII.17). The giants died in the flood, but their race did not
disappear, for their souls led a separate existence, God having ordered
them, through an angel, not to trouble men in any way. They were
indeed demons, though not altogether evil ones, and their role remained,
under God's command, to punish both unbelievers and sinners (Hont.
VIII. 18 -19; 126 -129 Rehm).
The treatment of the myth in the Homilies is particularly significant in
our context, since it may indicate a transitional stage through which the
myth reached the Gnostic circles. In the Jewish heterodox milieu, which
is the Sitz int Leben of the Kerygntata Petrou, the angels' fall appears to
have been of primary importance in explaining the origin of evil. This
theme was thus developed in a particular way, which accounted not only

for the angels' sin, but also for their initially good intentions (as in
Jubilees), as well as for the existence of demons, identified with the
offspring of the angels. The same identification may be found in many of
the Gnostic texts. It is also interesting to note that the author of the
Homilies was aware of the Greek myth of the Titans, the sons of Uranus
and Gaia, and their revolt against the gods, but rejected any link between
it and the biblical myth-although he identified Noah with Deucalion, as
did the Apocalypse of Adant. For the Pseudo-Clementine Hontiltes, therefore, evil stemmed from sexual ntixis, from forbidden unions between two
different categories of beings. The problem was set forth in very similar
terms in Gnostic contexts.
Gnostic Reinterpretation

In a way, the origin of evil in Gnostic mythology should be understood in

terms of ntixis; the creation of the world by the agents of evil is but one
aspect of this permanent attempt at mixing unclean elements of darkness,
or matter, with pure elements of light, or spirit. While there was a possibility of salvation if the pure elements remained untainted (that is to say,
remained free from any contact with the unclean ones or managed to
become disengaged from them), the forces of darkness perpetually strove,
in history as well as in cosmogony or anthropogony, to mingle with the
elements (the "children") of light. For Gnostic thought, the most obvious way for the evil rulers to achieve this mixis was through sexual relations with human beings. Thus Nicolaus was presented as speaking about
the "fetid and unclean" permixio, which originated in the lust of darkness
for light.53
53Pseudo-Tertullian, Ac/r. Onur. Haer.

(215 Kroymann). See also Sethian theology as

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

32

In his seminal study, H.-C. Puech analyzes various occurrences of the

same theme of the angels' fornication with women.54 He shows its importance in different Gnostic contexts, where the sending of the flood by the
heavenly Mother was always presented as a direct consequence of these
permixiones of angels and humans.55 The myth is known not only in texts
and traditions usually considered to be "Sethian," but also in Valentinian
context.56

In a more recent study of the theme of the angels' fornication with

women in Gnosticism, Yvonne Janssens states that the myth as it appears
in Genesis 6 cannot be found "a 1'6tat put" in Gnostic texts.57 Yet the

thrust of her article is precisely to focus attention on the recurrence of

this theme in various Gnostic contexts. Although she quotes some Jewish
sources for the theme (I and 2 Enoch) and cites various Gnostic texts and

parallels (the theme of the bridal chamber in Gos. PhiL, the attitude of
Elohim in Justin's Baruch, etc.), she stops short of integrating the various
pieces of evidence into a global understanding of this myth in Gnostic
thought.

In Gnostic literature, however, the theme of the Fallen Angels is much

more than what Janssens calls "un centre d'attraction litteraire." Indeed, I
shall demonstrate that it played a major function in the development of

Gnostic mythology, and that it is at the very core of the mythological

expression of Gnostic consciousness. During the discussion generated by

Janssens's paper at the Messina Conference, Hans Jonas hinted at the

importance of what I propose to call provisionally a "cluster of themes."
He suggested that one should attempt to build a typology of related, albeit
different, themes such as the fornication of the angels, the seduction of
the archons, abortions, and the demiurge's rape of Eve.58 The following
chapters may be regarded as a contribution towards a typology such as that
proposed by Jonas. Through an analysis of the evidence for these themes
in Gnostic texts and traditions, I shall try to determine possible relationships.
recorded by Hippolytus, Elenchos 5. 19.11 -12 (118 Wendland), `where a series of "conjunctions" ((rvvaponi) are reported to have taken place between heaven and earth, which are
described like a womb. The animals, in their multitude, are said to be created out of a succession of' such "conjunctions." See also Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1.30.5 (1, 230-233 Harvey),
where the mixis is one between spirit and matter.
54"Fragments retrouve's de ('Apocalypse d'Alloge'ne," Melanges Franz Cumont, 11
(Annuaire de l'Institut de Philologie et d'Histoire Orientales et Slaves 4; Brussels, 1936);
repr. in En quite de la Gnose, 1, 271 -300. Puech quotes the passage on Audi in Agapius's
Kirab a/-c Unwan, PO 7, 564: "He also says that the angels committed adultery with the
daughters of' nien, and gave birth to children out of them, and that evil is the natural constitution of men" (repr. ed. pp. 275-276).
55En quote, I, 287, n. 1. Other major references to the theme are found in Epiphanius,
Pan. 39.3.1 (II, 73, Holl) or Pseudo-Tertullian, Achy. Onin. Haer. 3 (218 Kroymann).
56lrenaeus, Adv. Haer., 1, 10.3 (1, 95 Harvey). The theme is again mentioned in the Pistis
Sophia, 1, 15 (25 Macdermot). See also Pseudo-Jerome, Inc/ic. de Haer. 9 (290 Oehler).
57"Le theme de la fornication des anges," in U. Bianchi, ed., Le origini, 488-495.
58 /hid., 495.

UNDE MALUM

33

In the introduction I noted that there are no "pure" or "degenerate"

forms of a myth. If the Gnostic and the Jewish versions of the myth
differ as much as they do, it is because Gnostic etiological concerns were
different from Jewish ones. In a way, it may be said that the theological
problem of the existence of evil as posed by Judaism (or, for that matter,
by Christianity) is almost inverted in Gnosticism. In monotheistic theology, it is essential to account for the existence of evil in a world created
by God, who is good. Dualist Gnosticism, on the other hand, takes evil
for granted. The main emphasis, therefore, is placed on the explanation
of the possibility of salvation-for some-in a creation seen as utterly evil.

This peculiar focus of the problem-not so much of evil as of good-for

Gnostic mythology, has not been accorded due attention.
The two biblical myths that could account for the presence of evil were
sometimes integrated in apocalyptic literature, and Satan was linked to the

Fallen Angels of Genesis 6 in some of the versions. This combinatory

process was given new and systematic dimensions in Gnostic mythology.
The two original myths were integrated into a much broader mythical
frame, intended to make manifest the basic pattern of both history and
cosmogony: the evil deeds of the lustful demiurge and his associates, the
archons. For Gnostic mythology, indeed, evil stemmed from a series of
sexual sins. In its new frame, the myth focused upon the escape of pure
women from the lust of the angels (i.e. the archons). These women, having remained unsoiled, were thus able to transmit the pure seed.
Evidence for the importance of the myth in Gnosticism will be cited as
we proceed to analyze the various related themes. One passage, however,
which shows quite clearly how the myth of the Fallen Angels was con-

nected with the very beginnings of mankind, is worth quoting at the

outset. In Val. Exp. 38:22-37, the Devil, "one of the divine beings"
(38:13-14) is said to have begotten
sons who [angered one another. And] Cain [killed] Abel his brother,
for [the demiurge] breathed into [them] his spirit. And there [took
place] the struggle with the apostasy of the angels and mankind, those
of the right with those of the left, and those of heaven with those on
earth, the spirits with the carnal, and the Devil against God. Therefore the angels lusted after the daughters of men and came down to
flesh so that God would cause a flood.

The lustful angels are also mentioned in other Gnostic texts. In Apoc.
Adam 83:14-17, for instance, they are explicitly said to have been "corrupted by their desire. "59
59See also Tri. Tiac. 135:1-5 and Testier. Truth 40:30-41:4. According to Paraph. Sheer

44:13-17, a flood will come at the end of time because envy "of winds [or: "spirits";
Cruet's Coptic Dictionary, 439 B S.P. THY] and the demons." Cf. Gos. Eg. 111 61:1 -3: "and

the flood came as an example for the consummation of the aeon." The sin of the Fallen
Angels is probably alluded to in Gos. Eg., as Doresse saw (see the commentary to his translation, 347, n. 133; 348, n. 137; see esp. Gos. Eg. 111, 61:16-23; 62:21-24; 64:3-4). For a
reference to the rebellion of the angels, see also Treat. Seth 33:20-,33. See also Fragments o/'

34

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

At various stages of this inquiry, it will become clear that the Gnostics'
myths did not emerge only from their meditation upon the Greek text of
Genesis; the Gnostic texts, indeed, reflect knowledge of various detailed
interpretations of these themes in Jewish exegesis, whether the apocryphal
writings or some other early traditions that were later recorded in rabbinic
literature.

Heracleon, 40, on John 4:46-53 (in Origen, Con,. in /oh. X111.60; 82 Volker), where Heracleon deals with the problem of the future salvation of the Fallen Angels of Genesis 6.

CHAPTER TWO

THE ARCHONS AS SEDUCERS

The Gnostics inherited the theme of nrixis-together with the myth of the
Fallen Angels and their copulation with women-from Jewish literature,
in all probability directly, rather than through the mediation of Christian
texts, as we shall see. Yet the etiological function of the theme of mixis in

Gnostic mythology was so different that in its new setting, the myth
underwent not only far reaching developments, but also a radical transformation, some of whose steps we shall attempt to follow.
The Daughters of Men

Following the Bible, some Jewish texts (e.g., I Enoch, Jubilees) integrated
this episode into human history, a fact of obvious theological significance,
for it meant that the origin of evil was not concomitant with God's creation. Gnosticism, on the other hand, had a vested interest in showing

that the pattern of mixis had already begun in the very first generation of
mankind. In some Gnostic texts, therefore, the responsibility for Eve and
Adam's sin of concupiscence was attributed to the demiurge himself. In
Apoc. Adam, for instance, it is he who was responsible for the "sweet
desire" in Adam's heart. At least two explanations of concupiscence are
implicit in this text. First, sexual impulse is seen as stemming directly
from the male/female duality, i.e., from the separation of the androgynal

protoplast which "the Ruler of the aeons" had made in his wrath
(64:20-23). Second, Eve became sexually attractive to Adam only after
her seduction, by the demiurge, who here plays the role of the serpent in
Jewish theology.]

To this text, in which the (reversed) biblical themes can be easily

recognized, may be contrasted Gos. Phil. 70:20-22: "Thus Eve separated
from Adam since she was never united with him in the bridal chamber."2
In this eclectic work of Valentinian affinities, the reason for Eve's fall is
the adultery that she committed in her mind, i.e., her illegitimate desire
for the serpent, which led to Cain's birth. According to the popular wisdom accepted by Gos. Phil. 78:12-20:
The children a woman bears resemble the man who loves her. If her
1 Apoc. Adam 66:25-67:4. Cf. Ap. Jo/in CG II, 24:27-28; see S. Giversen, Apocryphon
lohannis (Acta Theologica Danica 5; Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1963), Commentary, 264.
2See also Gos. Phi/. 68:22-24: "When Eve was still in Adam, death did not exist." The
bridal chamber is here a symbol of the perfect marriage; cf. Exeg. Soul 133:31 -134:6.

36

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

husband loves her, then they resemble her husband. If it is an

adulterer, then they resemble the adulterer. Frequently, if a woman
sleeps with her husband out of necessity, while her heart is with the
adulterer with whom she usually has intercourse, the child she will
bear is born resembling the adulterer.'

Such an attitude is similar to that expressed in T. Reub. 5:7, where the

women who "united themselves with the angels" were, in fact, sleeping
with their husbands, but committing adultery in thought.
An interesting treatment of the same theme occurs in the Apoctyphon of
John. In this text, one cannot properly speak of a fall of the angels, since
they descended on purpose, sent by the evil demiurge in order to enslave
humanity through concupiscence. In this text the sin of the angels is not

regarded as the cause, but as the consequence of the flood.4 This latter
motif, however, was strongly gnosticized: Noah-a positive figure here as
in certain other Gnostic contexts5 -and his kin from the unshakeable race
(TreNsa aTKIM)6 did not enter the ark, but "went into a place and hid
themselves in a luminous cloud,7 in order to escape the wrath of the
demiurge. Angry at not being able to seize Noah, the demiurge decided
("with his powers") to send angels to the daughters of men "that they
might take some of them for themselves and raise offspring for their
enjoyment." They thus created a "despicable" or "opposing" spirit, as
3For Gos. Phil. "Indeed every act of sexual intercourse which has occurred between
those unlike one another is adultery" (62:10-12; 65:1-26). See J. P. Mahe', "Le sens des

symboles sexuels dons quelques textes herme'tiques et gnostiques," in J.-E. Me'nard, ed., Les
tcztes de Nag Hantntadi, Colloque du Centre d'Histoire des Religions, Strasbourg 23-25 Octobre
/974 (NHS 7; Leiden: Brill, 1975), 123-145, esp. 138, as well as R. M. Grant, "The Mys-

tery of Marriage in the Gospel of Philip," VC 15 (1961), 129-140, esp. 135 n. 22, where
Grant points out that Empedocles (H. Diels, Doxographi Graeci, 423) had already come to
the same solution of the problem of children who do not resem le their parents. The same
idea is expressed in Gen. Rab. 27:4 (254 Theodor) in the very cb-a text of the women's sin
with the Sons oy God. R. Berachia described how women would give birth to sons who
resembled lads they met in the market place and with whom they had fallen in love.
4Cf. M. Scopello, "Le mythe de la chute des anges dans ('Apoctyphon de Jean (11.0 de
Nag Hammadi," RSR 54 (1980), 220-230; she deals with only two of the contexts in which
the pervasive myth is related, I Enoch and Ap. John.
5E.g., Great Pow. 38:22-39:2, where Noah preached piety for 120 years before escaping in
the ark; 2 Pet 2:5, where Noah is called K1Ipv6 S&Katoo-uvgs. In Apoc. Ac/ant, however, Noah
is presented as the arch-servant of Sakla.
6For a thorough analysis of, this concept in Gnostic thought and a demonstration of its
Neoplatonic affinities, see M. Williams, The Gnostic, Concept of Stability (unpublished--Ph.-D

dissertation, Harvard University, 1977), and his "Stability as a Soteriological Theme in

Gnosticism," in Layton, ed., Rediscovery, II, 819-829.
7Ap. John 29:10-12. Clouds of light appear elsewhere as the proper and secret place of
Gnostics and revealing angels; see Gos. Eg. 111 49:1; Apoc. Adant 75:17-18, 69:20-21;
71:9-10. Cf. Matt 24:30, Mark 13:26, and Luke 21:27, where the Son of Man appears in the
clouds. A cloud of light also appears in Matt 17:5, Luke 9:34, and already in Dan 7:13. But
clouds may also be connected with darkness, i.e., with flesh and lust; Gos. Eg. 111 56:25;
Apoc, Adam 80:22; 81:16-17; 83:7-8; Paraph. Sheet 5:12; 47:21; Treat. Seth 70:2. See the
discussion of vebeAq by Eduard Norden, Die Geburt des Kindes; Geschichte einer religidsen Idee
(Studien der Bibliothek Warburg 3; Leipzig-Berlin: Teubner, 1924), 92-99.

THE ARCHONS AS SEDUCERS

37

the Coptic renders the important Gnostic notion of o av-r4cuaov Trvcvpa 8

The text then describes, in a way strongly reminiscent of Jewish apocryphal writings, how
the angels changed themselves in their likeness into the likeness of
their [i.e. the women's] husbands, filling them with the spirit of darkness, which they had mixed for them, and with evil. They brought
gold and silver and a gift and copper and iron and metal and all kinds
of things. (Ap. John 29:26-33)
Finally,

They begot children out of the darkness according to the likeness of

their spirit. And they closed their hearts, and they hardened them-

selves through the hardness of the despicable spirit until

now.

(30:8-11)

In another context, these angels (or demons-both words are used with
the same meaning) are said to have
taught men many errors with magic and potions and idolatry, and
shedding of blood, and altars, and temples and sacrifices, and liba-

tions....

(Orig. World 123:4-13)9

Now the story as told in Ap. John clearly reveals an unintentional contamination between two traditions attested in Jewish literature. The
demythologizing exegesis of T. Reub. noted above had its own logic: since
spiritual beings like angels could not sin, it was the women who, in their
lust, had to bear the burden of responsibility for the illegitimate union,
which was, in fact, no more than an illicit thought. In the case of'Ap.
John, however, the reason why the angels took the shape of the husbands
is less clear. The Gnostic author did not refrain from describing the
strange, beastly physical form of the demiurge and the archons. So the

angels' taking the shape of the husbands here appears to be slavishly

8Ap. John 29:16-24: oyfNe eyu9Hc (cf. Crum, 375-376);

cf.

26:20: nenua

eTC)B INCIT, "the opposing spirit." Both expressions render the Greek 6 avrirov
vrveva, retained in the version of Ap. John in BG. oyrlNa eycyHC. ("the despicable
spirit") might be a translation of rb araov (instead of al'T4uov) as Prof. J. Strugneti has
suggested to me. On the anlintimon pneunia, see Giversen, "The Apocryphon of John and
Genesis," ST 17 (1963), 73, and esp. A. Bohlig, "Zum Antimimon Pneurna in den
koptischen-gnostischen Texten," Mysterion and
(AGJU 6; Leiden: Brill, 1968),
162-175. To this evil spirit is opposed the parthenikon pneunla (Eugnostos 89:2-3). See W.
Bousset, "Gnosis," PW, VII. 2, 1514, and Tardieu, Trois Mythes, 65 n. 91, who refers to the
"spiritual virgins" of Orig. World 102:18. The antiminlon pneuma, a purely Gnostic concept,
is not found in philosophical texts.

9The theme of the wicked angels who taught men "things contrary to nature" and thus
"led them into evil things" also appears in the fragment of Asclepius found at Nag Hammadi
(73:5-12). The same text mentions the punishment of the demon who has done evil

deeds-"He is suspended between heaven and earth" (77:8). This night refer to the binding of the Fallen AnaMc in I

38

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

copied from its source, but out of its original context; the redactor did not
notice that the detail was not only absolutely meaningless in his own, new
version of the myth, but that it even contradicted it. This source, which
remains unidentified, followed the tradition attested to by T. Reub.
The second element coming from Jewish texts is the mention of the
gold and silver, gifts and metals, etc., which the angels of the demiurge
brought to the women. This can be easily recognized as derived directly
from the description of the angels' fall in 1 Enoch 8:1, for although it was
significant in the early version of the myth (where the origins of evil and
of moral depravation were linked to the origins of civilization), this element appeared as a mere literary vestige in the Gnostic story, without any
specific function. It can therefore be safely assumed that the author-or

the redactor-of Ap. John knew and used the Jewish traditions embodied
in various pseudepigraphic works and integrated them into his own version of the myth, albeit not always wisely. This analysis, however, falls
short of proving that the author was in close contact with Judaism. In the
2nd century, when Ap. John was probably written, these texts already circulated far beyond the Jewish communities, indeed they were current primarily in Christian circles if our evidence is to be trusted. But the lack of
Christian elements in Ap. John greatly weakens the hypothesis of a Christian intermediary. Roel van den Broek therefore argues quite plausibly
that the author of Ap. John knew, accepted, and reinterpreted some Jewish
Alexandrian traditions.10
The Seduction of Eve

A glance at the other "seduction story" related in Ap. John, namely, the
case of Eve, may provide a further clue towards a solution of the problem
of the traditions worked over by the Gnostics in their myth-making. The
text reports that when Yaldabaoth, the first archon saw "the virgin who

stood by Adam," with the luminous Epinoia of ife shining in her, he

decided to seduce her. While Pronoia "snatched e out of Eve" (cf.
Hyp. Arch. 89:17-29), he begot from her two sons, E ohim and Jahwe"And these he called with the names Cain and Abel, with a view to
deceive" (Ap. John 24:8-25). In other words, he gave them these names
in order to conceal their archontic nature. Yaldabaoth's sons had beastly
appearances: Elohim had a bear face, and Jahwe, a cat face. Both shared
their father's ugliness; they were anlorphoi, just as he was aniorphos.II Yaldabaoth, the first archon, then "planted in Adam a desire for generation,"
with the result that Adam generated from Eve his first-born, Seth, who
10-The Creation of Adam's Psychic Body in the Apocrvphon of John," in van den Broek
and Vermaseren,eds., Studies in Gnosticism, 38-57.
''Cl'. Marsanes 25:1 -4. Ap. John 10:26-35 also tells of Yaldabaoth's offspring: "And he

joined with his madness (avrovota) which is in him and begot authorities for himself." Of

his twelve sons, the sixth was called Cain-"he whom the generations of men call the
sun"-and the seventh Abel. Cf. CG IV 26:19-20. See also Apoc. Adam 66:26-28 (corrupt
text) and Trim. Proi. 40:4-7.

THE ARCHONS AS SEDUCERS

39

was like himself.

The description of Eve's marital relationships in this text is unlike the

one given in Gos. PhiL 70:22, since in Ap. John Eve is not accused of adulterous thoughts during her second union, the one with Adam. On the
contrary, this union seems to have been a pure one, for it produced Seth,
the father of the "unshakeable race," to which the pneunra was sent by
the Mother and which was thus in perpetual opposition to the bearers of
the an/inrinion pneunra. What remains puzzling is the fact that it is the evil
Yaldabaoth who planted sexual desire in Adam,12 desire through which
the pure seed was transmitted. In order to have Seth belong to the spiritual race, the intervention of the Mother was required. So, in a sense
Seth was not simply Adam's son, but also linked to the heavenly world. It
seems that the Gnostic author, confronted with the problem that the
fathers of both the pure and the evil race were born from Eve, offered a
radical solution by asserting that Eve's first two sons were actually the product of a rape. Nevertheless, this author could not free himself completely from the more traditional attitude, according to which even the
sexual relations between Adam and Eve stemmed from an unclean desire.
A more logical or consistent stand based on the same premises was
presented in Gos. Phi/. 68:22-24, where the original androgyny of Adam
and Eve actually became a symbol of the mystery of spiritual, or perfect,
marriage, which itself was an archetype of salvation: "When Eve was in
Adam, death did not exist." In the Valentinian context of Gos. Phi/., the
theme of androgyny, which, as noted, also occurred in Apoc. Adam, was
interpreted as the union in the bridal chamber, symbolizing metaphysical
realities and eschatological salvation: at the end of time Achamoth, the
mother of the spiritual seed, would enter the Pleroma and receive the

savior as her bridegroom.13

Eve's seduction is mentioned or developed elsewhere both in the

patristic testimonies and in the various Gnostic texts. In the heresiologists' reports, one finds several references to Eve's relations with the
demiurge or the archons, and to the "non-Adamic" birth of Cain and
Abel. In his discussion of these Gnostics-whom he laconically calls a/ii,
"others,"-Irenaeus claimed that according to them, Eve gave birth to
sons "who are called angels" as a result of her sexual relations with Yaldabaoth and the lustful archons.14

12This desire is part of' the dominion of' death and ignorance (Ap. John 64:20-67:13). On
the original androgyny of' human beings, a theme which can be traced back to Plato's Symposium, see C. A. E. Jessen, "Hermaphroditos," PW, Vlll. 1, 714-721.
13CJ'. Grant, "The Mystery of Marriage in the Gospel of' Philip," VC 15 (1961), 129-140,

esp. 131. See also J.-E. Me'nard's commentary on Gos. Thom., logion 15, in his L'Evallgi/e

se/on Thomas (NHS 5; Leiden: Brill, 1975), 101--103. Some of' the texts referred to by Menard in his discussion of Valentinianism (p. 102), such as Gos. L,c'. or the fragment of the
Gospel o/' Eve preserved by Epiphanius in his chapter on the "Gnostics" (Pan. 26,3.1; 1, 278
[loll), show that later on the theme was not limited to Valentinian theology.
14Adh,. /faer. 1, 30.78 (1, 233-234 Harvey).

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

40

This is repeated by Pseudo-Tertullian, who stated that according to the

Cainites, Abel was created by an inferior being, while according to the
Sethians, both Cain and Abel were the sons of angels.15 He added that

great discord arose among the angels on their account, and that the
supreme power (virtus), whom the Sethians called the Mother, willed Seth
to be born instead of Abel. The Mother thus intended to fight the angels
who had created Cain and Abel, "since this pure seed (hoc semen mundum) rises and is born" from Seth. "For (enim) they speak about iniquitous permixtiones of angels and men, which prompted the Power to send
the flood, in order that "that seed of permixture" be swept away and only
the pure seed be kept intact (integrum) (218 Kroymann). From this testimony, and especially from the use of enim, the Gnostics whom PseudoTertullian called Sethians clearly connected their teachings about the birth
of Cain and Abel to the general pattern of the permixtiones between angels
and humans. The same conceptions were known to Epiphanius, who

mentioned in his description of the Sethians' theology their belief that

Cain and Abel were the sons of two angels who fought one another
through them "and so caused Abel to be killed by Cain."16
There is at least one direct Christian refutation of this Gnostic doctrine;
based on quotations from Genesis and Ecclesiasticus, it argued that Cain's

evil character was due not to his birth but to his subsequent evil acts.
This refutation is found in a Pachomian fragment, which quotes "one of
the books written by the heretics" as saying: "When Eve had been misled
and she had eaten of the fruit of the tree, it was with the devil that she
conceived Cain."17 Similarly, Epiphanius, in his report on the Archontics,
wrote:

Another myth is related by these folk: The devil (o &6/3okoc) it says,

came to Eve and had intercourse with her (o-vv^00-q) as a man does
with a woman, and begot with her Cain and Abel.18

Or again:

His [i.e. Cain's] father was the devil, and the devil's father is the
archon who is a liar, whom the foolish ones, bringing blasphemies
upon their own heads, identify with Sabaoth.'9

Finally, in the system that the Gnostic Justin set forth in his book Baruch,
15C'onn. Omn. Haer. 2 (217-218 Kroymann).

lt'Pan. 39, 2.1-2 (11, 72 Holl). See Tardieu's annotated translation of the whole chapter,
in Tel Quel88 (1981), 64-91.
17Fragment 53, edited by L. Th. Lefort, Les vies copies de Saint Pachome (Louvain, 1943),
370-371. Discussed by T. Save-Soderbergh, "Holy Scriptures or Apologetic Documentations," in J.-E. Me'nard, ed., Les Texies de Nag-Hanunadi, 9.
18Pan. 40, 5.3 (II, 85 Holl).

191hid., 40, 5.7 (II, 86 Holl); also 40, 6.9 (II, 87, Holl). The archontics here denounce
Sahaoth in terms usually reserved for his father Yaldabaoth. Sammael is probably meant by
"the devil."

THE ARCHONS AS SEDUCERS

41

a highly syncretistic work which retains clear traces of deeply rooted Jewish influences, the serpent is said to have had sexual relations with both
Eve and Adam:
For going to Eve he deceived her and committed adultery with her,
which is contrary to the law; and he went also to Adam and used him
as a boy, which is also against the law. Hence arose adultery and
pederasty.20

Yet the clearest evidence before the Nag Hammadi texts came to light
was embodied in a few quotations from the Apocalypse of the Strangers and

the Book of Demands, which the schismatic Audians were said to have

read from the 4th century until at least the 8th, when Theodore bar
Khonai met them.21 H.-C. Puech identified, organized, and translated
these quotations from the works of oriental Church Fathers.22 I shall give
an English translation of these passages.23 According to him four distinct
references to Eve's seduction can be distinguished from our sources.

(1) God [i.e., the demiurge] said to Eve: "Be pregnant of me, lest
Adam's creators [i.e., the archons] approach you" (Bar Khonai; Apoc.
Strangers). Or: "Be pregnant of me, before Adam's creators come to
you" (Bar Hebraeus).
(2) God said to Eve: "Be pregnant of me before the archons24 come

and have relations with you" (Bar Hebraeus). Or: "The Father of Life
created Eve and then said to her: `be pregnant of me lest the gods who are
below me impregnate you.' She conceived from him, gave birth, and the
race issued of her multiplied" (Agapius).

(3) "The authorities25 say: `Come, let us throw our semen upon her

20Hippolytus, Elenchos 5, 26.23 (130 Wendiand). On the Jewish influences on Baruch, see

K. Dvideland, "Elohims Himmelfahrt," Temenos 10 (1974), 68-78; R. van den Broek,

"The Shape of Eden according to Justin the Gnostic," VC 27 (1973), 35-45.
210n the Audians, see H.-C. Puech, "Audianer," RAC, 1, 910-915.
22Puech, "Fragments retrouve's."
23My translation differs in a few places from Puech's and/or from the editors' renderings.
the texts are (1) Agapius, Kitab al cUnwan (10th century), PO 7, 562-564, ed. and trans. A.
Vasiliev; also ed. P. L. Cheikho (CSCO, Scriptures Arabici series tertia, 5; Beirut: Typog.

Cathol., 1912), 289-290; (2) Bar Hebraeus, Mnarat Qudshe (late 12th century), PO 13,
259-260, ed. and trans. F. Nau; and (3) Theodore bar Khonai, Liber Scholiorunt, X1, ed. A.
Scher (CSCO, Scriptores Syri, series secunda, 66; Paris, 1910), 319-320.
24benei a// ta. Puech and Nau translate: "Les Dominateurs." Actually the Syriac is the
precise translation of the Greek ipXwv (which also exists as a loan word in Syriac: arkuna).
To prevent confusion, I prefer to keep the traditional terminus technicus, archon.
253'allitane. Pognon translates "Les Puissances," and Puech "Les Dominations." Puech
("Fragments retrouve's," 398 n. 1) says that the term 3`allitane corresponds to the Greek

ovaiat and refers to the seven planetary archons. He points out that this word translates
elovoiat in the Syriac version of Epiphanius's Anakephalaiosis and adds that 1allitane refers
to planets in Bardesanes. See Book of Laws of Countries, PS 2, 567-568; cf. Poiniandres, 9,
1.18, in Nock-Festugi6re, CH, I, and n. 27, p. 20.

42

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

and let us make use26 of her first, so that what will be born of her will be
under our dominion"' (Bar Khonai; Apoc. Strangers). Or: "The authorities ...: Come, let us lie with Eve, that what will be born be ours" (Bar
Khonai; Book of Denrands)

(4) "The authorities led Eve and lay with her, so that she would not go
to Adam" (Bar Khonai; Book of Denrands). Or: "They led Eve far from
this Adam's face and knew her" (Apoc. Strangers).
Eve and the Archons in Nag Hammnmadi texts

The theme of Eve's seduction by the archons, the authorities, or their

leader (Sammael) reappears in certain texts discovered at Nag Hammadi
which embody, in different ways, the Sethian myth about the origins of
mankind and of the pure seed. For example, Hyp. Arch. 89:17-28 relates,
Then the authorities (e4ovcriat) came up to their Adam. And when
they saw his female counterpart speaking with him, they became agitated with great agitation; and they became enamored of her. They
said to one another, "Come, let us sow our seed (o-7repa) in her,"
and they pursued her. And she laughed at them for their witlessness
and their blindness; and in their clutches she became a tree, and left
before them her shadowy reflection resembling herself'; and they
defiled (it) foully ....27

In this text, the authorities are simply said to have fallen in love with the
spiritual Eve (89:11); in a way, they were "seduced" by her. This is, 'in
26Obviously

a sexual reference. Although Payne-Smith, A Syrian Thesaurus does not give

such a meaning under the entry Ynig, the sexual connot tions of the root stn are well
attested in Jewish Aramaic and in rabbinic Hebrew. See Jastrow, Dictionary of the Talmud,
1601b. For a semantic equivalent in Hebrew (zqq), see inzberg, Legends, V, 122 n. 128.
Similarly, xpnoac may also refer to sexual intercourse. See SJ, 2002b. The use of a compound of this verb in Coptic, with the same meaning, is attested in Exeg. Soul 128:6. Cf.
Hyp. Arch. 92:31, where the arrogant archon says to Norea: zanc rte eTpep B(DK NaN,
translated by Layton: "You must render service to us" (HTR 67 [19741). In his commentary (HTR 69 [19761, 64, n. 114) Layton recognizes that the intention here is sexual and
adds that p B(K probably translates 6ovxevec11 (see Crum, 30a, b). A sexual meaning of
6ovxeveu,, however, is not attested in Greek. It is thus probable that the Greek Vor/age of
Hyp. Arch. read here Xpaoac (intended in the sexual sense), which the Coptic translator
misunderstood and translated in the sense of "to be subject to," possible both for xpaoac
and for F B(K. On the Greek Vor/age of Hyp. Arch. see P. Nagel, Das Wesen der Archonten
(Halle, 1970), 19.

27The tree is the tree of knowledge. But see B. A. Pearson, "'She Became a Tree'-A
Note to CG II, 4:89, 25-26," HTR 69 (1976), 413-415, for precise iconographic references
to a similar pagan myth. It is impossible here to go into a detailed analysis of this passage in
the context of Hyp. Arch. On this see Layton's notes 58-61 (HTR 69 [19761, 56-57) and
Tardieu, Trots Mythes, 130. Tardieu analyzes the various steps of Gnostic anthropogony
reflected in Hvp. Arch. and Orig. World and notes, "Ce n'est pas I'Eve supe'rieure qui est
souille'e, mais sa ressemblance, son reflet dans la personne de la compagne du troisie'me
Adam."

THE ARCHONS AS SEDUCERS

43

puce, the typical Gnostic notion of the "seduction of the archons," to

which we shall return at greater length. Eve escaped before the archons
could unite with her, but the defilement of her "shadow" is a docetic device, one which lets the heavenly Eve keep her purity untainted.28
A slightly different view is expressed in Orig. World 116:13-19. When
the seven archangels sent by the authorities saw Eve speaking with Adam,
they said to one another:
What is this (female) light-being? For truly she is like the likeness
which appeared to us in the light. Now come, let us seize her and let
us cast our seed ((rrrE'p ta) on her, so that when she is polluted she
will not be able to ascend to her light, but those whom she will beget
will serve us (vlrotraararerBan). (116:13-19)

As told here, the myth is significantly different from the version in Hyp.
Arch.'29 for the authorities were not simply moved by their lustful love for
Eve. Since they realized with awe that Adam and Eve had been granted
life (i.e., spirit) by the power on high, they intended to use this lust in
their mischievous plan,30 to maintain their domination over mankind.
Indeed Eve was Zoe (life), Sophia's daughter, whom her mother sent as
an instructor to Adam in order to awaken him and to give him a soul,

which would turn his offspring into vessels of light (Orig. World
115:31-36). To oppose Eve's awakening of Adam (116:1-5),' the
authorities again tried to make him sleep.31
But here, too, Eve succeeded in foiling the plot:
Then (the Lite-) Eve, since she existed as a power (8vvaus), laughed
at their intention (yvtr)). She darkened their eyes and left her likeness there stealthily beside Adam. She entered the tree of knowledge
and remained there. (Orig. World 116:25-29)32

It should be pointed out that since Eve escaped the rapist demiurge by
disobeying his order to stay away from the tree, her biblical "fall" can in
no way be related to the origin of evil.33
280n Gnostic docetic attitudes, see U. Bianchi, "Docetism. A Peculiar Theory about the
Ambivalence of the Presence of the Divine," in his Selected Essays on Gnosticism, Dualism
and Mysteriosophy (Suppl. to Numen 38; Leiden: Brill, 1978), 303-311.
29This difference was not noted by Tardieu, who claims that "the two texts mean one and
the same thing" (Trois `f vthes, 130).
30See also the quotation from the Book of Demands (supra): "so that she [Eve] would not

go to Adam."
31Sleep is a symbol of death, matter, and ignorance. See G. W. MacRae, "Sleep and
Awakening in Gnostic Texts," Le origini, 496-507. Cf. Nock-Festugie're, CH, I, n. 44, p. 22.
32Cf.
Hvp. Arch. 89:25 and n. 27 supra. A dynamis is a heavenly figure. See Bauer's Lexicon, s. v. 6uvaAv;. Cl'. Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1.15.6 (1, 155-156 Harvey), where the Christian
hymn against Marcos claimed that through Azazel, "the angelic c/vnamis," his father Satan
permitted him to accomplish his evil deeds.
33See
also Justin's Baruch (n. 20 supra), where the tree of knowledge was identified with
Naas, the biblical serpent who became the third angel of Edem. The inversion process is

44

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

By this stratagem, Eve was able to escape the followers of Sammael,

"the blind one" par excellence according to a traditional etymology harking
back to Jewish sources.34 These handicapped archons could not really see

her, but only her shadowy likeness, which they mistook for her true
nature. Thus,
They were troubled, thinking that this was the true Eve. And they
acted recklessly, and came to her and seized her and cast their seed
upon her. (Orig. World 117:1-4)

As a consequence of the rape, Eve's likeness "first conceived Abel from

the first archon; and she bore the rest of the sons from the seven authorities and their angels" (117:15-18). Surprisingly enough, this text not
only fails to mention Cain, it implies that Eve had seven other sons, from
Yaldabaoth's seven sons (101:24-25).35 The singling out of Abel as the
son of the first archon is not quite clear. It may somehow be related to
the "Cainite" theologoumenon reported by Pseudo-Tertullian, according
to which Abel was created by "an inferior being."36 Indeed, in "Cainite"
contexts, with their thoroughgoing "inversion" of the biblical text, Cain
is more valued than his brother on the basis of an overly literal exegesis
of Gen 4:1b: "She [i.e. Eve] conceived and bore Cain and she said: `I got
a man from the Lord."' The same view of Cain's conception is found in
Marcionite theology.37

Irenaeus related the myth in the following way: "The jealous Yaldabaoth wanted a plan for depriving man [of the moist nature of light]
through woman, and from his own desire he brought forth a woman
whom Prunikos [ = Sophia] took and invisibly deprived of power. The
others [reliquos; presumably the other archons] came and admired her
beauty, and called her Eve; they desired her and from her generated sons
more thoroughly developed in Naassene theology, where the serpent became good. See the
discussion in Jonas, The Gnostic Religion, 92-94.

34According to this exegetical etymology, "Sammael" is derived from Aramaic Kn1D

= blind). Sammael appears in both Hyp. Arch. 87:3-4; 94:25-26 and Orig. World 103:18,
where he is also called Yaldabaoth. On his birth and his nature, see Orig. World 100:1 -26.
Cf. Pseudo-Clementine Homilies, 111.39, where Simon Magus taught.that Adam, created in
the image of the biblical God, was born blind. This is based upon an exegesis of Gen 3:5-7.
B. Barc has argued that the figure of Sammael, which already occurs in Ascens. Isaiah 1:11;
2:1, originated in the sentel hagin'a of Ezek 8:3-6; see the introduction to his L'Hypostase
des Arc/tontes (BCNH; Textes 5;. Quebec-Louvain: Presses de l'Univ. Laval-Peeters, 1980),
34-35, and his "Samael-Saklas-Yaldabaoth. Recherche sur l'origine d'un mythe gnostique,"
in C'olloque international stir les textes de Nag Hantmadi (BCNH; Etudes 1; Quebec-Louvain:
Presses de I'Univ. Laval-Peeters, 1981), 123-150.
351n Hvp. Arc/t. 91:11-14, Cain seems to be the son of the authorities, while Abel is the
son of Adam; see Layton's commentary, HTR 69 (1976), 60, n. 84. See also Apoc. Ac/am
66:26-28, where the corrupt text is partly reconstructed by MacRae, but the identity of the
son of Eve and Sakla remains unclear.
362 217 Kroymann.

370n Cainite theology, see Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1.31.1 (1, 241-242 Harvey). For Marcion, see ibid., 1.27.2 (1, 218 Harvey).

THE ARCHONS AS SEDUCERS

45

who are called angels."38 Here Eve, who is evil, did not escape the
archons. Once deprived of power, however, she was identical to the shadowy Eve in Orig. World. The archons, seduced by the carnal Eve's
beauty, behaved like the Sons of God in Gen 6:2 and generated angels
just as the latter had generated giants. To the seven sons of Eve by the
demiurge, who ruled the seven planets, the Sethians opposed the seven
Allogeneis, the mythical sons of Seth.

In these last versions of the myth, there is no "fall" of Eve in the

Christian, metaphorical use of the word, which implies sin and/or guilt.
The spiritual Eve deliberately surrendered her shadowy likeness to the
archons in order that she herself become the pure "Mother of Life." Her
spiritual figure thus probably lies at the origin of the "Mother on High,"

or, simply "the Mother," who appears in many of the heresiologists'

reports. This Mother stands in opposition to "the first mother," who is
the demiurge's mate:
Now all this [Eve's rape] came to pass according to the will of the
First Father (*apXtyevETCUp), so that the first mother might beget
within herself every mixed seed which is joined together
with the Fate (eiaphnj) of the world. (Orig. World 117:18-23)39

The various aspects and the ambiguity of Eve in these texts (as both
soiled and pure, giver of life and cause of death) have been thoroughly
analyzed by Tardieu40 and need not be dealt with here. For the purpose
of our study, it is sufficient to emphasize the way in which the text
integrated the two interpretations: Eve's rape by the evil powers and her
escape from their lust.
Eve and the Serpent

Although the mythologoumenon of Eve's sexual relationships with the

demiurge did not originate with Valentinianism, it was integrated into
Valentinian theology in a peculiar way. Thus in the Extracts oj' Heracleon,

the material ones (chdikoi) "have the devil for father" and are the children neither of Abraham nor of God (the passage is an exegesis of John
8:44).41 More precisely, the chdikoi were sons of the Devil by nature,
while the psychikoi were his sons only by intent.42 In the words of Theodotos, there were the sons of Cain and Abel respectively, while the pneuniatikoi, the Gnostics by nature, were the sons of Seth.43 Similarly, in Gos.
38Adv. Haer. 1.30.7 (1, 233-234 Harvey).

39See Orig. World 113:5-10: "All this happened according to the 7rpOvotc of Pistis ...";

Hyp. Arch. 88:9-10: "All these things happened according to the will of the Father of All."
See also Yaldabaoth's role in Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1.30.8 (1, 234 Harvey).
40Trois Mythes; see particularly Eve's hymn in Orig. World 114:4.

41Fragment 44, in Origen, Conn. in loh. XX.20 (83 Volker).

42Fragment 46, in Origen, Conn. in loh. XX.24 (83-84 Volker).
43Exrr. Theod. 54.1 (170 Sagnard).

46

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

Phil. 61:5-7, Cain was the son of the serpent: "First adultery came into
being, afterward murder. and he was begotten in adultery, for he was the
child of the serpent." This conception was systematically integrated to the
soteriological process in Gos. Phil. M._ary_ was,, in a.sense, the anti-Eve,
"the virgin whom no power defiled" (55:27-31). She united not with
the serpent, but with the Father of everything, so that Christ "was born
from a virgin to rectify the fall which occurred in the beginning"
(71:3-21).
In Vai. Exp. 38:22-27, both Cain and Abel were said to be sons of the
Devil. The same theme also appeared in later dualist systems such as
Manichaeism and Bogomilism. According to the Interrogatio lohannis (a
work of Bogomil inspiration later imported from Bulgaria by the Cathar
Bishop Nazarios), for instance, the Devil, was the initiator peccati.
Through various means and in the guise of the serpent, he united with
Eve and impregnated her with both Cain and his twin sister Kalomena (or
Kalmena). He then poured lust "on the head of the angel who was in
Adam." Adam then impregnated Eve with Abel, who was killed by Cain
as soon as he was born.44
The same themes that we have followed in Gnostic literature also occur
in some rabbinic texts mentioning Eve's sexual relations with Satan or the

serpent. The evidence suggests that this theme originated in Judaism.45

Actually, the theological questions raised both by the serpent's seduction
of Eve and by the birth of the murderer Cain are far from confined to
Gnosticism. Even before the Gnostics, Jews could have combined these
two questions into one by arguing that the serpent (or Satan) was directly
responsible for Cain's birth (but not Abel's!), for he himself had had sexual relations with Eve. This Jewish conception already occurred in the
Gospel of John 8:44: "You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of
your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning."46 Like
the seduction of the women by the angels, this theme was probably borrowed from Jewish traditions. In rabbinic Judaism, such traditions
44Puech has collected the relevant sources in his book, written in collaboration with A.

Vaillant, Le matt(' conne les Bogonules de Cosmas le

(Travaux publie's par l'Institut
d'Etudes Slaves 21; Paris: Droz, 1945). See the edition of A. Reitzenstein (in collaboration
with L. Troje)

of the

Interrogatio lohannis, in his

Vor;geschichie c/er ('hrisiliche

Tattle

(Leipzig-Berlin: Teubner, 1929), 297-311, esp. 301 -302. The text is quoted by Puech,
ibid., 201; he refers to parallels from the heresiological literature on Audians and Archontics
(ibid., 339 and nn. 2, 3) but nevertheless regards Manichaeism as the more probable source
of Bogomil speculation. See now the new ed., trad., and comment. of E. Bozoki, Le livre
secret des C'athares, Interrogatio Johannis, Apocr phe d'origine bogontile (Textes, dossiers, documents 2; Paris: Beauchesne, 1980).
45For

a similar argument, based upon a detailed analysis of the role of the serpent of

Genesis in Jewish and Gnostic texts, see B. A. Pearson, "Jewish Haggadic Traditions in the
Tesiunony q/ Truth (CG IX, 3)," 'Ex Orbe Religionum": Sindia Geo Widengren Oblata,
(Suppl. to Numen 21; Leiden: Brill, 1972), 457-470. But see doubts raised by A. Henrichs,

in W. Wuellner, ed., Jewish Gnostic Nag Hammadi Texts, 8- 14.

460n the background and the implications of this verse, see N. Dahl, "Der Erstgeborene

Satans and der Vater des Teufels (Polyk. 7:1 and John. 8:44)," Apophoreta: Fesischri%i Jiir
Foist Haenschen (Berlin: Topelmann, 1964), 70-84.

47

THE ARCHONS AS SEDUCERS

appeared in different nudrashini. In Gnosticism, however, they gained a

higher status, as it were, and became integrated into an etiological myth.
Hyp. Arch. 89:31-32 states, "Then the Female Spiritual Principle came

(in) the Snake, the Instructor." We have here (partly obscured, since
Eve's name is not mentioned) what must originally have been a pun in
Aramaic on the words Eve (n1R), the snake (rw141R), and the instructor
(*t'11R, or rather '11Rt:).47 The same pun is known from rabbinic sources,

where it seems to have originated, but with a very different meaning.

While in Hyp. Arch. the snake is the instructor of Gnosis, the rabbis considered him to have taught Eve the evil ways of lust.
[Gen 4:11: R. Huna and R. Jacob in the name of
[i.e., Eve, his tempter]
R. Abba: he knew what his serpent
had done to him. R. Aha added: The serpent was your serpent, and
you were Adam's serpent (M-lbt-l n-11ri t1141 1^118
(Gen.
Rab. 22.2; 204-205 Theodor)
And Adam knew

Another explanation of Eve's name is the following:

Adam called his wife Eve [Gen 3:201. She was given (to him) as an
adviser, and he showed her (r 1'118) how many generations she
had destroyed. (Gen. Rab. 20.11; 195 Theodor)

These passages should be read in the context of similar Jewish traditions. Already in targumic literature, the sexual relations between Eve
and Sammael were mentioned, e.g., in Pseudo-Jonathan:
And Adam knew that Eve ('11n !1,, puiv,) his wife had conceived from

Sammael, the angel of the Lord, and she became pregnant and bore
Cain (tulp rn l1i H), and he was like those on high, not like those
below; and she said: "1 have acquired the angel of the Lord as a
man. "49

The Targum here interprets the two particles t1K (Aramaic t1') in Gen 4:1.
The difficulty-how can Eve acquire a man from (t1K) the Lord immedi-

ately after Adam is said to have known (is v,') her?-is removed if the
47See Layton's commentary on Hyp. Arch., 55 n. 57. See also Orig. World 113:32-33:
"But the Hebrews call his mother Eve of life, i.e. `the instructor of life."' What we have
here is a double pun, since it also plays upon the biblical etymology of Eve's name, "mother
of all living" (Gen 3:20). In Orig. World 113:21-34, the birth of the instructor
(npegTaMO) in the form of a drop of light on the water sent by Sophia is described. This
drop of light took the shape of a woman's body, and the woman was called by the Hebrews

"Eve of life" (eYa NZWH), i.e., the instructor of life (TPegTxMO

...

MTTWNZ). On

this passage see Bohlig's note in his edition of the text, 72-74. Cl'. Orig. World 104:28-31,
where the daughter of Pistis is called Zoe.
48Trans. H. Freedman, in Midrash Rabbah I (London: Soncino, 1939), 180.

49Gen 4:1 in D. Rieder, ed., Targum Jonathan Ben Uziel (Jerusalem, 1974). On the Satanic
origins of Cain in rabbinic literature, see further J. Bowker, Targunrs and Rabinnic Literature
(Cambridge: University Press, 1969), 132.

48

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

first particle introduces a clause rather than the direct object of the verb.
The second rim, on the other hand, is taken as indicating the direct object.

It follows that Cain is the son of an evil angel; like his father, he is
described as having a heavenly appearance.

The same pattern of exegesis is found in later rabbinic texts, where

Sammael is associated with the snake. Pirge R. El., for instance, offers:
[Sammaell riding on the serpent came to her, and she conceived;
afterwards Adam came to her, and she conceived Abel, as it is said:
"And Adam knew his wife" [Gen 4:1]. What is the meaning of
"knew"'.' [He knew] that she had conceived and she saw his likeness
that it was not of' the earthly beings, but of the heavenly beings, and
she prophesied and said: "I have gotten a man with the Lord" [Gen
4:1] .50

The theme of Eve's intercourse with the serpent is expressed elsewhere in

an even cruder way, very reminiscent of the Gnostic texts; like them, it
describes rape rather than adultery. This tradition is based upon an exegesis of Gen 3:13 ("And the woman said: the snake tempted me [v v-.1]

and I ate"), where 'zs'w"m rnzm is understood as "the snake seduced

me." This verse thus means "the serpent came upon Eve and threw
impurity [i.e., semen] in her."51 In both Jewish and Gnostic contexts,
Sammael appears as the villain, identified with Satan in the Jewish traditions and with the chief archon in the Gnostic ones. Ap. John 59:15-18,
for instance, specifies, "This archon who was weak had three names: the
first is Yaldabaoth; the second is Saklas; the third is Sammael."52
The parallelisms in the texts quoted above thus reveal the existence of
definite links between the Jewish and the Gnostic versions of Eve's adultery and/or seduction. As to the direction of this influence, the linguistic

arguments support a Jewish influence on the Gnostic texts. Such a

hypothesis does not, of course, imply that the edactor of Hyp. Arch. knew
the pun in its original context. It does sug est, however, that in the
50140-141 Rigger. See chap. 1, n. 33 supra; pp. 150- 151 in Friedlander's trans. Cf. Pal.
Tone's. on Gen 4:1, Mid,. Huggado/ on Genesis, 112 (ed. Margalioth; Jerusalem: Mossad
haRav Kook, 1947); Zohar 1.31a, 54b; 111.1 17a. For the related but more general theme of
Eve's relations with male spirits (as well as Adam's relations with female spirits), see Gen.
Rab. 20.11, 24.6 (195, 236 Theodor), b. Erub. 18b; Tun. B. 1, 20; and Zohar 1, 54b; Ill, 76b.

See Pirge R. El. 14 (110 Rigger) for a description of the fall of Sammael and his acolytes
from their holy abode in heaven. Pirqe R. D. is dependent there on Adam and Eve; cf. 1.
Levi in REJ 18, 86fT., and Ginzberg, Legends, V, 114 n. 106. This fall from heaven is somewhat similar to the fall of Truth, which was also ordered by God since it opposed the creation of man. In Pirge R. E., Sammael voluntarily went down from heaven in order to work
evil deeds with the help of the snake (105 Rigger). Further research might reveal connections between these themes and the Gnostic fall of Sophia.
51 h..Sobb. 145b-146a; b. Yebain. 103b (in the name of R. Yohanan); b. Abort. Zar. 22b.
See also Gen. Rab. 19:13 (182 Theodor, as well as Theodor's notes there on '2WZP0,1 meaning sexual intercourse).
52See Barc, "Sammael-Saklas-Yaldabaoth," and G. Scholem, "Jaldabaoth Reconsidered,"
in Melanges e0isvoire des religions o.fI'eris a H.-C. Puech (Paris: PLIF, 1974), 405-421.

THE ARCHONS AS SEDUCERS

49

Gnostic milieu where Hyp. Arch. originated, there was some knowledge
of rabbinic exegesis-knowledge which could have hardly reached these
milieus through non-Jews. Moreover, the myth of Eve's sexual relations
with the serpent does not seem to have been widely known in early Christian literature, a fact which strengthens the hypothesis of Jewish influence
on the Gnostic mythologoumena. Although the rabbinic texts were prob-

ably redacted at a later date than the Greek or Aramaic Vor/age of the
Gnostic texts, a previous oral tradition may be assumed. The evidence of
the Targum-and of the Gospel of John-reflects the early date of the original Jewish exegetical traditions. Moreover, it is easier to understand
Gnostics attributing previously known legends about the serpent to the
demiurge, than to imagine rabbis integrating scandalous Gnostic sayings
about God the Creator into their own thought simply by transferring them
to Satan or the serpent. It is thus reasonable to see in the Gnostic texts
the radicalization of Jewish conceptions.
Birth of Cain and o/' Seth

While Ap. John (24:32-34) hypostasized Cain and Abel into Elohim and
Jahwe, the archons who are "over principalities (apXrf) so that they rule
over the tomb,"53 it described the conception and birth of Seth in a very
different fashion:
And when Adam recognized the likeness of his own foreknowledge
(7rpoyvcucres), he begot the likeness of the son of man. He called him
Seth according to the way of the race in the aeons. Likewise the

Mother also sent down her spirit which is in her likeness and a
reflection (6vrinrv7roc) of those who are in the pleroma, for she will
prepare a dwelling-place for the aeons which will come down. (Ap.
John 24:34-25:7)54

Commenting on this passage, G. MacRae55 states that it "explicitly associ'ates the human Seth with the heavenly Seth mentioned in an earlier phase

of the myth (9:11-17; BG, 35:20-36:7). The 'son of man' is of course

the celestial son of the heavenly Adam, but it may also be an interpretation of Gen 5:3." MacRae then connects this text with Apoc. Adam
65:5-9, where Adam declares to Seth, "For this reason I myself have
called you by the name of that man who is the seed of the great generation or from whom (it comes)."
531.e., the bodies of later generations. See Giversen, Apocryphon Johannis, 264.
54Giversen's translation (ibid., 95), "He called him 'Seth' as among the generation of

aeons," is inadequate. The shorter recension of Ap. John mentions Seth's birth only briefly
(BG, 63:12-14). On Gnostic conceptions of anthropogony, see H. M. Schenke, Der Goth
"Mensch" in c/er Gnosis: ein religionsgeschicht/icher Beitrag zur Diskussion uber die paulinische
Anschauung van c/er Kirche als Leib Christi (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1962), passin,.
55"Seth in Gnostic Texts and Traditions," 19.

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

50

We have seen that the genealogy of Cain was problematic for Gnostic
as well as for Jewish theology. The opposition of Abel to Cain is so
clearly expressed in the Bible that it did not generate particularly difficult
questions in the exegesis of the first chapters of Genesis. Indeed, most of
the rich midrashic developments on the relationships between these two
figures are rather predictable.56 While Abel was opposed to his brother

Cain (Gen 4:2: "And again, she bore his brother Abel"), he was also

associated with Seth in a way that stressed the difference between 'the two
brothers. At Seth's birth, Eve said, "God has appointed for me another

child instead of Abel, for Cain slew him" (Gen 4:25b). This fact-

together with the assumption that Abel died without offspring and was
thus almost irrelevant to later Heilsgeschichle-may account for the
ambivalence of the Gnostic sources towards him; sometimes Cain alone
was described as being born from Sammael, while in other texts his
brother was granted the same satanic fatherhood.

In order to understand the basis for the Gnostic exegesis of the antagonism between Cain (or Cain and Abel) and Seth, I wish to offer the following hypothesis. We have already noted the Jewish exegesis of Gen
4:1 b: "and she [Eve] conceived and bore Cain, saying: `I acquired a man
from the Lord."'57 Yet this verse must have been read by Jews in connection with the two verses recounting Seth's birth:
And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his
name Seth, for she said: "God has appointed for me another seed58
instead of Abel, for Cain slew him." (Gen 4:25)

When Adam had lived a hundred and thirty years, he became the
father of a son in his own likeness, after his image59 and named him
Seth. (Gen 5:3)

Now any reasonably alert reader of Genesis would obviously relate this
last verse to Gen 1:26a: "Then God said `Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness.' "60 Therefore, when the Gnostics came to meditate
56For these, see V. Aptowitzer, Kain and Abel in (let- Aggacla, Glen Apoklyphen, (let- helleniscisc'hen, christlichen and nachanunedanischen Literatur (Veroffentlichungen der Alexander Kohut
Memorial Foundation 1; Vienna: Lowit, 1922).
57The Hebrew reads 'n rix Vi bt
The ambiguity has disappeared in the LXX: EKTij(T(Yp.El' al'Bpw7TOI' SI(Y TOU BEOU.
sH'IrtH ptt; LXX:
(T7rEpAa ETEpov.'

59,=5

tz Inirz, LXX: KCT(Y T7)I' 16EIXI' (YUTOV Kai KaTa TI)I' EIKOI'(Y avrov.
LXX: KaT EiKOva T)/IETEp(YI' Kllc KIXB O)IOIw)(ru,. For a medieval formulation of the problem, see, for instance, Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed, 1, 7, for
whom "in his likeness" refers to understanding, which is human perfection. (S. Pines,
trans. [Chicago-London: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1963], 32-33.) fie adds that Adam's chil-

dren born before Seth were animals having the shape of men, an apparently new (philosophical) synthesis between two traditions. According to the first one, embodied in Pal. Tgs. to
Gen 5.5; b. Erub. 18b or Pirge R. El. 22, Adam's first two sons were not created in his own
image. The second tradition is preserved in Gen. Rub. 23:6 and 24:6 (227, 235 Theodor).
The latter midrash, commenting on Gen 5:1, notes that "the generations of Adam" included

only Adam, Seth, and Enosh, since these were the only generations "in the likeness and

THE ARCHONS AS SEDUCERS

51

upon this cluster of verses and the problem of man's nature and origin,
four potential interpretations confronted them. 1 do not wish to claim that
the Gnostics consciously developed sophisticated exegeses directly from
this cluster of verses but rather that some of their basic theologoumena
cannot be understood properly without presupposing a certain familiarity,
on their part, with Jewish exegetical traditions.
(1) Gen 4:l b could be interpreted as meaning that Cain was the son of
Sammael and Eve. Since Abel was often seen in the same light as his
brother Cain, Seth would thus be Adam's first son. This was the solution
adopted by the Archontics decribed by Epiphanius.61 The utterly

antinomian "Cainites" also adopted this view, but with a twist; the

Tetragrammaton in Gen 4:1 was not understood by them as referring to

the lesser deity (the demiurge, Sammael), but rather-as in Jewish or

Christian exegesis-to the supreme Lord God, thus giving Cain divine
ancestry.62 Typologically, at least, this radical reinterpretation of the biblical text was a further development and may reflect a later stage of Gnostic
thought.
(2) Another exegesis might have appealed to Gnostics who either did
not know or did not accept the Jewish midrash according to which Sam-

mael (or the snake) was Cain's father. They would have taken for
granted that Cain was Adam's son and thus interpreted "another seed" in
Gen 4:25 as meaning that Seth's father was the heavenly, not the earthly,
Adam.63 The celestial paternity of Seth would imply that he was the bearer
image," and that later generations were Centaurs and apes. Although this midrash does not
speak about Cain and implies a myth of "golden origins," it would still have been suggestive
to Maimonides in the sense that it described sonic of the earliest generations as other than
human beings.
61 Pan. 40.7.1 (11, 87 [loll).
62See Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1.31.1 (I, 241 fiarvey): "Alii autem rursus Cain a superiore

principalitate [Theodoret: EK rrjc ira'w avGei'ricrs] dicunt."

63For the identification of the higher God with the Primordial Anthropos in Gnostic
The heavenly figure of
thought, see Schenke, Der Gou ''Menseh", passim.
(TTI)repaA MaC, which appears in some Gnostic texts (Ap. John 8:24; Steles Seth 118:26;
Zost. 6:23; 13:16; 51:7; Mech. 8:6) is probably a Greek rendering (o yepacbc aoapees) of
adam gac/mon, a figure well known in medieval kabbalistic Hebrew texts. For a listing of all
various suggestions, see B. A. Pearson, ed., Nag Hanmtudi Codices IX and X (NHS 15;
Leiden: Brill, 1981), 36-37; cf. G. Quispel, "Ezechiel 1:26 in Jewish Mysticism and
Gnosis," VC 34 (1980), 4; see also Schenke and Bohlig, in Layton, ed., Rediscovery, 11, 604,
n. 17 and 646, n. 44 respectively.
Similarly, further research might discover some links between the Gnostic and the Jewish

figures of the heavenly Eve. See for instance, puzzling texts in Gen. Rab. 22:7: "Judah b.
Rabbi said: Their [Cain's and Abel's] quarrel was about 'the first Eve.' Said R. Aibu: The
first Eve had returned to dust" (213 Theodor). And ibid. 18.4: "And Adam said [Gen
2:231: 'This at last is bone of my bones....' R. Judah b. Rabbi said: God had first created
her for him, but seeing her covered with discharge and blood, took her away and created her
a second time. This is why Adam said: 'This at last is bone of my bones ...' - 0 63-164
Theodor). Ginzberg (Legends, V, 87, n. 57) points out that the first passage is "somehow

related to the Gnostic doctrine concerning the first mother Sophia Prunicus," referring to

E.

Preuschen, "Die gnostischen Adamschriften," 60fT., 78ff. See also J. Dreyfus, Adam unc/
Era nach den AU/lassung des Midrasch (Disc. Strasbourg, 1894; non vidi).

52

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

of the divine principle. This is what the Sethians taught, according to Epiphanius. After begetting Cain and his family, Eve repented, united with
the heavenly Father, and begat Seth, the pure seed from which all humanity came.64

(3) The attribution of Seth's paternity to the divine principle extant in

Adam would not preclude seeing the chief archon as the father of Cain

(and Abel). On the contrary, such a combination of the two themes

would further emphasize the difference between Seth and Cain. This is
the solution adopted in Hyp. Arch. (91:11-12), where Cain is said to be
the archons' son: "Now afterwards, she bore Cain their son."65
Seth's birth is related in the following way:
And Adam [knew] his female counterpart Eve, and she became pregnant, and bore [Seth] to Adam. And she said, "I have borne

[another] man through God,66 in place [of Abel]." (Hyp.

Arch.

91:30-33)

Layton remarks: "Through God: i.e., by the providence of the Father of

the Entirety,"67 while MacRae notes that the passage remains quite close
to Gen 4:25.68 Yet "through God" is probably a rendering of the LXX
version of Gen 4:1b (Pica rou 9eov). According to this exegesis, it was
Seth, not Cain, whose birth owed something to God's help. Gen 5:3 was
linked with Gen 1:26; so that Seth was considered to be "in the likeness
and after the image" not of Adam, but directly of God.
A particularly difficult passage is found in Orig. World 114:14-15. In
the declamatory hymn, Eve's heavenly counterpart ("the first Virgin"),
sings, "I have borne a lordly man." This son of the primordial Eve is
also referred to in the text as a "lord" whom the authorities called "the
beast" (9-qpi,ov) (Orig. World 113:34-114:1). A. Bohlig has pointed out
that this reflects a play on words in Aramaic (beast = hywah).69 The identity of this son, however, remains unclear. He might be a counterpart of
Cain. Since rcbptoc renders the Tetragrammat n in
A. the LXX, the expression "I have borne a lordly man" (... < > z i.x n e OYp W M
NXO i c) might reflect Gen 4:1 b; but it could%. o indicate a counterpart
of Seth, since Gen 4:lb could be interpreted as referring to him. Incidentally, the only son of Eve mentioned by name in Orig. World is Abel:
"She conceived Abel first from the prime ruler; and she bore the rest of
her sons from the seven authorities and their angels" (117:15-18).

64p (III., Ana/cep/lalalosis.

65nOYc9Hpe. See Layton's commentary, 60, n. 84.

Krause's emendation to "her son"
is not necessary.
66a1ff no N[K6]pwME 2M nNOYTE.
67Layton, commentary, 61, n. 94.

68"Seth in Gnostic Texts and Traditions," 19.

691n the commentary to his edition, p. 74.

THE ARCHONS AS SEDUCERS

53

(4) A fourth possibility of separating Seth's generation from that of his

brothers entailed a forced exegesis of Gen 5:3. Since Seth's mother is not
explicitly mentioned in this verse, Eve's role in Seth's birth could simply
be erased or unrecorded, as is the case in Irenaeus (Adv. Haer. 1.30.9),
where the "other" Gnostics (identified by Theodoret as Sethians) related

how Seth, and then Norea, were conceived "by the providence of
Prunikos."70
The following table summarizes these various possibilities of parentage
for Cain and Seth.

(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)

CAIN

SETH

Sammael
Adam
Sammael
earthly Eve

Adam
God
God
Prunikos

With the introduction of the heavenly prototypes of Adam and Eve and
with the direct involvement of God or of Pronoia in the conception and
birth of Seth, Gnostic thought escaped the limitations inherent in traditional exegesis. It created a new ontological level, building a pantheon of
heavenly figures in order to solve the problem of human genealogy. This
seems to me to be the background for the emergence of the concept of
the heavenly counterpart of Seth.

Norea
We have studied the Gnostic texts which describe how Eve finally succeeded in escaping from the archons' clutches (and could then unite with
70"secundum providentiam Prunici dicunt generatum Seth, post Noream." But see
MacRae, "Seth in Gnostic Texts and Traditions," who argues that since the alii report that
from Seth (and Norea) "the rest of the human multitude is descended" (1, 236 Harvey),
and since they do not present Seth as the father only of the Gnostics, as opposed to the rest
of mankind, "it is doubtful that Theodoret's identification of the 'others' with Sethians is
appropriate." Indeed such an approach of Seth as the second father of mankind could have
established itself on the basis of Genesis 5, where the first generations of mankind are
recounted, again with no mention of Cain or Abel. Nevertheless, it remains doubtful that
any Gnostic sect could have thought that Seth was the forefather of all men (and that Cain's
offspring disappeared). 1 suggest therefore that Irenaeus's text does not here represent ade-

quately the views of the "other" Gnostics, either because of a corruption in textual
transmission or of Irenaeus's misunderstanding. This conjecture is strengthened by a similar
error in the text of Pirqe R. El. 22 (145 Higger). While the Vulgate text reads, "R. Simeon

said: From Seth arose and were descended all the creatures, and the generations of the
righteous (:' ^ir C11-1'1 z1 111"-3,i 5:)," new manuscript evidence led Horowitz, Friedhinder, and Higger to suppress "all the creatures." See the facsimile of Horowitz's
manuscript edition (Jerusalem: Maqor, 1972).

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

54

Adam).

Yet Eve was not the only woman to escape from the rapist

archons, indeed, the Gnostic texts seem to present her case as the first in
a series exhibiting the same pattern. The other most famous heroine of
this Gnostic myth is the Norea mentioned by Irenaeus and presented by
him as Seth's sister. The same figure also appears-sometimes under the
name Horaia, Noria, or even Nora-in other reports of the heresiologists.
For the Sethians, according to Epiphanius, she was Seth's wife,71 while for
the Nicolaitans (again according to Epiphanius) she was Noah's wife.72
Moreover, Norea played a major role in Hyp. Arch. and in Norea, and "the
first book of Noraia" is mentioned in Orig. World 102:10-11.
In earlier scholarship, the most commonly suggested etymology for this
strange figure ("of whom nothing is known," according to Harvey73)
derives her name from the Hebrew na`arah ("maiden").74 Recent studies,
however, have come to recognize in her a kind of female counterpart of
Seth and a major salvific figure in Gnostic mythology.
For Judaism as well as for Gnosticism, the offspring of the first few
generations raised a theological problem, since the sons of Adam and Eve
had to marry their sisters, who were not mentioned in the Bible. Various
traditions, stemming from pseudepigraphic literature, were developed
about these sister-wives, who were said to have been born as the twin sisters of Cain, Abel, and Seth. As Seth's sister, Norea has been compared
to Sophia (Prunikos), Jesus's sister in christianized Gnostic trends.75
The Gnostic texts generally present Norea as the pure Eve's untainted
or virgin daughter, who underwent an experience similar to that of her
mother at the hands of the evil archons and their leader. This is how Hyp.
Arch. 92:18-93:1 describes the event:
The Rulers went to meet her intending to lead her astray. Their
supreme chief said to her: "Your mother Eve came to us." But
Norea turned to them and said to them: "It is you who are the Rulers

of the Darkness; you are accursed. And you did not know my
mother; instead it was your female counterpart thal you knew. For I
am not your descendent; rather it is from the orld above that I am
come." The arrogant Ruler turned, with all
might, [and] his
countenance came to be like (a) black [ ... ]; he said to her presumptuously, "You must render service to us,76 [as did] also your mother
Eve, for [ ... I. But Norea turned, with the might of [ ... ]; and in a
"Pan. 39.5.2 (11, 75 Holl): yvvairch TLVa 11paLav kEyowni' ELvat 7011 LTI6. See Gen. Rab.
22, 2; 61.4 (205 and 662 Theodor); b. Yeb. 62a; b. Sanh. 58b; Pirtle R. El. 21 (141 Rigger);
Midr. Haggadol on Genesis (113 Margalioth). One of these traditions attributes Cain's quar-

rel with Abel to the former's desire for Abel's twin sister. An echo of this legend is found
in Ibn al-Nadim's account of Manichaean anthropogony in his Fihrisi; see chap. Vlll in%rcr.
72Pan. 26.1.3-26.2.1.
731n his edition of Irenaeus, Achy. Haer. 1, 236, n. 2.
74E.g., Bousset, Haupiprobletne, 14, n. 2.
75A. Orbe, "Sophia Soror," in Melanges d'histoire des religions (/kris a' H.-C. Pueeh (Paris:
PUF, 1974), 355ff.
761.e., "You must sleep with us." See n. 26 supra.

THE ARCHONS AS SEDUCERS

55

loud voice [she] cried out (up to) the Holy One, the God of the
Entirety, "Rescue me (/JOr)9Eiv) from the Ruler of Unrighteousness
and save me from them forthwith!"

In answer to her call, Eleleth, "the holy (or the great) angel," who is one
of the four Light-Givers,77 saved her and taught her the secrets of Gnosis,
which she was then able to transmit to later generations of the elect.

The means of her salvation by Eleleth is not described here, but in

Norea 27:11 -29:5, she is said to have been brought to the heavenly
Pleroma by the "four holy helpers." In this manner, Norea remained
"the virgin whom the Forces did not defile," so that her mother could
[for]
describe her as "a virgin Orapoh'oc)," as "an assistance
many generations of mankind" (Hyp. Arch. 91:35-92:2).78 The latter
epithet is reflected in the description of the Light-Givers, who saved her,
as "holy helpers." The teaching of Gnosis is in and of itself salvation of
the savior figure. This is the typical Gnostic pattern of the salvator salvandus.

Actually, the title "helper," 8og0os, occurs in other Gnostic contexts.

In Ap. John 20:17, Epinoia, like the biblical Eve, was sent to Adam as a
helper. Elsewhere, the Father is said to help the repentant soul (Exeg.
Soul 128:33). "For I am a helper of everyone who has been given a
name," states Derdekeas (Paraph. Shenl 14:67). In Setheus 28:31-29:3,
Gamaliel and the other guardians "gave help to those who believed in the

spark of light." This help was provided only to Gnostics, as the last quotation indicates. In Justin's Baruch, Baruch was sent by Elohim to the
help (El(; 8oi OEcav) of the spirit which is in man.79 In christianized Gnos-

tic texts, it is, of course, Jesus who was seen as the primary helper figure
(2 Ap. Jas. 15:15-19, 59:23-24; Gos. Thom. log. 13 [35:5] should be read
in the light of the latter passage).80
77See Layton's commentary, 66, n. 126; 67, n. 130. The origins of these four LightGivers-whose role was to oppose the evil powers by teaching Gnosis to the elect and by

saving pure women from the rapist archons-should probably be sought

in

the four

archangels Raphael, Michael, Uriel, and Gabriel, who were sent by God (I Enoch 9-10), to
tight the Fallen Angels and their leaders; Apoc. Mo.sis 40:1 -2. These Light-Givers also
appear in Ap. John (see Layton's commentary, n. 130) and in Gos. Eg. P. H. Poirier and M.
Tardieu have argued for an Iranian origin ("Categories du temps dans les ecrits gnostiques
non valentiniens," Laval The'ologique et Philosophique 37 (1981], 3-13); their sophisticated
argumentation, however, totally ignores the more obvious background of Jewish pseudepigraphic texts. Their suggestion to derive Eleleth's name from Aramaic cil/idr, "the tall one"
(Greek /rvpsiphroiw) is plausible; cf. 2 Enoch 18, where the size of the Grigori (i.e., the egregoroi, the (frill), is said to be "greater than that of giants." The four archangels-who are
not identical with the cirin in / Enoch (e.g., 40-41:2)-might therefore be related to the four
Gnostic lighters, the cbc00rrr1pcc. Later Jewish literature retained a trace of the four holy
cirin, also called "great princes," D'51'1a 1:1-IM, e.g., the Seder c/rin attributed to R. Eleazar
of Worms, and published by Sh. Mussajoff, Merkavah Shelemah (Jerusalem: Maqor, 19722),
17.

78Note that Eve, in LXX Gen 2:18, is called f3oijObr ,ccrr' avTbr.
79Hippolytus, Elenchos V.26.22 (30 Volker).
80See also / Clem. 36.1. The epithet t3ori6eca would be "translated" to Faryad and PurFaryad, the names of her twin avatars in the Manichaean version of the myth as reported by

56

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

As to the evil archon, Yaldabaoth-Saklas, he was punished by the God

of the Entirety when an angel was sent to bind him and to cast him down
into Tartaros below the Abyss (Hyp. Arch. 95:10-13); this is again reminiscent of the punishment of the leader of the Fallen Angels in Enochic
literature. His son Sabaoth, however, is said to have repented (Hyp. Arch.
95:13 -15),81 an act which seems to follow the pattern of the repentance
of Shemhazai (one of the two leaders of the Fallen Angels) as known in
the Midrash of Shemhazai and Azael, the medieval recension of very early
traditions.82 But this is neither the only nor the main link between our

Gnostic stories and this niidrash. Shemhazai was said to have been
attracted by a certain maiden (mm '13s,1) and he tried to seduce her. But
the maiden pronounced the Tetragrammaton, which Shemhazai had
revealed to her, and ascended to heaven, whereupon God turned her into
a star. This maiden was named Esterah or Istahar,83 or even Naamah.84
The fullest study on the origins of the figure of Norea was offered by B.
Pearson.85 The core of his argument is that both the name and figure of

the Gnostic Norea have their roots in the Jewish Naamah. Naamah is
mentioned once in the Bible (Gen 4:22), as Tubal-Cain's sister-and
therefore a typical Cainite. In midrashic literature, Naamah, who is said
to be Noah's wife, is sometimes presented as an evil figure.86 Pearson
Ibn al-Nadim. See discussion in chap. VIII infra. For the parallel concept of "helper" in
Manichaean literature, see Rudolph, Die Gnosis, 191 -192. On the meaning of 6o, 6cca,
130rl6eir in our text, see Layton's commentary, 62, n. 96; 64, n. 118.
81Cf. Orig. World 103:32-104:8, where Sabaoth was called "the Lord of the Forces"
(104:10) when he received the light coming from Pistis Sophia and condemned his father
(the darkness) and his mother (the abyss). In Hyp. Arch. 92:2-3, the forces were identified
as the evil archons. On the repentance of Sabaoth, see F. Fallon, The Enthronement o/'
Sabaoth: Jewish Elements in Gnostic Creation Myths (NHS 10; Leiden: Brill, 1978), passini.
82This ntidrash, said to be part of the Midr. Abkir, is chap. 25 of the Chronicles of

Jera/uneel; see Moses Gaster's translation (London, 1899; repr. with a prolegomenon by H.
Schwartzbaum; New York: Ktav, 1971). It also appears in Yal. .Sintconi 44; Midr. Bere.it
Rabbaii (ed. Albeck) 29, 14-31, 8; Raymond Martin, Pugio Fidei (Leipzig, 1687), 937-39.
For a critical edition (and a fresh translation) of this michrash, see Milik, Enoch, 321-328.
There are other literary traces of the Fallen Angels in early medieval Judaism; e.g., a 10thcentury Qaraite writer mentioned a Rabbinite book on Uza and 'Uziel (or (Aziel); cited by J.
Mann, Texts and .Studies in Jewish History and Literature, II (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication
Society, 1935), 82.
83Spelled differently in the various mss.: ',vstyrh, 'sfyr/i, 'ysthr or 'styrh. See Milik, Enoch,
323.

84Midr. 'Ag. Ber. on Gen 4:22. In other sources, Naamah is considered to be the seducer

of the Fallen Angels. See Midr. Haggadol 1, 118; Yal. 161; Rashi on b. Yonia 67b; and especially the developments in kabbalistic literature, Zohar I, 55a; III, 76b; Zohar Ruth 99a. See
Ginzberg, Legends, V, 147, n. 45. 1 could not find the story in Gen. Rab. 24, as indicated by
Milik, Enoch, 333. For a parallel story told in a Hermetic text about Isis, and its possible
relationship to the Naamah/Esterah story, see chap. VII infra.
85"The Figure of Norea in Gnostic Literature," in Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Gnosticism. Stockholm, August 20-25, 1973 (Filologisk-filosofiska serien 17; Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell, 1977), 143-151. A pre-publication presentation of Pearson's
argument was made by Layton in his edition of Hyp. Arch., 369-371.
86The texts are cited in Pearson's article (ibid.). In Gen. Rub. 23.3 (224 Theodor), the
Rabbis interpreted her name as meaning that "she was singing (ntancentet) to the timbrel for

THE ARCHONS AS SEDUCERS

57

argues that "Naamah" was literally translated as `SZpata in Hellenistic

Jewish circles, and that it is through this link that the "naughty girl" of
Jewish legend was transformed by the Gnostics into a redeemer figure.
Pearson, however, does not quote the Midrash of Shenihazai and Azael,
which bears directly upon his argument, since Esterah's ascension to
heaven in this midrash is strikingly similar to Norea's in the Gnostic texts.
This midrash also adds new evidence to the basic argument of the present
study, viz., that the traditions about the archon's deeds in Gnosticism are
related to those about the sinful angels in Jewish literature. Both the
Gnostic texts on Norea and the Midrash of Shenihazai and Azael clearly
represent developments of the myth already present in the Book of Watchers.

Another passage, which has not previously been discussed in this context, can be adduced to prove the core of Pearson's contention
definitively. It is found in the Armenian apocryphal book called the Death
of Adarn: "And after this she [Eve] bore Seth, the translation of which is
comforter,' on account of the death of Abel, and a daughter Estlera" (v
7).87 Neither Pearson nor Layton mention this text, while Stone, in the

"Comments" to his translation of it, states, "A sister for Seth is not
found in other sources."88 Actually, Seth's sister is mentioned in Jub.
4:11, where she is called Azura,89 and in the Liber Antiquitatuni Biblicarunl

1:1 under the name Noaba: "Initium mundi Adam geruit tres filios et
unam filiam, Cain, Noaba, Abel et Seth."90 Pseudo-Philo, as this text is
commonly called, is in fact a midrashic commentary on biblical history,
written (originally in Hebrew) in the latter part of the 1st century C.E.
idolatry." On Naamah in this midrash, see my "Aher: a Gnostic," in Layton, ed.,
Rediscovery, II, 817-818. In the same vein, an interesting nnlrash (possibly of Jewish origin)
is found in Augustine. In the fact that the Bible mentions names of women in the Cainite

(but not in the Sethite) genealogy, he read an indication about the lustful nature of the
members of the "earthly city." Augustine noted that the Bible concluded the list of the
Cainite generations "with a woman, whose sex was responsible for initiating the sin through
which we all undergo death. Moreover, a further consequence of this sin was the advent of
carnal pleasure to oppose the spirit. In fact, the name of Lamech's own daughter Naamah
means pleasure (Nam et ipsa filia Lamech Noemma voluptas interpretatur)" (City of God

XV.20: 534-535 in LCL vol. 4, trans. P. Levine). A late echo of the same tradition is
preserved in the Qur'an, 66:10, where the wives of both Noah and Loth are said to have
betrayed them.

87The most recent translation is that of M. Stone, "The Death of Adam-An Armenian
Adam Book," HTR 59 (1966), 283-291. See also is/e m, "Report on Seth Traditions in the
Armenian Adam Books," in Layton, ed., Rediscovery, 11, 459-471, esp. 469-470, where he
refers to my argument here.
88"Death of Adam," 289. This affirmation is repeated by E. Segelberg, "Old and New
Testament Figures in Mandaean Versions," in S. Hartman, ed., Syncretism (Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell, 1969), 231.
89Prof. J. Strugnell has suggested to me that "Az6ra" might be explained as a linguistic
transformation of 'estyra.
901 quote according to G. Kisch's edition, Pseudo-Philo's Liber Antiquitatuni Biblicarunr
(Publications in Medieval Studies, The University of Notre Dame, X; Notre Dame, 1949),
111. In The Chronicles of Jerahnmeel 26.1, following Pseudo-Philo, she is called Noba. The
texts are reported by Pearson, "Norea," 149.

58

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

The form "Noaba" can be restored, through an easy phonetic change, to

Noama/Naamah. It is therefore apparent that already before the 1st century C.E. (i.e., before the rise of Gnosticism, according to scholarly consensus), Jewish traditions identified Seth's sister as the maiden Naamah.
On the other hand, the Death qf' Adani relates that Seth's sister was called
Esterah, but this is also the name of the maiden who, according to the
midrash, escapes Shemhazai. It is thus no mere coincidence that the Jewish story of Esterah (Naamah) is so similar to the Gnostic tale of Norea
(Naamah); the seduction attempt was foiled in the same way: the heroine
is one and the same.
The subsequent evolution of Esterah-Naamah-Norea is worth following.
Islamic legends expanding upon Harut and Marut (Qur'an 2:102) are later
versions of the same myth. In the Islamic texts, the pure maiden is
named Anahid, Bidukht, or Zukhra, and an Iranian etymology for Harut
and Marut is probable.91 Moreover, Father Jean de Menasce has shown
that the original legend reflects early Indian and Iranian legends about the
goddess Anahita, i.e., Istahr or Venus.92 De Menasce states that "In inner
Asia, the Indo-Iranian legend came to merge with another cycle of stories
about the fall of the angels .... "93 De Menasce does not specify the date
of this merger, but the context implies that it happened at least a few centuries before the Christian Era. If so, the Jewish legends which developed

the theme of the pure woman who had escaped the lust of the Fallen
Angels94 must have begun to circulate quite early.
In apocryphal literature, Noah is believed to have remained untouched
by the corruption brought upon mankind by the sinful angels. The reason
for Noah's purity was his mother Batenosh,95 for in a generation in which
women copulated with the angels, she alone stayed pure, and Noah really
was Lamech's son (despite his father's original doubts).96 Now Noah was
91See G. Vajda, "HarOt wa-Marut," Encycl. Js/a,12 (French ed.), III, 243-244. But see
Bousset, Religion des Judentums, 560, who calls attention to the two

osit]

angelic figures

Arioch and Marioch in 1 Enoch 33:11-12 (chap. 11:34-35 Vaillant). The same derivation is
found in J. Horowitz, "Jewish Proper Names and Derivatives in the Koran," HUCA 2
(1925), 164-165. It is only in the Islamic texts that these two figures are identified with the
leaders of the Fallen Angels.
92"Une le'gende indo-europe'ene clans I'ange'lologie judeo-musulmane: a propos de Harut
et Marut," Asiatische Studien-Etudes Asiatiques I (1947), 10-18.
931bid.,
15. On Anahita and the Gnostic and Manichaean Virgin of Light, see F. Cumont,
Rechercltes sur le Maniche'isnte, 1, La Cosmogonie Manicheene d'apre's Theodore bar Khoni
(Brussels: Lamertin, 1908), Appendix I, 54. In the wake of the religionsgeschichtliche Sc/nde,
Cumont takes the origins of the figure in Manichaeism to be Persian, despite the existence
(which he notes but does not explain) of Gnostic parallels from the Pistis Sophia. It has also
been suggested that the figure of Ishtar lies at the root of the Jewish hokhma; see Grant,
Gnosticism and Early Christianity, 198, n. 40, and E. Yamauchi, "The Descent of Ishtar, the
Fall of Sophia and the Jewish Roots of Gnosticism." I am grateful to Prof. Yamauchi, who
generously put the typescript of his paper at my disposal.
94Milik's opinion (Enoch, 339) that the Midrash of Shemhazai and Azael originated in a
retroversion of the Manichaean Book o/'the Giants is far-fetched. See chap. VIII infra.
95Jub. 4:28; /QapGen, col. 2.

961 Enoch, 106; /QapGen, col. 2:50-55. See Fitzmyer's commentary, 81-82. See chap. 1,

n. 23 su ra.

THE ARCHONS AS SEDUCERS

59

the son of the Sethite Lamech (Gen 5:28-29), while the biblical Naamah
was the daughter of the Cainite Lamech (Gen 4:22). This could explain
both the fact that Naamah was considered to be Noah's wife in Jewish
traditions and the ambivalent attitude of these traditions toward her.97 We
therefore find the following identifications of Naamah in Jewish traditions:
Noah's Cainite wife; Noah's pure wife; or Seth's pure sister/wife. Moreover, the legend about the pure woman who had escaped the lust of the
angels was also attached to her name.
The shift of the figure of Norea and of the myth from Noah's generation to Seth's seems puzzling at first, but it may be explained in the context of Jewish theological thought. Noah and Seth are, in a sense, parallel
heroes of the Urzeit. Like Seth, who is at the origin of the pure generation of mankind, Noah the Righteous renewed human history (and the
transmission of the pure seed) after the flood. It is therefore not surprising to find, already in the Enochic corpus, that the older Noah saga was
sometimes transformed into a Seth saga.98 This shifting of the myth is also
evident in the verse of the Death of Adanf quoted above. Stone writes,
"The etymology con(/biter for Seth is not found elsewhere, but it arises
from Gen 4:25 and should be compared with Jub 4:7."99 But if "comforter" is not the usual etymology for Seth,100 it is the biblical one for
Noah (Gen 5:29) and was taken over in apocryphal as well as in rabbinic
literature.101 In moving from Noah's family to Seth's, Esterah took with
her the attributes of her former husband; thus the etymology of Noah's
name was simply transferred to Seth's.

In this respect, then, the Armenian Death of Adam (or, rather, its
Greek or Syriac Vorlage) was indebted to early Jewish traditions. Nor is
there any reason to think that the Armenian text is a "Sethian-Gnostic"
work (as did Preuschen, its first translator).102 Legends about Seth and

Adam do not in themselves constitute a criterion of "Sethianism," as

Stone rightly observes.103 A better criterion of Gnosticism is the salvific

role of Seth's wife/sister and her help in the preservation of the pure
seed. And in the Death of Adanf, there is no hint whatsoever that Esterah
played such a role (or any other).
Some of the early Gnostics seem to have adopted the Jewish traditions
about the deeds of Naamah, Noah's wife. In the process, the meaning of
these deeds was inverted, and Naamah/Norea became a heroine struggling
with her evil husband. Epiphanius reported that according to the

Nicolaitans, Noah would not let Norea enter the ark, since he was the
97Pearson, "Norea," 148 and n. 29.
98See chap. Vill infra.
99"Death of Adam," 288-289; also "Armenian Seth Traditions," 466.
100The passage of 'Abot R. Nat. quoted by Klijn (Seth, 39 and nn. 33, 34) does not give an
etymology for the name Seth, as Klijn claims. See the context in S. Schechter's edition
(Vienna: Knopflmacher, 1887), version A, chap. 14, pp 58-59.
101 E.g., Jub. 4:28, Sefer Hayyasar 13b; Gen. Rub. 25:2.
102"Die apokryphen gnostischen Adamschriften," 289ff.
103"Death of Adam," 289.

60

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

servant of the demiurge who intended to destroy her in the flood. She
then repeatedly burned the ark.104 The same story appears in Hyp. Arch.
92:14-18, where Norea is said to have burned the ark twice. This deed,
considered pure in both contexts, indicates that the Gnostic reinterpretation of Naamah was not entirely successful since, as in the Jewish legend,
she burned the ark in anger. Why would Norea want to embark upon the
evil Noah's ark? Why should she become angry when refused permission
to board? Such a desire, and such behavior hardly befit a Gnostic
heroine. As in the case of the angels' seduction of the women in Ap. John
(supra, pp. 36-38), the ambiguous function of Norea's behavior in the
overall structure of the Gnostic version indicates that the story was
adapted from Jewish traditions.

The origins of the pure "other seed" (Gen 4:25), its transmission
throughout human history, and its protection from the repeated attacks of
the archons were all problems of crucial importance for the Gnostics,105
and mythological solutions for them were sought. The Gnostics thus
understandably integrated all the various traditions they were aware of into
a new myth, whose heroine became specifically Seth's sister/wife,
identified with the maiden-become-star. Our findings may be summarized
in the following way:
Successful rape:

Angels TWomen
giants

SammaelTEve
Cain
(and other sons)

Failed rape attempt:

LamechTBatenosh

Adam Eve

Noah

Seth, Naamah/Norea
(Esterah)

NoahINaamah/Norea

Seth Naamah/Norea
(Esterah)

(Esterah)

pure seed

pure seed

The mytho!ogoumenon of the heavenly woman soiled on earth is, of

course, very widespread and may be found in various cultural contexts.
The somewhat scabrous story of Helen of Troy, for instance, was allegorized by the Pythagoreans, who accepted the Homeric writings as sacred.
They transformed the heroine (`Exevr)) into a pure woman who had come
104Pan. 26.1.3-9 (I, 275-276 Holi).
105E.g., Epiphanius, Pan. 39, 2-4 (II, 72-75 Holl).

THE ARCHONS AS SEDUCERS

61

from the moon (acXTIv7) and who returned to it by the will of Zeus. The
Helen of Simon Magus was also considered to have a celestial origin.106 As
a matter of fact, she is referred to only as luna in the Pseudo-Clementine
Recognitions (II, 12). It'is probable that Simon, who had a Greek education, knew this Pythagorean exegesis of Homer, as Marcel Detienne has
argued.107 In any case, it is in its Jewish form that the mythologoumenon
formed the background of the Gnostic myth. So it seems more plausible
to suppose that the figure of Helen was, in Simonian thought, a reformulation in "Hellenic" terms of the Jewish "core-myth." G. Quispel is
therefore probably correct when he argues that in Simonian Gnosis, Helen
was a "cover-name" for Wisdom, hokhrna.108
Barbelo

Barbelo is one of the main female figures in the Gnostic pantheon, where
she usually represents the feminine aspect of the Father. In Irenaeus's
report (Adv. Haer. I. 29), she is called "the virginal Spirit," to whom the
unnameable Father revealed himself.109 Indeed, the mythology Irenaeus
described in that chapter has been attributed by modern scholarship to the
postulated sect of "Barbelo-Gnostics"; Carl Schmidt, moreover, pointed
out long ago how close that account is to Ap. John.110 where Barbelo was

not only the "virginal Spirit," but also "the perfect aeon of glory," the
"First Thought," and "the thrice male one." Although in this system
Barbelo was completely apotheosized as one of the eternal aeons and
hence a principle of light in Gnostic cosmology, the origins of the figure
(and its name) remain unclear.111
1061n Hippolytus, Elenchos VI, 19 (145 Wendland). Epinoia is said to have dwelt in Helen.
On the figure of Helen in Simonian thought, see G. LUdemann, Untetsuchungen zur sintonian-

ischen Gnosis (Gottingen Theologische Arbeiten; Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht,

1975), 72-77.
107"La le'gende pythagoricienne d'Helene," RHR 152 (1958), 128-152.

108"Jewish Gnosis and Mandaean Origins, some Reflections on the Writing Bronte'," in J.E. Me'nard, ed., Les textes de Nag Hantmac/i, 100; see also n. 93 supra.
1091renaeus, Adv. Haer. I, 29.1 (1, 222 Harvey). In Epiphanius, Pan. 25.3,4 (I, 270 Holl),

Barbelo, who was in the eighth heaven, was said to be Yaldabaoth's mother. In the Pistis
Sophia, Barbelo appeared in the thirteenth aeon, near the invisible God and the 24 emanations (see the index in Schmidt's edition of the text). The same is true in the second Book
q/' Yeu (326 Schmidt), where she is called the virginal spirit (vrapBcVnKdn' TnPEV/.a). In this
latter work, she also appears in the twelfth aeon, near the uncreated God (chap. 52, p. 325).
110"Irenaeus and seine Quelle in adv. haer. I, 29," in Philotesia Paul Kleinert (Berlin,
1907), 315-336. In this article Schmidt claims that Irenaeus's account was dependent upon
Ap. John, but he later retracted this view. See also R. McL. Wilson, Gnosis and the New Testament (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1968), 103.

111Rudolph (Die Gnosis, 89) speaks only of a "schwer erklarbaren Namen (sicherlich ein

semitisch-aramaisches Kunstwort)." According to a common interpretation, the name was

originally a cryptic description of the Tetragrammaton: 11*5K pK3, "God is in four
[letters]"; H. Lewy, "Gnosis," Enc. Juc/. (German), VII, 455-456; Doresse's commentary
on Gos. Eg., 335, n. 83. For his part, Bousset has suggested that "Barbelo" should be
understood as a deformation of irapOh'oc in uncial characters, pointing to the intermediary
form i3apOenws (Epiphanius, Pan. 26.1.6; I, 276 Holl; Bousset, Haupgnobleme, 14 and n. 3).

62

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

The Nicolaitans, at least according to Filaster, associated Barbelo with

Norea and revered both figures.112 In his refutation of the Nicolaitans,
however, Epiphanius said that they were fantasizing, since the name of
Noah's wife was neither Pyrrha (supposedly the Greek original for Norea,
etymologized by the Nicolaitans as coming from nn-a, "fire," in Syriac,

on account of her repeatedly setting fire to the ark) nor Norea, but
Barthenos.113 It is clear that Epiphanius, or rather his source, mistakenly

attributed the name of Noah's mother to his wife.114 The figure of

Batenosh (i.e., ba(r)teno in Aramaic or Syriac) thus might have been
connected to the original form of the Gnostic Barbelo, although this
suggestion cannot be affirmed with certainty.

In any case, the myth of the seduction of the archons by Barbelo, as

described by the gnostikoi, no doubt reflects the ultimate transformation
and inversion of the original myth of the angels' sin with the women. In
one version of this myth, Batenosh, Noah's mother, played a distinct role:
it was through her escape from the angelic seductors that the pure seed
was preserved.' 15
The Seduction of the Archons

The myth of the seduction of the archons represents the ultimate transformation and inversion in Gnostic consciousness of the original myth of the,
sin of the angels with the women. In Hyp. Arch. 89:17-30, the "authori-

ties" of the demiurge had planned to approach the spiritual Eve and to
seduce her, although it was only her shadowy reflection (the material Eve)

whom they succeeded in raping. A similar attempt by the archons and

their chief (the demiurge) to rape Norea also failed (Hyp. Arch.
92:18-93:13). In Ap. John 28:5-32, a parallel description of the rape of a
feminine figure by the demiurge and his "authorities" is given. Here the
seduction attempt is successful. The archons "made a plan" and "committed adultery" with Sophia "with whom the Gods are united and the
demons and all the generations until this day."116
ee pattern in these
cases is similar to the description of the sin of the gels'in I Enoch W.
In the Gnostic texts, as in I Enoch, the male heavenly powers initiated the
adultery. The female figures (daughters of men, Eve, Sophia), on the
an/

other hand, were the passive victims of male lust.

Indeed, sonic texts call Barbelo a arapOevuKhhv ni'eva or an CYp(TCVLK-q 7rap9EVOc, e.g., Gos.
Eg. 111, 61:25-62:1; see also 44:11-13; 49:23-25; 53:16-18; 55:19-21; 61:24-62. See also
S7e/es .Seth 121:21 -22, Allogenes 61:6-7, ZosL 83:8-12, all quoted in Tardicu, Trois Mvthes,
106, n. 145; Orig. World 102:18; Tardieu, ibid., 65, n. 91. On 7TapOcvtK0'm 7TVeva see
Boussct, "Gnosis," PW, VII, 2, col. 1514. Cf. Eugnosios 89:2-3.
112Divers.
Haer. Lib. 33.3 (18 Marx).
113Pa17. 26.1.6 (1, 276, Holl).
114As conjectured by Litzmann; see Holl's apparatus, ad loc.
115 lQapGen 2:14 - 16 (52-53 Fitzmyer).
116See also Treat. Seth 68:28-30. The first archon was prompted to this act by his jealousy

of the perfect race; on this jealousy see Orig. World 99:2-10.

THE ARCHONS AS SEDUCERS

63

A very different description of the sexual behavior of Sophia (and Pronoia) is given in Orig. World. Due to the extreme complexity of the text,
it is necessary to quote it at some length.
And immediately, behold, <a> light came out of the eighth
[heaven], which is above, and passed through all of the heavens of
the earth. When the First Father saw that the light was beautiful as it
shone forth, he was amazed and was very much ashamed. When the
light appeared, a human likeness, which was very wonderful, was
revealed within it; and no one saw it except the First Father alone and
Pronoia who was with him. but its light appeared to all the powers of
the heavens. Therefore they were all disturbed by it. Then when
Pronoia saw the angel she became enamored of him. But he hated
her because she was in the darkness. Moreover, she desired to
embrace him, and she was not able. When she was unable to cease
her love, she poured out her light upon the earth. From that day,
that angel was called "Light-Adam," which is interpreted "the
enlightened bloody (one)." And the earth spread over him, Holy
Adamas, which is interpreted "the holy Adamantine [steel-like]
earth." At that time, all of the authorities began to honor the blood
of the virgin. And the earth was purified because of the blood of the
virgin. But especially the water was purified by the likeness of Pistis
Sophia, which appeared to the First Father in the waters.tt" (Orig.
World 108:2 - 31)

The last sentence should be read in connection with another passage in

this text (113:22-34), which describes the birth of the first Eve:
When Sophia cast a drop <of'> light, it floated on the water.... that
drop first patterned itself (rmrouv) as a female body ... the Hebrews
call her "Eve of Life," i.e. "the instructor of life."

The angel with whom Pronoia, the consort of the First Father
(*apXCYEVET Ap, 108:11 -12), fell in love was the wonderful human like-

ness called Light-Adam, or Adamas. He is the Primordial Man, in the

likeness of the higher God, and is elsewhere called Anthropos. Pronoia
could not unite with the angel, so she "poured out her light," which fell
upon the earth Cadania in Hebrew). As a consequence, the angel was
called Light-Adam, a name said to refer to blood.118 "The blood of the
t17This revelation of the feminine heavenly figure in a reflection on the water to the male

lower figure is an inversion of the mythical pattern in Poinrandres 12-14, where it is the
heavenly Anthropos who is revealed to the feminine and earthly Physis upon the water.
1180n

this pseudo-etymology of Adam, based on a pun in both Hebrew (between 'adanr,

and dam, "blood," connected also in Orig. World 108, 22-25 with 'adanra, "earth") and
Greek (with cr&hLac, "strong iron, steel," from which the adjective ee&(hn;UIoc), see Tardieu, Trois
88; cf. the etymology of Edem-adanra in Justin's Baruch. The thrust of
Tardieu's analysis is to differentiate between the various stages of anthropogony. He distinguishes three stages in the creation of Adam during the Gnostic octohemeron: Adam-Light,
the psychic Adam, and the terrestrial Adam; ibid., 85-139.

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

64

virgin" is then mentioned in the same context.119 Tardieu, who comments

in great detail upon these passages, draws the following chart:12

Light
-blood
Pronoia --r virgin
The "light" (i.e., the blood) of Pronoia that fell upon the earth gave
the Primordial Adam his name, while the light of Sophia fell upon the
waters and gave rise to the Primordial Eve. The light/blood corresponds
exactly to the semen of the (male) archons, which is also said to be at the
origin of the lower Adam.

Then each one of them [the archons who were with the First Father]
cast his semen (o-rrepga) in the midst of the navel of the earth. Since
that day, the seven archons have formed the man: his body is like
their body, his likeness is like the man who appeared to them. (Orig.
World 114:2 7 - 32 )

Now in Orig. World it was Sophia and Pronoia who were held responsible for the lustful process. Both behaved like "female archons" and partook, with the archons, in the anthropogonic process where they

represented the "female" side of human genealogy. Pronoia did not

succeed in seducing "the angel," just as the archons, in Hyp. Arch.
87:11 -34, did not succeed in staining the heavenly Eve and Norea.

As Incorruptibility looked down into the region of the Waters, her

Image ONE: [ = C I NCD appeared in the Waters, and the authorities
of the darkness became enamored of her. But they could not lay hold
of that Image, which had appeared to them in the Waters, because of
their weakness ... for they were from below, while it was from
Above.

The archons then concerted among themselves and decided to create a

man after the image "of God that had appeape"o them) in the

Waters."121 The lustful attitude of Pronoia thus seems to follow, mutatis

nwtandis, the pattern of the myth of the union of the women and the
angels in the version attested in the Jewish sources (T. Reub.), in which
the women seduced the angels.

Although the original myth had been transformed considerably, the

inversion process was not complete. Indeed, it seems that in the myth as

it appears in Orig. World, an intermediate stage is recognizable towards the

formation of the "full fledged" myth of the seduction of the archons.

119-From this first blood was Eros revealed." For
the figure of Eros, see Tardieu, ibicl,

141 -174. However, Adam as well as Eros was linked to Pronoia's blood.
120/hic/., 142.

121The

Coptic reads: aNapXON Al NOYCYMBOAION (Hyp. Arch. 87:24-25). Layton

translates, The Rulers laid plans," while Tardieu offers a better rendering: "Les archontes
tinrent conseil." See LSJ, 1677a.

THE ARCHONS AS SEDUCERS

65

This latter myth was crucially important in Manichaean cosmogony,

cosmology, and anthropogony (where in one case Norea [Horaia] was
presented as the heroine). But long ago Bousset also discerned an
instance of the myth in Epiphanius's report on the so-called Gnostics,122
according to some of whom Barbelo
always appears to the archons in beauty [i.e., presumably naked] and
takes from them their seed through pleasure [causing] its emission, in

order that by so doing she may recover again her power that was
inseminated into those various beings.123

In this text, the female figure (Barbelo) initiated the "lustful process," as
did Pronoia in Orig. World. Unlike Pronoia, however, Barbelo started the
process intentionally, not by her lust, and she succeeded in her attempt to
seduce the archons.

We shall see in chapter VIII how in Manichaean mythology the

"power" of the female figure, also called her "light," was captive in the
semen of the archons. As in Manichaeism, therefore, the act of seduction
here played a positive and specific role in the economy of salvation.

In Gnostic vocabulary, Prunikos ("the lewd one") was one of the

names of Sophia. Although the paradoxical use of this name has already
been studied,124 it has not yet been completely elucidated; the preceding
analysis might furnish another clue about the meaning of the name Prunikos. In order to perform her salvific role, the pure woman had to use the
only weapon available to her against the archons; through cunning, she
had to draw them into the trap through which they could be subdued: the
compulsion of their lust.
Three different patterns of the sexual myth can thus be identified, and
they may well reflect various stages in its evolution. In the first stage, the

female figure was the object of archontic lust. In the second (Orig.
World), she herself behaved like an archon, led on by her lust, and in the
final stage, the female heroine deliberately seduced the lustful archons.
Giants and Abortions

As shown above, Orig. World retained a specific version of the myth of

seduction, one which stood mid-way between the Jewish and the Manichaean versions of this myth. The consequences of this seduction must
now be considered. In both the Bible and the Apocrypha, the seduced
'22Haupiprobleme,

76, also 72-74, where Bousset detects the origin of the myth in the
"love adventures" of (star, Astarte, or the Syrian Aphrodite.
'23Epiphanius, Pan. 25.2.4 (1, 269 Holl). Again in Pan. 21.2, 4-5 (1, 240 Holl) the Simonians, who call the "Power from on high" Prunikos or Barbelo (the text has also l3apf3gpw),
claim that she showed her beauty to the archons in order to arouse their lust. Note that

Barbelo was identified with Prunikos, "the lewd one," as well as with Helen. Prunikos is
also identified with Sophia; see Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1, 29.4 (1, 225 Harvey) and 1.30.3 (1,
228 Harvey).
'24M. P. Nilsson, "Sophia Prunikos," Eranos45 (1947), 169-172.

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

66

women gave birth to giants. Here, too, the reinterpretation of the myth in
Orig. World is closely related to the Manichaean version and thus appears
to represent a step toward it.
In his detailed study of Orig. World, Tardieu rightly links Pronoia's act
of throwing the light upon the earth with Yaldabaoth and the archons
discharging their semen onto the earth. Tardieu recognizes in Pronoia's
act "a symbol of demiurgic attitude."125 Beyond this general characterization, however, Tardieu detects no sexual connotation in Pronoia's act.126
Yet the text seems to contain references that are much more precise.
In Orig. World 108:26-28, Pronoia is said to be a virgin. In this she is
paralleled with, and contrasted to, Eve, "the first virgin," who gave birth

without having a husband (114:4-5).127 In a hymn (114:8-10), Eve

declares:

I am a portion of my mother
and I am the mother.
I am the woman
and I am the virgin
I am the pregnant one ...128

Pronoia, a "virgin wife" like Eve, could also give birth. Indeed, the First
Father, her consort, and the authorities, who were in love with the image
that they had seen from above, let their semen fall upon the earth (Orig.
World 114:24-32; Hyp. Arch. 87:11-34). Similarly, as a consequence of
her lust, Pronoia became pregnant by herself and immediately thereafter
aborted the fetus. This abortion is what the text calls her "blood." The
ambiguity of the female blood is here explicit. In addition to the obvious
reference to menstrual blood,129 it is both a sexual emission-parallel to
the male semen-and a miscarriage. Thus the text can say that Adam
"had taken form like the aborted fetuses."130 It may be noted that a
121Trois

Mythes, 102, n. 112, where he refers to similar expressions'in the Aggada, quoting
Ginzberg (Legends, V, 14, n. 39). But the texts collected by Ginzber have no sexual con-

notations. See also Tardieu, Trois Mythes, 142.

126See
however his reference (ibid., 123 n. 250) to P. Kraus, Jabir ibn Hayyaa; contribution a'
I'lristoire des idles scienti/iques dans I'Islam, 11 (Me'moires de l'Institut d'Egypte 44-45; Cairo:
Institut fran4ais d'arche'ol. orient., 1942), 156, n. 9, dealing with the projection of semen
upon matter, i.e., of the sexual relations between the eternal substance (God) and matter.
127Tardieu, Trois Mythes, 143, n. 15: "L'Eve de I'hymne de'claratoire (ou deuxie'me Adam)
qui est e'galement vierge, e'pouse et mere, se pre'sente ainsi comme une anti-Pronoia."
128See also Thund. 13:19-21, where the Perfect Mind declares: "I am the wife and the virgin, I am <the mother> and the daughter," etc. On these paradoxical formulas in Gnostic
hymns, see G. MacRae, "Discourses of the Gnostic Revealer," in G. Widengren, ed.,
Proceedings q/ the International Colloquium on Gnosticism; Stockholm, 112- 122. See also
Setheus 40:17-25, where, by the power of the aeons, the virgin mother secretly gives birth.
129A.
Bohlig points out this fact and speaks of "die Umdeutung von jUdischen Traditionsgut in gnostische Gedankengange" ("Der jUdische Hintergrund in gnostischen
Texten
von Nag Hammadi," Mysterion and Walu-heii, 83 and n. 3).
130eagxt MOpdH Nee NNIzoyze (115:4-5). The subject of this sentence, however,
might refer to the Shadow. As we shall see in chap. VIII, the same metaphor was used in

THE ARCHONS AS SEDUCERS

67

similar identification between blood and abortion was made in the

Pseudo-Clementine Homilies where the giants of Genesis 6 (the Nephilim)

were even said to have been born "of the fire of the angels and the blood
of the women."131

The self-induced "virginal" pregnancies of Eve and Pronoia in the con-

text of anthropogony are actually repetitions of, and consequent upon,

Sophia's self-induced conception in the context of cosmogony.132 Sophia's

"drop of light" is therefore her "abortion."

Then the shadow perceived that there was one stronger than it. It was
jealous, and when it became self-impregnated, it immediately bore
envy. (Hpp,-Anh.9r9:2-6)
01,..... work4

Then Pistiscame and appeared over the matter of' Chaos, which was
cast off like an aborted fetus. (99:24-26)

A clearly parallel passage is Hyp. Arch. 94:15-16, where the author,

speaking about Sophia, said, "And what she had created became a product
in the Matter, like an aborted fetus."133 In both texts, this aborted fetus is
described as an arrogant (au6c &7c), androgynous, lion-faced animal, from

which Death and her sons were born; that is, the fetus survived, but it
was a monster. As Pheme Perkins has shown, striking parallels to such
"biological metaphors," which play a major role in Gnostic cosmogonies,
and especially to Erc$akkeiv (NOY.xe eBOX) as a term for abortion, are
found in the vocabulary of 2nd-century medical writers.134
Sophia was indeed the first female heavenly figure to give birth to an
aborted fetus. The event is explained in the following way in Ap. John
9:25-10:7:
And the Sophia of the Epinoia, being an aeon, conceived a thought
from herself with the reflection of the invisible Spirit and Pronoia.
She wanted to bring forth a likeness out of' herself without the consent of the Spirit-he had not approved-and without her consort and
without his consideration.... Yet she brought forth. And because of'
the invisible power which is in her, her thought did not remain idle,
and a thing came out of her which was imperfect and different from

Manichaean anthropogony.
131 Homilies, 8. 18.2 (128-129 Rehm).
132Pronoia here seems to be a lower

figure than Sophia. MacRae points out that in

Ap.

John 30:11 -31:25, the description of Pronoia's triple descent to the world in order to awaken

man from his deep sleep is strikingly similar to the myth of Wisdom's descent, although
Sophia is not explicitly identified with Pronoia ("The Jewish Background of the Gnostic
Sophia Myth," NorT 12 [1970], 91). See also Ap. John 13:6-14:13 and Hyp. Arch. 94:32-33.
133See Layton's commentary, 70, n. 149. According to Orig. World 98:23-27, the "darkness" (nKaKC) is the proper name of the shadow (TZasBeC) that surrounds the aeon of
truth.
134" On the Origin of' the World' (CG 11, 5): A Gnostic Physics," VC34 (1980), 36-46,
esp. 37-38.

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

68

her appearance, because she had created it without her consort. And
it was dissimilar to the likeness of its mother for it has another form.

The highly syncretistic author of Orig. World integrated various

elements of Hellenistic mythology into the basic Gnostic sexual myth of
generation. One of the most interesting of these figures is Eros, an androgynous being who appeared out of the "first blood" of Pronoia
(109:1-2).135 Eros is here completely assimilated into the mythical pattern: in the same way that he owed his origin to the miscarriage of a selfconceived pregnancy, his beautiful appearance led female figures to
become enamored of him. He seduced successively both Psyche and "the
beautiful fragrant flowers,"136 which originated "from (the blood of) each
of the virgins of the daughters of Pronoia," and they "poured out their
blood upon him and upon the earth." In this manner they gave birth to
the species of flora and fauna, all of which had "the seed of the authori-

ties and their angels," as specified by the text to indicate that the love
stories with Eros cast as the passive hero were part of the broader myth of
the archontic creation process (111:8-28).

The aborted figures of the Urzeit reappear in the Endzeit of Gnostic

apocalypses.137 According to Orig. World 126:20-28, for instance,
[the woman] will drive out the gods of Chaos whom she had created
together with the First Father. She will cast them down to the abyss.
They will be wiped out by their (own) injustice. For they will become
like the mountains which blaze out fire, and they will gnaw at one
another until they are destroyed by their First Father. When he destroys them he will turn against himself' and destroy himself' until he
ceases (to be).

This text should be read with the parallel version in Hyp. Arch. 97:10-13:
Then the authorities will relinquish their ages: and their angels will
weep over their destruction: and their demons will lament their death.

In a similar vein, Ap. John 27:21-30 describes the final punishment of the
sinners, who
will be taken to the place where there is no repentance, and will be
kept for the day on which those who have blasphemed the spirit will
be tortured, and will be punished with eternal punishment.

These are clearly echoes of the destruction and punishment of the sinful
135See

n. 119 supra.
136Cf. Apoc. Adapt 79:29 - 80:6.

1370n Gnostic apocalypses, see F. T. Fallon, "The Gnostic Apocalypses," in Apocalypse:

The Morphology of a Genre (Semeia 14 [19791), 123-158, as well as G. MacRae, "Apocalyptic
Eschatology in Gnosticism," in D. Hellholm, ed., Apocalypticism in the Mediterranean World
and the Near Fast (Tubingen: Mohr, 1983), 317-325.

THE ARCHONS AS SEDUCERS

69

angels and the "allelophagy" of the giants, as these themes appeared in

I Enoch 7 and 10, for instance, and they recall the death of children of the
giants:

The murder of their beloved ones shall they see, and over the destruction' of their children shall they lament, and shall make supplication unto eternity, but mercy and peace shall ye not attain. (I Enoch
12:6)

In Gnostic works, the sin of the angels-turned-archons is presented as

beginning and ending with time. Gnostic thought, indeed, sought to
mythologize history altogether, rather than to suppress it. The whole span
of history followed, as it were, the pattern of the sin of the angels/archons
in the Urzeit and of its consequence: the enslavement of mankind by the
senses (e.g., Ap. John 29:16-30:11).138 The metaphor of abortion strongly
expresses the conviction that the world "came about through a mistake,"
and that its creator "fell short of attaining his desire" (Gos. PhiL 75:2-6).
It so appears in various Gnostic trends. According to Hippolytus's presentation of Basilidian conceptions, for instance, "the Sonship had been left
in the formlessness like an abortion."139 An abortion also played a role in
Valentinian mythology, where it concerned the essentially ambiguous
figure of Sophia.I40 Sophia herself was linked both to Pistis (below)141 and
to the Pleroma (above). The "upper" (or "interior") Sophia was the last

and youngest of the twelve aeons. Instead of uniting with her misnamed
consort (")Ek'gToc (i.e., the "willed one") in order to generate, she fell in
love with the perfect Father.142 Since she did not succeed in her audacity
(ToXpa) and could not unite with the Father,143 she "experienced passion" (E7ra0E 7r6i9oc) without a consort. In other words-and here is a
Valentinian reformulation of the original Gnostic myth-"she wished to
comprehend the magnitude of the Father," or to imitate him, since he
who was uncreated, could procreate without a consort.
138Cf. / Enoch 100:2; 2 Apoc. Baruch 70:10; Pseudo-Clementine Homilies, 8.16.2 (128
Rehm), texts quoted by Tardieu, Trois Mythes, 77, n. 202 and 79, n. 220. Tardieu adds: "De

la sorte, le theme de I'alle'lophagie des archontes clans I'eschatologie d'EsT I = Orig. World]
ne fait qu'accomplir Ie retour cyclique du telos dans I'arche'-archontes des derniers temps se
de'truisant comme s'e'taient de'truits les ge'ants des premiers temps." On the theme of the
allelophagy, see also Paraph. S/mnr 44:23-26: "And five races by themselves will eat their
sons," and Great Pow. 40:9-23. In Great Pow. 41:25, the archons "brought judgment upon
themselves." In Gos. Eq. 111 59:24-25, the "defiled seed of the demon is a begetting god
which will be destroyed."
139Hippolytus,
140E

Elenchos 6. 26.7 (205 Wendland).

C. Stead, "The Valentinian Myth of Sophia," JTS 20 (1969), 75-104. See also

MacRae, "The Gnostic Sophia Myth," 91; Tardieu, Trois Myihes, 57, n. 47.
141Cf.

Orig. Wor/d98:13-14, where it is Sophia who flows out of Pistis.

myth is related in detail by Irenaeus (Adv. Haer. 1.2.2.; 1, 13-16 Harvey) and by
Hippolytus (Elenchos 6.30-31; 157-159 Wendland). The account here follows these two
descriptions. See also MacRae, "The Gnostic Sophia Myth," 94.
143See Gos. Phil. 59:31-32.
142The

70

FROM ORIGIN OF EVIL TO ORIGIN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

This was Sophia's tragic mistake or sin, since she herself was a created
being, the fruit of her parthenogenesis was bound to be a shapeless and
unformed substance (only her male consort could have given the fetus its
"form"). This offspring-who was in some cases the demiurgel44 or the
world itself-is also said to be the "lower" Sophia (also called the "exterior" Sophia, h E&w o-ocla, i.e., outside of the Pleroma and prevented by
the Limit from entering it).145 When Sophia understood that she could
give birth only to an abortion (EKrp(oa is the term used by the Valentinians), she cried and mourned over it,146 just as a non-Valentinian account
of the myth reports that Barbelo wept when her son Yaldabaoth
revolted.141

144See

orig. World 100:10-14. See also Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1.29.4.

145llippolylus,
E/enchos 6.36.3 (166 Wendland): rie 7rce671 rrlc Etw Y_o4nac, ruvretrrt EK-

rpwaroc.

146E/enchos

6.31.2 (158 Wendland): EKKate yap at KarwwupEro EM 701 ycycvrgphw u7r

avrr)c EKrpwart, ourw yap KakOUlrtr And see Elenchos 6.31.4-5 (159 Wendland). See

also Orig. Wor/c/99:29-30.

147Epiphanius, Pan. 25.2.2-4.

Part II
THE GNOSTIC RACE

The multifaceted sexual etiological myth, which purports to account for

the existence and the origin of evil in this world, reveals a major aspect of
Gnostic consciousness. Another aspect, no less central, is the self-image

of the offspring of the pure seed-the Sons of Seth-who throughout

history remained untainted by the evil archons and who succeeded in
escaping the repeated attempts to annihilate them. In other words, it is to
various facets of the Gnostic conception of Heilsgeschichte that attention
must now be turned. The principal textual focus here will be on the Apocalypse of Adam. In addition to a phenomenological approach to this
important side of Gnostic consciousness, this part of the investigation will
attempt to further the conclusions already reached and to shed new light
on the possible origins of the mythological identification of the Gnostics
with the "Sons of Seth," an identification which bears upon the exegesis
of the "Sons of God" of Gen 6:2. The figure of Seth himself, it should
be noted, is ambivalent: Seth was both the archetypal Father of the Gnostic "race" and, in some texts, the first incarnation of the Perfect Child.

CHAPTER THREE

SETH AND THE CHILD

Seth I

Jewish traditions about the virtuous Seth are clearly attested already in the
1st century C.E., as Robert Kraft has observed.2 He argues convincingly
that Philo was not opposing any "Sethian position" (whatever that
means), but that his treatment of Seth was similar to that of other biblical
figures.3 Yet some of Philo's remarks on Seth's name might be relevant

here, for he repeatedly gave a seemingly puzzling etymology in the De

Posteritate Caini. According to Philo, it meant (in Hebrew) "watering" or
"irrigation," for which he used a rare word: aon0-os4 In the first passage where this etymology appears, it was used to interpret the 0-7repa
ETEpov of Gen 4:25, but its meaning remains rather opaque.5 Elsewhere,
however, Philo expanded upon his understanding of 7rono-p c. A seed
and a plant sprout, grow, and produce fruit only if they are watered; thus
it is with the soul, which must be "fostered with a fresh sweet stream of
wisdom" in order to "shoot up and improve."6 Later on, Philo attempted

to prove that from Seth to Noah, there was a progressive growth in

knowledge and virtue.?

In Quaest. Gen. 1, 78, Philo gave a different etymology for Seth,

explaining the meaning of the name as: "one who drinks water."8 This
derivation of Seth from the Hebrew root ro mm?, "to drink," sheds some
light on the first etymology, where Philo seems to have in mind a factitive
form of the same verb. Such a factitive form of unrm, however, does not
appear to be attested in rabbinic sources.9

lAs mentioned, the figure of Seth in various bodies of literatures has been studied on
several occasions, especially by Klijn, Seth; see also M. E. Stone, "Report on Seth Traditions
in the Armenian Adam Books," in Layton, ed., Rediscovery, 11, 459-471, and B. A. Pear-

son, "The Figure of Seth in Gnostic Literature," in ibid., 472-504. Since Pearson's article
treats extensively the various texts and traditions, I shall deal only with some points which
have not received sufficient attention, in particular the Manichaean figure of Sethel.
2"Philo on Seth: Was Philo Aware of Traditions which Exalted Seth and His Progeny?"

in Layton, ed., Rediscovery, Il, 457-458; Kraft refers to the testimony of Josephus (Ant.
1.68-72 [IV, 32-34 LCLI).
3/bid, 504-505.
4LSJ gives very few occurrences (from papyri), while LPGL gives one occurrence with

the meaning "water-supply."

SPost. Cain. 10 (II, 232 LCL); also 170 (11, 428 LCL).
61bid., 124-126 (11, 400 LCL).
'/bid., 173 (11, 430 LCL). Moreover, the generations between them are represented by a
perfect number, ten. With Noah humanity reaches new spiritual heights.
81n R. Marcus's translation (49 LCL). Klijn (Seth, 34) mentions only this etymology.
9An aph`el form of nrrr is found in Palestinian Syriac, but with a qal meaning. See M.
Bar Asher, Palestinian Syriac Studies: Source-Texts, Traditions and Grammatical Problems
(unpublished Ph.D diss., Hebrew University, 1977), 300 (Hebrew).

THE GNOSTIC RACE

74

Some rabbinic texts record yet another etymology. One passage states
that Adam "called him Seth because he was planted (5rrz), because the
kingdom of the house of David was planted (M5r -11) from him."10 Elsewhere, this etymology was explicitly based on a word play upon .117 r1w
(Gen 4:25).11 The name Seth, therefore, would derive from the root 5rm,
"to plant," and not from rirw, "to drink." Like the first one, this
etymology referred to the "other seed" of Gen 4:25. Since Philo's metaphor in Post. Cain. was a vegetal one, involving seeds and plants, one
wonders whether he confused the flm etymology with the 5rw one and
integrated them in his explanation of the name's meaning.
The derivation from P1 was also known in Gnostic milieus In his
description of Manichaeism in the Fihrist, the 10th-century bibliographer
Ibn al-Nadim, following his Manichaean source, reported that Adam
called his son Shathil only after a lotus tree had grown from the earth (as
a divine answer to Adam's prayer) to provide milk for the child.
Then there appeared to Adam a tree called the lotus, from which

came forth milk with which he nourished the boy. He called him by
its [the tree's] name, and later he called him Shathil.12

Since the Manichaean source clearly linked the child's name to the growing of the tree,13 it probably reflected the same Hebrew etymology (from
the root 5rart) already known to the Rabbis and perhaps to Philo.
Shitil, the hypostatic figure of Seth, who played a major role in Mandaean mythology,14 echoed the same traditions. Shitil, son of Adam, was

called "the Perfect Plant," "planted in the generations and in the

worlds," in the Johannesbuch,15 while the Right Ginza III, 114:19ff.
reported that Shitil nrgariih inasbh, "approached his planter."16 Because

1Oxford ms. of a nudrash on Genesis, quoted by M. Kasher, Torah Shelenrah 1, 353. This
text is also cited by T. Gluck, The Arabic Legend of Seth (unpublished Ph.D diss., Yale
University, 1968), 21, n. 4.
11 Ag.
Ber. (Brit. Lib. ms. add. 37), cited by Ginzberg, Legends, V, 148, n. 50.
12G. Flugel, Mani, seine Lehre and seine Schrifien (Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1862), 61; trans. p.

93 ". and gab ihm den Namen des Baumes. Spater nannte er ihn Schatil." The structure
of the Arabic sentence is ambiguous. Flugel's translation retains this ambiguity, but B.
Dodge renders, "He (at first) called him by its name, but later e " Iled him Shatil" (The
Fihrise' of al-Nadim [New York-London: Columbia, 1970], 11, 786). The only possible
understanding of the sentence is that Adam named his son ShatTl ("plant" in Aramaic and
Hebrew) in connection with the tree. Gluck (Arabic Legend, 24) implausibly suggests that
one of the Arabic forms of Seth's name, st, might be related to the word salt, "a plant used
by tanners or a species of tree."
13The various legends connecting
trees to human beings are analyzed by A. Henrichs,
"'Thou Shalt not Kill a Tree': Greek, Manichaean and Indian Tales," BASP 16 (1979),
85-108.
140n
the figure of ShitTl in Mandaeism, see E. S. Drower, The Secret Adam: A Study of
Nasorean Gnosis (Oxford: Clarendon, 1960), 34-38.
.

15M. Lidzbarski, Das Johannesbuch der Mandaer, 2 Teile (Giessen:

Topelmann, 1915), 244.
16K. Rudolph (T/zeogonie, Kosmogonie and Anthropogonie
in den ,nandaischen Schrifmn

[FRLANT 88; Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1965], 296) translates the verse "und
Sitil ruff nach seinem Planzer (Helfer?)." M. Lidzbarski (Ginza: Der Schatz oc/er das grosse

SETH AND THE CHILD

75

this same root exists in both Aramaic and Syriac, it is easy to understand
how the name was preserved in Mandean and Manichaean traditions as

Shitil or Shatil (or Sethel or Sithil ICHeHA], as in Coptic texts). The

last syllable, therefore, resulted from the Hebrew midrash on Seth as the
"planted" seed-and not from a theophoric "el" appended to the biblical
name, as has sometimes been suggested17 (although later traditions may
have so interpreted the name).
A different connection between Seth and planting appears in another
Gnostic context, where it is Seth who planted the seed (0-Iropa).
But others (say) that the great Seth took his plant out of Gomorrah
and planted it in the second place, to which he gave the name
Sodom.'8

The motif is here mixed with that of the "pure seed" which Seth, its first
inheritor, transmitted to his offspring. But the use of TW66, "plant,"
clearly refers to the Jewish word play on '15 :W, and shows that the two
metaphors were integrated. This "plant" of Seth was the community of
the Gnostics through the ages, those who were called, in various texts,
the "unshakeable" or "unwavering race" of the Perfect Man, i.e., Seth.19
In Gnostic mythology, therefore, the err etymology was understood in
the factitive sense (as was the ruiv etymology in Philo). We shall return
later to these "planted" children of Seth.

Buch der Mandder [Quellen der Religionsgeschichte, 13; Gottingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, 1925], 127) translates only "Heifer." For an analysis of the motif of planting as it
appears in various Gnostic sources, see Rudolph, Die Mandder, 11, Der Kuh (FRLANT 57;
Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1961), 23, n. 1. The related metaphors of planting
and uprooting (for giving and taking life) are common stock in ancient literatures. A. Altmann, therefore, seems to be mistaken when he considers the use of the motif in Jewish
literature as a sign of Gnostic influence ("Gnostische Motive im rabbinischen Schrifttum,"
MGWJ83 [1939], 379-383).
'7E.g., Rudolph, Theogonie, 304, n. 4.
t8Gos. E,g. III, 60:15-18; see also CG

IV, 71:25-30. See Klijn, Seth, 37, and Pearson,

"Seth in Gnostic Literature," 488. J. Doresse (Les livres secrets des Gnostiques d'E,gypte, I
[Paris: Plon, 19581, 327-329 [see also the revised English trans., The Secret Books q/ the
Egyptian Gnostics (New York: Viking, 1960), including vol. II of the French ed.]) remarks
that Qumran, like Sodom and Gomorrah, lies on the western shore of the Dead Sea and
hastily concludes that Essenes-turned-Gnostics are speaking here about their original home.
However, it is much more probable that here is a dialectic interpretation of the biblical story
of Sodom and Gomorrah that does not refer to a particular Sit: int Leben of the Gnostic
community. See also Bohlig, "Christentum and Gnosis im Agypterevangelium ... ," in W.
Eltester, ed., Christentun and Gnosis (BZNW 37; Berlin, 1969), 17.

19Ap. John, 2:24-25 (with restoration from other versions), 25:23; 29:10; 31:31; Zost.
6:27. On the acr6Xevros yevea see Williams, Gnostic Concept q/' Stability. Williams insists

upon parallel metaphors in philosophical language. On pp. 190-191 he notes the striking
similarity between Philo's description of Moses's "stability" and that of the Gnostic Allogenes (i.e., Seth). See also his "Stability as a Soteriological Theme in Gnosticism," in Layton, ed., Rediscovery, II, 819-829.

76

THE GNOSTIC RACE

In Gnostic mythology, Seth was often considered to be the first son of

Adam. The complex traditions that developed about Adam do not directly
bear upon the topic of this investigation, and it is sufficient here to recall
that various Gnostic traditions showed a distinct tendency to identify
Adam-or rather his heavenly counterpart, the First Adam, the &vOpcuTroc

par excellence-with the supreme God. As H. M. Schenke has shown,

God came to be called "Man '1120 through the Gnostic exegesis of Gen
1:26: "to our image, according to our likeness." In a similar fashion, a

heavenly counterpart for Seth was developed in Gnostic mythology on the

basis of Gen 5:3, where Adam's son was born "according to his likeness,
to his image." Seth was the savior of mankind, since he was the one who
"recovered" the glory that had been Adam and Eve's before their fall,
which was caused by the demiurge. "And the glory in our hearts left us,

me and your mother Eve, along with the first knowledge that breathed
within us," said Adam to Seth (Apoc. Adam 64:24-27). Thus Adam
called his son "by the name of that man who is the seed of the great generation" (69:6-8); i.e., he gave him the name of the heavenly Seth, the
planter of the righteous seed. Seth then recovered from "the great
aeons" the glory that had left his parents. His mission was to preserve
this glory against the repeated attempts of the demiurge to steal it and,
ultimately, to reinstate mankind in this glory at the end of time, when the
demiurge and his followers would be subdued and destroyed. At that
time, Seth would reappear as a glorious savior.

In some christianized Gnostic trends, this parousia of Seth became

identified with the advent of Jesus, who was considered to be the earthly
manifestation of the heavenly Seth. This identification, which also
appears in a magic text,21 is particularly evident in Gos. Eg.22 The related
idea of the various appearances of the "true prophet" throughout history
was, of course, not specifically Gnostic. It was a cornerstone of Ebionite
theology, studied in detail by H.-J. Schoeps.23 More precisely, the

Elchasaites, who represented another branch of Jewish Christianity,

believed that it was Jesus himself who had appeared, in different incarnations, as Adam and the prophets.24 Elchasaite and other Jewish-Christian
baptist groups with gnosticizing tendencies may well have provided the
20Der Gait ''Mensch, " passim. See also Bohlig, "Der ame Gottes im Gnostizismus and
im Manichaismus," in H. von Stietencron, ed., Der Name Gotten usseldorf: Patmos, 1975),
131-155.
21A. Kropp, Ausgewahlte koptische Zaubertexte (Brussels: Ed. de la Fondation
e'gyptologique
Reine Elizabeth, 1931), 111, 231.
22Gos.
Eg. CG Ill, 64:1ff. and CG IV, 75:15ff.; CG III, 65:17ff. and CG IV, 77:13ff.
23See in particular his
Theologie unc/ Geschichte ties Judenchristentunts (Tubingen: Mohr,
1949).
241]ippolytus,

Elenchos 9.14.1 (252 Wendland); 10.29.2 (284 Wendland); Epiphanius, Pan.

53.1.8 (Sampseans; 11, 315-316 Hoil), cf. 30.3.1ff. (Ebionites). The correlate idea of a
metamorphosis of gods is widespread in Late Antiquity. See Zosimus, Commentary on
Omega, in A. J. Festugiere, La Revelation c/'Hernms Trismegiste, I (Etudes Bibliques; Paris:
Gabalda, 1943), 266, n. 6; cf. Chaldaean Oracles (56 Kroll) and Hippolytus, Elenchos 5.7.25
(84 Wendland). Festugiere points out that Evagrius fights this theory.

SETH AND THE CHILD

77

channel through which these ideas reached Gnostic circles. Celsus, for
one, clearly testified to the survival of such ideas among
those who because of his teaching of the name of Jesus have departed
from The Creator as an inferior being ... [and who] say that even
before him some have visited mankind from the Creator.25

This idea of Seth's avatars could well have been based on the LXX version
of Gen 4:25, where '5 !1179 ("has appointed for me") is translated EavE-

UT17OEI2 ... got ("has arisen for me"). "Seth" would therefore have
been understood as meaning "resurrection"; "Porro ille Seth interpretatur
resurrectio," in the words of Augustine.26 I have not found this etymology in any earlier author. But it appears to have been traditional, since
Augustine included it in a list of traditional etymologies of biblical names,
and since he was not familiar with the Greek Bible. Augustine, however,
integrated this tradition into his own theological framework. Unlike the
citizens of the earthly city, the Cainites,. who knew of only one means of
reproduction (copulatio), the members of the heavenly city (of which the
Sethites are a typos) "need regeneration as well, to escape the corruption
of generation."27
The Child

As the savior and first-born of Adam, Seth appears in many Gnostic texts
simply as "the [male] child." This is also the case in the Gnostic traditions inherited by the Manichaeans. As we have seen, al-Nadim reported
that Adam and Eve's son ("a handsome male with a comely visage") was
not named at his birth; indeed, until the lotus tree grew, he appeared only
as "the child."28
The child-as-savior was a common motif in the literature of
Antiquity-especially of Late Antiquity-as Eduard Norden has shown in
his Die Geburt des Kindes. This classic work, however, barely touches
upon the occurrences of the theme in Gnosticism.29 Probably the most
25Origen, Contra Celsunt V.54 (I quote Chadwick's translation, p. 304). For Quispel
(Gnosis als We/treligion, 8) the teaching of the "true prophet" is to be found in Apoc. Adam.
26City of God XV.17 (IV, 512 LCL; cf. 514).

271bid. XV. 16 (IV, 508-509 LCL). See Ii. Guttmann, "Die Kain and Abel Aggadot in
den Werken des Kirchenvaters Augustin," in A. Scheiber, ed., Semitic Studies in Memory of
lntmanuel Low (Pub!. Kohut Memorial Foundation; Budapest, 1947), 272-276, esp.
274-275. Augustine saw a clear reference to Jesus in Seth's name and personality; City of
God XV.18 (516ff. LCL). For later evidence of this etymology, see Klijn, Seth, 35, n. 8. Isidore of Seville expressly stated, "Seth quippe interpretatus resurrectio, qui est Christus" (PL
83, 228 A). The tradition was carried on as late as Cedrenus, who wrote (T-gAaivEC 6' i7B
o-Tacrnv (88 Bekker). For Hilarius of Poitiers, the meaning of Seth's name was jundantentunr tidei; see his Traite ties Mysteres (ed. and trans. J. P. Brisson; SC 19 bis; Paris:
Cerf, 1967), IX, 94-96.
28Flugel, Mani, 60. Flugel does not refer to this detail in his commentary.
29See also Kere'nyi's study on the divine child in C. G. Jung and K. Kere'nyi, Eirt%Cihrung in
das Wesen der Mythologie (Zurich: Rhein Verlag, 1941); see also F. Dornseiff, This A/phabet in

78

THE GNOSTIC RACE

famous instance of the salvific function of the child in Gnostic trends is

found in the Hymn of the Pearl, where the anonymous child, the Son of
the King, is the paradigmatic salvator salvandus. The child (or, more precisely, the beautiful little male child, rr AI Aoy) is presented in various
Gnostic contexts as the recipient of revelations.30 According to the Manichaean Kephalaia and Homilies, the child was the third appearance in the
series of emanations of Jesus.31

In Gnostic mythology, Seth was one of the clearest manifestations of

the savior-child.32 The peculiar logic of Gnostic thought enabled a concept, or a figure, to be duplicated many times on various ontological levels. It is not surprising, therefore, that in some texts, the child reached
higher and higher degrees in the "chain of being," even to the point of
losing almost all contact with his earthly counterpart, Seth, the son of
Adam. In at least one text, the Setheus, the relationship between the
heavenly Adam and the heavenly Seth is reversed, with Adamas said to be
Setheus's son.
In Gos. Eg., the incorruptible child named "Telmdel Telmachael Eli Eli
Machar Machar Seth," who was "the power who truly lives," is also

identified with "the Great Christ, who is from silence" (III, 59:16,-21).
He is also called "the thrice male child" (III, 49:26). The Great Seth, the
father of the immovable incorruptible race, was the son of the incorruptible Adamas (III, 51:5-9) and also of lesser rank than the incorruptible
child, from whom he received a gift (III, 56:13-17). At this higher level
of reality, there appeared another figure, Esephech, "the Child of the
Child," who was the "holder of glory"33 and the crown of the child's
Mystik and Magic (Leipzig: Teubner, 1925 2 ), 17-20, on "Kindheitsmystik." Cf. F. Cumont,

"La tin du monde selon les mages occidentaux," RHR 103 (1931), 73 and n. 31, for

description of the role of the 7raic 600c6 pos in divination. For further references about "the
child" in Jewish literature, see Josephus, Ant. 2.232, where the new-born Moses is called
7rais popc1 .E BEtos. The amphilology of arms-both "child" and "servant"-is also found
in its Hebrew counterpart 1p:. In Merkavah texts, Metatron is called the 01r; of God, i.e.,
his servant. See J. C. Greenfield's Prolegomenon to the reprint of H. Odeberg, 3 Enoch or
the Hebrew Book of Enoch (New York: Ktav, 1973), p. xxi. For the implications of this
amphilology in both Jewish and Gnostic texts, see my "Polymorphie divine et transformations dun mythologeme: I'Apocryphon de Jean et ses sources," VC 35 (1981), 412-434.
30See 1lenrichs' and Koenen's edition of the Cologne Mani Codex (= CMC), ZPE 19
(1975), 79, n. 41.

31 Hon,. 87:17; cf. Schmidt-Polotsky, "Ein Mind in Aegypten: Originalschriften des

Mani and seiner Schuler," .SPAW (1933), 74, n. 4. Also Keph. 35:28; 61:27; 92:7; MPs.
209:271.; cf. Andreas-Henning, Mir Man 111, 878-881, and Henning's remark there ( = W.

B. Henning, Selected Papers, I (Acta Iranica 14; Leiden: Brill, 19771, 33, n. 4). See also A.
Adam, Die Psalnten des Thomas uncl das Perlenliecl als Zeugnisse vorchrisilicher Gnosis (BZNW
24; Berlin, 1959), 43, n. 31, and Bohlig, "Christliche Wurzeln im Manichaismus," Mysteriun
unc/
218 and n. 1. The motif appears also in Persian traditions on Zarathustra and
in Hindu legends on Krishna; see G. Quispel, "The Birth of the Child, Some Gnostic and
Jewish Aspects," ErJb40 (1971), 285-308.
320n this notion, see B. Aland, "Erwahlungstheologie and Menschenklassenlehre: die
Theologie des Herakleon als Schlussel zum Verstandnis der christlicher Gnosis?" in M.
Krause, ed., Gnosis and Gnosticism (NIIS 8; Leiden: Brill, 1978), 148-181, esp. 178-181.
33See the Manichaean figure of the 0Eyymccerokoc, studied by F. Cumont, Recherches sur

SETH AND THE CHILD

79

glory (111, 53:25-54:3). This "Child of the Child" also appears in the
Pistis Sophia, where he is identified with the "twin savior," a figure probably related to Mani's conception of his own "spiritual twin."34 The Child
of the Child might have originally been, in some Gnostic trends, the son
of the heavenly Seth or else the eschatological appearance of the historical
Seth.

Douglas M. Parrot has shown that in Eugnostos, the third emanationthe savior-was none other than Seth. The entire triple-emanation pattern
of the Immortal Man, the Son of the Immortal Man, and the Son of the

Son of Man should be understood as an esoteric Gnostic exegesis of

anthropogony and salvation. In this exegesis, which was based on the
figures of Genesis (God, Adam, Eve, and Seth), God was the Immortal
Man, Adam the Son of the Immortal Man, Seth the Son of the Son of
Man, and Eve the female aspect of these androgynous figures, called
Sophia (or Pistis Sophia).35 In a paradoxical expression typical of Gnostic

style, the author of Steles Seth prayed to the "Fatherly God, Divine
Child" (123:6-7).36 Zostrianos, in turn, announced that he had seen "the
Perfect Child" (Zost. 2:9, 12:4-6). In A//ogenes 51:33-37, this "Perfect
Child" was related to the "triple male."

At least two Gnostic texts clearly identified the child (or "a little

child") with Jesus.37 However, since there is no evidence of an undisputably pre-Christian text in which the Gnostic o-wrjp was characterized as a
child, it is very difficult to know whether the widespread child image

helped promote the identification of Seth with Jesus, or whether, conversely, it was this identification which furthered the representation of
Seth as the perfect child.

This child also appears as the revealer in Paraph. Shenl, where his
name, Derdekeas, should be derived from the Aramaic N "1'11, a male
child.38 Although recent studies of this text have shown that it is different
from the Paraphrasis of Seth used by Hippolytus in his description of
Sethian theology,39 it seems that these two works are somehow related. It
is certainly very tempting to see in Derdekeas the perfect child, one of the
spiritual parallels of Seth (as in Gos. Eg.). In this! context of child imagery
in Gnosticism, it is significant that the Valentinian Excerpta ex Theodoto
le Manichi'isme, 1 (Brussels: Lamertin, 1908), 22ff. The numerous parallels between Gos. Lg.

and the Manichaean mythological system are particularly striking.

34Pistis Sophia 1. 86 (p. 125) ei passim. On the spiritual twin, see A. Henrichs and L.

Koenen, "Ein griechischen Mani Codex," ZPE 5 (1970), 161-189.

35Douglas
M. Parrot, "Evidence of Religious Syncretism in Gnostic Texts from Nag liammadi," in B. A. Pearson, ed., Religious Syncretism in Amicluitv.- Essays in Conversation with Geo
Widengren (Missoula: Scholars, 1975), 173-189, esp. 178-180.
36Similar paradoxical expressions (especially in
Thund.) have been studied by MacRae,

"Discourses of the Gnostic Revealer."

37Great Pow. 44:32-33; Apoc. Paul 18:6.

38Doresse would derive this name from

fetched (Secret Books, 147, n. 1). On

"to fall in droplets," which seems farsee Jastrow's dictionary, 321b.

39See for instance F. Wisse, "The Redeemer Figure in the Paraphrase of Seth," NorT 12
(1970), 130-140.

80

THE GNOSTIC RACE

explicitly mentioned the child (i.e., Jesus) who came from the pneumatic
nature of Seth. And since Seth was pneumatic, he was neither a shepherd
nor a farmer, but rather "bore fruit" in a child-like pneumatic beings.40
It should also be recalled that the figure of the perfect child (al-walad
al-tamni) was later developed in a remarkable way in Ismalili Gnosticism,
where he was considered to have been the first progeny of the heavenly
Adam. In the Ismalili texts published by R. Strothmann, the perfect
Child-who is not, however, expressly identified as Seth-appears at various ontological levels as the qa' ini, the Redeemer.41 H. Corbin, who has
analyzed the figure and the role of the ga'ini in Ismalilism,42 states that at
each level or rank, he was only in potentia in relation to the higher degree;
he was empowered to become qa' irn in actu only when he rose to the next
stage. At the highest stage, according to Corbin, he became the qa' ini al
giyaniat and reached "the lotus of the limit" (cf. Qur'an 53:14).
Although these passages from potential to actualization during the, spiritual ascent of the ga'ini remain somewhat obscure (at least in Corbin's
description), the spiritual ascent of the ga'irn might reflect a theme that
appears in certain Coptic Gnostic texts: the successive hidden advents of
the Child until his final epiphany.

40Evc. Theod. 54.3 (170 Sagnard).

41 Gnosis-Texie der Ismailiten; arabische Handschri%i Anibrosiana H75 (Abhandl. Akad.

Wissenschaften Gottingen, philol.-hist. Masse, 3 folge, 28; Gottingen: Vandenhoeck &

Ruprecht, 1943). On Ismacili Gnosis, see H. Halm, Kosniologie and Heilslelire c/er fruhen
/snracilva: cine Sire/ie zur is/aniischen Gnosis (Abhandl. fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes 44.1;
Wiesbaden: DMG-F. Steiner, 1978), esp. 119.

42"Epiphanie divine et naissance spirituelle dons la gnose lsmaelienne,"

18 (1950),
quoted here according to the English translation in J. Campbell, Man and Trans/ornialion
(Bollingen Series; New York: Pantheon, 1964), 69-160, esp. 109 and nn. 26, 94, 113.

CHAPTER FOUR

GNOSTIC SALVATION HISTORY

Scholars have long considered the Gnostic soteriological attitude to be

totally ahistorical and non-temporal. This view was best expressed by
H.-C. Puech in his famous study "La Gnose et le temps";' according to
him, Gnosticism (like classical Greek tradition and contrary to Judaism
and Christianity) denied that time and history had any positive value. We
now know how inaccurate this description is. The close relationship
between Gnosis and Jewish apocalypticism leaves no doubt as to the
importance of Heilsgeschichte for Gnostic consciousness. From this point
of view, the Apocalypse of Adam may be the most interesting of all the
newly discovered texts. Apoc. Adam presents us with a remarkable
description of the mythical Child in a beautiful and puzzling hymnic section (77:27-82:29), which I propose to call "The Hymn of the Child."
Some studies of Apoc. Adam have considered this hymn to be a discrete
lyrical unit, describing a hitherto unknown myth that had somehow been
interpolated into the prose sections of the text, which present a Gnostic
vision of Heilsgeschichte.2 While a source analysis of Apoc. Adam such as

that undertaken by C. W. Hedrick3 is indeed a legitimate approach, it

would probably be more fruitful once the total structure of the text is precisely understood. In the following pages I will thus analyze the place and
function of the "Hymn of the Child" in the work as a whole and examine
its relationship to the prose account.

'Conveniently reprinted in the collection of Puech's essays, En quete de la gnose,

I,

215-270.
2Bohlig, in the ediho princeps of Apoc. Adam, described the hymn as an "excursus"
(Koptische-gnostishce Apokalypsen aus Codex V von Nag Hammac/i [Halle-Wittenberg: Martin

Luther Universitat, 1963], 91-93, 109, note). He was followed in this by M. Krause in the
introduction to his own translation of Apoc. Adam (in W. Forster, ed., Gnosis [Engl. trans.;
Oxford: Clarendon, 1972], 14), as well as by C. Colpe, "Heidnische, judische and christliche
Uberlieferung in den Schriften aus Nag Hammadi IV," JAC 18 (1975), 164. The same attitude is implicit in P. Perkins, "Apocalypse of Adam: The Genre and Function of a Gnostic
Apocalypse," CBQ 39 (1977), 382-395. R. Kasser, for his part, asks whether we have here
"a l'origine ... un hymne semitique (ou iranien)" ("Bibliotheque Gnostique V, Apocalypse
d'Adam," RTP 17 [19671, 317).
3"The Apocalypse of Adam: a Literary and Source Analysis," SBL, 1972 Proceedings (ed.
L. C. McGaughy; Missoula: Scholars, 1972), 581 -590, summarizing results of his unpublished Ph.D dissertation, Claremont College, 1977.

82

THE GNOSTIC RACE

The Apocalypse of Adam

Apoc. Adam is presented as a revelation (a'7rotc61xvgt0 by Adam to his son

Seth about the future of mankind. As MacRae has pointed out, however,
the title of the document "is not especially apt," since it is an apocalypse
revealed by Seth.4 The work is actually a "testament" of Adam, for the
revelation took place at the time of his death.5 In fact, Seth is the only son
of Adam mentioned in the text: Abel is absent, and Cain, Eve's first son,
was begotten by the demiurge Sakla (66:25-28).6 The appearance of

human lust-the "sweet desire" felt by Adam for Eve7- is implicitly

presented as consequent to this intercourse of the demiurge with Eve
(67:2-4), while the shortening of human life and the appearance of

death, as well as the disappearance of Gnosis, are explicitly said to be due

to lust: "Therefore the days of our life became short" (67:10-11). This
statement should be compared to Gen 6:3, where God limited human life
to 120 years as a punishment for the sin of the women with the angels.8
The same biblical passage may be alluded to elsewhere in Apoc. Adanr:

"The shall live forever because they have not been corrupted by their
desire, along with the angels" (83:14-17).
Sakla, who was lower than his creatures Adam and Eve (64:16-17) is
called "god" (TTNOYTe = 6 Ococ), like "the eternal God." While this

lack of technical differentiation in the Gnostic terminology of Apoc. Adam

might provide an argument in favor of a relatively early stage of redaction
of the text, it is noteworthy that Marcion, too, called the demiurge
"god. "9

Adam revealed to his son the various attempts the demiurge' would
make to destroy the righteous seed of Seth. First, Sakla would send a

flood in order to obliterate, together with all flesh,

4"Seth in Gnostic Texts and Traditions,"

18.

5According to the masoretic text (Gen 5:3), Adam was 130 years old when Seth was
born. In LXX, Gen 5:3-4, Adam's age at Seth's birth was 230 and he lived for 700
years
more. This number 130 (which also occurs in Adam and Eve 23:2) probably lies behind Gos.
E,g. 111, 68:11-12: "The Great Seth wrote this book [i.e., Gos. Eg., the God-written, holy,
secret book] with letters in one hundred and thirty years." As far as I know, this is the only
other instance of 130 years in a Gnostic text. In the theolo ical substratum of Gos. Eg., the
writing of the book might have lasted 130 years until theerill. irth of the earthly Seth. Bohlig
and Wisse (The Gospel o/'ihe E, yptians [NHS 4; LeidBn:
19751, 31, and commentary, ad
loc.) give no explanation for the 130 years. The fact that Apoc. Adam uses the LXX account
while Gos. E,g. apparently depends on the masoretic chronology is one more argument
against the direct links between these two texts advocated by Doresse in his commentary to
Gos. E,g., Appendix 11, 370-376.

'Cain's name does not appear in the corrupt text.

7oyenieyMia eceoA6. See MPs. 70:26-28: "A Custom both sweet (zaN6) and
bitter is the intercourse (wvr Octa) of the flesh ((rap)." See also Thom. Cont. 140:20-25.
8Cf. Val. Exp. 38:21-37 (cited above, p. 33).
9lndeed, here lies the reason for Appelles's break with him, since the demiurgic figure
was an angelus inc/itus for Appelles; see Tertullian, De Carne Christi, VIII.2 (ed. and trans.
J.
P. Mahe', SC 216, 97-99).

GNOSTIC SALVATION HISTORY

83

the seed of the men to whom passed the life of the knowledge, that
came from me and Eve, your mother. For they were strangers to
him. (69:11-18)10

This passage refers to the offspring of Seth, a figure named "by the name
of that man who is the seed of the great generation" (65:7-8), and who

remained a stranger to the powers of the demiurge unlike his parents

(65:18-19). Seth was thus described as the forefather of the Gnostics.
These Gnostics would be saved from the flood by "great angels" who
"would come on high clouds" in order to bring them "into the place
where the spirit of life dwells" (69:23-24), i.e., to their proper land,
where the Great Seth "will build for them a holy place" (72:4-6). It is
noteworthy that since Noah was evil, the ark could in no way be a vessel
of salvation for the Gnostics.
To the Gnostics are opposed Noah, his sons, and their wives (see Gen

6:18), who would be protected from the flood by Sakla (70:6-25). A

difficulty in the interpretation of the whole passage arises from the fact
that Adam mentioned that Sakla would "give power to his sons and their
wives by means of the ark" (70:10-11). According to a literal understanding, the first possessive article refers to the demiurge. Since Cain
was Sakla's son, it would follow that the author of Apoc. Adam
transformed Noah (A Sethite in the Bible) into a Cainite. This interpretation, however, generates other problems in the understanding of the text,
problems which are noted below. One could just as legitimately speculate
that the Nag Hammadi papyrus suffers here from a haplography, and that
the original text paraphrased the Bible (Gen 7:7) and read: "and he will
give power to Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives."11 As the price of
their salvation, the demiurge made them swear not to mingle with the

Gnostics, who opposed him ("and no seed will come from you of the
men who will not stand in my presence in another glory" [71:4-81). In
exchange, the demiurge undertook to establish them as rulers of the earth
"in a kingly fashion." Noah and his sons accepted the alliance with the
demiurge, and the earth was divided between Japheth, Ham, and Shem
10Contra MacRae ("Seth in Gnostic Texts and Traditions," 22), a description of the flood
as an "unsuccessful attempt of opposing powers to eliminate the race of Seth" is not typical
of all the Nag Hammadi versions of the story; see Ap. John 28:35f1., Great Pow. 38:1711. On
the flood in Apoc. Adam, see also A. F. J. Klijn, "An Analysis of the Use of the Story of the
Flood in the Apoc. Adam," in van den Broek and Vermaseren, eds., Studies in Gnosticism,
218-226. More generally, see J. P. Lewis, A Study q/'the Interpretation q/'Noah and the Flood
in,Jewisl: and Christian Literature (Leiden: Brill, 1968), who shows the identification Noah =
Deucalion (which is found in Apoc. Adam) to stem from Hellenistic Jewish sources. The
same identification is in Ps.-Clem. Hon:. 11.16.4 (41 Rehm).

"The same suggestion is made by MacRae in his edition (in D. M. Parrott, ed., Nag
Hammadi Codices V, 2- 5 and VI [NHS 1l; Leiden: Brill, 1979]); see his note on 70:10.
Bohlig's reconstruction of the corrupt line 10 also includes a haplography, "Und er wird
schonen Noah and seine Sohne," but his reading [yNa]-[co MN Neq(9HPe, "[he will]
spare and his sons," is difficult. MacRae's reading is better: [qNa] t [610M NNeyc9HPe,
"[he will] give power to his sons"; see 70:20-23, where the biblical verse is paraphrased in
extenso.

84

THE GNOSTIC RACE

(72:15-17). This remarkably sophisticated attitude of the demiurge is not

to be found in the earliest strata of Gnosticism. As noted above, in the
earliest stages of Gnostic thought, it was the Gnostics who sought to

prevent mixture with the evil seed, while the latter tried to corrupt the
former by intermingling with them.

In chapter II, we saw how the figure of Seth as a Righteous One was
related, in some Gnostic contexts, to that of Noah. We have also shown
how some of Seth's attributes in the apocryphal legends had in the earliest
Jewish traditions belonged to Noah (e.g., the "etymology" cony/brier for
his name and the identity of his wife Naamah). In Gnosticism these
legends were usually associated solely with Seth because of the central role
which Adam's son played in Gnostic mythology. Nevertheless, in various
Gnostic contexts Noah remained a typical Sethite. In Epiphanius's testimony about the Archontics, for instance, Noah came from the offspring
of Seth and was persecuted by the demiurge and his archons until Pronoia
helped him escape their evil schemes by means of the ark.12 In Irenaeus,
Ac/v. Haer. 1.30.10 (1, 237 Harvey), Noah was saved by Prunikos, while in
Ap. John 29:1 - 11, Noah, informed by "the greatness of the light of Pro-

noia," hid in "a place," i.e., in a "luminous cloud," with "many people
from the immovable race." According to Great Pow. 38:21 -39:13, he and
his sons were moved "from the aeon" into "the permanent places." The
text recalls that before escaping the flood, Noah had preached piety for
120 years, but no one listened to him.13 Hyp. Arch. 92:8-14 presents a
different attitude to Noah's escape. On the one hand, he was saved by the
archon of the forces (i.e., Sabaoth, Yaldabaoth's repentant son). But on

the other hand, he did not really belong to the pure seed and refused to
let Orea into the ark.14 The ambivalent attitude of Hyp. Arch. towards
Noah seems to be intermediate between the earlier view of Noah as a
"faithful Sethite" and his complete rejection in the trends represented by
Apoc. Ac/am. It is only in later Gnostic trends, as a result of a greater
estrangement of the Gnostics from the biblical text and its traditional
(Jewish and Christian) interpretations, that Noah was transformed into
one of the most devoted servants of the evil demiurge.
This reasoning is, of course, typological, since texts with a positive view
of Noah could also be relatively late (e.g., Epiphanius's sources and Great
Pow.). The same assumption can be applied, on logical grounds, to other

figures: "Cainite" theology, for instance, in which Cain was the first
righteous one stemming from the Upper World (see Gen 4:1b),
represents a typologically later stage in the evolution of the Gnostic myth.
By making Noah the arch-servant of the demiurge, Apoc. Adam thus probably reacted against a previous Gnostic stand.
12Epiphanius, Pan. 39.3.1 (Il, 74 Holl). In the next lines (sections 2 and 3), Epiphanius
reported how the angels, bringing evil into the ark, foiled the Mother's plan.
t3This tradition, obviously based upon Gen 6:3, is indeed common not only in ancient
Christian literature, including the "Gospel of Seth" (see Preuschen, "Adamschriften," 39),
but also in rabbinic literature; see the texts mentioned by Ginzberg, Legends, V, 174, n. 19.
14See Layton's remarks in his commentary, p. 62, n. 99.

GNOSTIC SALVATION HISTORY

85

After the flood, Noah, in his obedience to the demiurge, encouraged

his sons to remain fearful slaves of Sakla all their lives. Indeed, the drastic inversion of the biblical text was carried even further. While Shem's
name does not appear again in the text, there is a probable reference to
him: "For the seed of Noah through his son has done all [Sakla's] will"
(74:17-18). In this literally "antisemitic" text, it is Shem, the Israelites'
forefather, who was Noah's real heir and therefore altogether evil.

On the other hand, "the seed of Ham and Japheth will form twelve
kingdoms" (73:25-27). The text is here extremely difficult, and some
ambiguity remains. Like the offspring of Shem, the offspring of Ham and
Japheth were also evil; it is probably to them that 74:3-7 refers: "they
will go to Sakla their God
accusing the great men who are in their
glory." Yet they were not as completely doomed as the Shemites, since
the Gnostics stemmed from them. The "great men" should be identified
with the 400,000 men from the seed of Ham and Japheth who "will enter
another land and sojourn with those men who came forth from the great
eternal knowledge" (73:13-20). Striking parallels to these 400,000 men
occur in Manichaean literature, not only in Honi., as BOhlig noted,15 but
also in fragments of Mani's Book of Giants, where the 400,000 Righteous
Ones were killed by fire, naphtha, and brimstone.16 The 400,000 men of
Apoc. Adani should also be identified with those men whom the illuminator "will bring into their proper land" (probably a heavenly one, since it
.

did not belong to the "dead earth"), and who "will be called by that
name" (i.e., probably Seth's). It is said that "they have been received
into another aeon from which they had come forth," and that "they have
overturned all the glory of [Sakla's] power and the dominion of [his]
hand." Ham and Japheth, like their father Noah, belonged to the
offspring of Seth. Yet, they accepted their father's pact with Sakla and
were therefore sinful Sethites. On the other hand, the 400,000, who dissociated themselves from the seed of Ham and Japheth, were the sons of
Pin Hont. 68:18, the 400,000 righteous ones are related to Enoch. See Bohlig's edition of
Apoc. Adapt, ad loc. MacRae calls this parallel "obscure" ("The Coptic Gnostic Apocalypse
of Adam," Heythrop Journal6 119651, 29 and n. 1), while he himself mentions the fact that
400,000 is the number of the tribe of Judah in Josephus's version of the Davidic census
(Ant. 7.13.1).

16Fragment i from the Kawan, in Henning, "The Book of the Giants," BSOAS (1943),
58, trans. 62. See also the Sogdian fragment G, ibid., 68-69 (the article is reprinted in
Henning's Selected Papers, 11, 115-137). The idea that the number of the perfect ones
should also be perfect appears elsewhere in Gnostic literature. Pistis Sophia mentions the rEkctoc kpc81,tbs, which is a prerequisite for the final salvation (50, p. 89; trans. 57). Multiples
of 4 were very widely considered as perfect in Antiquity (e.g., already Judg 5:8). See van
Unnik, "The 'Wise Fire' in Gnostic Eschatological Vision," in P. Granfield and J. A. Jungmann, eds., Kyriakon: Festschrift Johannes Quasten (Munster, 1970), 1, 277-288. For a long
list of parallels (mainly from alchemical literature) about the magic virtues of the number
40, see Tardieu, Trois Mythes, 125, n. 266. See also Pesiq. Rub. Kah. 15.7 (257 Mandelbaum). Last but not least, 400,000 aeons occur in Ismacili literature; R. Strothmann, Gnosis
Texte der tsmailiten, 12 (German summary, p. 22). In his commentary to Gos. Eg. (p. 374),

Doresse has proposed seeing the 400 angels mentioned in

corresponding to the 400,000 righteous ones of Apoc. Adapt.

Gos. Eg.

III, 62:14-15 as

THE GNOSTIC RACE

86

Seth who remained pure, i.e., the Gnostics (see 76:8 -15). The suggestion made earlier of an omission in 70:10 can now be justified on other
grounds. Had Noah and his sons belonged to the seed of Sakla (i.e., had
they been "Cainites"), the 400,000 would have to be understood as converts to Gnosticism. Such a possibility is excluded by the rigidly racial
theology of Apoc. Adapt

Three times the text insists upon the fact that in their proper land, the
Gnostics would remain pure: "No foul deed will dwell in their heart(s)"

(72:12-13), they will be protected "from every evil thing and every
unclean desire" (73:23-24), they are "the great men .
who have not
.

been defiled, or will be defiled by any desire (E7n6uia)" (75:1-4). In

each case, it is from lust that the Gnostics would be protected. Indeed,
lust is directly related to the demiurge, his works, and his powers. It is
not clear, however, whether this defilement referred to a specific act,
although it is possible that the text reflected the exegesis of Gen 6:1-4
according to which the "Sons of God" were,
(dealt with in chap. VI
Sethites seduced by the charms of Cainite women.
One question remains: Who were "those men who came forth from the
great eternal knowledge" (73:18-20) whom the Gnostics joined, and who
protect the Gnostics by "the shadow of their power" (73:21)? According

to the similarity already detected between 72:1-14 and 73:13-24, they

should be identified with the "angels of the great light" (72:10-11). 1
therefore propose to identify them with the seed of the heavenly Seth.

Just as Seth, son of Adam, had a heavenly counterpart, so did his

offspring.17 Indeed, our text distinguishes the Great Seth from Adam's
son and calls him "that man who is the seed of the great race" (65:5-9).
Yet some of the exegetical difficulties encountered by the modern reader
of Apoc. Adapt probably stem from the theological problems of the author
himself; as a result, not all ambiguities can be solved by a logical analysis
of the text. The overall inversion of the biblical account could not avoid
raising some crucial problems. Concerning Noah's genealogy, if he was
evil, how could he be a Sethite? Cainite theology, of course, solved this
problem very neatly by transforming all Sethites into servants of the evil
demiurge. Indeed Noah's problematic status may have played a role in
the emergence of "Cainite" conceptions. For developed "Sethian" theol-

ogy, however, Noah could only be considered a sinful Sethite, since he

obeyed the demiurge's orders and mingled withlthe Cainites, betraying the
laws of purity required by his lineage. Once the logical necessity of the
theologoumenon of sinful Sethites was established, the Gnostics might
have found it already in existence (although not applied to Noah!), in
some trends of Jewish exegesis.
In any case, Apoc. Adam describes the opposition between the pure and

the evil seed as radical: it is over a kingdom of death that Sakla ruled.
Under his sway, men learn about "dead things" (65:14-16). Actually,
'7Ct. in the mythological system of Ap. John, Daveithai, the third Light, or Aeon, in
which the Sons of Seth are placed (CG 11, 9:14-16).

GNOSTIC SALVATION HISTORY

87

the whole creation is under the authority of death; the earth itself is
"dead" (76:16-20). The Gnostics, on the other hand, "work in the
imperishable seed" (76:7), and "their fruit does not wither" (85:1). Life,

therefore, belongs to them-and only to them. It is eternal, like their

knowledge (65:10; 69:14-15). The Gnostics are, in a word, strangers to
the demiurge and to his powers; they belong to the holy angels in the
aeons (65:18 -19; 69:17 -18; 76:5 -6). This alienation from the world and
its rules, a major theme in Gnostic symbolic language, has been
thoroughly analyzed by Jonas and Puech.'8 The Gnostics kept themselves
apart. In contradistinction to the kingdoms of the evil seed, all ruled by

Sakla, the Gnostics saw themselves as a "kingless race," ruled by no

one.'9 The theology of Apoc. Adam is thus organized around a series of
absolute contrasts:20

evil seed

pure seed (of the Great Seth)

earth
death
darkness
defilement
sleep

(foreign) air, aeons

(eternal) life, imperishability
(great) light, glory
purity
awakening

slavery
ignorance

freedom
knowledge

After the flood, Sakla attempted once more to kill the pure Gnostics, in
what is clearly an inverted interpretation of the catastrophe which befell

Sodom and Gomorrah: "Then fire and sulphur and asphalt will be cast
upon those men" (75:9-11). But the Gnostics escaped his wicked
schemes again: "great clouds of light" descended from the aeons, hiding
the Gnostics from the evil powers and thus protecting them from death.
Three heavenly figures, Abrasax, Sablo, and Gamaliel, who also appear
elsewhere in Gnostic literature,21 then descended and brought the Gnostics "out of the fire" (75:14-28).
On the third occasion in which the Gnostics were saved, it was not
from a catastrophe sent by the demiurge that they escaped, but from "the
day of death," the final destruction of the earth at the end of time. "The
I8ionas, The Gnostic Religion, 49-51; Puech, En quite de la ,nose, 1, 207-213.
19We owe to F. T. Fallon a detailed study of this striking metaphor in Gnostic language,
"The Gnostics: the Undominated Race," NovT 2l (1978), 271 -288.

201'here is a similar opposition, in Setheus 19 (260-261 Schmidt-MacUermot) between the

lands (xcup(r) of the left and of the right, the one being the place of' death, darkness, and
toil, and the other the place of life, light and, rest. These two lands are separated by veils
and Watchers.
21See the texts referred to by MacRae, p.
75:22-23).

174, in

his edition of Apoc. Adam (on

THE GNOSTIC RACE

88

illuminator of knowledge," who was not mentioned previously, was said

to "pass by in great glory" for the third time "in order to leave (something) of the seed of Noah and the sons of Ham and Japheth-to leave for
himself fruit-bearing trees" (76:8-15). The illuminator was indeed the
Great Seth, as a parallel passage reveals:
He [the Great Seth] passed through the three parousias which I mentioned before: the flood, and the conflagration, and the judgement of
the archons and the powers and the authorities. (Gos. Eg. III, 63:4-8)

The third coming was thus the final one; it brought the Gnostics everlasting salvation by destroying the kingdom of Sakla.
Far from being a pattern peculiar to Apoc. Adam, this scheme of the

three comings of the savior is a major theologoumenon of Gnostic

Heilsgeschichte, as confirmed by its occurrence in various contexts. More-

over, the Manichaean figure of the tertius legatus probably stood in a

genetic relation to the third and final parousia in the soteriological
process.22 The three advents of Pronoia are described in Ap. John. On her
third coming, she "filled [her] face with the light of the completion of
[the archon's] aeon" (31:1-2).23
It is noteworthy that this ultimate coming of the savior figure is
identified in some christianized texts with Christ's incarnation. Such is

the case, for instance, in Trim. Prot. 47:13 -15, where the Protennoia says:
"The third time I revealed myself to them in their tents, being Logos:"24
In Treat. Seth, similarly (the "Great Seth" appears only in the title), the
savior figure is Christ. This text, which has a marked docetic tendency,
describes the savior's attempts to rescue mankind and the foiled plans of
the evil powers to persecute him, like the Phoster in Apoc. Adam.25 About

his third coming (which is Christ's incarnation, since it ended in the

crucifixion), the savior said: "It was my going to the revealed height,
which the world did not accept, my third baptism in a revealed image. "26
The Hymn of the Child

The prose account of history and of the tribulations of the sons of Seth,
i.e., of the Gnostics, is followed by a moving hymn. Written in a strange
language replete with symbolism, this hymn was by no means arbitrarily
inserted into the text, as has sometimes been argued, but rather is parallel
,22(i.
Stroumsa, "Aspects de I'eschatologie manicheenne," RHR'198
07
(1981), 63-81. On
the 'ligure of the rerrius legarus see Polotsky, "Manichaeismus, PWSup, V1, 254-255
= C'nllecied Papers [Jerusalem: Magnes, 1971], 705-706).
23See
the entire passage, Ap. John 30:16-31:25. Cf. Setheus
49:31-50:4, which speaks
about "one who was brought forth (rreNTaY .arroc) three times."
24As Y. Janssens points out, "in their tents"
((TKf1'71) might reflect John 1:14:
ev i Atl% See Janssens, ed. and trans., La Pr6tennoia Trimorphe (BCNH, Textes 4; Quebec:
Laval, 1978), 78.
25 Treat. Seth 52:29 - 30; 54:32 - 55:2.

26 Treat. Seth 58:13 -16.

GNOSTIC SALVATION HISTORY

89

to the historical account in the overall structure of Apoc. Adam. This is

the key to solving some of its mystery and to understanding the drama of
the Endzeit. Actually the hymn is the response of the defeated powers to
Adam's description of Heilsgeschichte. Indeed, it is put into their mouths,
a fact which explains its mythological, i.e., ahistorical, language. The
powers of Fate can speak no other language, since history is understood
meaningfully only by those who know that it has a goal beyond the persecutions which they suffer and that it ends in salvation. Only the Gnostics, who believed in the final parousia of the Great Seth, the illuminator
of Gnosis, could speak a historical language. At the end of time, however, the powers would be so confused or disturbed (77:5)27 that they
would be unable to understand how the Gnostics managed to suddenly
come to light and subdue them, or how they were able to escape from
"this kingdom" (77:25) and reach safety in their land of light.
In the hymn the powers try, one after the other, to answer their own
question: "Where did it come from?" (77:22-23).28 This question was
interpreted by the narrator: "Where did the words of deception, which all
the powers have failed to discover, come from?" (77:24-27). The
powers, "corrupted by their desire (E7rnOvia) along with the angels"
(63:15-17; a reference to the Fallen Angels), belong to Sakla, the lustful
demiurge. They are therefore blind to truth, and the hymn reflects their
defeat; they are unable to perceive that their own kingdom was coming to
an end through the final advent of the savior. Their choir was composed
of thirteen spokesmen, who must be seen as representing the twelve kingdoms of the seed of Ham and Japheth plus "the kingdom of another people" into which the sons of Ham and Japheth had entered, as mentioned
in the historical account (73:25-29). In this mythological account, thirteen different versions of the final coming of the illuminator are given.
All are incorrect, of course, since the powers are "in error" (77:21-22).
In Adam's account, on the other hand, the illuminator appeared three
times in history: once to save the Gnostics from the flood, once to rescue
them from the conflagration, and finally to separate the righteous ones
from the doomed at the end of time.
In the hymn, each spokesman presents his own conception of the
savior's advent, how each kingdom perceives the birth of a child and his
upbringing until he received "glory and power," and how the child thus
came "to the water" (or "upon the water"). The sentence, repeated in
each account, remains ambiguous. It may well refer to baptism, but could
also be an image for "coming into the world" (both senses are attested
27For this confusion of the powers (or the archons) see e.g., Pistis Sophia 1.27
Schmidt-MacDermot).

(38

28acc9wne eB0A. The feminine pronoun might refer to the "error" (arAavrl) in which
they had been using "the Name" (according to the author; 77:22-23). Only in true baptism
does the savior reveal his name; Melch. 16:12-16. On the Plane, see the Manichaean Honr.
11, passim; cf. my "Aspects de 1'eschatologie manicheenne," 170. On references to the
Divine Name in Gnostic literature and its Jewish overtones, see J. D. Dubois, "Le contexte
juda+que du 'Nom' dans t'Evangile de Ve'rite," RTP3 (1979), 198-216.

90

THE GNOSTIC RACE

for similar sentences in other Nag Hammadi texts).29 Now according to

the various descriptions, the child was conceived either unnaturally or illicitly. Conception is attributed to a prophet, a god, a virgin womb,30 a virgin raped by Solomon "and his army of demons," incestuous relations
between a father and daughter, parthenogenesis (human or divine), a
"drop" from heaven, the sun and the moon,31 or even a cloud. Nor was
the child raised in his own natural milieu, but rather in various hidden or
secret places: on a mountain, in the desert,32 in an abyss or a cave, on a
rock or above a cloud. And his caretaker was a spirit, a bird, angels, dragons, or his own mother in the desert. Most of the descriptions thus
seem to suggest that the child's birth was mysterious or illegitimate
(resulting from a sexual sin) and/or that during his secret upbringing he
received "glory and power"33 before coming "to the water." In fact, it
could even be said that the first twelve spokesmen enumerated the various
ways of begetting, ways which they know through the lust imparted to
them by their god Sakla (74:3-4). The description of the child given by
the thirteenth kingdom is somewhat different. The speaker does not actually describe the child's birth but says cryptically, "Every birth of their
archon is a word (k6yoc) and this word (Xoyoc) received a mandate here"
(82:12-15).
The entire hymn, indeed all of Apoc. Adam, is pervaded by a puzzling
ambiguity; while the conditions of the child's birth and upbringing are
variously described as morally blemished, the child himself appears as a
positive figure.34 Indeed there is little doubt concerning his identity: he is
29The sentence reads: ayw N fine aqe 11 e.XMrTI OOY. On the ambiguity of ezcrv-,
see Bohlig, "Judisches and iranisches," 157. MacRae, for whom the expression is a probable reference to coming to the world, cites Treat. Seth 50:16-18, Paraph. S/,enr 32:5-12
(with this meaning), and Zosr. 18:2-3 (possible reference to baptism); see his note to A.7oc.
Adanr 78:5, pp. 178-179 of his edition. One might add that in other contexts, water is the
locus classicas of theophany: God's image is reflected on water. See for instance, Ap.' John
14:33-34; Poin:anc/res 14 (Ch/ l; 11 Nock-Festugiere). See also the Quqite tradition,

reported by Theodore ben Khonai, and analyzed by H. J. W. Drijvers, "Quq and the
Quqites: an Unknown Sect in Edessa in the Second Century A.D.," Nunren 14 (1967),
104-129, esp. 113. For the same theme in the oldest Merkavah text, the Visions of Ezechiel,
see 1. Gruenwald, Apocalyptic and Merkavah Mysticism (AGJU 14; Leiden-Cologne: Brill,

1980), 134-141, esp. 135.

30See the Elkasaite teaching according to which Christ was already born from a virgin in
his previous avatars; Hippolytus, Elenchos 9.14.1 (116 Klijn-Reinink).
31To which the "two illuminators" (0W0-npcc) of the twelfth kingdom (82:4-7) probably
refer.
320n the desert motif
as it appears in Revelation 12 and its/background in Near Eastern

mythologies, see Adela Yarbro-Collins, The Combat Myth irr/re Book of Revelation (Missoula:
Scholars, 1976), 120-122. Yarbro-Colfins cites Pesiq R. 49b, where the Messiah, like
Moses, will retire to the desert (of Judah). Pesigta here presents
an Exodus typology combined with the theme of the temporarily hidden Messiah. For phenomenological parallels to
the secret raising of the child, see D. B. Redford, "The literary motif of the exposed child,"
Nunren 14 (1967), 209-228.
33Possible
allusion to Pss 29:1, 96:7.
34For
a detailed analysis of the ambiguity of purity and impurity in Apoc. Adanr, see L.
Schottroff, "Animae naturaliter salvandae," in W. Eltester, ed.,
Christentunr and Gnosis

GNOSTIC SALVATION HISTORY

91

the illuminator, the Phoster, the figure identified in the closely related text
of Gos. Ek. with the Great Seth. The reason for this ambiguity is inherent
in the setting of the hymn. The only way in which the kingdoms of darkness (or the angels who ruled over these kingdoms) could describe the
coming of the savior-child was in their own language of lustful begettings
and carnal births. They therefore were unable to see the real savior,
whose origin owed nothing to such ways: "[Out of] a foreign air, [from a]
great aeon, [the great] illuminator came forth" (82:25-28; see 65:6-9).
It was not only because of their innate blindness that the kingdoms' rulers
could not recognize the savior-child when he appeared. He hid himself

deliberately;35 secrecy was part of the nature of his "rescue trips" to

earth. He had to remain hidden when appearing among the powers test he
himself become their prey and his seed fall into their clutches.
Similar descriptions of the hidden savior are found in other Gnostic
texts. In Pistis Sophia, it was Jesus's mission to save the repentant Sophia
and bring her back to her proper place, the thirteenth aeon from which
she had fallen. In order to accomplish this task, the powers from on high
gave him a garment (Ev8vp.a) to prevent him from being recognized by
the archons of the sphere and of the aeons.36 (He is also said to have
appeared like Gabriel in order not to be identified.) All the powers thus
remained ignorant of Jesus, since the glory of his light was hidden in him.

Only at the end of time would he wear his "two garments" (the
difference between them is not quite clear, but presumably one is his
"garment of light,"37 while the other is connected with his twin) and
reveal himself in all his brightness, i.e., in the brightness of "the first

mystery."38 At last, when the time came, Jesus wore the garment of light
and ascended through the aeons, while all the archons, finally discovering
him, were "greatly troubled" upon seeing his "great light," his "shining
glory."39 Here, therefore, Jesus, as opposed to the hero of the Hymn of

the Pearl, never forgets his duty and does not appear as a salvator salvandus.

The theme of the savior hiding in the world disguised in garments which
preserve his anonymity also appears in other Gnostic texts. At the end of
Ap. John, Pronoia appeared three times in "the realm of darkness" with
the intention of shaking "the foundations of Chaos." She changed
(BZNW 37; Berlin: Topelmann, 1969), 75-79.
35For Appelles, similarly, Jesus "lived his earthly life concealed from the cosmic powers"
(Hippolytus, Elenchos 6.38).

361.7 (10 Schmidt-MacDermot). The theme of the garments put upon the savior figure
also appears in Justin's Baruch, where Elohim clothes Herakles, who accomplishes twelve
labors (Hippolytus, Elenclros 5.26-28; 131 Wendland).
370n "garments of light" in Gnostic symbolism, see Puech,
118-122.
38Pisiis Soplricr 1.10 (16-20 Schmidt-MacDermot).

39 /hid., 1.1 1 (20-22 Schmidt-MacDermot).

En qucie de la gnose, 11,

92

THE GNOSTIC RACE

herself into her "seed," i.e., "the light which exists in the light, the
remembrance of Pronoia." The first time she hid; the second time she

did not accomplish her mission "lest [the foundations of Chaos] be destroyed before the time." Only the third time was presented as an epiphany, in which she revealed herself in her light (30:16-31:25).
In Trim. Prof. the savior-revealer is portrayed as the Light, the Voice,
and the Word, who was hidden "in ineffable silence" (46:5, 11-13). The
text describes his third appearance in these terms (47:16-19): "And I
wore everyone's garments and I hid myself within them, and they did not
know the one who empowers me."40 Or, even more explicitly (49:7-22),
The [archons] thought [that I] was their Christ.... In that place I
clothed myself [as] the son of the archigenitor, and I was like him
until the end of his regime, which is the ignorance of chaos. And
among the angels I revealed myself in their likeness, and among the
powers as if I were one of them, but among the sons of men, as if I

were a son of man, even though I am Father of everyone.

hid

myself' within them all until I revealed myself among my members,

which are mine.

In the same way, the Gnostic, imitating his savior, would "strip off the
garments of ignorance and put on a shining light," i.e., Jesus (49:30-32;
50:12-13). In Gos. Eg. Jesus is presented as the luminous garment of the
savior, the Great Seth, "the incorruptible, Logos-begotten one, even
Jesus the living one, even he whom the Great Seth has put on."41
In Al/agenes, a work much influenced by Neoplatonism but which bears

no trace of christianization, the "guardian," a heavenly figure sent to

enlighten potential Gnostics, is said to be hidden.42 Here, too, the Gnostic, like his savior, would be stripped of the garment of anonymity, and
would be taken up to the holy place, which remained secret to the world
(58:26-33).
Other texts give various epithets to the savior's attire of light, and
describe how he would wear his "unequalled" or "ineffable" garment
(Paraph. Shenl 39:1 -2). In Setheus, the perfect Gnostics are presented as
the ones who, by imitating "the only begotten one hidden in Setheus" are
"the hidden ones," i.e., "those who truly are."43 The dialectic of the

savior's hiding and revelation

is

well emphasized in the Manichaean

Mech. 1:11. The vestment of the savior is probably referred to in the name
C'he/kea, which is mentioned (under various forms) in Paraph. Sheen as one of the names of
40See

the savior in his earthly appearances. As M. Schwartz has pointed out, the name is probably

a transformation of the Hebrew hall>q, Jewish Aramaic haluga (garment). See the Appendix
to Wuellner, Jewish Gnostic Nag Hamnrac/i Texts, 25-27. The same word appears later in
Jewish mystical speculation; G. Scholem, "The Paradisic Garb of Souls and the Origin of the
Concept of Haluka de-Rabbanan," Tarbiz 24 (1954-55), 290-306 (Hebrew).
41Gos. L). 111,63:25-64:3; see 60:2-8.
42A1/ogenes 45:3 et passim; see Setheus 8 (239 Schmidt-MacDermot), Gamaliel, Strempsuchos and Agramas are also called "guardians" ((Avxaf).

43.5elheus 7 (235 and 237 Schmidt-MacDermot).

GNOSTIC SALVATION HISTORY

93

Kephalaia, where the three vestments which the Living Spirit wore in
order to reveal himself to the archons are said to have been hidden in the
body of all the archons.44

Thus the powers in Apoc. Adam 77:18-27 did not see the illuminator
until he appeared for the third time and overruled them, and why even
then they were unable to understand how he arose and how their kingdom
came to an end. (Similarly, in Pistis Sophia 1.57 the tyrants of the twelve
aeons fought against Jesus in his garment of light, desperately seeking to
prolong their rule.) Troubled and blinded by the Phoster's appearance in
garments of light, the powers could not ask the right question and they

"used the name in error." They did not know the real name of the
savior, which was hidden from them; it was pronounced only during holy
baptism among the Gnostics, the seed of Seth.45
Because the child came to save the world from his heavenly abode, his
birth is described in mythological language by the various kingdoms in
ways which accounted for the link between heaven and earth. Some of
these ways are already familiar. The rape of a virgin by Solomon and his
armies, unable to catch the virgin "they originally sought"46 (fourth kingdom), is reminiscent of Sammael's rape of the earthly Eve (instead of the
desired heavenly one) in Hyp. Arch. 89:17-28.47 The drop fallen from
heaven (seventh kingdom) and the god who loved a cloud of desire (tenth
kingdom) call to mind the drop of semen of the archons at the origin of
the anthropogonical process in the Manichaean myth told by Theodore bar
Khonai. This drop should also be connected with the light fallen into the
sea in Orig. World 109, a text which also offers an interesting parallel to
the description of the sixth kingdom, in which the birth of the child was

linked to "the desire of the flowers." Yet in Orig. World 111:8-28 the
scene is somewhat different. The first Psyche (Soul) generated the first
rose, and then the virgin daughters of Pronoia generated other "beautiful,
fragrant flowers" in a parthenogenesis inspired by their love of Eros. As
to the Muse who desired herself in order to become androgynous (ninth
kingdom), her behavior recalls the sin of Sophia, who tried to generate an
offspring without her mate.

44Keph. XLII, 107:16-18. The three vestments are made of wind, fire, and water respecLively.

The Living Spirit took them off in front of the righteous ones (Keph. XXX,

83:27-28). Mani was the last avatar of the Living Spirit; see CMC 86:1 -9.
45Apoc.

Adam 77:18-27; 83:4-6. See Me/ch. 16:12-16: "1 shall pronounce my name as

receive baptism [now] (and) for ever among the living and holy [names], and in the
[waters], Amen." The link between baptism (and esoteric practices in general) and the
revealing of the Name also occurs in other contexts, e.g., Exceipia ex Theodoro 76. 3-4, or

80.3: "He who was sealed by the invocation of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit will
not be attacked by the other powers, through the three Names he is cleansed from the triad
of corruption."
460n this expression, cf. Apoc. Peter 71:5-9.
47Compare the Ebionite virulent hatred of David and Solomon (Epiphanius, Pun. 30.18.4;
186 Klijn-Reinink).

94

THE GNOSTIC RACE

In his edition of the text, Bohlig points to several parallels to the form
of birth in each of the thirteen kingdoms. He remarks that in kingdoms
1-4, the child's parents were human beings; in kingdoms 5-8, they were
material physical entities (physikalisch-materielle Grossen); but in kingdoms

9-11, they appear as lustful Gods.48 Bohlig returned in greater detail to

the possible origin of the various sayings of the hymn in his study

"JUdisches and iranisches in der Adamapokalypse des Codex V von Nag

Hammadi,"49 where he cites parallels from Jerome and Plutarch involving
rocks impregnated by clouds or by gods who deposited their semen upon

them and also refers to traditions concerning the birth and raising of
Mithra, the typical end-of-time king.50 Yet, as Bohlig himself recognizes,
the motif of supernatural birth for half-gods and heroes was common
stock in Antiquity. Our task, however, is to try to understand the precise
significance of such themes in Gnostic contexts.
In the descriptions of the twelfth and the thirteenth kingdoms, and of

the kingless race-which, as MacRae rightly insists, is not a fourteenth

kingdom - Bohlig sees the presence of what he calls "higher scientificophilosophical entities" Where naturwissenschaf lisch-philosophische Grossen). The main fallacy in his reasoning is his attempt to integrate the
thirteenth kingdom-and the kingless race-into the same category as the
first twelve kingdoms.51

The relationship between the twelve kingdoms and the thirteenth in the
first part of the text and in the Hymn of the Child constitutes a crucial
problem for the understanding of Apoc. Adam. The question may be formulated more precisely: What does the thirteenth kingdom represent?
48 Kopvsch-gnosrische Apokalypsen, 92 - 93.

491n Mysrerion and Wahrheit, 155-156.

111bid

156, referring to G. Widengren, Die Religionen Irans (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer,

1965), 199ff. The same identification of a Mithraic motif (about the rock of the eighth kingdom) was made by E. Yamauchi, "The Apocalypse of Adam, Mithraism and pre-Christian
Gnosticism," in Eludes Mithra'iques (Acta Iranica,
ser., 4; Leiden - Liege -Teheran: Brill,
Bibliotheque Pahlavi, 1978), 537-563.
511t is on these grounds that MacRae ("Coptic Gnostic Apocalypse of Adam," 31, n. 1)
rejects Bohlig's parallel of the fourteen aeons mentioned in Manichaean literature
("Judisches and iranisches," 152, n. 3; ef. Schaeder, Gnomon 9 [19331, 353, n. 2). However, these fourteen aeons appear in the context of traditions concerning Seth in Keph. X,
entitled "On the significance of the 14 aeons, about which Sethel has spoken in his prsyer."
The same number also occurs elsewhere; Keph. viii speaks about the fourteen trips of Jesus
to the world. See also the Naassene quotation from Gos. T/ton. (Hippolytus, Elenchos 7.5;
83 Wendland): "There, in the fourteenth aeon, having been idden, I will reveal myself."
In the Second Book of Yea 52 (127-138 Sehmidt-MacDermot), the last chapter, fourteen
aeons are mentioned, while fourteen firmaments (o-rcpEcua) are found in the magical books
edited by Kropp (Koptische Zauberiexte, 11, Ubersetzungen 178-179). Note further the four1

teen demons under the leadership of Ariuth, "the Ethiopian" ( = black) female demon
(who might be connected to the Islamic Haruth), in Pistis Sophia IV.140 (362 SchmidtMacDermot). In other passages of Pistis Sophia (on the fourteen redemptions of Pistis
Sophia), one can follow the evolution in Gnostic thought from 12 + 1 to 13 +i. Bohlig's
parallel, therefore, is relevant. The number 14 could have been retained in later contexts

after its original significance was forgotten or modified.

GNOSTIC SALVATION HISTORY

95

The numbers twelve and thirteen also appear in other Gnostic texts,
where a special importance is attributed to them. Manichaean traditions,
moreover, developed a similar interplay between twelve and thirteen,
which probably shows affinities with earlier Gnostic speculation.52
In Antiquity, speculation about the number twelve generally referred to
zodiacal conceptions. In Late Antiquity, in particular, the desire to escape
astral destiny was a common goal of religious life and appeared in other-

wise widely different theologies. The soul could attain union with God
and salvation only by reaching the upper regions, above the zone of the
planets, i.e., by escaping from their power.53 For the Gnostics, too, salvation coincided with the escape from fate.54 So it is not surprising that the
twelve kingdoms, or aeons, are identified in some Gnostic texts with the
twelve months. For the signs of the Zodiac represented fate Wapj.t n )
or the sway of the archons. The god of astral destiny was "the god of the
twelve aeons," which stood for unredeemed history, ruled by the movements of the cosmos and the blind power of fate. "The twelve months
came to be as a type of the twelve powers," according to Eugnostos
84:2-4. Eugnostos is a work untouched by Christian influence (Soph. Jes.
Chr. is its christianized version55), and it seems that only in christianized
Gnostic texts were the twelve signs of the Zodiac associated with the
twelve "kingdoms" of Israel.
These twelve aeons are also called, literally, children of the archons;
Gos. Eg. testifies that they were conceived by Satan and his consort, the
female demon Nabruel (who is Sakla's consort in Manichaean
mythology).56 They were thus considered to be enemies of the Gnostics;

the Gnostics had to fight them in order to break free from their bonds.
Thus in Justin's Baruch, the twelve contests of Herakles are identified
with his struggles against the twelve angels of Edem.57 In Pistis Sophia,
similarly, numerous warnings are issued against the archons of the twelve
aeons, which correspond to the twelve repentances of Pistis Sophia (1.57,
110 Schmidt-MacDermot). In the same work, so typical of ripe (or
decadent) Christian Gnosticism,58 twelve saviors were symmetrically
52L. Troje, Die Dreizehn untl the Zwiil/' im Trakiat Pellioi (Doginen in
(VerolTentlichungen des Forschungs-Instituts for vergleichende Religionsgeschichte an der
Universitat Leipzig, 11 Reihe, Heft I; Leipzig, 1925).
53See F. Cumont, Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans (New York: Dover,
1960), 64-68, and A. J. Festugie're, L'ideal religieux des Grecs el l'Erangile (Etudes Bibliques;
Paris: Gabalda, 1932), 112-113.
54E g

Eve Theod 72.1, 74.1 -2, 75.1, as well as the texts cited by Jonas, The Gnostic Religion, 160, n. 14. On astrology among the Gnostics, see W. and H. G. Gundel,
gotnnena, 318-332 (non vidi).
550n the relationship between these two texts, see Parrot, "Religious Syncretism in Gnostic Texts," pcrssint.
56111, 57:16-21; see chap. Vlll igfa.

57It was at Elohim's request that Herakles accomplished these tights (Hippolytus, Elenchos
5.26.27; 131 Wendland).

58Lipsius characterizes what he calls "the third stage" of Gnosticism as a period of

baroque and decadent developments (Der Gnosticisnurs, 155-159).

96

THE GNOSTIC RACE

opposed to the twelve aeons. These saviors helped the Gnostic in the successive stages of his ascent towards freedom. At the end of time, "when

the perfect number [of Gnostics] will be reached" (see the 400,000
righteous ones in Apoc. Adam) and when "the whole (rrTpq, i.e. ro 7rav,
the world) will be raised," these twelve saviors would judge the twelve
tribes of Israel, all guilty of remaining under the sway of the demiurge and
his elap t v7j. The saviors will sit in glory with Jesus in the thirteenth
aeon, "the place of heritage."59 In another passage of Pistis Sophia, the
twelve saviors of the treasures would become kings with Jesus in the place
of the heritage of light.60

In the mythology of the christianized Gnostic text of Pistis Sophia, we thus

find thirteen kingdoms; twelve representative of the tribes of Israel and
another, Jesus's real and perfect kingdom of light. This thirteenth aeon is
also called the place (T09roc) of righteousness (8&Kacoo-iivq)61 and is men-

tioned elsewhere as the thirteenth seal, where there is "certainty of

rest."62 In Christian Gnostic context, therefore, the kingdom of Jesus was

considered to be the thirteenth kingdom, coming after the twelve "kingdoms" of Israel. In Pistis Sophia, the chronological element is almost
completely non-existent. Elsewhere, however (in what probably reflects
an earlier expression of the same theme), the twelve revealers are said to

be successive reincarnations of the figure of the Righteous One, who

"visits during twelve periods, that he may visit them during [another] one
period" (Paraph. Sheer 48:2-5). These successive "visits" are reminiscent of the theory of the "true prophet" running through history, typical
of the Jewish Christian theology exemplified in the Pseudo-Clementine
writings.

Jewish-Christian influence might also be reflected in Treat. Seth, where

the twelve biblical prophets, together with John the Baptist and others, are
despised, "since they have come forth as imitations of the true
prophets."63 To be sure, a list of the twelve prophets is not to be found in
extant Ebionite traditions,64 but at least two non-Gnostic, early Christian
texts (of Jewish origin) mention twelve soteriological advents before

Christ's coring. Thus the Testament of Isaac speaks of "the twelve

mighty ones" (and "the twelve generations") who shall come forth
before Jesus the Messiah, while a Christian addition to l noch mentions
"the twelve priests" who will precede Christ.65
59Pistis Suphia, 1.50 (90 and 94 Schmidt-MacDermot).
61111.86 (191

Schmidt-MacDermot); the theme recurs throughout the chapter.

Sophia 1.50 (94 Schmidt-MacDermot).
62,,ymsanes
2:12; cf. 4:20.
63 Treat. Seth 63:18 -20.
61 Pistis

64There is a list of only seven (the Messiah excluded) in the Pseudo-Clementine literature
(Homilies 17.4; Recognition 2.47).
65For the Testantent o/ Isaac,

see M. E. Barnes's translation of the Arabic version in M. R.

James, The Testament of Abraham (Cambridge, 1892), 140-151, and Gaselee's translation
from the Coptic in G. H. Box, The Testament o/ Abraham (London, 1927), 57-75. For 2
Enoch, see Vaillant's edition, 115-117. 1 owe these references to D. Flusser, "Salvation

97

GNOSTIC SALVATION HISTORY

As noted, Paraph. Sheen is a Christian Gnostic work, related to the

Paraphrasis of Seth used by Hippolytus to describe Sethian theology. The

figure of the revealer, Derdekeas ("the child"), the Righteous One, is

very reminiscent of Seth in other works. Like him, he appeared in successive reincarnations during history until his final appearance as Jesus
Christ (Paraph. Sheen 48:2-3). It is significant that the revelation was
made to Shem, who was viewed as a positive figure at a stage of Gnostic

development when all biblical values had not yet been completely
inverted. His seed represented the Gnostics, like the 400,000 who came
from the seed of Ham and Japheth in Apoc. Adam.
For Christian Gnostics, as for all Christians, the coming of Jesus meant
the beginning of his kingdom.66 The thirteenth kingdom was strongly contrasted to the first twelve, since it heralded the reign of justice and implied

release from destiny, imposed by the tyrant of this world upon his servants. This total rupture was considered by the Gnostics not only in
terms of a historical revelation, but also of a cosmic one. In various texts,
Jesus is explicitly said to have changed the course of the physical world:
But the Son of Man came forth from Imperishability, being alien to
defilement. He came to the world by the Jordan river and immediately the Jordan turned back.67

This reinterpretation of Josh 3:7 - 17 (Joshua being the typos of Jesus),

where Joshua stopped the river Jordan from flowing in order to let the
Israelites enter the Promised Land, also appeared in Hippolytus's report
on the Naasenes.68 The theme of the cosmic revolution launched by
Jesus's coming is best exemplified in Pistis Sophia, where Jesus explicitly
said that he affected the Heimarmene and the Sphere, as well as those
upon which they both rule, by having them change the course of their
revolution (from left to right) every six months, so that they would not
be free to make use of their influences (a?roTEX apara): "I turned their
paths for the salvation of all souls."69 The kingdom ushered in by Jesus
Present and Future," in R. J. Z Werblowsky and C. J. Bleeker, Types Q/Redemption (Suppl.
to Numen 18; Leiden: Brill, 1970), 55, nn. 21, 22.
66Only for his believers, that is; the opponents of Light would be prevented from entering
the thirteenth kingdom (Pistis Sophia 1.32 [50 Schmidt-MacDermot]).
67Testim. Truth 30:18-23; see Gos. Phil. 70:34-36, Paraph. Sheen 48:7-8. In the wild sexual imagery of the latter work, the ultimate coming of the savior renders nature idle.
68Hippolytus, Elenchos 5.8.3-4 (89 Wendland): rov EM Ta avcw peuvavroc 'IopSavou. Cf.

Origen's reinterpretation of "Jordan" as meaning "our Lord"; In Ioh.

VI.

42

(217

Preuschen); cf. In Ioh. XXI. 4.

69Pistis Sophia 1.23 (32 Schmidt-MacDermot); see also 1.15 and 1.21. On this theme, see

the Appendix "La venue du Sauveur en cc monde et le bouleversement de I'ordre

cosmique," in J. Doresse, Livres Secrets des Gostiques d'Egypte, If: L'Evangile selon Thomas ou
les paroles secretes de Jesus (Paris: Plon, 1959), 207ff., and p. 348, n. 137 in his commentary
on Gos. Eg. Doresse shows that the problem, inherited from classical physics (it is found in

Plato and Aristotle), was given a theological interpretation by the Hermetists as well as in
various Gnostic writings. See also Exc. Theod. 72-75; cf. Puech, En quete de la gnose, 1, 241
and n. 2.

98

THE GNOSTIC RACE

was thus usually considered by Christian Gnostics to be the thirteenth

one.

In other texts, however, the world from which the Gnostic must escape
comprises thirteen kingdoms, or thirteen aeons: "I was rescued from the

whole world and the thirteen aeons in it and their angelic beings,"

affirmed Zostrianos in his revelation (Zost. 4:25-29). In a similar vein,

Gos. Eg. mentions the god (III, 63:10-18) or the powers (III, 64:34) of
the thirteen aeons. This is also why Pistis Sophia, once back in the aeon
from which she had fallen ("the place of justice") added a thirteenth
repentance. The thirteenth aeon was still part of the chaos. Jesus then
took her "completely out of the chaos."70 The thirteenth aeon is thus
ambiguous: sometimes it is considered to be the last one, beyond chaos,
and sometimes it is the penultimate step before total relief from the power
of the archons. The latter interpretation is found in some Christian (as
well as non-Christian) Gnostic works. It is not necessary to appeal to
literary influences in order to explain the presence of the thirteenth aeon
in a Christian context, for once it was identified with the established
church, the Christian Gnostic, too, was compelled to seek a higher abode
for his own salvation.

Among the non-Christian texts, for which the thirteenth kingdom still
belonged to the unredeemed world, Apoc. Adam is the best example.
While a Christian Gnostic could say about Jesus (Great Pow. 42:4-11):
Who is this`? What is this? His word (X6yoc) has abolished the law
of the aeon. He is from the Logos of' the power of life. And he was
victorious over the command (ce awe) of the archons, and they were
not able by their work to rule over him,

in Apoc. Adam (92:10-17), the thirteenth kingdom commented on the

birth of the child,

every birth of their ruler is a Logos and this Logos received a mandate
(Twc)) there. He received glory and power and thus he came to the
water.

Although the appellation "Logos" for Christ is the adaptation of an originally non-Christian term,71 the use of the word ryoc here suggests that
this might be a reference to Christianity and to Jesus (who is also called
the "/ogos-begotten body," which Seth prepared for himself; see Gos. Eg.
111, 63:9-13).72 Similarly, on his third appearance the savior is called /ogos
70Pistis Sophia, 1. 57-58 (110-115 Schmidt-MacDermot).

nThe problem is too complex-and the

literature too vast-to be dealt with here; for

bibliographical orientation, see W. Bauer's Greek-English Lexicon q/' the New Testament,
A0, yo(;.

s. v.

72The case for seeing references to Christianity in Apoc. Adam has been strongly argued by
G. M. Shellrude, "The Apocalypse of Adam: Evidence for a Christian Gnostic Provenance,"
in Krause, ed., Gnosis and Gnosticism, 82-91. See also L. Koenen, "From Baptism to the
Gnosis of Manichaeism," in Layton, Rediscovery, 11, 751 -752 and nn. 73-74.

GNOSTIC SALVATION HISTORY

99

in Trim. Prol. 47:13 -15, where the reference to Jesus is manifest.73

Obviously, this suggestion about the word Aoyoc is not by itself an
argument for reading a clear reference to Christianity into the thirteenth
kingdom. However, if we add to it the various instances (including nonGnostic Christian works) where Christ came as the thirteenth prophet or
in the thirteenth generation, the presumption becomes much greater that

the thirteenth kingdom of the Hymn of the Child indeed referred to

Christ's coming. Hesitancy on the part of some scholars to see a reference to Jesus in this stems partly from the commonly accepted early dating of Apoc. Adam.74 Such an early dating, however, remains to be proved.
On the other hand, my contention that its thoroughly inverted reading of
biblical history (specifically, the description of the Sethite Noah as wicked)

probably does not reflect one of the oldest strata of Gnosticism argues
against the earliness of Apoc. Adam, at least on typological grounds; it also

strengthens the possiblity of reading a reference to Jesus in the word

Xbyoc, since a later author could have been aware of Johannine Christology.

In fact, the words of the thirteenth kingdom, as well as those of

73C1'. Steles Seth 120:27-28, oytya.1e caoN zN Oycazrve ("a word from a command"), perhaps a similar reference to the Logos, but certainly not to Christ; see Setheus
26:24-26, and Allogenes 51:36-37. In the non-Christian work Zost., the third Phoster was
named Setheus (126:15-16). In the prose account of Apoc. Adam, it is said that at the time
of the illuminator's third advent, the powers would "punish the flesh of the man upon
whom the holy spirit has come" (77:16-18). The figure remains mysterious. MacRae has
suggested that it might refer to a founder of the sect, arguing for "a clear dependence on the
Servant-Messiah tradition" of Deutero-Isaiah. MacRae rejects the possibility of an allusion
to Jesus; according to him the figure would be closer to the Essene Master of Justice than to
a savior figure ("The Coptic Gnostic Apocalypse of Adam," 27-35). Schenke (in Layton,
Rediscovery, 11, 608) is not convinced by this suggestion.
74For a disclaimer of any substantial references to Christianity in Apoc. Adam, see P. Per-

kins, "Apocalypse of Adam: The Genre and Function of a Gnostic Apocalypse," CBQ 39
(1977), 383-395, esp. 383; MacRae, "The Apocalypse of Adam Reconsidered," SBL 1972
Proceedings (ed. L. C. McGaughy; Missoula: Scholars, 1972), 573-575. On the other hand,
MacRae points out that "there may be a trace of an extremely superficial allusion to Jesus of'
Nazareth in the magic name(s) `Jesseus Nazareus Jessedekeus' which occur at the very end
of the work," adding that "the occurrence of such a name here proves very little except that
if it is a garbled form of the name of Jesus, the work can hardly antedate the spread of
Christianity (ibid., 573-574). For Schottroff, too, the work shows no Christian influence,
although the thirteen kingdoms represent the author's opponents; see her "Animae Naturaliter Salvandae," 78 and 96. A late dating for Apoc. Adam has been argued by 11. M.
Schenke and W. Beltz, the former in his review of Bohlig and Labib's edition, OLZ 61
(1966), 31 -32, the latter in his (unpublished) Habilitationsschrifl, Die Adam-Apokalypse aus
Codex V von Nag Hammadi: Jiidische Bausteine in gnostischen Svsletnen (Berlin, 1970),
204-205, 215. For both scholars, the relatively simple mythology of Apoc. Adam implies the
more complex developments extant in texts such as Gos. E,g., which represent the fullfledged Gnostic mythology. MacRae, who argues for an early dating of the work, rejects
their arguments and adds, "There is no reason to suppose that this transition [to Gnostic
exegesis] was effected instantly in a highly developed way" ("The Apocalypse of Adam
Reconsidered," 576). Yet this is precisely my argument against a very early dating of Apoc.
Adaan, in which the inversion of biblical data is indeed "highly developed," more so than in
some other Gnostic texts. Apoc. Adam need not be a work of 4th-century Gnosticism, as
Beltz claims; nor is it representative of the earliest strata of Gnosticism.

THE GNOSTIC RACE

100

Christ in 2 Apoc. Jas. 49:12-13, "1 command even as I [received] the

order (Evrok7 )," might well allude to John 12:48-50.
Yet unlike the Christian Gnostic works (Great Pow., Gos. Eg., or Trim.
Prot.), Apoc. Ac/am does not regard Jesus's earthly appearance as
announcing the ultimate redemption. His kingdom still belonged to the
material world, ruled by its king Sakla and his powers. Moreover, the
phrase "in order that the desire of those powers might be satisfied" seems
to be a polemic directed against a specific Christian Gnostic trend. This
thirteenth kingdom may now confidently be identified with "the kingdom

of another people" in the prose account (Apoc. Ac/ant 77:28-29), the

kingdom which the seed of Ham and Japheth are said to have entered
after forming twelve kingdoms. Just as those twelve kingdoms (an
inverted version of the twelve tribes of Israel) were parallel to the twelve
kingdoms of the Hymn, so the thirteenth should be identified with Chris-

For the author of Apoc. Adam, the "kingdom" announced by

tianity.

Jesus also remained under the sway of Sakla.

As opposed to the thirteen kingdoms, Apoc. Adam 92:19-20 calls the

Gnostics, i.e., the Sons of Seth, a "race (yevea) without a king over it."
The image is common in Gnostic literature and also occurs in Greek as
ii a/3acriXEV7-oc yevea in reference to the Naassene elect.75 FEVEL, however, is amphibolous and can mean either "race" or "generation." In
Hyp. Arch., for instance, the main connotation is chronological: only in the

last stage of history would the Gnostics come into' their own.76 Yet the
primary sense seems to be "race." The Gnostics, who were fundamentally different from common humanity and who did not share its fate
throughout history,77 considered themselves to belong to a race78 or seed
that was different, being both immovable (aTK I M, ao-cXEVT04;)79 and
eternal.80 Whereas other men remained under the rule of the archontic
Heimarmene, the Gnostics did not obey the orders of any king. Indeed,
75Hippolytus, Elenchos 5.8.2 (89 Wendland). Same expression in Hyp. Arch. 97:4-5 and
Orig. World 125:5-7. See Layton's commentary on Hyp. Arch. p. 79, n. 200.
76Cf.
"the last yEVEc" in the Manichaean Keph. 14:7 and 179:16-17. Similarly, the
Qur'an speaks about "the last umma." See my "Aspects de I'eschatologie manicheenne,"
169, n. 28.
77Apoc.

Pet. 83:17- 18: "those of another race, who are not of this age."
78On the idea of a Gnostic "race," see for instance, Epiphanius, Pan. 39.2.7 (1, 441 Holl);
Clement, Strom. 4.13.89 (11,287 Stahlin); and Poimandres 32 (CHI, 19 Nock-Festugiere). Cf.
Odes .So/. 41:8, where Christ says that he is "from another race" (139 Charlesworth). For a
study of this concept, see F. Fallon's "The Gnostics: the ndomi ted Race," and his The
Enthronement of Sabaoth: Jewish Elements in Gnostic Creation
the (NHS 10; Leiden: Brill,
1978), 78-80.
79See

Ap. John III, 33:3

MACKIM).

II, 25:23; IV, 39:25 (ATKIM). BG 65:2-3 (eT

111, 51:8-9 (CTCMCCKIM N AOOAPTON). Cf. Y. Janssens,

"L'apocrypohon de Jean," Muse'on 83 (1970), 164.
80treNea CTONZ, in 3 Steles Seth 118:12-13; cf. the "imperishable seed" in Marsanes
26:14. Mani's Living Gospel (CMC 67:5-6): ikirLSa 8'
)EVEL TW a9avarw; cf. Tardieu, "Les trois steles de Seth," RSPT57 (1973), 552, n. 50.
Gos. E,k.

101

GNOSTIC SALVATION HISTORY

the adherents of Prodicus could call themselves "royal ones," since "to a
king, they say, there is no law prescribed."81
For Apoc. Adam, then,' the Gnostics, unlike the rest of mankind, were

not enslaved by Sakla or his servants, the Noahites (65:20-21; 71:1-4).

The term yEVEa is not simply metaphorical, but refers directly to the biological origin of the Gnostics-an origin which was not linked to Eve's
rape by the demiurge. Again it is "out of a foreign air" that the Great
Seth (or his avatar, the illuminator) was said to have come (82:25-26).
In other words, he might be called the 61llrxoyev-4c par excellence.82 The

seed of Seth is described as "those who will receive his name upon the
water" (83:5-6). This terminology clearly reflects a baptist theology.
Indeed, in the last part of Apoc. Adam, the Gnostics are described as a
baptist group in a way which clarifies their opposition to the thirteen false
descriptions of baptism in the Hymn of the Child.

The last section of the text (83:4-85:18) has been interpreted as an

"anti-baptismal polemic." This polemic has been studied by Francoise
Morard,83 who accepts Charles Hedrick's theory about the two sources of
Apoc. Adam. According to Hedrick, both sources were Jewish, one less
thoroughly apocalyptic than the other, and they were integrated, rather
loosely, by the editor of Apoc. Adam.84 Based on this, Morard reaches the
conclusion that the polemic was directed against a Gnostic baptist group to
which the author had belonged before he rejected baptism.85 Moreover,
Morard argues for a direct link between this anti-baptismal polemic and
Mani's rejection of baptism.86 Her argument, however, is much weakened
by the fact that she ignores the last lines of Apoc. Adam, which praise "the

living water" and "the holy baptism of those who know the eternal
knowledge." This baptism is specifically defined by the author as the hidden knowledge given by Adam to Seth (85:22-26).

With this "living water" are associated Yesseus, Mazareus, and

Yessedekeus, the three "imperishable illuminators who come from the
holy

seed"

(85:28-31).87 In

parallel

to

these three

mysterious

81Clement, Stront. 3.4.30 (II, 209-210 Stahlin).

82For

a phenomenological study of this theme, see Puech, En quf to de la gnose,

I,

207-213.

83"L'Apocalypse d'Adam du Codex V de Nag Hammadi et

sa polemique anti-

baptismale," RSR 51 (1977), 214-233. See also her "The'matique de I'Apoc. Adam du
Codex V de Nag Hammadi," in Barc, ed., Les Textes de Nag Hantntadi, 288-294.
84"The Apocalypse of Adam," passint. Hedrick's theory, however, does not account for
the function of the "Hymn of the Child" in the work as a whole.
850n the various baptist groups in the first Christian centuries, see J. Thomas, Le motivenrent baptiste en Palestine et en Syrie (Gembloux, 1934).

86In Keph. VI, 33:29-32, Mani says that the king of the archons of water rules upon the
sects of heretics who baptize in water. The evidence is collected by Henrichs and Koenen in
their commentary to CMC 84:12. For a detailed list of parallels between Apoc. Adapt and
Manichaean texts, especially the figure of the redeemer in both theologies, see Henrichs's
"response" in Wuellner, Jewish Gnostic Nag Hammadi Texts, 4-6. The whole problem of
baptism and its sublimation among Gnostics has been studied by L. Koenen, "From Baptism
to the Gnosis of Manichaeism," in Layton, ed., Rediscovery, II, 734-756, esp. 749ff.
87These three figures are called "the immortal spirits" in Zost. 47:5-6, while in Gos. E,q.

THE GNOSTIC RACE

102

illuminators-who might represent the avatars of Seth at each of his three

comings-three other figures (possibly mythic leaders of the community),
who are also "over the holy baptism and the living water" (84:5-8) are
introduced. According to the various translations, the passage (84:4-23)
reads as follows:

Then a voice came to them, saying (.Ae): "Micheu, Michar and

Mnesinous, who (are) over the holy baptism and the living water,
why (.xe eTBeoY) were you crying out against the living God with
? Having defiled the water of life, you have drawn
lawless voices
it within the will of the powers to whom you have been given to serve
them."
.

Micheu, Michar, and Mnesinous appear in other Gnostic texts, both with
and without Christian influences.88 In Gos. Eg. III, 64:14-15, they are

called "they who preside over the spring of truth" and are linked to
"Yesseus Mazareus Yessedekeus," here regarded as a single figure also
called "the great attendant." Similarly Trim. Prot. describes how the baptizers ($a7rTm0'T7'J4;) Micheus, Michar, and Mnesinous immerse the savior,

during one of his comings, "in the spring of the

[water]

of life"

(48:18-21). For Zost., Michar and Mi(cheu?) are "these powers upon
the living waters" (6:9-10). In all these contexts, they are unambiguously positive figures. The fact that they seem to appear in Apoc. Adapt as
betrayers of their mission would imply that the author was rejecting an
earlier Gnostic trend shared not only by the Christian (or christianized)
works Gos. Eg. and Trim. Prot., but also by the pagan and philosophizing
Zost. This is how Morard seems to understand both the passage, which is
central to her argument, and the text in general.
It is probable, however, that all previous understandings of the passage
have been based upon a mistranslation. Together with MacRae and
Bohlig, I wish to suggest that "Micheu and Michar and Mnesinous, who
are over the holy baptism and the living water" should be understood as a
gloss by the redactor, ntroduced by the preposition xe, "namely,"89 and
indicating the provenance of the voice.90 If so, the passage would read:

Then a voice came to them (xe [from] Micheu and Michar and
Mnesinous, who (are) over the holy baptism and the living water),

the list of the three names refers to a single entity (111, 66:10-11; IV, 78:12-14).
88See the note to Apoc. Adam 84:5-6 in MacRae's edition (pp. 190-191).
"Crum, Coptic Dictionary, 746b.
90See MacRae's note to Apoc. Ac/an, 84:5-8 (p. 191), and Bohlig's remark in Layton, ed.,
Rediscovery, 11, 557-558. Schenke, in ibid., 598, comments that "the broader context of
overall Sethianism . . seems to exclude the possibility that the guardians of the holy baptismal water Micheus, Michar, and Mnesinous are .%cr/len angels, The celestial scolding in
84:4(1. can only be directed at human beings, namely those who have been hostile to Gnostics and Gnosticism."
.

GNOSTIC SALVATION HISTORY

103

saying (zee): "Why (eTBeoy)91 are you crying out against the living

God_?"

This suggestion clarifies the text to a great extent. Morard is indeed

correct in speaking about the "polemic" in the last section of Apoc. Adam,
but she errs in calling it anti-baptismal. The author did not speak against
baptism, but on the contrary was himself a "real" baptist arguing against
false baptist theologies and evil baptist groups. The Gnostics, represented
by the three "baptizers," attacked those who defiled the water of life by

having "drawn it within the will of the powers," whom they served
(84:18-23). The vituperativeness of the tone here is similar to that at the

end of the hymn ("in order that the desire of those powers might be
satisfied" [82:18-191). It thus stands to reason that the author was
against the Christian "perversion" of baptism. Therefore, although no
precise dating can be offered, Apoc. Adam was apparently written no earlier than the middle of the 2nd century C.E. Consequently, the relationship between Apoc. Adam and Christian Gnostic texts such as Gos. Eg. can
be tentatively reevaluated. Gos. Eg., which shows, at least typologically,
clear signs of a later development, should not be viewed as a later evolution (either literary or theological) of the trend represented by Apoc.

Adam.92 Instead, this work should be seen as emerging from theological

developments inside christianizing Gnostic trends, while Apoc. Adapt
represents a reaction to these very trends.
Cataclysms, Steles and Advents of'the Sa vior

Bohlig has made a case for a specifically Iranian origin for some of the
mythological elements in Apoc. Adani.93 At the heart of such an argument
is the implicit assumption that the long political supremacy of Iran in the
Near East must have influenced indigenous theologies. A pervasive
Iranian influence is evident, for example, in Jewish apocalypticism.94 Yet
Apoc. Ac/ant, like all Gnostic literary works, was written several centuries
after the end of Iranian rule, so direct Iranian influence on this literature is
only a remote possibility. Therefore, it is preferable to speak about possible convergences between Gnostic (or Jewish) and Iranian thought, rather
than about influences of one on the other.95
More precisely, Bohlig's argument for the Iranian influence on Apoc.
Ac/ant depends upon the work's alleged tripartite view of history. Bohlig

recalls that Iranian Hei/sgeschichte, from Parthian times, mentioned a

91Crum, Coptic Dictiuncny, 468a.

92As first suggested by Doresse in his commentary on Gos. LTg., Appendix 11. Doresse
sees in Apoc. Adani one of the sources of Gus. E,g. This claim has already been challenged
on literary grounds (e.g., MacRae, "The Apocalypse of Adam Reconsidered," 573).
93"Judisches and iranisches," passim.
94G. Widengren, "Iran and Israel in Parthian Times, with Special Regard to the Ethiopic
Book ()/ Enoch," in Pearson, ed., Religious .Synttretism in Antiquity, 85-129.

95Sce MacRae, "The Coptic Gnostic Apocalypse of Adam," 27-35, esp. 33; he refers to
B. Reicke, "Iranische Religion, Judentum and Urchristentum," RGG3, Ill, 881ff.

104

THE GNOSTIC RACE

6000-year fight between the good god and the evil god, until the appearance of Mithra; this time span was divided into three periods.96 Bohlig
points out that in Apoc. Adam, history is similarly characterized by the
fight between the Pantokrator and Seth (together with the righteous ones).
According to him, the illuminator came during the third period to separate
the righteous from the evil ones in a final struggle.97 In order to be completely convincing, the argument should have been based on specific
details of Apoc. Adam, which could best be understood as Iranian. This is
not the case. First, any Heilsgeschichte is bound to speak of a decisive
fight at the Endzeit, so the third advent of the illuminator does not constitute evidence of direct Iranian influence. Moreover, the mythic elements
of the Hymn of the Child that Bohlig sees as borrowed from the Mithra
saga were, in fact, common stock in Late Antiquity.98
I shall try to show here that there is no need to appeal to Iranian conceptions in order to understand the periodization of history in Apoc. Adam
and in other Gnostic texts; rather, it probably stemmed directly from the
Jewish background of Gnosticism.

Properly speaking there is no tripartite division of history in Apoc.

Adam. Instead, the text describes three major events in world history. To
these correspond the three advents of the illuminator of knowledge, who
came to save his seed and who, each time, ushered in a new period. It is
somewhat misleading to state that the illuminator came during the third
period, since he came to seal it and to inaugurate the fourth, lasting
period; the reign of his race, liberated at last from the threats of the demiurge. The periodization of history, therefore, was Jbu fbld. Such a conception is specifically stated in the Gnostic texts. Orig. World, for
instance, mentions the existence of four races. While three "belong to
the kings of the eighth heaven, the fourth race is kingless and perfect, one
that is above all of them" (125:3-7). This quadripartite division of
humanity is clearly transformed into a quadripartite division of history in
Hyp. Arch. 96:28-97:4:
"Instead, after three generations it will come to be known, and free
them from the bondage of the powers' error"-Then I said, "Sir, how
96F. Cumont, "La fin du nionde selon les mages occidentaux," RHR 103, 29-96.

Cumont points out that the belief that the present world would last 6000 years until the final
catastrophe was very widespread in the Roman Empire (p. 57). According to Cumont's
analysis, the Apocalypse of Hysiaspes presents a division of the six millenia of the present
world and the golden age of the sun in which Ahriman will be defeated (pp. 93-94).
97" Judisches and iranisches," 161.
See Perkins's analysis of instances of a tripartite
periodization of history in Jewish texts ("Apocalypse of Adam," 387-389). For the theory
of the "three times" in Manichaeism, see H.-C. Puech, Le Manicheisnte, son,jondateur, sa
doctrine (Muse'e Guimet, Bibliothe'que de diffusion 56; Paris: Civilisations du Sud, 1949),
74-85 and notes.
98For an Iranist's critical analysis of the evidence claimed by Bohlig, see M. Schwartz's
Appendix to Wuellner, ed., Jewish Gnostic Nag Hantttadi Texts. Schwartz concludes that the
parallels cited by Bohlig were common stock in the Hellenistic world and therefore do not
necessarily point to an Iranian origin of Apoc. Adattt.

GNOSTIC SALVATION HISTORY

105

much longer'?"-He said to me: "Until the moment when the True
man, within a modelled form, reveals the existence of the [Spirit of]
Truth, which the Father has sent. Then he will teach them about
every thing: And he will anoint them with the unction of Life eternal,
given him from the kingless race."99

To this division of history corresponds, in some of the Gnostic texts, a

fourfold division of the cosmic ages of the universe. Such speculation was
built around the four lights ( C007r)pcc), the powers of understanding,

grace, perception, and prudence. These four lights, placed on the four
aeons, were named Harmozel, Oroiael, Daveithe, and Eleleth; they were
said to have stood by the divine Autogenes (Ap. John 7:30-8:28).100 It
should be stressed that the quadripartite division bears no similarity to the
"four empires" speculation, which was widespread in the Hellenistic Near
East since the early 2nd century B.C.E. It was as a tool of political ideology, viz., anti-Hellenistic propaganda, that the pseudo-historical concept of
the four world empires functioned.101 Macedonia was said to have succeeded Assyria, Media, and Persia as the fourth evil kingdom. This fourth
kingdom, therefore, would be followed by a fifth, lasting kingdom (see
Dan 2:44).102

In "Sethian and Zoroastrian Ages of the World," Carsten Colpe

attempts to integrate Bohlig's Iranian hypothesis about the "tripartition of

time" with Schenke's analysis of the "Sethian system" as evolving

around the four great aeons.103 Colpe analyzes the evidence of cosmologi-

cal, historical, and eschatological partitions of time in both Gnostic and

Zoroastrian texts and observes that the Gnostic ("Sethian") and the
Iranian texts show strikingly parallel patterns of both three- and four-part
divisions. More precisely, a similar formal "fusion" of the two different
patterns can be found in both contexts. However, since "the substantive
difference between the two doctrines of time or ages is great enough to

exclude direct influence in either direction," Colpe concludes that the

"There is here no need to explain, as Tardieu does (Trois Mythes, 81, n. 236), the fourth
position given to the kingless race by the properties of the tetractys in Pythagorean literature.
As we shall see, this can be understood from the internal logic of Gnostic Heilsxeschichte.
The three kairoi of archontic rule are again referred to in Hyp. Arch. 97:10-13: "Then the

Authorities will relinquish their ages." See Layton's commentary, 80, n. 202; see further
the dialogue about the completion of the three periods in Pistis Sophia 11.76 (168-169
Schmidt-MacDermot).

100Cf. Gos. Eg. III, 51:14-53:12; Zost. 29:1-20; 127:15-128:7; Trim. Prot. 38:30-39:27.
The structure and function of the four phosteres speculation has been analyzed by Schenke,
"Das sethianische System," and by Poirier and Tardieu, "Categories du temps clans les
ecrits gnostiques non valentiniens," 3-13.
101Such a similarity was suggested by Colpe in his paper discussed below (see n. 103). On
the four empires speculation, see D. Flusser, "The Four Empires in the Fourth Sibyl and in
the Book of Daniel," Israel Oriental Studies 2 (1972), 148-175, esp. 153.
102J. J. Collins, The Apocalyptic Vision of the Book qf' Daniel (Harvard Semitic Monographs
16; Missoula: Scholars, 1977), 42.
1031n Layton, ed., Rediscovery, II, 540-552. Actually, only one part of Colpe's argument is
developed in this paper.

100

106

THE GNOSTIC RACE

Sethians received "the Iranian principle of time fusion" and filled it with
their own genuinely Jewish or Jewish-Christian periodization of history.104
In the following pages, I will not assess the relevance of the Iranian texts
or refute Colpe's argument directly. Instead, I shall attempt to understand
the inner logic of' the Gnostic four-part periodization of history and to
show that it could have developed from Jewish conceptions alone.
Apoc. Adam explicitly describes the dangers from which the illuminator
rescued the Gnostics in his first two advents: the flood in the days of
Noah, and the fire, sulphur, and asphalt that the powers of the demiurge
threw upon them in their land (obviously Sodom and Gomorrah, see Gos.
Eg. III, 60:9-18). However, the text does not describe the cataclysm sent
by the demiurge the third time before the parousia of the illuminator of
knowledge. Only alter mentioning this third coming does the text reveal
the purpose of his salvatory advent: "And he will redeem their souls from
the day of death. For the whole creation that came from the dead earth
will be under the authority of death" (Apoc. Adam 76:15-20). The "day
of death" is a clear reference to the end of time. Through the third coming of the illuminator, it is connected with the flood and the destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrah. Such an association of the three events is not original here, but is already found in apocryphal and New Testamental literature on the ethical depravity of mankind at each of these times.105
The parallelism between the Genesis flood and the punishment of
Sodom and Gomorrah could not have come directly from the biblical trad-

ition, since the Bible in no way presents the latter event as being of
world-wide dimensions. But we know from other Jewish sources of
a

tradition about two catastrophes that were to befall the world, one involving water and the other fire. Philo retains the clearest evidence for these
traditions. In De Vita Mosis, he noted that some sinners, in rejecting
virtue, not only became enemies of mankind but also broke cosmic
harmony.16 God therefore punished them on a cosmic scale both times.
Indeed Philo mentioned the two catastrophes together-"For the most
forceful elements of the universe, fire and water, fell upon them, so that,
as the times revolved, some perished by deluge, others were consumed by
conflagration" 107 and identified them with the
biblical flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
These two catastrophes were also foretold in Adam and Eve. Before
her
death, Eve gathered together Seth and his brothers and sisters to report to
them what the archangel Michael had told her and her late husband:
On account of your transgression, our Lord will bring upon your race
the anger of his judgement, first by water, the second time by fire; by
10416id

105As

541- 542.

P. Perkins has pointed out ("Apocalypse of Adam," 387

and n. 20). She cites T.
Naph. 3:4-5; Jab. 36:10; 1 Enoch 67; Luke 17:26-30; and 2 Pet 2:4-9.
t06De
Vita Mosis II, 53-58. See also ibid., 263 and De Abrahanno I
(VI, 474-476, 580 and
4 LCL). Cf. Klijn, Seth, Appendix I: "Water and Fire," 121-124.
107De
Vita Mosis II, 53 in linen, (VI, 474-475 LCL).

GNOSTIC SALVATION HISTORY

106

107

these two, will the Lord judge the whole human race.
(Adam and Eve 49)

Eve then asked her children to inscribe her deeds and Adam's on tablets
of stone and clay,108 so that one of them would remain undestroyed after
the first catastrophe: if fire, the tablets of clay would be baked, while the
stone would break up; and if the flood, stone would survive.t09
Josephus reported a similar tale (Ant. 1.70-71). According to him,

when Adam predicted the twofold destruction of mankind, the sons of

Seth erected the two steles, one of brick and one of stone, to preserve not
Adam's and Eve's deeds, but rather their own discovery of "the science
of the heavenly bodies and their orderly array."110 Josephus added that
the stele of stone was still erect in his days (Ant. 1.71). This implies that
the stele of brick was destroyed in the flood, and that the fire, which
would have destroyed the stele of stone, never came. Josephus, therefore, appears to be inconsistent: after having mentioned the prediction of
two destructions of mankind, his words imply that only one occurred.
This contradiction arises from the biblical text itself: after the flood, God
promised not to curse the earth and smite the living any more (Gen 8:21).
The tradition of the two upheavals had to be reconciled with another tradition, which emphasized that only one cataclysm had occurred. Of course,
Josephus was unable to successfully harmonize these opposing traditions.
Indeed, in the numerous later Jewish midrashim and Christian chronicles
which variously relate the same myth of the early destruction of mankind,
only one catastrophe was involved, either the flood or a fire. II I
Another mythic motif, related to the two tablets of Adant and Eve and
the two steles of Josephus, appears twice in early Jewish texts. In Jub. 8:3
it is said that Cainan (son of Arpachshad in the. LXX) I I2 found an
108This tradition about stone and clay passed into Islamic legends; there, however, Seth is

not said to have erected steles, but to have built the ka`ba (al-Tabari, Ta'rifj, I, 164). The
legend is common and repeated by other historiographers, such as Mas`udi or Ibn Sacd, as
well as by the story tellers al-`labi and Ibn Kathir. See Gluck, .Seth, 16-17; further " Shith,"
Shore Encycl. Islam, 544.

109Adant and Eve 49-50. In b. Sarah. 108b, Rabba teaches that for Noah's contemporaries,
the flood he announced could be either of water or of tire (rK 5YY 5`Sb).
110The tradition about Seth as the inventor of astronomy remained current in Byzantium;
see the Suc/a (ed. A. Adler; Stuttgart: Teubner, 1935), IV, 348, s. v. Seth. See the texts cited
by J. A. Fabricius, Codex Pseud pigraphus Veieris Teseamemi (Hamburg: Felginer, 1722),
147-152.
11ITo my knowledge only one of these texts, the Midrash o/' Jerahmeel 5,24.7, mentions

two catastrophes, a flood and "a dispersion and a lire"; the latter combination, however,
clearly refers to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the (second) exile (see
Gaster's trans.). See also Alphabee of R. Ayiva, in A. Wertheimer, ed., Bcaei Mic/rashot, II
(Jerusalem: Mossad haRav Cook, 1955), 356-357.

1121n the later revised Masoretic text, Cainan is the son of Enosh, son of Seth (Gen 5:9),
while the son of Arpachshad, son of Shem, is Shelah (Gen 10:24). The medieval midrashic
work .SeJer haYashar (repr. Tel Aviv: Altar Bergmann, n.d., 9) makes the expected correction and states that the steles (of stone) were written by Cainan son of Enosh, who was then
the wise and knowledgeable king ruling over mankind. But both Syncellus (Chronographia
150) and Pseudo-Malalas (Anouvtni Chronologica 6) take over "Cainan, son of Arpachshad,"

108

THE GNOSTIC RACE

inscription, carved on rock, transcribing the astronomical/astrological

knowledge of the Watchers. For the author of Jub., of course, the writing
accounted for the survival of evi/ knowledge. 113
Additional evidence comes from two fragments of an Aramaic Book of

Enoch found at Qumran.114 In one fragment, Enoch is said to have sent

two tablets (wn flfl, probably two letters) from his dwelling in paradise
to Mahawai, the Watchers' intermediary. The contents of the first tablet
are unknown, but the second fragment is a copy of Enoch's second tablet.

It announces the coming of Raphael, who will destroy mankind and

animals in response to both the Watchers' prostitution and the evil works
of their children. Here, too, the transmission of antediluvian knowledge
or wisdom to later generations-the purpose of the pervasive mythologoumenon of the writing on tablets or on rocks-seems to be connected
with either the Watchers or Enoch.115 As in later Jewish and Christian
traditions, only one catastrophe, the flood, is mentioned.
Since the negative attitude to astronomy recorded in Jub. is not maintained in later traditions, the authorship of the steles is not attributed else-

where to the Watchers. The early tradition about Enoch as a writer of

letters, or steles, appears in only one other text, the Byzantine

"midrashic" work Palaea Historica, where Enoch inscribes God's "great

deeds" (AcyaXovpyEta) on steles of marble and of stone.116 Otherwise,
from the LXX and Jub. Syncellus says that Cainan found the writing of the giants while
walking in a field and kept it hidden. I quote from both from the respective editions of W.
and L. Dindorf (CSHB 6 and 8; Bonn: Weber, 1829 and 1831). Unlike the Gnostic descriptions in nut/ant portent of the archons as kings, the Christian heresiographers retained the
traditions about Adam, Seth, and their early offspring as kings. See Syncellus, 19: L419
Y?YE/bol'CWTE itETa TOP A6a' g TOJI' np'ucaUTa C IIOPChnwi', as well as Michael the Syrian (the

Jacobite patriarch of Antioch, 12th century) in his Chronique (J.-B. Chabot, ed.; Brussels;
Culture et civilisation, 1963 Irepr. of Paris, 1899]), 1, 2 (Syriac) and IV, 5 (French trans.):
"The first king was Adam, and after him Seth."
113Martin Hengel (Judaism and Hellenism, II [Philadelphia: Fortress, 19741, 242ff.) considers this passage to be a polemic against the wicked science of the Chaldeans, and takes this
xenophobia as evidence of the "Essene" character of the work. See also W. Adler, Notes to
the Text of George Syncelius and Pseudo-Malalas (on Seth) (University of Pennsylvania:
Department of' Religious Studies, 1977).
1144Q En Giantsa 7.11 (Plate 31) and 4Q Fn Giantsa 8 (Plate 32) ed. and trans. by Milik
(Epoch, 314-316).
115See 2 Epoch XI (35 Vaillant), where God announces to Enoch that the writings of his
forefathers Adam and Seth, as well as his own writings, will not disappear in the flood. For
an extensive list of parallels, see Festugi6re, Revelation d'Hernte's Trisme'giste, 1, 319-323,
including his important notes and references, as well as R. Reitzenstein, Poiniandres (Leipzig:
Teubner, 1904), 139, 183. Closer to the subject at hand, see L. Ginzberg, "Flood of Fire,"
HaGoren 8 (n.d.), 35-51 (Hebrew). Ginzberg argues that the Jewish legend evolved from
the combination of a Babylonian and an Egyptian myth, which respectively mentioned steles

of brick and of stone. His ingenious analysis of the later developments of the legend
remains hypothetical. For the Babylonian origins of the myth, see W. Bousset, "Die Beziehungen der altesten judischen Sibylle zur chaldaischen Sibylle and einige weitere
Beobachtungen fiber den synkretistischen Charakter der spatjudischen Literatur," ZNW 3
(1902), 42-49. On Enoch as both the initiator of civilization and the transmitter of antediluvian wisdom, see Grelot, "La le'gende d'Enoch."
116This popular Byzantine paraphrasis on biblical history, written after the 9th century, was

GNOSTIC SALVATION HISTORY

109

beginning with the testimony of Josephus and Adam and Eve, Seth
assumed this particular role of Enoch, with the consequence that both science and the knowledge of future events were attributed to him.
Far from being limited to Jewish literature, the notion of the destruction of humanity by water and by fire was common stock in Antiquity.
Already in Plato's Timaeus, the old Egyptian priest scolded Solon for his
(typically Greek) childish forgetfulness: "You people remember only one
deluge, though there were many earlier." The priest had just told Solon:
"There have been, and will be hereafter, many and diverse destructions
of mankind, the greatest by fire and water, though other lesser ones are

due to countless other causes," and explained why Egypt's geography

made it the only place on earth immune from such calamities, and ergo
the place where the traditions preserved "are the oldest on record."117
Although the Timaeus was very widely known in Late Antiquity, it probably should not be seen as the source of the idea of the two catastrophes
that appears in Philo, Adam and Eve, and Josephus.118 What is certain,
however, is that this tradition was widespread in the Hellenistic world,
where it was sometimes related to the Stoic global conflagration (apokatastasis) and borrowed by some Jewish traditions. Once the destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrah was seen as parallel to the flood, a "need" for symmetry could account for the association of each of the two writings present
in an earlier Jewish form of the myth with each of the two cataclysms.

As noted, however, the tradition about a second upheaval after the

flood ran counter to God's promise in the Bible. In even later Jewish and
Christian traditions, therefore, the second event became identified not
with the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah, but with the "day of
death" associated with the advent of the savior at the end of time. Thus
Syncellus could write:
In Adam's 270th year Seth, snatched up by angels (&pnrayeic virb
ayye),cov), was taught about the transgression which the watchers
were going to commit and the coming cataclysm by water and the
advent of the Savior. 119
edited by A. Vassiliev in Anecdota Graeco-Byzantina (Moskow: Imperial University, 1893),

188ff., esp. 197. On the work, see D. Flusser, "Palaea Historica, an Unknown Source of
Biblical Legends," in J. Heinemann and D. Noy, eds., Studies in Ag>,gadah and Folk Literature
(Scripla Hierosolymitana 22; Jerusalem: Magnes, 1971), 48-79. Note in particular Flusser's

suggestion that the Jewish roots of Gnosticism might go back much earlier than is usually
thought (ibid., 52).
117Tintaeus 22B-23B; I quote F. M. Cornford's translation in his Plato's Cosmology (New
York: Harcourt Brace, 1937). See also Ovid, Metamorphoses 1, 253-261 (1, 20 LCL), where
Jupiter, who had first intended to burn the world, changed his mind and decided to send a
flood; I owe this reference to Prof. D. Flusser.
118See for instance the "Song of the Magi" quoted by Dio of Prusa; A. D. Noch, Conversion (Oxford, 1933), 43. In an appendix ("Water and Fire," pp. 121 -124) to his book .Seth,
Klijn points out that the idea of a periodic disaster "clearly originally belonged to astrology
as practiced in the East" and was introduced into the West "obviously by the writings of
Berosus (cf. Seneca, Nat. Hist. 111.29).

I19Chronoxraphia 16-17. Syncellus also noted (17-18) that according to Africanus, since

110

THE GNOSTIC RACE

It must be emphasized that in the tradition recorded by Syncellus, Seth

clearly took the place accorded to Enoch in the earliest traditions. Like
Enoch, Seth was "snatched up" (see Gen 5:24)120 and, like him, was
taught about the transgression of the Watchers and the subsequent coming
of the flood.

It therefore appears that these differing traditions about the two cataclysms, the steles transmitting the wisdom or science of early mankind,
and the coming of the savior had been conflated and transformed in various ways in Jewish texts. That these traditions reached Gnostic circles is
clear from their appearance in the Gnostic sources; it is my contention
that they reached Gnostic circles directly from Jewish sources, without the
mediation of Christian literature and traditions. A passage of Pistis Sophia,
hitherto unnoticed in this context, provides a striking analogy to the tradition about Enoch's two writings against the Watchers (in the fragments
from 4Q). Here Enoch is said to have written the two books of Yeu in
paradise at Jesus's command; they were then deposited upon the rock of
Ararat in order to be protected from the flood and the archons until Jesus
would reveal their mysteries to the righteous.121 In the same vein, the
Cologne Mani Codex mentions an Apocalypse of Sethel, in which Sethel
(son of Adam) received from great angels the revelation of the secret
knowledge contained in books (EV 'rat's ypa4aic, 52:1-2). The same
work cites an Apocalypse of Enoch in which an angel ordered the hero to
inscribe the secrets told to him on copper tablets (ETri inTVXac XaXtcag)
and to hide them in the desert (54:11-15). Gos. Eg. is presented as written by the Great Seth and placed upon a mountain (111, 68:1-13), while
according to Apoc. Adapt, the holy words were not committed to a book,

but were engraved "on a high mountain, upon a rock of truth"

(85:3-11).
As Gnostic circles developed an antinomian reading of Genesis, they
came to see both the flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
(the two cataclysms predicted by Seth) as sent by the demiurge in order to
annihilate them, the righteous seed of Seth. On each of these occasions,
Seth (or the Illuminator) was made to come and save his offspring, a coming similar to the advent of the savior at the end of time ("the day of
death" of Apoc. Adapt 76:16-17). The Gnostics thus spoke about three
advents of the illuminator.

Enosh (Seth's son) means "man" in Hebrew, the savior, being called "son of Man," was
also son of Enosh ("the real man," who had been "the first to hope to call on the name of
the Lord God," Gen 4:26). Jesus was thus the perfect offspring of Seth. See PseudoMalalas 9: "Enoch was (of the line of) the righteous Seth, from whom Christ is descended,
whose genealogy the holy and pious Luke traces back to Seth and Adam and God." See
Luke 3:38.
120See

also CMC 50:8-52:7. According to the Apocalypse of Sethei cited in CMC, Adam's
son received secret revelations from angels during his ecstatic trip. He himself was "like
one of the great angels." The parallelism of the flood and the tire is recorded in MPs
171:20-22.

12t Pistil Sop/iia 111.134 (349 Schmidt-MacDermot).

111

GNOSTIC SALVATION HISTORY

He [ = the Great Seth] passed through the three parousias which I

mentioned before: the flood, and the conflagration, and the judgment
of the archons and the powers and the authorities. (Gos. Eg. III,
63:4 -8)

Various echoes of the same threefold pattern may be detected in some

rather diverse Gnostic contexts. In the highly idiosyncratic system of the
Simonian Apophasis Megale, the Hestos (he who stands) represents God's
creative activity in cosmic evolution. He is said to appear three times, in
three successive phases or "aeons" (past, present, and future).122

In its new mythological framework, Mandaean theology carried the

logic of the third catastrophe a step further by giving a specific name to
this event. Three catastrophes befell the Adamites in three periods or
generations: first the sword, then the fire, and finally the water. The
Uthras (heavenly entities), Hibil, Sitil, and Anos, presented as prototypes
of the righteous Mandaeans, were said to have been saved from these
catastrophes. 123

The same conception of three advents of a heavenly figure also occurs

in an interesting Ismalili text. According to the Kalani-i-Pir,124 the Divin-

ity (Maulana, "Our Lord") manifested itself in each generation in the

most perfect human form. During the first three generations of mankind,
Maulana appeared under three different names which are, in fact, variations upon Melchizedek's name or title (nielekh galet, King of Salem,
Gen 14:18). The people of the first prophet, Adam, were the Sabaeans.
They identified Melchizedek with Seth and said that at the resurrection he
would appear as a judge and as a revealer of the teachings kept secret during history. Melchizedek appeared again during the generations of Noah
and Abraham, i.e., at the time of the flood and of Sodom's punishment.125
122t{ippolytus,

Elenchos 6:17.1-2 (142-143 Wendland); see J. M. A. Salles-Dabadie,

Recherches stir.Sitnon le Mage, 1, 55.

123See E. Segelberg, "Old and New Testament Figures in Mandaean Version," in S. S.

Hartnian, ed., Svncretisnt (Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell, 1969), 228-239, esp. 230. The
mention of the sword, which appears also in Gnostic texts (e.g., in the apocalypse at the end
of Orig. World 126:5-6) is probably ultimately related to the description of the giants' demise in Jewish apocryphal literature (for instance, I Enoch 14:6, although this may equally be a

reference to Cain's murder of Abel). See the texts quoted by K. Rudolph,

Theoggonie,

299-300. In various parts of this work, Rudolph emphasizes the importance of Apoc. Adam
for a better understanding of Mandaean origins.
124Ed. and trans. by V. Ivanov, Islamic Research Association, 4 (Bombay, 1934). It is an
lsmacili compilation from the 15th century but preserves much older material.
125This text (or rather its source) was carefully analyzed by G. Vajda, "Melchisedec clans la

mythologic ismaelienne," ]A 234 (1943-45), 173-183. From the plays on the name of
Melchizedek, Vajda was able to show that the presumably Fatimid author of this source
knew the biblical text in either Hebrew or Syriac. See further the discussion of "Melchizedek as imam and Qii'im" in Isma`ili thought, in M. G. S. Hodgson, The Order q/ the
Assassins (Gravenhage: Mouton, 1955), 169- 172, Vajda, however, had to leave what he
considered to be "the most important question" unanswered: Why the threefold incarnation
of the Divinity in Melchizedek .' It seems to me that the answer lies in those early Gnostic
trends which, we now know, integrated the Jewish speculation on Melchizedek as a redeemer figure (e.g., the thirteen Qumran fragments, I IQMelch) into a clearly Gnostic theology

112

THE GNOSTIC RACE

Once a pattern of three events linked to three advents of the Great

Seth had been firmly established, it was easy to add a third stele to the
two known previously. Just as two steles were associated with the first
two events, so a stele came to be associated with the third event. Here
again, the "need" for mythological symmetry probably accounts for the
mention, in one of the Gnostic sources, of "the three steles" on which
the secret knowledge of the Gnostics was preserved. This is how we
should understand the title of CG VII1 5, "The Three Steles of Seth,"
which Dositheos supposedly discovered, read, understood, remembered,
and finally transmitted to the elect ones (118:10-19).126 Dositheos here
plays a role parallel to that attributed to Cainan in Jub. The suggestion
that he had to decipher them before they could be understood by others is
a topos of the "discovered steles" literature in the Hellenistic world.127
According to CG VIII, 1, the three tablets were written by Zostrianos, the

bearer of the revelation, who "saw the perfect Child" (Zost. 2:9). He
said, "I wrote three tablets and left them as knowledge for those who
come after me, the living elect" (130:1-4), i.e., "the holy seed of Seth"
(130:16-17).
James M. Robinson has suggested that "if the pair of disasters could
lead to the concept of two steles, the triad in the nature of God in Neopla-

tonic theology led to the concept of three steles."128 Although the

(e.g., Velclr. CG IX, 1; 5:11 -6:10). For, as we have seen, the three advents of the
redeemer-revealer figure are central to Gnostic Heilsgeschichie. See B. Pearson, "The Figure
of Melchizedek in the first tractate of the unpublished Coptic-Gnostic Codex IX from Nag
Hammadi," Proceedings o/ the Xllth International Congress of the International Association 1or
the History q/ Religion (eds. C. T. Bleeker, G. Widengren, E. T. Shape; Suppl. to Nunren 31;
Leiden: Brill, 1975), 200-208; to Pearson's bibliography, add P. Alfaric, Les Ecritures Mani11 (Paris: Welter, 1919), 156-157. Alfaric mentions the important role played by
Melchizedek as an incarnation of the Divine Spirit, according to the Manichaeans and the
Athinganoi. See further Pearson's introduction to his edition of Melch. in Pearson, ed., Nag
Hanuncrdi Codices IX and X (NHS 16; Leiden: Brill, 1981), 19-40, and H.-M. Schenke, "Die
judische Melchisedek-Gestalt als Thema der Gnosis," in K.-W. Troger, ed., Altes
Tesurnrent-Frii/ljuc%ntum-Gnosis; Neue Studies ru "Gnosis tend Bibel" (Berlin: Evangelische
Verlagsanstalt, 1980), 11 1 -136. On Melchizedek in Jewish and Christian legends and his
identification with Sem, see esp. Ginzberg, Legends, V, 225, n. 102. Note that in 2 Enoch 23,
Melchizedek son of Nir (i.e., Noah's nephew) would be at the head of the "other race" that
would live after the destruction of the whole human race in the flood (82-83 Vaillant).
126And also the three tablets written by Zostrianos and "left by him as a knowledge for
. the living elect" (Zosi. 130:1 -4).
t27See, for instance, the text of the Hermetic Kvrianids, trans. by Festugiere, Revelation
d'Herrnhs
1, 322-323, where the writing "in foreign letters" (actually Syriac) had
to be translated into Greek (aeo//ca voce) by an old man so that Harpokration could understand it. Another Hermetic text, also cited by Festugie're, describes how secret Egyptian
writings were translated into Greek-but in hieroglyphic characters! Steles written in hieroglyphic characters are mentioned in one of the Hermetic tractates found at Nag Hammadi
(On 8th and 9th 61:26-31). The hieroglyphs reflect the ambiguity of the mystery, which had
to be both disclosed and concealed. On this topos, see also M. Tardieu, "Les trois Ste/es de
.Seth, un ecrit gnostique retrouve' a Nag Hammadi," RSPT57 (1973), 553.
128"The Three Steles of Seth and the Gnostics of Plotinus," in Widengren, ed., Proceedings
4/' the International Colloquium on Gnosticism, 132-142. See also his introduction to Steles

.Seth in The Nag Hanrnradi Library, 362.

GNOSTIC SALVATION HISTORY

113

conception of the three steles could have fitted a "triadic" theology in

later, Neoplatonizing trends, it is basically mythological, not philosophical,
and probably first occurred and developed in Gnostic circles before they

came under the strong influence of Neoplatonism. In the light of the

preceding argument, Robinson's view would seem to be mistaken, for the
mythologoumenon of the three steles was apparently associated with the
major divisions of early Gnostic Heilsgeschichte.

CHAPTER FIVE

SACRED GEOGRAPHY
Seiris

Can we attempt to identify the place where these secret and holy
writings-whether steles or book(s)-were deposited and found? According to Josephus (Ant. 1.71) the stele of stone erected by the early Sethites
"still exists to this day in the land of Seiris."I The obvious implication is
that this Seiris was the land of the early Sethites, the place where they had
once lived "without dissension and in prosperity" and where, in all probability, they had originally erected the steles. It is this same land that Noah
(a Sethite) was later said to have left (Ant. 1.76).
The land of Seiris does not appear as such in any of the Gnostic texts,

where the place where the secret writings were kept is always a high
mountain: "And you will leave this book upon a mountain and you will
adjure the guardian `Come, 0 Dreadful One"' (Allogenes 68:20-23).
Similarly, the Great Seth is said to have placed the divinely authored
secret holy book which he had written
in the mountain that is called Charaxio, in order that, at the end of
the times and the eras ... it may come forth and reveal this incorruptible, holy race of the great savior. (Gos. Eg. III, 68:10-22)

A learned attempt has even been made to locate the mysterious mountain
where the writings of Seth were hidden (according to non-Gnostic Christian texts), but the results remain highly hypothetical.2 The name of the
mountain, Charaxio, unforunately occurs only in Gos. Eg. and is of no
further help in identifying the mountain, since "Charax" was apparently a
fairly common toponym in Antiquity.3 Charaxio is described in Gos. Eg.
EVEL S' apXt Seupo Kara yiw Tip) Lctpi6a. Thackeray notes (IV, 32-33 LCL) that
Seiris remains unidentified, despite a suggestion to see it as the Seirah of Jud 3:26: "Ehud

escaped while they delayed, and passed beyond the sculptured stones (D^'7^DD1) and escaped
to Seirah
R. Reitzenstein has argued that Seiris should be located in Egypt;
see his Pointandres: Stuclien zur griechisch-agyptischen and 1hichrisilichen Literatur (Leipzig:
Teubner, 1904; repr. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1966), 183-184. Cf. B.
Pearson, "Seth in Gnostic Literature," in Layton, ed., Rediscovery, 11, 493 and nn. 70-71.
2V. Monneret de Villard, Le leggende orientali sui magi evangelici (Studi i testi 163; Citta
del Vaticano, 1952), 3-156. On these texts, see chap. VI infra.
3A Charax may be found in Moab (Charakmoba) and another one in Syria; see PW, III,
2121-2124 s. v. Charax, and III, 2120, s. v. Charakmoba. See also p. 351, n. 152 of Doresse's

commentary on Gos. E,g. ; he mentions a town of south Susiana, named Charax-Spasino

(modern Muhammarah in Iran), where Mandaean groups are still found. Referring to versions of the Alexander romances and various allusions in Gilganiesh and in Greek literature

THE GNOSTIC RACE

116

68:1 -5 as one of the "high mountains on which the sun has not risen,
nor is it possible." Doresse has proposed connecting the last detail with
the dark regions mentioned in I Enoch 78:3.4 I would also refer to the pas-

sage of Pistis Sophia quoted above, according to which Enoch himself

wrote the two Books of Yeu and kept them on Mount Ararat (thus protecting them from the flood).5
The link between Seiris (the land of the sons of Seth and the place of

the Steles) and Mount Ararat finds expression in Hyp. Arch. 92:8-141
where Noah is asked by the demiurge to set the ark upon Mount Sir!6
This conflation of traditions is not completely unexpected: the obvious
place where the writings would be safe from the flood was Mount Ararat.
In some milieus, the mountain could have been given the name of the
land in which the books were written, Eetp(tc). This tradition presupposes, of course, Noah as a transmitter of Seth's knowledge. Such a link
between the books of Seth and Noah is not found explicitly in Gnostic
texts, but occurs in a text of the Islamic theologian and heresiographer
'Abd al-Jabbar (I Ith century):
There are among them, in addition to the people of Harran, another
group.... They claim to follow Seth's religion. They say that he was
sent to them, and they possess his book, which God had descended
upon him. Seth was already dead in the days of the flood, but Noah
brought them, this book-in the sense that he preserved it, not that
God brought ii down upon him?
(see also Pearson, "Seth in Gnostic Literature," 493 and n. 72), he sums up: "Sans doute
s'agit-il la d'un theme conventionnel. En effet, nulle Charax ne parait s'etre jamais situe'e
dans ces regions lointaines." Etymologically,
which means "pointed stake," comes
from the verb Xapnrrcu, "to make pointed" or "to sharpen," but also "to inscribe, write,
engrave" (perhaps a Semitic loanword? Cf. Heb. nmrt, "engrave"); LSJ, 1977b-1978a.
Charax, therefore, is either the high mountain itself or the rock upon which the writings are
engraved. Pearson's suggestion (ibid., 495, n. 79), to derive the name from Hebrew 11 and
Greek i fcoc (i.e., "mountain of the worthy") is unconvincing.
41n his commentary on Gos. Eg., 351, n. 152.

'According to 2 Enoch 33 (chap. XI, 32-37 Vaillant), Enoch wrote books and received
those of his forefathers Adam and Seth. These books would be preserved from the flood by
the angels Arioch and Marioch and would be transmitted to the new race of Melchizedek.
Surprisingly, the figure of Enoch occurs infrequently in the Gnostic texts. In Meich.
12:4-11, a list of the early prophets of mankind seems to have included (the text is very
corrupt) at least Adam, Abel, Noah, Enoch, and Melchizedek. For similar lists in Manichaean texts, see Keph. 12:12; Hon,. 68:18 and MPs 142:9, where Enoch is called "the sage"
((rGcaoc) .

6ZIXM

nTOOY N ctp; see Layton's commentary 63, n. 101, and Pearson, "Seth in

Gnostic Literature," 493.

7Mug/nir, V, 152-153 (Cairo: Ministry of Culture, 1965). This text is translated by
G. Monnot, Penseurs musulntans et religions iraniennes, Abd al Jabbar et ses devanciers (Etudes
musulmanes 16; Paris: Vrin; Cairo-Beirut: Institut dominicain d'etudes orientates, 1974),
126. The group mentioned by `Abd al-Jabbar were apparently a branch of Harranian Sabae-

ans (and not latter-day Gnostics!), since they upheld the doctrine of the eternity of the
world. Al-Shahrazuri, however, says: "The Sabians have books on ahkant ["laws"
or
"astrological predictions"] some of them attributed to Seth and others to Yahya b.
Zakariya." Gluck, The Arabic Legend of'Seth, 47, who quotes this text from a ms. of the Brit-

SACRED GEOGRAPHY

117

It must be added, however, that this tradition was already vestigial in ffyp.
Arch., where

Noah was not considered to be a pure Sethite and the Sir

tradition had, therefore, lost its function.8

Now both the land of Seiris, or Sir, and its mountain appear in various
later (Christian) sources. In one of the main links in the tradition, the
Syriac Ghronicle of Zuqnin (also called chronicle of Pseudo-Dionysius), written in 77475, a "Mount of Victories" (tur neshane) was located in the

oriental land of Shir.9 The Magi climbed this mountainupon which

"books of Seth" were hiddenonce a month, and it was there that they
first saw the star that would guide them to Bethlehem. The same story is
told in Pseudo-Chrysostom, Opus Irnperjcturn in Matthaeuni, which also
speaks of a nions victorialis,10 the site of the "Cave of Treasures" in
which, after the flood, Noah deposited the holy books dictated by Adam
to Seth. Originally, this cave had been the refuge of Adam and Eve when
they were expelled from (the mountain of) paradise. They were subsequently buried in this cave, as were Seth and his offspring, since the children of Seth used to live on that mountain (while the sons of Cain were
living in the valley). The same legends about the cave; as well as the
"Mount of Victories"but not the name Sirare also found in the cave
of Treasures (5th century?)." According to this tradition, therefore,
Mount Ararat is the Mount of Victories, which was also the original dwelling place of the Sethite Noah.
Among the Greek historiographers, only Cedrenus identified the place

where the steles were erected as a mountain, rb Etptov

while

Syncellus more simply recalled that the Sethites used to live in an elevated
land of Eden, near paradise.'3
ish Library (Or. add. 25 738 fol 15 b), remarks that the reference to John (the Baptist)
points to Mandaeans. On the various kinds of Sabaeans, see J. Pedersen, "The Sabians," in
Oriental Studies in Honour cf Edward G. Bmwne (Cambridge: University Press, 1922),
383391, and J. Hjarpe, Analyse critique des traditions arabes stir ft's sabens harraniens (Uppsala: Skriv, 1972); non vic/L

8Doresse (Secret Books, 256) points out that the "Mandacans, to this day, regard the

White Mountain (Ardavn) of Syr, at the northern extremity of the inhabited world, as the
most sacred spot on earth, and describe it as a mysterious place held by certain Guardians."
On these guardians, see Gos. Eg. 61:9; 62:1213; cf. Allogenes68:2023 and 45:9. In opposition to this White Mountain stands the Dark Mountain, the place to which the powers of
darkness are banished and hence the dwelling of the demons. See T. Save-Soderbergh, Studies in the Cop/ic IvIanichaean Psalm Book (Uppsala: Almquist & Wiksell, 1949), 127128,
who argues for the Mandaean origin of the similar Manichaean imagery.
9Ed. J. B. Chabot (CSCO, Script. Syr. series tertia, 1 2; Paris, 1927), 59; Latin trans.
(CSCO 121; Louvain, 1949), 46.
'0PG 56, 637638. This text speaks of only one book attributed to Seth (quaedarn scriptura inscripta nomine Seth) and locates the mountain in the area later evangelized by the apostle Thomas. See KIijn, Seth, 58.
"C. Bezold, Die SchaizhOhle (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1883, 1888), 17, 29ff. (Syriac and Arabic);
724 76ff. (German trans.).
12Historiaruni Conipencliuni, I, Bekker, ed. (CSHB 33; Bonn: Weber, 1838), 1.16.
13Chronographia, 16. Another land, the name of which sounds very close to our Sir, is

mentioned by Syncellus (7273 Dindorf): it is the

Hermes," deposited steles engraved with a holy text

yj, where Thoth, "the first

(in hieroglyphic characters).

An

118

THE GNOSTIC RACE

Now a land of Sir, connected with neither the first generations of

mankind nor with the Sethians, is also known. Most notably, Bardaisan
mentioned it, together with its people the Sirians (siraye ), who lived in

perfect justice and happiness in their land in the Far East.14 Again, according to Hippolytus, the book of revelation of the Elxaites, which a certain

Alcibiades brought to Rome in the 2nd century, originated "from the

Seres of Parthia."15 Because of the location of Sir in the East, and of the

legendary traditions about its people and their perfect laws and way of life,
some scholars have suggested that the various forms of the mysterious
name of the land all refer to China.16 Indeed, since the Chinese were
identified as the makers and exporters of silk, China was known as Seres
in Antiquity, through the Old Chinese word for silk, sjg, which gave rise

to the Greek

Latin sericum, Aramaic 'Irv, and Syriac

.Pra.17 Prima ,facie it is indeed tempting to connect these legends about

the mysterious land or mountain in the East with the unknown land of the
silk-makers, which directly appealed to imagination in the Mediterranean
world. And it is highly plausible that later contaminations between Seiris
and the land of the Seres did occur.18
But the early tradition reported by Josephus cannot yet refer to China.
Josephus spoke about Seiris in connection with "sons of Seth," who are
actually mentioned once in the Bible, in Balaam's prophecy (Num
24:17-18):19
inscription identities the EeipL&s yn with the homeland of Isis, the Nilotic goddess. The Nile
is also called Eeipcoc. See W. G. Waldell, ed. and trans., Manetho (LCL; Cambridge: Harvard University, 1940), 208, n. I. On these grounds, Reitzenstein (Poinrandres, 189,
183-184) locates the land mentioned by Josephus in Egypt (or in Ethiopia) and suggests
possible contacts between the Egyptian god Seth and the biblical Seth. Reitzenstein (p. 183,

n. 2) quotes an astrological manuscript (Paris. Graec. 2419) according to which Seth had
built two towers. See also a Hermetic tradition, related by Zosimus, about secret revelations
on steles hidden in tombs; according to Zosimus, the Jews later imitated this practice (Festugiere, Revelation d'Herntes Trisruegiste, I, 278 and n. 3, noting, "Le theme des revelations
secretes gravees sur des steles est tout a fait commun").
14Book glthe Laws of the Countries; see text in PS 2 (Nau ed.) or in the new edition of H.
J. W. Drijvers (Semitic Texts with Translation 3; Assen, 1965), 40.
15i7rb Lrfpcun rijc vapOiac, Elenchos 9.13.1 (251 Wendland).

16Most recently Flusser, "Palaea Historica," 51, n. 13, and especially G. T. Reinink, who
has devoted an article to the topic, "`Seiris' (Sir) and das Volk der Serer," J.SJ 6 (1975),
72-85.
17For references, see ibid., 78.

18Thus for example in his Muru/ al-dhahab, the Arabic historian Mas(udi reported that a
Sabian temple of cosmic dimensions was to be found on the borders of China. In this temple, a bottomless well led to the "Treasure of the Books," which contained the totality of
knowledge. This temple was built upon a rock which appeared to be a high mountain. See
Barbier de Maynard, ed. and trans., Les Praires d'or (Paris, 1914), IV, 69ff. H. Corbin, who
quotes this text ("Rituel sabeen et exdgese ismae'lienne du rituel," ErJb 19 11950],
181 -246), remarks (p. 182), "dans les textes arabes de gnose mystique, la mention de la
Chine eequivaut a signifier la limite du monde humain, du monde qui pout etre explore par
I'homme dans les conditions de la conscience commune."
19These "sons of Seth" (RSV renders "sons of Sheth") are puzzling. W. F. Albright has
identified st as an archaic tribal name (referring to the early tribe suIU). According to him
the name "was changed to a common noun of similar appearance by a later poet who no

SACRED GEOGRAPHY

119

a star shall come forth out of Jacob

and a scepter shall rise out of Israel;
it shall crush the forehead of Moab
and break down all the sons of Seth
Edom shall be dispossessed
Seir also, his enemies, shall be dispossessed
while Israel does valiantly.

According to the rules of symmetry of Hebrew poetry, "all the sons of

Seth" must be read in parallel to both Moab and Seir.20 Since the redactor
of Numbers had related the "sons of Seth" to the peoples who lived in
Moab, Edom, or Seir, i.e., in Transjordan, it can be assumed that later
traditions associated them even more specifically with the land of Seir.21 It
stands to reason, therefore, that when Josephus spoke of Seiris as the land
of the Sethites, he referred to traditions stemming from Num 24:17-18,
which associated the nation of the "sons of Seth" with Seir.22
A puzzling echo of the Jewish traditions on the mysterious Mount Seir

is found in a letter attributed to Hasdai ibn Shaprut (10th century).

According to this letter, certain faithless Jews in a former generation, who

sought to escape the wrath of the Chaldeans, hid the books of the Torah
and the other holy scriptures in a cave located on Mount Seir.23
The Promised Land

In the words of Apoc. Adam, the Great Seth would "bring [his seed] into
their proper land and build them a holy dwelling place."24 This "holy
land" or "place" of the Gnostics,25 presumably the location of Sir or
Charaxio, was no longer associated with the land of Seir but had become a
purely mythical notion. In a sense, this holy land can be described as an
"inverted" land of Israel. Biblical references to the Holy Land were part
of Gnostic imagery: according to the Naassenes, milk and honey flowed in

longer understood the allusion" ("The Oracles of Balaam," JBL 63 [19441, 220, n. 89).
201n the LXX, Esau has replaced Seir, probably in order to further the parallelism between
two countries (Moab and Edom) and two peoples.

21Eor an investigation of the relationships of Seir, Edom, and Esau to one another, see J.
R. Bartlett, "The Land o1' Seir and the Brotherhood of Edom," JTS 20 (1969), I -20.
22Reinink,
who raises the possibility of Seiris-Sir being 1'fl, rejects it rather abruptly,
considering it "unglaublich and aus linguistischen Grunden schwerlich aufrechtzuerhalten,

denn Sciris setzt vichlmehr hebraisch oder aramaisch 1117 bzw. 11V voraus" ("Seiris,"
72-73). See the same rejection of Seir, without any real grounds, in Doresse, Lutes Secrets,
267, n. 24. These two verses are quoted several times in the Qumran scrolls as well as in the

Damascus Document (7:20); Y. Yadin, ed., The Scroll ul the War q/ the Sons q/ Light against

the Sons o/ Darkness (Oxford: University Press, 1962), 61:6 and Yadin's commentary,
310-311 (however, no particular significance can be discerned in these citations).

23See the translation of N. Golb, "Who Were the Magariya?" JAGS 80 (1960), 350-351;

for further details on the text, see p. 350, n. 2.

24Apoc. Aclcam 72:3-4; see Setheas 61:2-3.
25_Setheus 34: 1 0; 42:12 -17; Allo,enes 58:31 et passim.

THE GNOSTIC RACE

120

this land,26 which was elsewhere identified with "Zion and the cities of
Judah,"27 or Jerusalem on high, the city "made by the Father."28
This imagery, needless to say, was only metaphysical. The Gnostics'
rejection of the created world implied that this land of theirs was otherworldly. As Plotinus reported in his polemical tractate against them, the
Gnostics "do not honour this creation or this earth, but say that a new
earth has come into existence for them, to which, say they, they will go
away from this one: and that is the rational form of universe."29 The same
insistence upon the new also occurs in Marcion's kerygrna, where it is
pivotal.30 Indeed, kainos comes very close to xenos or allotrios in Gnostic
language.31 The concept of a "new earth," moreover, was also taken up in
Manichaean theology, where it was very close to the concept of "the new
aeon. "32

Depending upon the various tendencies of the texts, the Gnostics

reached this land collectively or individually, either through the help of
the illuminator or through their own attainment of Gnosis. In this "other
land," they would live with "angels of the great light."33 This new land,
this holy mountain, did not belong to the earth, where darkness and death
prevailed

and

where

the Gnostics

considered

themselves to

be

"strangers," exiled in the kingdom of Sakla, "the prince of darkness." It

is sometimes called an ethereal or "airy" earth (aepo&oc y'),34 where
2el{ippolytus, Elenchos 5.8.30 (94 Wendland).

27Pistis .Sophia 1.33.35 (56 Schmidt-MacDermot); see 1.32.35 (52 Schmidt-MacDermot).

28Se111eus 12 (249 Schmidt-MacDermot); see 21 (266 Schmidt-MacDermot). In Valentinian imagery, Jerusalem was one of Sophia's names; see Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1.5.3 (1, 46

Harvey). The earthly Jerusalem, on the other hand, was an evil place, built by Solomon
"by means of the demons" (Testim. Truth 70:6-8). Elsewhere, James was advised by Jesus

to leave Jerusalem, "a dwelling place of a great number of demons" (I Apoc. Jas.
25:18- 19). In Mandaean texts, the destruction of Jerusalem came as a punishment for the

persecution of the community by the Jews, under the leadership of Adonai, Ruha, and their
seven sons; see Rudolph, "Le Mande'isme," in Puech, ed., Histoire des Religions, 11 (Paris:
Gallimard, 1972), 517. On the ambivalence of Jerusalem in early Christian consciousness,
see my remarks, "Which Jerusalem?" Cathedra 11 (1979), 119-124 (Hebrew).
29Enn. 11. 9.5.21- 27: Kau'ip' aUTOtS 'yrll/ Oa(rt 'yEyoVEPIXt.

30"Novum deum proferant," said Tertullian (Adv. Marc. 1.18; 1, 20 Evans), sneering,
"Novus nove venire voluit" (ibid., 3.4; 1, 176 Evans).
31 Puech, En quite de gnose,
la
1, 90, 108.
321.e., or(a hadia, in Theodore bar Khonai's acount (Libel- Scholiorum XI; 310 Scher). H.-

J. Polotsky rejects this testimony, stating that Mani must have used (alma rather than ar(a;
see his "Manichaische Studien," Muse'on 46 (1933), 260 and n. 12, repr. in his Collected
Papers (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1971), 661. Mani could well speak about a "new aeon" (see
Polotsky, ihid., n. 12 for references) without ignoring the imagery of the "new earth."
33Apoc Adam 73:17 and 72:10-11; cf. "another place," .Steles Seth 120:2ff.

347,osr. 8:10-12; 9:2-4 ei passim; see also Setheus 20 (263 Schmidt-MacDermot). See
phenomenological parallels in H. Corbin, "Terre ce'leste et corps de resurrection d'apre's
quelques traditions iraniennes," ErJb 22 (1953), 97-194. Although there does not seem to
be any direct literary connection between the ancient Iranian and the Gnostic themes,
Further research might discover paths leading from the Gnostic concept to those of Shiite
Sufism and Ishragiyya (theosophy), which speak about the mystical land of IJurgalya, in the
"eighth climate," a land where cities are of emerald. It is not impossible that the name
1. urgalya itself

is derived from Charax (in Arabic, the first three consonants of both

SACRED GEOGRAPHY

"the holy men of the great light" "receive shape" (Gos.

121

Eg.

III,

50:10-13). It was from this "foreign air" (app) that the illuminator is
said to have come, according to Apoc. Adapt (82:26). This glorious land
of light35 was a place of truth where the Holy Spirit dwelt (Apoc. Adam
69:23-25). In contrast to their tribulations in this world of error and fate,
the elect would be able to rest36 in this permanent "place of pasture" of
Seth.37

From its heritage of Jewish eschatology and the Jewish historical con-

cept of salvation, Gnostic mythology retained, although dimly, some

ambiguity as to the temporal existence of this new Holy Land; it did not
belong only to the timeless Pleroma. Since it was a place of salvation,38

the Gnostics in some sense belonged there already, hic et nunc. The
illuminator could take them there in the event of a direct threat from the
demiurge and his powers (see Apoc. Ac/anl). In the course of history, it
functioned as a refuge where the Gnostics could hide-as did Noah and
many others according to Ap. John 29:8ff. The status of this land would
change in the Endzeit, however, when the kingdom of the powers of darkness would come to its end. Then the Gnostics would no longer be exiled
in the world but would reign at last (though not in the manner of earthly
kings) in this holy place where "Setheus dwells as a king and as God."39
There would be no more confusion between good and evil: the Gnostics
would be saved and achieve everlasting repose, while the servants of the
evil powers would be doomed at last. Even in a Neoplatonizing Gnostic
treatise like Setheus, the end of days was clearly indicated: boundaries and
guardians would hermetically separate the "Place (Xcopa) of the right,"

light, and rest from the "Place of the Left," darkness, toil and death
(58:3 -17),40

In various cultural contexts, mountains are the locus c/assicus of divine

epiphanies, as phenomenologists of religion rightly insist.41 For Gnostics,
the place where the books or tablets with secret knowledge were concealed

and/or revealed was usually identified as a mountain.42 Moreover, the

names-Iiiq-are identical).
35MPs 143:29, 199:15, ei passim; cf. Pistis Sophia 11.83-84, ei passim.

36Ap. John 22:2; Zosl. 3:21; Thund. 21:28; Testim.Ttuth 35:28-36:2 ei passim.
37Gos. Eg. 111, 60:13; cf. Great Pow. 39:13. See also Dial. Sav. 123:9; Gos. Those, log. 50.

The Manichaeans, too, speak of the land (Xw'pa) of peace, honor, grace, joy, and no
jealousy (Keph. 111:1-6).
38 Testim. Truth 55:3; Marsanes 10, passim.

395eiheus 7 (238 Schmidt-MacDermot; cf. p. 235).

40Setheus 19 (260-261 Schmidt-MacDermot); cf. Irenaeus, Achy. Haer. 1.30.2 (I, 227 Har-

vey). See also "the place of the pit" (Dial. Sav. 135:6), "the place where there is no repentance" (Ap. John 27:27), or the "insignificant place" (Paraph. Sheen 43:1). "Right" and
"left" as respective representatives of good and evil are ubiquitous in religious symbolism;
in Mandaean texts, they achieve central importance.
410n the mountain as a traditional sacred place, see M. Eliade, Traite d'Histoire des Religions (Paris: Payot, 19642), i3 143: "Le centre du monde," 316-319.
42Gos. Eg. 68:2-3; Allogenes 68:21; cf, the Apocalypse oj' Sheen cited in CMC 55:15-22.
Note also, in different contexts, the Mount of Olives, which is the setting of Jesus's
discourses in Pistis Sophia; "the mountain of Jericho" where Paul receives Gnosis in Apoc.

122

THE GNOSTIC RACE

mountain was also the proper place of the Gnostics and was connected
with their eschatological triumph: "For they shall be on a high mountain,
upon a rock of truth" (Apoc. Adam 85:9 -11).43
On the map of Gnostic consciousness, the location of water was ambi-

guous, since it was connected with both the "dead" earth and the "new"
earth, with lust and damnation, as well as with purity and salvation. The
Hymn of the Child, with its thirteen repetitions of "and thus he came
over the water," is a typical example of this ambiguity, which was central
to Gnostic mythology.44 According to Justin's Baruch, there were two
kinds of waters.45 To the material waters below (Treat. Seth 50:16)
correspond the spiritual waters above (Melch. 8:1; Zost. 18:6-9), which
were the "living waters" (Setheus 61:15-22), those of the true baptism.46
Water, indeed, was profoundly ambivalent: while Protennoia said, "I am
hidden in the [radiant] water," the father of the flesh was also identified
with the water (Great Pow. 38:20). More precisely, water was associated
with evil sexuality (Paraph. Shear 4:30). We have seen in chapter II how
the acts of lust at the origin of anthropogony were described as the fall of
a drop of light on the water (Orig. World 113:23).
Gnostic water imagery also made use of biblical themes: "The water of

the Jordan is the desire for sexual intercourse" (Testinr. Truth 31:1-3).
Here, again, the savior would radically reverse the trend, the stream of
matter, and transform the water of lust into the water of life. Testinr.
Truth 30:20-23 describes how "the Son of Man came to the world by the
Jordan river, and immediately the Jordan turned back." Hippolytus, in his
report about the Naassenes, related the same tradition about the Jordan
flowing backwards (Tote E1ri Ta auto pcuo-avToq 'Iop&iavov). This reversal

of the Jordan was considered by the Naassenes to be one of "the three

great mysteries."47 In their imagery, "the Jordan flowing back" (i.e.,
"up," avw) should be seen as the counterpart of the tides of the ocean,
that gave birth to gods, according to ancient Greek mythology: oTav fie
avw ... YEvEO'LS art BEwv.48 Hippolytus further noted that the Jordan,
flowing forth or "down," (6v Ka'TW /EOVTa),49 prevented the Israelites
Paid (19:11 -13); and the mountain "Gaugelan" in I Apoc. Jas. 30:18-21. More generally,
on the topos of the mountain setting for revelatory discourses in early Christian literature,
see H. Koester, "One Jesus and Four Primitive Gospels," HTR 61 (1968), 237 (repr. in J.
M. Robinson and H. Koester, Trajectories through Ear/v Christianity [Philadelphia: Fortress,
19711, 194).
43See also Dial. Sar. 122:24-123:3.
44As we have seen, the phenomenon is to be related to the .Sit_ im Leben of' factional and

ascetical baptist movements; see especially Koenen, "From Baptism to Gnosis."

451lippolytus, Elenchos 5.27.3.
46Apoc. Aclant 75:29; 84:5-8; Zost. 15:4; 18:2-3.
In Orig. World 108:31 -32, the water is
purified "by the likeness of Pistis Sophia" (it is linked to the anthropogonical process).
47Hippolytus, Elenchos 5.8.3-4 (89 Wendland).
48Hippolytus, Elenchos 5.7.38-41 (88-89 Wendland), which refers to Odyssey 24.9ff. and
Iliad 14.201, 246: yiivurLS re Occiv, ye"ccris r' cev6pdi7raw. But this imagery finds its direct
roots in Ps 114:3, 6.

49Cf. the traditional etymology preserved by Origen according to which Jordan means des-

cent (from the Hebrew root yrd); In Joh. VI, 42 (25) (IV, 151 Preuschen). Cf. On Bap. A

SACRED GEOGRAPHY

123

from leaving Egypt, which is a prototype of mixis. Only when Joshua (a

typos for Jesus) would make it flow back (or "up"; cf. Josh 3:7-17) could
the Israelites (i.e., the Gnostics) enter the celestial Jerusalem, which was
the "mother of the living."

CHAPTER SIX

SONS OF GOD OR SONS OF SETH?

In its Gnostic reinterpretation, the lustful behavior of the Sons of God (or
evil angels, archons) in Gen 6:1 -4 was at the core of the new mythology.

In Jewish and, later, Christian exegesis, these very Sons of God were
often identified with the "sons of Seth," as we shall see below. This
striking identification raises the question of whether there is any connec-

tion between this exegesis and the existence of those Gnostics who
considered themselves to be the offspring of Seth. Despite some recent
studies on the exegetical problem, this question has yet to be clearly formulated, let alone answered.

Before trying to tackle the issue, it might be useful to summarize

briefly the Gnostic description of the seed of Seth, "undoubtedly the fixed
point of what may be called Sethian Gnosticism."1 Various epithets are
attributed to this seed,2 this "other race" (Steles Seth 120:lff.), which is
opposed to "the material race" (Tn . Trac. 119:8-10), or to the races that
will destroy themselves through "allelophagy" at the end of time (Paraph.
Shear 44:25-26). It is immovable and incorruptible ((b9aprov; Gos. Eg.
III, 51:8-9), called "the living and immovable race,"3 and characterized
as "great" or "male."4 Whenever the father of this race is mentioned, he

is either "the perfect man"5 or the heavenly, or Great Seth.6 The evidence suggests that the very idea of a Gnostic race-and of its various
designations, such as "immovable"-stems from the earliest stages of
IMacRae, "Seth in Gnostic Texts and Traditions," 21.
2Schottroff has pointed out that in Apoc. Adam (e.g., 83:4), the term criropa is always
used positively and refers to the offspring of the illuminator; craepa, on the other hand, is
connected with erncOvia; see "Animae naturaliter salvandae," 79. See also the o-7r0'pa of
the Great Seth in Gos. Eg. (e.g., III, 60:9-10).
3treNee. ETON2 ayw NaTKIM (Steles Seth 118:12-13), which Tardieu translates,
"la generation vivante et indbranlable" ("Les Trois Steles de Seth," 567). He explains the
latter term in the following way: "c'est a dire fixe et immuable, oppose'e a la race errante,
livrde a la Trkavrl des Ills de Cain," and refers to Crum, Coptic Dictionary, 109a, who gives
aeraKLVYITOc for &TKIM. While Tardieu correctly understands the meaning of the expression, aTK I M probably renders a0-akevroc; the Greek term is retained, for instance, in Ap.
John 33:3. Layton, in his commentary on Hyp. Arch. 51 -52 (n. 46), points out that yil afiaavrivrl (Hyp. Arch. 88:15-16) has a similar meaning, "of those who are unyielding," and
recognizes in it an epithet of the Gnostic race, "the unwavering generation." Cf. the yews
rb a9avarov mentioned in CMC 67:6 or the "imperishable seed" in Marsanes 26:14. On the
Gnostic yevea, see p. 100 supra.
4Apoc. Adam 65:6-7; Gos. E,q. 111, 44:19 et passim (in the plural); cf. the "maleness" of
Seth in Steles Seth 120, passim.

5Ap. John 2:24-25; cf. "the perfect race," ibid., 28:3-4.

6Gos. Eg. 111, 59:13-15; Apoc. Adam 65:7-8; Zost. 6:27.

THE GNOSTIC RACE

120

Gnostic mythology, which evolved from and around the pure sec
transmitted by Seth to his offspring.

The idea of a Gnostic race is also found in "Christian" Gnostic text

In Apoc. Adam 78:3-5, for instance, the Gnostics are called "the race e
the immortal soul." Valentinianism knew of the three races of Ca
Abel, and Seth (Exc. Theod. 54-57), but the terminology does not appe
to be original here. The inversion of Jewish concepts reached a peak i
Gos. Phil., where the Gnostics, "the seed of the son of man" (i.e., Jesus.
are said to be the offspring not of the Jews, but of "another," "chose
people" (75:31-76:5).
In contrast to the self-laudatory descriptions of their race by the Gno
tics, both Jewish and Christian exegetes depicted the offspring of Seth i
darker colors. The father of Byzantine historiography, Julius Africans
(/Yoruit in 3rd century at Edessa)7 wrote in a fragment from his Chronog
phy preserved by Syncellus:8

When mankind became numerous upon the earth the angels of

heaven came together
with the daughters of men. In
some versions, I found the "sons of God." Now it is recounted, as I
believe, about Seth (that his descendants) are called sons of God by
the spirit [i.e., the Bible],9 since the genealogies of the righteous and
the patriarchs up until the Savior are traced from him. But the descendants of Cain it designates as human seed, having nothing divine
on account of the wickedness of their race and the dissimilarity of
their nature. So that when they intermingled [i.e., the descendants of
Seth with those of Cain],10 they [i.e., the descendants of Seth] caused
God vexation." But if we take this to mean "angels," we would conclude that it refers to those who transmitted knowledge about magic
and sorcery, as well as motion of numbers12 and astronomical
phenomena, to women, from whom they produced the giants; because
of them wickedness came into being and God decided to obliterate the
whole faithless race of living beings in the deluge.

7The only thorough study of' Africanus remains that of H. Gelzer, SeVtas ulius Africa,,
crud die byzantinische Chronographie (Leipzig, 1898); see esp. 62-65, 68, 83-84. Cr. also
Bardenhewer, Geschiclue der altchrjslhchen Lheratar, II (Freiburg: Herder, 1903), 221 -223.
8Chron(wraphia (ed. W. Dindorf; CSHB; Bonn: Weber, 1829), 34-35. See the translatio
edited by W. Adler (Department of Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 1977).
9/LUBEUETat

k Otj.tat, alto Toy

L,116,

U1r0 TOU

1rVEV'/_WTOc

Ot

ULOL

OEOU

7T(

(rayopevo,'Tac.
10E7rttX9er7-wr avrcwr.

For Klijn (Seth, 62), these words refer to the Cainites alone
Since it does not make sense to say that the wicked Cainites "intermingled" among then
selves, Klijn concludes that "Syncellus incorrectly rendered Julius Africanus' words." A
easier solution lies in a simple change of punctuation: we may begin a new sentence wit
E7TL/2tXBE1TW11 crUTG)r.

I'Only the sons of Seth could vex God, for the sons of Cain were already evil before th
intermingling.
12ETL SE npc6(0i'
is this a reference to planets'

SONS OF GOD OR SONS OF SETH?

127

This text deserves a brief commentary. Traditional editions of the LXX

translate benei eloh!/n as of ayyEXOt TOV OeOV in Gen 6:2 and as of viol
Toi 6EoV- in Gen 6:4.13 But important variants, as well as the fact that the
main manuscript support for ayyEXot, in v. 2 has the reading over an erasure, indicate that the original reading probably was of viol roil OEOU-a
literal translation of the Hebrew-in both places.14 This is indeed the reading of the new Gottingen edition.15 The emendation to iryyEkoL reflects
the traditional interpretation, describing the fall and sin of the Watchers.
From Africanus's own testimony, it appears that yycXot had already supplanted viol in most versions of the LXX, though it had not completely
eradicated the original reading. As a matter of fact, Africanus gave not
one, but two interpretations of the passage. It is not even clear whether

he preferred one over the other.16 On the one hand, he accepted the
reading of the LXX; on the other, he not only did not reject the
alternate reading viol, but he explicitly endorsed the exegesis which saw
in them "sons of Seth."
In one way or another, numerous early Christian writers have dealt
with this biblical passage. After Dexinger,17 both Wickham18 and Klijnl9
have cited and analyzed the evidence. These scholars reach three similar

conclusions: Africanus was the first writer to mention the "Sethite"

interpretation;20 the two conflicting interpretations coexisted in later Chris-

tian literature; and from the 4th century on, the "Sethite" interpretation
tended to predominate, until it eventually became the commonly
accepted interpretation. Alexander reaches the same conclusion: "The
earliest criticism [of the `angelic' interpretation] which we can date comes
from the hand of Julius Africanus."21 He adds,
This interpretation is first explicitly applied to Gen. 6 by Christian
exegetes. Only much later does it appear in Jewish writings, a fact
which may indicate that it entered Jewish thought from the Christian
tradition.22
t3See the larger Cambridge LXX (ed. Brooke-McLean).

t4As shown by Alexander, "The Targumim and Early Exegesis of 'Sons of God,"'
63 - 64.
15Ed. J. W. Wevers; Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1974.

16But see Klijn, who states (.Seth, 62), about Africanus's identification of the Sethites with
the Sons of God, "it is clear that this explanation is not favored by him."
17.S1111_

- der Giinersiihne, esp. 97 - 122.

18ln "Genesis VI, 2 in Early Christian Literature," 147, Wickham reaches the conclusion
that the anti-angelological interpretation eventually prevailed since it buttressed the orthodox
claim about Jesus's sonship. One may doubt that this passage, which is not very flattering

for the "Sons of God," was used in Christologial context. Indeed Gen 6:1-4 is not found
in the traditional caienae or testinronia (lists of verses) used to prove Jesus's sonship.
t9.Seth, 60-77.
20Dexinger, .57ur_ der Giiuersiihne, pt. II, 107: "Bei Julius Africanus (nach 240) ... linden
wir zum ersten Mal die Sethitendeutung." Klijn, Seth, 61: "he [Africanus] was, as far as we
know, the first to identify the sons of God mentioned in Gen. 6:1 [sic] with the Sethites."
21 "The Targurnirn and Early Exegesis of 'Sons of God,' " 63.
22/bic/., 66. For later Jewish material, Alexander refers to Ginzberg, Legends, V, 172,

THE GNOSTIC RACE

128

Although Klijn mentions the fact that strong rabbinic influences exerted
themselves on Syriac exegesis,23 he notes:
The origin of this idea [viz., the intercourse between the Sethites and
the Cainites] must be sought in a Semitic-speaking environment. It
was introduced into the Greek-speaking world by Julius Africanus. It
is not quite clear whether Julius Africanus learnt about this explanation from Jewish or form Christian sources. It is hardly possible for it
to have originated among the Jews, since it is mentioned in Jewish
sources of a very late date only.24

Klijn's mention of "a Semitic-speaking environment" refers to the fact

that this exegesis appeared in the early Syriac Fathers and in the oriental
Christian chronicles. In the 4th century, Aphrahat, the first Syriac Father,
adopted the "Sethite" interpretation of our passage.25 Ephrem, too, dwelt
on it, strongly rejecting the idea that the Sons of God were angels, an idea
which, he said, was favored by the Manichaeans. According to him, the
children of Seth, called Sons of God, lived a pure and continent life on a
mountain in the land beside the fence of paradise until they climbed down
from it in order to unite with the Cainite women.26
The Cave q1' Treasures is the most famous-and probably the oldestoriental Christian legendary history.27 It goes into great detail in describing
how in Jared's generation, the offspring of Seth (except for Methuselah
and Noah),28 seduced by the music played on Tubal-Cain's instruments
and by the "sex-appeal" of the Cainite women, climbed down from the
Mount of Victories where they had until then led a pure life. They did
not heed the words of Enoch, who attempted to remind them of Jared's

order not to climb down from the mountain and mingle with Cainites,
thereby prompting the flood which God sent over them. The text adds29
that it was out of this forbidden union that the giants were born, and
mentions that "previous commentators" erred when they stated that the
angels had fallen from heaven and united with women. For, the author
observed, demons have no sex; thus there are no male or female
demons.30 Moreover, if they could have united with women, not a single
n. 14. The same view is held by Bamberger, Fallen Angels,

150.

23Se1h, 77. On this problem, see R. Murray, Symbols 0/'Church and Kingdom: A Study in
Early .Svriac Tradition (Cambridge: University Press, 1976), pt. If. Cf. my review of the book
in RB83 (1976), 442-444.
245eth, 79.
25Demonstrationc's,

13.5 and 18.9 (PS 1.1, 549 and 837).

26See for instance In Gen. 6:3 and 5 (CSCO 152; Script. Syr. 71,
pp. 56-57). Other references in Murray, Symbols q/'Church and Kingdom, 221 and Klijn, Seth, 74, n. 132.

27This work, traditionally ascribed to Mar Ephrem, was probably not redacted before the
5th or 6th century, but it embodies very early traditions. Our passage is found on pp. 58-72
in Bezold's edition (German trans. 14- 17).
281n one instance Lamech is mentioned in the same context.
2978 Bezold; trans. 18.

30For a 5th-century author calling the "Sons of God" demons, see a letter of Cyril of
Alexandria, quoted by Wickham ("Genesis VI 2 in Early Christian Literature," 135).

SONS OF GOD OR SONS OF SETH'?

129

virgin would have remained in the whole human race! When the flood
came, the sinful Sethites unsuccessfully tried to climb up the holy mountain again to beg Noah to let them into the ark-but in vain. In the words
of David (Ps 82:6-7), those who had once been called Sons of God perished on account of their sin.31

Both Alexander and Klijn reject the possibility of a Jewish origin for
this exegetical trend because only later rabbinic texts made mention of it.
But any argument based upon the lateness of rabbinic sources should be
made very cautiously, since very early traditions were often transmitted
among the Jews orally, over a long period of time, before they were committed to writing. Yet the crux of the matter lies elsewhere: Is it indeed
true that there is no record before the time of Africanus of an
identification of the Sons of God with the sinful Sethites among the Jews?
Alexander seeks to show that at an early date the identity of the Sons
of God and of their sons (the Nephilim) was already felt to be problematic
in Judaism. The Targumim, for instance, translate benei elohim as "the
sons of the nobles" (bt42131 '3s) in Onqelos and Pseudo-Jonathan) or as
"the sons of the judges" (Kr"l vs, in Neofiti).32 For Alexander, the first
datable rejection of the identification of the Sons of God with the Fallen
Angels appeared in the mouth of R. Simeon b. Yohai, who flourished in
Palestine in the mid-2nd century c.E.: "R. Simeon b. Yohai called them
[the benei elohim] the sons of the nobles; R. Simeon b. Yohai cursed all
who called them sons of God."33
3196 Bezold; trans. 23. The same story is found in the Chronicle of Pseudo-Dionysius (10

Chabot; trans. 7). For later Syriac works (mainly commentaries on the scriptures) that
accept the same exegesis, as well as for parallel passages in the Byzantine historiographers
(who ultimately draw upon Africanus), see Dexinger's and Klijn's monographs cited supra.
Another important source is the Palaea Historica, which describes how the sons of Seth, see-

ing that the daughters of Cain were beautiful, married them and learned through them to
abandon God (196 Vasiliev; cf. 108, n. 116 supra). The Greek authors were able to find
another scriptural justification for the "new" exegesis. If the Sethites were called "Sons of
God," it followed that Seth, their father, was called God. (This idea does not appear in the
Cave of Treasures, contra Klijn, Seth, 40, n. 44.) And indeed, they could read LXX Gen
4:26b in this light: ovroc 1Xrno-ev c?JLKaXeio'Bac To' iivoa rcvpiov rov Ocou. Taking the mid-

dle form for a passive and making Seth, rather than Enosh, its subject, they could understand that Seth "hoped to be called by the name of the Lord." See, for instance, Theodoret, Quaest. in Gen. 47 (PG 80, 147 C). Confusing names, Cassian (4th century) said that
the quest for God began with Enoch, one of the "Sons of God" (Co, /J rences VII, 21-22 on
Gen 6:2, cited by L. Cirillo, "Les vrais Pharisiens," RHR 191 (1977], 124). Once Seth was
considered to have been called God, justifications were sought. Anastasius Sinaita referred
to the fact that he was in the image of Adam, i.e., ultimately in the image of God (cited by
Grunbaum, Be/wage, 247), while Cedrenus referred to the brilliance of his face (16 Bekker).
In any case, it should be noted that applying the name "God" to Seth must follow the
identification of his offspring with the Sons of God and not vice versa (contra Klijn, Seth,
40).

32See references in "The Targumim and Early Exegesis of 'Sons of God,"' 60. In other
verses in the Bible, elohim was understood as meaning "judges." On the ambiguity of this
word, see Jerome's commentary on Gen 6:2, Quaest. Hebr. in Gen, CChr 72, 9.
33Gen. Rab. 26:5,2 (247- Theodor). This passage is important because of Simeon b.
Yohai's links with angelological tradition. See Alexander, "The Targumim and Early Exegesis of `Sons of God,"' 61 and n. 6.

THE GNOSTIC RACE

130

Alexander also cites contemporaneous evidence from Justin Martyr's

Dialogue (79.1), where Trypho (the Rabbi) criticizes Justin for thinking
that angels could have defiled the women (cf. I Apology 5.2) in these
terms:34

The words of God are indeed holy, but your interpretations are con-

trived, as is evident from those which you have given-nay more,

they are blasphemous, for you affirm that angels have sinned and
rebelled against God.

What Alexander has shown is that from the 2nd century on, the "angel"
interpretation was more and more strongly rejected by Palestinian Rabbis,
who were "engaged in a polemic against angelology."35 That interpretation
clearly referred to the angelology developed in I Enoch 6ff. Indeed,
Tg.Ps.-J. still renders "the Nephilim" as "Shemhazai and Azael, those
who fell from heaven" (although the "sons of God" had already become
for him "sons of the nobles"!). Alexander thinks that the new exegesis
"originated with the rabbis shortly after the Second Jewish War," as a
reaction against those Tannaim who taught and transmitted "esoteric,

Gnostic doctrine," of which the "glorification" of angels was only a

part.36

But a passage from Philo shows that this trend existed as early as the
1st century. We have already seen that Philo was the bearer of Hebrew
traditions which he did not always completely assimilate, or to which he
gave a new meaning. Concerning the birth of the giants and their fathers'
identity he said rather confusedly:
But sometimes he calls the angels "sons of God" because they are

made incorporeal through no mortal man but are spirits without body.
But rather does the exhorter, Moses, give to good and excellent men
the name of "sons of God," while wicked and evil men (he calls)
"bodies."37

Philo's hesitation is strikingly similar to that of Africanus. It shows that

already in 1st century Judaism there existed, side by side, at least two
conflicting interpretations of the Sons of God. While some understood
this term as referring to angels, others rejected such an interpretation and
took 'Sons of God' to be an epithet for certain righteous men, as opposed
341bid., 62.
35/bid., 68.
361bid

71, 69. On the use of "Gnosticism" in reference to early esoteric trends in Judaism, see Flusser, "Scholem's Recent Book on Merkabah Literature," 64-65.
37"Why
were the giants born from angels and women?" (Quaest. in Gen. 1.92; Suppl. 1,
60-61 LCL). On the basis of Quaest. in Gen. 2.79 (170 LCL), which refers to oirE'pAa
ETEpov, Klijn (Seth, 26-27) argues that Philo was "the first Jewish author to take as his
point of departure the idea that Seth was 'another seed.' " These words are explained as
referring to another "race," namely, the race which began with Seth and led up to Abraham
and Moses.

SONS OF GOD OR SONS OF SETH'?

131

to wicked men. While all the Jewish texts analyzed by Alexander rejected
the angelological interpretation of the biblical verses, none of them explicitly identified the Sons of God with Sethites.
However, another source does seem to imply such an identification. In
Ant. 1. 69-71, Josephus described the pure life of the offspring of Seth in
their country, asserting that one of the two steles which they had erected
was still visible in the land of Seiris (i.e., in the same country). He added:
For seven generations these people [the progeny of Seth] continued to
believe in God as Lord of the universe and in everything to take virtue for their guide; then, in course of time, they abandoned the customs of their fathers for a life of depravity. They no longer rendered
to God His due honors, nor took account of justice towards men, but
displayed by their actions a zeal for vice twofold greater than they had

formerly shown for virtue, and thereby drew upon themselves the
enmity of God. For (y&p) many angels of God now consorted with
women and begot sons who were overbearing and disdainful of every
virtue

....

38

Then Noah, having in vain urged the Sethites to amend their ways, left
the country (i.e., the land of Seiris) with his family. In Josephus's text
the yap explicitly links the paraphrasis of Gen 6:1 -4 with the preceding
sentences. It appears quite clearly, therefore, that the "life of depravity"
of the Sethites was explained by the union with the women. It follows
that the only way to make sense of Josephus's statement is to assume that
he identified the "angels of God"39 with the evil Sethites of the seventh
generation, and that by "women" he implied Cainite women, even though

he used the term ayyEXoc, which stems from the other exegetical
tradition.40 Moreover, it was because of the sinful ways of the Sethites,
not the angels that Noah, the pure Sethite, left his country. So when the
Gnostics described Noah as wicked in contrast to the "Sethians," they
simply inverted the tradition preserved by Josephus.
Since the identification of the Sons of God with the sons of Seth was
known already in the 1st century C.E., it must be Jewish, not Christian in
origin; moreover, it probably did not stem from a reaction to Gnosticism,
but resulted from internal Jewish theological developments.

We may attempt to trace these developments back, bearing in mind that

any reconstruction must remain hypothetical. In a symbolic description of
human history, which is usually referred to as "the second dream-vision"
of Enoch (I Enoch 85-90), the angels who fell from heaven are depicted
38Am. 1. 72-74; quoted according to Thackeray's translation (IV, 33-35 LCL).
iiyyEkOL rov BEOU is a rendering of benei elohim intermediate between the more
39
and the more literal of viol rov Beov.
thoroughly exegetical of

40Another reading would-be that the Sethite women united with the angels. This is
doubtful, however, since Josephus seems to put the guilt on the "angels," not on the
women.

THE GNOSTIC RACE

132

as stars and human beings as cattle. The stars covered only the cows of
the black oxen (i.e., the daughters of Cain; 86:4). What happened to the
white oxen (i.e., the Sethites), however, is not clearly stated. Three oxen

(i.e., Ham, Shem, and Japheth) remained with "that white ox" (i.e.,
Noah; 89:1) and escaped the flood in the ark. In 89:10, Israel is depicted
as a white ox in the midst of other animals, while in 90:37-38, a white ox
was born who transformed all the other animals into white oxen, "and the
first among them became a lamb." Klijn, who studied this text, concludes:

This means that the generation of Seth, the white bulls, as

represented by Noah, was saved from the flood and that the people of
god came from Seth. Finally the Messiah will be born, again a white
bull.... 41

This early text undoubtedly gives a Sethite version of Heilsgeschichte.

But while it is clearly stated that the angels united with the Cainite
women, there is no mention of the fate of the Sethite people, the "many"
white oxen. The text does state, however, that Noah escaped with only
his three sons, of which one alone (Shem) was a white ox (89:9). This
text thus reflects an attempt to build a theology quite different from that
expressed in / Enoch 6-11, where the Fallen Angels sinned with all the
women, without distinction. This attempt is similar to the description of

the pure birth of Noah as it appears in I Enoch 106 or lQapGen. The

insistence upon the fact that Noah belonged to the offspring of Seth was
indeed natural and consistent with the Genesis account. But there was a
problem at the next stage of the fashioning of this "Sethite theology."
According to the biblical text, only Noah and his family escaped the flood:

all the rest of mankind perished. Thus there should have been some
Sethites, and not only Cainites, among the victims. The simplest theodicy
required that they, too, had been sinners together with the Cainites. We
may thus presume that in some Jewish milieus (probably before the 1st
century C.E.), a theology was developed according to which at the time of
Jared and Enoch, most of the offspring of Seth, who had until then led a
pure life, left their isolation and intermingled with the offspring of Cain.42
Noah alone preserved the "whiteness," the purity, of the seed of Seth at

the time of the flood; his son Shem inherited and then transmitted this
quality to later generations. It is this view which Josephus echoed when
he described Noah's opposition to his own kinsmen, the Sethites.
41,Serh, 22.

Referring to this same passage, Widengren writes ("Iran and Israel in Parthian
Times," 116), "By means of this symbolism Adam-Seth (and his descendants) -Messiah are
linked up together.
This reminds us of the Adam-Seth-Messiah (Christ) -speculation in
early Gnosticism. This Gnosticism of Jewish origin, invokes Seth as a source of revelation."
See also Gen. Rab. 23.4 on Gen 4:25, which identifies "another seed" as the seed of the
.

Messiah.
42Since the women who had united with the angels were in some milieus considered guilty

of lustful conduct (e.g., T. Reub. 5:7), they could easily become identified as Cainites.

SONS OF GOD OR SONS OF SETH'?

133

Such traditions about the evil deeds of the Sethites were probably fostered by Num 24:17-18, according to which the sons of Seth were related
to the wicked Moabites and Edomites (as implied in the "Seir" tradition

reported by Josephus). The sons of Seth, therefore, came to be considered responsible for the moral depravity which led to the flood.
The flood in Noah's time and the conflagration in Lot's generation were
sometimes considered to be parallel events. Since the ancestors of the
wicked sons of Seth had erected the two steles in foreknowledge of these
two events, it is plausible that legends developed among the Jews which

related the sons of Seth not only to the flood, but also to Sodom and
Gomorrah. While this suggestion cannot be proved, since no text has left
us a clear testimony, it does provide a lead towards the understanding of
an important aspect of Gnostic self-description: their identification with
the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.43 The Gnostics did not create the

mythologoumenon of Noah's opposition to the Sethites, they merely

inverted it. Similarly, it is entirely possible that their identification of the
Sodomites as sons of Seth was not original, but was the exact inversion of
a Jewish tradition they had received. This would explain how the Gnostics could say:
Then the great Seth came and brought his seed. And it was sown in

the aeons which had been brought forth, their number being the
amount of Sodom. Some say that Sodom is the place of pasture of
the great Seth, which is Gomorrah. But others (say) that the great
Seth took his plant out of Gomorrah and planted it in the second
place to which he gave the name Sodom.44

In his reconstruction of Sethian theology,45 Schenke dwells upon the

fact that in Gos. Eg. there appears to be a difference between the original
seed of Seth (in Sodom and Gomorrah) and the contemporary Sethians.
The former, according to III, 56:4-22, were placed by the Great Seth "in
the fourth aeon, in the third Phoster Daveithe." For Schenke, this seed

of Seth was "eine Art Ur-Sethianer, ein gnostisch gedachtes Heldengeschlecht der Vorzeit."46 The chasm detected by Schenke between
the first sons of Seth and the contemporaneous Gnostics in some of the
Gnostic texts and traditions seems to be significant. The following
hypothesis, which integrates the evidence discussed so far, would account
43Schenke ("Die judische Melchisedek-Gestalt als Thema der Gnosis," 134) suggests that
an identification of Salem and Sodom took place in "Sethian revolutionary exegesis."
44Gos. E,c. III, 60:9-18; see 56:9-13. Similarly, in Paraph. .Sheen 28:34-29:33, the
Sodomites are "the members" of Shem. To them he revealed his universal doctrine, "They
will rest with a pure conscience in the place of their repose, which is the unbegotten spirit";
Sodom would be burned unjustly. Marcion, too, referred to the Sodomites in his inversion
of the biblical text: "Cain et eos qui similes sunt ei, et Sodomitas, et Aegyptios, et similes
eis, et omnes omnino genies, quae in omni permixione malignitatis ambulaverunt, salvatas
esse a Domino ..." (Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1.27.2; 1, 218 Harvey).
45"Das sethianische System," 171 -172.
4616X1., 168.

THE GNOSTIC RACE

132

as stars and human beings as cattle. The stars covered only the cows of
the black oxen (i.e., the daughters of Cain; 86:4). What happened to the
white oxen (i.e., the Sethites), however, is not clearly stated. Three oxen

(i.e., Ham, Shem, and Japheth) remained with "that white ox" (i.e.,
Noah; 89:1) and escaped the flood in the ark. In 89:10, Israel is depicted
as a white ox in the midst of other animals, while in 90:37-38, a white ox
was born who transformed all the other animals into white oxen, "and the

first among them became a lamb." Klijn, who studied this text, concludes:

This means that the generation of Seth, the white bulls, as

represented by Noah, was saved from the flood and that the people of
god came from Seth. Finally the Messiah will be born, again a white
bull

....

11

This early text undoubtedly gives a Sethite version of Heilsgeschichte.

But while it is clearly stated that the angels united with the Cainite
women, there is no mention of the fate of the Sethite people, the "many"
white oxen. The text does state, however, that Noah escaped with only
his three sons, of which one alone (Shem) was a white ox (89:9). This
text thus reflects an attempt to build a theology quite different from that
expressed in / Enoch 6 -11, where the Fallen Angels sinned with all the
women, without distinction. This attempt is similar to the description of

the pure birth of Noah as it appears in I Enoch 106 or lQapGen. The

insistence upon the fact that Noah belonged to the offspring of Seth was
indeed natural and consistent with the Genesis account. But there was a
problem at the next stage of the fashioning of this "Sethite theology."
According to the biblical text, only Noah and his family escaped the flood:

all the rest of mankind perished. Thus there should have been some
Sethites, and not only Cainites, among the victims. The simplest theodicy
required that they, too, had been sinners together with the Cainites. We
may thus presume that in some Jewish milieus (probably before the 1st
century C.E.), a theology was developed according to which at the time of
Jared and Enoch, most of the offspring of Seth, who had until then led a
pure life, left their isolation and intermingled with the offspring of Cain 42
Noah alone preserved the "whiteness," the purity, of the seed of Seth at
*

the time of the flood; his son Shem inherited and then transmitted this
quality to later generations. It is this view which Josephus echoed when
he described Noah's opposition to his own kinsmen, the Sethites.
41Seth, 22. Referring to this same passage, Widengren writes ("Iran and Israel in Parthian

Times," 116), "By means of this symbolism Adam-Seth (and his descendants) -Messiah are
linked up together. . . . This reminds us of the Adam-Seth-Messiah (Christ) -speculation in
early Gnosticism. This Gnosticism of Jewish origin, invokes Seth as a source of revelation."
See also Gen. Rub. 23.4 on Gen 4:25, which identities "another seed" as the seed of the
Messiah.
42Since the women who had united with the angels were in some milieus considered guilty
of lustful conduct (e.g., T. Reub. 5:7), they could easily become identified as Cainites.

SONS OF GOD OR SONS OF SETH?

133

Such traditions about the evil deeds of the Sethites were probably fostered by Num 24:17-18, according to which the sons of Seth were related
to the wicked Moabites and Edomites (as implied in the "Seir" tradition

reported by Josephus). The sons of Seth, therefore, came to be considered responsible for the moral depravity which led to the flood.
The flood in Noah's time and the conflagration in Lot's generation were
sometimes considered to be parallel events. Since the ancestors of the
wicked sons of Seth had erected the two steles in foreknowledge of these
two events, it is plausible that legends developed among the Jews which

related the sons of Seth not only to the flood, but also to Sodom and
Gomorrah. While this suggestion cannot be proved, since no text has left
us a clear testimony, it does provide a lead towards the understanding of
an important aspect of Gnostic self-description: their identification with
the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.43 The Gnostics did not create the

mythologoumenon of Noah's opposition to the Sethites, they merely

inverted it. Similarly, it is entirely possible that their identification of the
Sodomites as sons of Seth was not original, but was the exact inversion of
a Jewish tradition they had received. This would explain how the Gnostics could say:
Then the great Seth came and brought his seed. And it was sown in

the aeons which had been brought forth, their number being the
amount of Sodom. Some say that Sodom is the place of pasture of'
the great Seth, which is Gomorrah. But others (say) that the great
Seth took his plant out of Gomorrah and planted it in the second
place to which he gave the name Sodom.44

In his reconstruction of Sethian theology,45 Schenke dwells upon the

fact that in Gos. Eg. there appears to be a difference between the original
seed of Seth (in Sodom and Gomorrah) and the contemporary Sethians.
The former, according to III, 56:4-22, were placed by the Great Seth "in
the fourth aeon, in the third Phoster Daveithe." For Schenke, this seed

of Seth was "eine Art Ur-Sethianer, ein gnostisch gedachtes Heldengeschlecht der Vorzeit."46 The chasm detected by Schenke between
the first sons of Seth and the contemporaneous Gnostics in some of the
Gnostic texts and traditions seems to be significant. The following
hypothesis, which integrates the evidence discussed so far, would account
43Schenke ("Die judische Melchisedek-Gestalt als Thema der Gnosis," 134) suggests that
an identification of Salem and Sodom took place in "Sethian revolutionary exegesis."
44Gos. Eg.

60:9-18; see 56:9-13. Similarly,

in Parnph. She,n 28:34-29:33, the

Sodomites are "the members" of Shem. To them he revealed his universal doctrine, "They
will rest with a pure conscience in the place of their repose, which is the unbegotten spirit";
Sodom would be burned unjustly. Marcion, too, referred to the Sodomites in his inversion
of the biblical text: "Cain et cos qui similes runt ei, et Sodomitas, et Aegyptios, et similes
eis, et omnes omnino gentes, quae in omni permixione malignitatis ambulaverunt, salvatas
else a Domino ..." (Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1.27.2; 1, 218 Harvey).
111,

45"Das sethianische System," 171 -172.

461bid., 168.

134

THE GNOSTIC RACE

for this: The first Gnostics knew the "angelological" exegesis of the Sons
of God in Genesis 6 and considered the sin of the wicked angels (in its
different versions) to be the source of evil. Yet these Gnostics, who considered themselves to be the pure offspring of Seth, also knew the legends
built around the wicked Sethites of early times. Apparently in reaction to

these trends in Jewish exegesis, they developed a theology and a

Heilsgeschichte that was the systematic inverse of the salvation-history of
Israel. This inversion occurred only gradually; the vilification of Noah and

vindication of Sodom probably do not belong to the earliest strata of

Gnosticism.

Part III
ECHOES AND REPERCUSSIONS

In the first two parts of this work, I have sought to analyze two central
and complementary Gnostic myths. Part I focused on the Fallen Angels,
who became wicked and lustful archons, and traced the evolution of various exegetical traditions (and their combinations) through which the
Gnostics explained the overwhelming presence of evil in the world.
According to the mythological trends examined here, however, the Gnostics considered themselves to be the heirs of the untainted pure seed
transmitted by Seth to his offspring. Through the eschatological advent of
their father/savior and the concomitant destruction of the forces of evil,
the sons of Seth would ultimately be victorious; the main steps of this
Gnostic salvation-history were studied in Part II. The identification and
analysis of these two major myths and their components provide criteria
for delimiting the Gnostic phenomenon and for checking possible Gnostic
influences on other religious currents of Late Antiquity. Part III, there-

fore, will be an attempted analysis of those Hermetic and Manichaean

texts that exhibit close parallels to the aspects of Gnostic mythology dealt
with in Parts I and II.

CHAPTER SEVEN

GNOSTIC ELEMENTS IN HERMETIC TRADITIONS

Islamic historiographers relate that the Sabaeans of Harran identified

Enoch with Hermes, and Seth with Agathodemon, Hermes's teacher:
"These are the ancient Sabians who believe in Adimun and Hermes, who
are Seth and Idris."t According to al-Birun-i, however, the real Sabaeans,
who were not the Harranians, "pretend to be the offspring of Enoch, the
son of Seth. "2 Yet the links between Seth, Enoch, and Hermes did not
originate in 8th- or 9th-century Harran; they can be detected much earlier,
in the original Hermetic literature of Egypt.
Syncellus, quoting the ancient historian Manetho the Sebennyte, men-

tioned steles inscribed (in hieroglyphs) by Thoth, "the first Hermes."

These steles, of unspecified number, were to be found in Egypt in the
"Seriadic land" (Ev T" y- Er)pt,a8&Ki ). Syncellus added that after the
flood, these inscriptions were translated into Greek and recorded in books
by Agathodemon, "the son of the second Hermes. "3 For the tradition
reported by Syncellus, therefore, the relationship between Agathodemon

and Hermes was different from the one affirmed by the Islamic historiographers. Agathodemon came after Hermes (whether "the first" or
"the second") and after the flood. He preserved the steles and revealed

their contents-just as Cainan did in the "biblical" versions of the

myth-but did not actually write them. For the Byzantine chroniclers,
Hermes was indeed connected with Seth; Tzetzes related that Hermes
Trismegistus had discovered the Egyptian alphabet but that according to
IShahrastani, Kitab al-Milal wal-Nihal, 11 (ed. Th. Haarbrucker; London, 1842), 202, 241;
see Haarbrucker's translation, Schahrastani, Re/igionspartheien and Philosophen-Schu/en, 11
(Halle, 1850), 61. Mas<udi, Les Prairies d'Or, 1.73; Bar Hebraeus, Chronography (ed. E. A.
Wallis Budge; Paris, 1898), 5. On these texts, see L. Massignon's appendix on Hermetic
Arabic Texts apud Festugi6re, Revelation d'Herntes Trismegiste, 1, 390; Massignon also cites
the 12th century theosophist Suhrawardi of Aleppo, ibid., 334, n. 6. Cf. Milik, Enoch,
117-118. In some texts, the figure of Zaratas is also related to Seth, Hermes, and Agathodemon; R. Eisler, We/tmante/ and Hintme/zeh, 11 (Munich: Beck, 1910), 574. On Islamic conceptions of antediluvian history, see E. Kohlberg, "Some 'Shi`i Views of the Antediluvian
World," Studia /s/amica 52 (1980), 41-66.
2Chronology 8 (188 Sachau; see also chap. 18, p. 314). See also the text analyzed by G.
Monnot, "Sabeens et idolatres selon 'Abd al-Jabbar," Melanges de PInstitut Dontuticain
d'Etudes Orientales 12 (1974), 30.

3Chronography (72-73 Dindorf). See Reitzenstein, Poimandres, 139, and Festugi6re,

Revelation d'Hermes Trismegiste, 1, 74-76. Dr. W. Adler kindly calls my attention to the fact
that the letter ascribed to Manetho by Syncellus is clearly pseudepigraphic; there is much evidence to suggest that the work is either Jewish or Christian.

138

ECHOES AND REPERCUSSIONS

the Hebrews, it was Seth who had discovered the letters.4

The relationship between Seth and Hermes, however, goes beyond the
identification of their names or the similarity of certain themes. Scholars
have tried to locate the Egyptian "Seriadic Land" mentioned by
Syncellus's source. But once it is clear that Josephus's Seiris stemmed
from a Jewish Palestinian tradition, it follows that the land of Hermes's
steles was simply the translation into an Egyptian context of the Sethites'

land: Seth became Hermes and Seir(is), Seirias. Here again, we must
remember that traces of the Seth saga do not necessarily imply traces of
"Sethian" Gnosticism. Yet the question of the possible relationships
between aspects of Gnostic mythology and some Hermetic conceptions is
a legitimate one. The closeness of what can be called the "pessimistic,"
or dualistic, trend in the Hermetic Corpus to Gnosticism is quite obvious,
and has often been emphasized. This question, moreover, has become
directly relevant to current research since the Nag Hammadi discovery; at

least three of the texts found in what was originally described as a

"Sethian library" are clearly Hermetic works (CG VI561 7, and 8).
Jean Doresse was the first to point out some of the literary exchanges
between "Sethian" Gnosticism and Hermetism.5 He noted, for instance,

that the way in which elements from Genesis were used in Hermetic
myths was very similar to their reinterpretation in Gnostic mythology.6
Doresse's pioneer work, however, was done at a time when most Nag
Hammadi texts-including the Hermetic works-were still unpublished.
Doresse could thus regard Steles Seth, although nominally "Sethian," as
Hermetic in content and consider the work to be "an example of the transition" between the two movements.? The Hermetic texts from Nag Hammadi have subsequently been carefully edited, and their place within the
codices of the library has been analyzed in a series of studies.8 But certain
40riliades, 5 (ed. T. Kissling; Leipzig, 1826), 187. For a different early identification of
the two figures discovering, then rediscovering and transmitting the science before and after
the flood, see the fragments of Pseudo-Eupolemus (in Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica

IX.17:

And Abraham lived with the Egyptian priests in Hieropolis, teaching them
many things. And he introduced astrology and other sciences to them, saying
that the Babylonians and he himself discovered them, but he traced the
discovery to Enoch. And he [Enoch] was the first to discover astrology, not
the Egyptians.... The Greeks say that Atlas discovered astrology, Atlas being
the same as Enoch.

I quote the translation of B. Z. Wachholder, Eupolemus: A Studv ql' Judaeo-Greek Litercture

(Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1974), 313-314.
5"Hermes et la Gnose: A propos de I'Ascle'pius copte," NovT 1 (1956), 54-69. In Secret
Books, 278, Doresse speaks about the conjunction between Hermetic and Gnostic writings as
a "general practice around the fourth century." One must take exception to Doresse's
notion of "Hermetism" as different from, and comparable to, Gnosticism.
6See B. Pearson, "Jewish Elements in Corpus Hermeticunr I (Pointandres)," in van den

Broek and Vermaseren, eds., Studies in Gnosticism, 336-348.

7"Hermes et la Gnose," 68.

8For a clear and complete review of the status quaestionis on the relationships between
Hermetic and Gnostic texts, with a complete bibliography, see J.-P. Mahe', Hermes en Haute-

GNOSTIC ELEMENTS IN HERMETIC TRADITIONS

139

links between Hermetic and Gnostic myths have hitherto not been
noticed. I shall focus upon the Commentary on the Letter Omega, attributed to the 4th-century Alexandrian alchemist Zosimus,9 a work which

Reitzenstein has already compared to Naassene doctrine as described in

Hippolytus's Elenchos.10

In a passage of this book Zosimus referred to a certain Nicotheus, "the

hidden one."11 Nicotheus also appeared in Setheus and was mentioned by
Porphyry as one of the bearers of apocalypses read by Plotinus's Gnostic

opponents.12 Since both Setheus and Plotinus's opponents apparently

belonged to a strongly Neoplatonized trend of non-Valentinian Gnosticism, the appearance of Nicotheus (as bearer of secret knowledge) in
Zosimus suggests the possiblity of Gnostic influence on some Hermetic
trends.

In another of his works, Book IX of the /mouth, dedicated to his sister

Theosebeia, Zosimus wrote:13
The holy scriptures, that is, the Bible, say, 0 woman, that there is a
race of demons which becomes involved with women. And Hermes
mentioned this in his Physica, and almost every treatise, either exoteric or esoteric, made mention of this.14 Thus, the ancient and divine
scriptures said this, that certain angels lusted after women, and having
descended, taught them all the works of nature. Having stumbled on
Egvpte, I (BCNH, textes, 3; Quebec: Univ. Laval, 1978), 1 -28.

9Born in Panopolis, Egypt, around the end of the 3rd century, Zosimus flourished in
Alexandria. See W. Gundel, RAC, 1, 246-247, 252-253, s.v. Alchemie. The extant works
of' Zosimus were edited by Berthelot and Ruelle, Collection (k's ancielis alc/tunis/es grecs, 3
vols. (Paris, 1887-1888). The Commentary on the Letter Omega was also edited and com-

mented on by Scott (W. Scott and A. S. Fergusson, Hernietica, IV: Testimonia (Oxford:
Clarendon, 1936], 104-1 10). Festugie're has offered both an edition and a commentary of
this text in his Revelation d'Herntes Trisntegiste, 1, 263-273. The most recent edition and
translation of the work is that of H. M. Jackson, Zosinius of Panopo/is: On the Letter Omega
(SBLTT 14; Missoula: Scholars, 1978). See also J. Ruska, Tabida Smaragdina: Fin Beitrag _ur
Geschichte der hermetischen Literatur (Heidelberger Akten der von-Portheim-Stiftung 16;

Arbeiten aus dem Institut fur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaft IV; Heidelberg: Winter,
1926), 23-32.
IOPoiniandres, 104.
11 <O> KEKpvi. AE'11oc (104 Scott; cf. 6 IXVEVpET(c <)1Ei'Oi.LEVOc>, 107).

12Life of Plotinus, 16. See C. Baynes, A Coptic Gnostic Treatise, 84, 85, n. 7. Scott points
out that Marsanes, mentioned in close contact with Nicotheus in Setheus is also mentioned
by Epiphanius (under the name Marsianos) in his description of the Archontics (Pan. 40.7),
who are closely related to the Sethians (Hermetica, IV, 124). Ma canes is the title of CG X, 1.
Nicotheus is also mentioned as a prophet (together with Shem, Sem Isicl and Enoch) in a

Middle Persian Manichaean fragment (M.299a). See W. Henning, "Ein manichaisches

Henochbuch," SPAW (1934), 28 ( = Selected Papers 1, 342).
13The passage is preserved in Syncellus, Chronography (20 Dindorf).
14EVTi/(AOEv(rE SE Kai Eprtc Ev Toic 4)wnKoic, Kai (rXE6ov &ircc Xoyoc (baVEpoc Kai alT)-

Adler translates: "And Hermes mentioned this in his discussions on nature, and virtually every treatise, whether available or apocryphal, made mention
of this." Festugie're's translation is less accurate: "Hermes en fait mention dans ses Physika
(au vrai presque tout l'ouvrage, ouvertement ou en secret, en fait mention)" (Revi'lation
Kpv(Eoc TOi)TO Evr11.46vcvO'E.

d'Hermes TrisnteKiste, 1, 256).

ECHOES AND REPERCUSSIONS

14U

account of these women, he says, they remained outside of heaven,

so

that

they

taught mankind everything

wicked and

nothing

benefitting the soul. The same scriptures say that from them the
giants were born.

Festugiere quotes this text in his study and concludes that Zosimus knew
both I Enoch, "since one does not see to which other writing `the holy

scriptures' could refer," and a Hermetic work where the legend of the
angels and the women was mentioned; moreover, the author of this Hermetic work also knew I Enoch, and since a short work addressed by Isis to
her son Horus is the only Hermetic writing where the legend appears, it

probably belonged to the Physica.15 These conclusions, however, are

somewhat misleading, since according to the correct reading of the text,
Zosimus knew many works which mentioned the myth of the Fallen
Angels and their union with the women. Nor does the short Hermetic
treatise To Horus, also translated by Festugiere,16 quite tell the story of
I Enoch 6-8. In this work, Isis revealed to her son that "one of the
angels who dwell in the first heaven, when he saw me from above, desired
to unite with me in a union of love." Isis rejected his demands, asking

him to reveal to her "the preparation of gold and silver." Amnael,

higher angel, was then sent to Isis; she again refused to give herself to the
angel and asked him to reveal the sign which he bore on his head.17
Amnael finally did so and revealed the mysteries to Isis, who transmitted
them to her son Horus. (The reader's curiosity as to whether Isis then
accepted Amnael's advances or escaped remains unsatisfied.)
No comparable story is told in I Enoch or, for that matter, in any of the
extant apocryphal works, where the name Amnael does not occur. But we
have noted (chap. 11) that there is another Jewish text which told a very
similar myth. In the Midrash ql' Shemhazai and Azael, the pure woman
Esterah escaped the lust of the angel Shemhazai by having him reveal to
her the Tetragrammaton; when she pronounced it, she escaped to heaven
and became a star. It thus seems that the story about Isis and Amnael is
not original; the fact that the angel's name is Hebraic also suggests a Jewish (or pseudo-Jewish, i.e., Gnostic) source for the myth.18 Shemhazai and
Azael is valuable evidence for the existence of this myth in Jewish contexts and I shall return to it in chapter VIII. However, since it is
preserved only in the medieval Chronicles qf' Jerahmeel and dependent
texts, it is impossible to claim with certainty that it represents a later version of the early model used by the Hermetic author. What is certain is
that besides I Enoch, Hermetic authors knew other sources that related
myths about the women and the angels. Whether these sources were
15Loc. cit.
161bid.,

256-260,

1 7/bid., 257, n. 2, referring to cultic practices of the Isiac priests. I would add the follow-

ing suggestion: In the postulated Jewish version of the story, the sign could refer to the
inscription of the Tetragrammaton which Aharon bore on his forehead (Lev 28:36-38).
18Many such examples of angelic nomina barbara occur in the Greek Magical Papyri.

GNOSTIC ELEMENTS IN HERMETIC TRADITIONS

141

Jewish or already gnosticized versions of. the early myth is of course, less
clear. In any case, there is a similar transformation of the myth in Gnostic mythology: the pure woman (the First Eve, Norea) escaped from the
clutches of the lustful archons.
In the Comrnentar on the Letter Oniega 5, Zosimus described the elect
ones as follows:
But Hermes and Zoroaster have said that the race of the philosophers
[i.e., alchemists] is above Fate ... for they dominate pleasures ... for
they spend all their life in immateriality.19

All these characterizations were very widespread in Late Antiquity and do

not in themselves indicate any specific original milieu. Later on, however,
the text relates how these "philosophers" escaped materiality, with

Zosimus quoting traditions "found only with the Hebrews and in the
secret books of Hermes."20 According to Zosimus (or rather, his sources),
the spiritual men were similar to "the man who is inside Adam [i.e.,] the

spiritual man." Following a rather common notion, Zosimus attributed

both an exoteric and an esoteric name to this Spiritual Adam.21 His common name was Phos (0c0'c), while his proper name (icupLov ovopa)
remained secret-only Nicotheus knew it.22 When Phos was in paradise,
the archons(?) convinced him to wear Adam's body, fabricated by them
from the four elements, and thereby enslaved him; they then sent him
another "fetter" in the person of Eve. But, continued Zosimus, the Son
of God
from now on until the end of the world, in secret and openly, comes
to those who are his [i.e., the "philosophers"] and communicates
with them, recommending to them, in secret and through their intellect, to separate themselves from their Adam, who blinds them and is
jealous of the spiritual and luminous man.23
19Scott, 105; trans. 266 Festugiere; 22-23 Jackson.

201bid., 18 (109 Scott; trans. 271 Festugiere; 36-37 Jackson). In this pagan context,
"Hebrews" does not necessarily mean "Jews"; see Festugiere, 271, n. 10: "Les He'breux,
c'est-i-dire d'une part les exegeses alle'goriques du re'cit de la Gene'se (Adam), d'autre part
des ecrits gnostiques pseudo-chre'tiens (Nicothe'os)." For the respect devoted to "Hebrew
wisdom" in Hermetism, see the beginning of Sophe, a book which may have been written
by Zosimus: "The true book of Sophe the Egyptian and of the Hebrews' God, Lord of the
Hosts, Sabaoth-since there are two sciences and two wisdoms, that of the Egyptians and
that of the Hebrews." Text and trans. in Festugiere, ibid., 261 and n. 2; cf. 261, n. 1.
21E.g., Gos. Phil. 56:4-5: "`Jesus' is a hidden name; `Christ' is a revealed name." Cf.
Irenaeus, Ac/v. Haer. 1.15.2 (1, 145-146 Harvey) on Markos. On this and related passages in
Gos. Phil. see my "Form(s) of God: Some Notes on Metatron and Christ," HTR 76 (1983),
269 - 288.
22Comnrentary on Omega, 13; 107 Scott; trans. 269-270 Festugiere; 32-33 Jackson. The

(light) and 06s (man) is common in Antiquity; see Reitzenstein, Die Vorplay on
geschk'hte der chrisdichen Tatffe (Leipzig-Berlin: Teubner, 1929), 131. On the "man of
light" in Gnosticism, see Puech, En queie de la goose, 11, 182-200. See also his note in the
edirio princeps of the Jung Codex, Episnda Jacobi Apocrypha, 104. On the "proper name," see
Gos. Truth 40:14.

ECHOES AND REPERCUSSIONS

142

The text then mentions the coming of "the demon who mimics" (o vTit,oc 8aiwv),24

who is jealous of them and who wants, as previously, to lead them

astray (Kai BEXwv us ro irpcerov 7rAav7-lo-at,), pretending to be Son of

God, although he is hideous (aopcboc) in his soul and in his body.

But they, having become wiser since they received in them him who
truly is Son of God, abandon to him their own Adam, in order for
him to kill it, while they save their luminous spirits (and escape) to
their own country, where they already were before the world.25

This peculiar myth deserves some comment. The theme of the escape
from the material world and from the body is common to many, if not
most, religious trends of Late Antiquity. This theme, therefore, is of no
help in the search for the myth's origin. Nowhere else in Hermetic context, however, are we told about this "demon who mimics."26 Commentators have recognized a "Gnostic" (meaning non-Hermetic) origin of the
myth, but hitherto this origin has not been specified more precisely. The
"demon who mimics" claimed to be the Son of God. Since a gloss in the

text identifies the "true" Son of God as Jesus Christ, Scott takes the
antinrinnos daimon to be "the Antichrist of Christian eschatology.27 However, since this gloss is probably a later interpolation, as both Festugie're28
and Reitzenstein surmise, Scott's identification has no real basis.
Although such an avri u1aoc 8aicuv is not known elsewhere, the Coptic Gnostic texts do mention an avritov orveva 29 In his study of the
term, Bohlig points out that it often refers to Satan,30 and that the antiniinion pneunna exemplifies the Gnostic transformation of earlier material.31
Similarly, we should note that in Gnostic contexts, the epithet aop4 oc is

applied to Sophia's offspring, i.e., Yaldabaoth (Ap. John 10:1-7). Both

23Conunemary
on Omega, 13 (107-108 Scott; trans. 270-271 Festugiere; 32-33 Jackson).
24Festugie're translates: "Ie demon faux-imitateur." Cf. Jackson (53.

n. 67), who relates

this notion to the Jewish "evil inclination" (pel'I mr).
25Commentacy
on Omega, 14 (108-109 Scott; trans. 271 Festugiere; 34-35 Jackson).
26Festugie're
comments (271, n. 3): "L'expression, a ma connaissance, ne revient pas ailleurs."
27Hermetica IV, 130. On the Antichrist and Satan, see N. A. Dahl, "Der Erstgeborene
Satans and der Vater des Teufels (Polyk. 7:1 and Joh. 8:44)," in Apophoreta: Eestschrifl liir
Ernst Haenchcn (Berlin: Topelmann, 1964), 70-84. Dahl's study contains much material
relevant to our general topic. His interpretation of the nnic/rashinn and the exegetical techniques related to Satan's son is similar to my analysis in chap. I; his understanding of the
possible origins of Cainism, however, is different from mine.
28RerNation
c/'Hermes Trismlgis,e, 1, 270, n. 10. In Late Antiquity, "Son of God" often
appeared in non-Christian contexts. See (despite his main argument) the material collected
by M. Hengel, The .Son of God: The Origin q/f C'hristology and the History of Jewish-Hel(enis[ic
Religion (Eng. trans.; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976).
29Mainly in Ap. John and Pistis Sophia; see p. 37, n. 8 supra.
30"Zum Antimimon Pneuma," 163.

See also G. Verbeke,

de la doctrine do
Pneuma (Paris: de Brouwer, 1945), 304-305, and Bousset, "Zum Damonologie der spateren
Antike," ARW 18 (1913), 14811.
31"Zum Antimimon Pneuma," 174.

GNOSTIC ELEMENTS IN HERMETIC TRADITIONS

143

the demon and the spirit who "mimic" are probably the same figure:
Yaldabaoth-Sakla, the leader of the archons. Furthermore, the idea of
imitation is also associated with the King of Darkness and with Sakla in
Manichaean contexts.32 This identification of the antimimos dainron with
the leader of the Gnostic archons is buttressed by the description of his
deeds: he tried to seize the pure men, but could catch only their bodies,
which "he kills." This is very similar to the description of the archons'
foiled assault on the heavenly Eve, who left them "her shadowy reflection
resembling herself," which they defiled (Hyp. Arch. 89:17-30). If so, the
"previous" attempt of the antimimos dainron must refer not to Satan's
seduction of Eve (so Scott and Festugiere), but to the ,foiled attempt of the
archons' leader to seduce the pure Eve.
It seems that Zosimus's text provides a clue to the meaning of antimimon in Gnostic contexts. The term may imply the idea of rivalry33 or,
more simply, of opposition; in that sense man, a microcosm, can be called
Our passage, however, is much more
avTigtoc T71S oupaviov
specific: the demon "mimics" because he claims to be the Son of God.
Since we have seen that myths about the Sons of God and the women
were accorded considerable importance in Hermetic (as well as in Gnostic)
traditions, I suggest that Zosimus's text reflects a transformation of the
leader of the Sons of God into the false Son of God par excellence. It
seems to me that this hypothesis is highly plausible once the Gnostic origin of the myth preserved by Zosimus is recognized; it also helps considerably in understanding the text.
Nonetheless, one question remains unresolved: Through which chan-,
nels did the Gnostic myth (and Jewish traditions'?) reach Hermetic
milieus'? It does seem probable that the syncretism evidenced by the Nag
Hammadi library is not a phenomenon of the 4th century (the dating of
the library) but one that goes back at least to the 3rd century; more than
this cannot be claimed.

32"Quand Ie demon de la convoitise cut vu ces choses, clans son coeur empoisonne' it con-

cut de nouveau un me'chant projet; it ordonna done a Lou-Yi et a Ye-lo-yang d'iniiter

Tsing-tong (Vent pur) -et Chan-mou (Mere excellente). Dans cc (macrocosme), par
transformation ils constitue'rent Ie corps de l'homme et y emprisonne'rent les natures
tumineuses chin d?nuler It, grand ntonde"; Trail(" Chavannes-PeIIioi, JA 18 (1911), 523-526.

According to the table of equivalences drawn up by the editors of the Chinese text, the
demon of coveting is the King of Darkness, Lou-Yi is Sakla, and Ye-lo-yang is Nabroel
(525, nn. I, 2).
33Lampe, Pairisuc Le.>icon, 155b.

34B6hlig, "Zuni Antimimon Pneuma," 163.

CHAPTER EIGHT

GNOSTIC MYTHS IN MANICHAEAN GARB

At various points, the echo of some of the Gnostic myths-especially the

one called "the seduction of the archons"-has been heard in Manichaean
texts and traditions. The following pages will seek to describe more
closely the Manichaean avatars of the mythical figures encountered in the
Jewish and Gnostic traditions: Seth, Norea, Sakla and the archons, the
abortions, and the giants.
The Figure of Seth

This investigation begins with an analysis of the evidence on the figure

and role of Seth in the "religion of light." Soon after the Nag Hammadi
discovery, H.-C. Puech had pointed out some interesting features of the
Manichaean Seth;' yet, his insightful remarks do not seem to have been
pursued further. Indeed, the lack of any reference to the Manichaean
mythic-dogmatic and hymnic texts in which Seth played a significant role
was one of the main shortcomings of the "Sethian Seminar" at the Yale
International Conference.2

M. Tardieu has drawn attention to the probable existence of relationships between the Gnostic Seth and the Manichaean Sethel,3 and in particular to the literary genre of prayer or incantation (U)AHA; E7raot8ai)
represented by Steles Seth and mentioned in the title of Kephalaion X:
"On the significance of the fourteen [great] Aeons about which Sethel has
spoken in his prayer."4 This title, states Tardieu, could well be a trace of a
Sethian "penetration" into Egyptian Manichaeism. It could also be, he
adds, the sign of a "volonte de recuperation" by Manichaean missionaries
among the Gnostic circles in the Nile valley.5 Both suggestions are

improbable. The fact that the two texts to which Tardieu refers were
found in Egypt in a Coptic translation by no means implies that they were
originally written in Egypt. In fact, there is every reason to believe that
the Kephalaia were written in Mani's inner circle of disciples. To be sure,
""Nouveaux ecrits gnostiques," 127 and n. 3.
2See Tardieu, "Le Congres de Yale sur le Gnosticisme," REAug 24 (1978), 195.
3"Trois Steles," 556. Sethel was, indeed, the Manichaean form of the biblical Seth. See
Schmidt-Polotsky, "Mani-Fund," 22, n. 1. The fact that in Coptic Sethel is spelled with a c
rather than with a u9 points to a Greek intermediary between the original Semitic 976l and
the Coptic cHeHA: H and i, in koine' Greek, have the same quantity (ittacization). See for
instance the Apocalypse of Sethel
cited in CMC 50:8ff.
4Keph. 42:25-26. On the number 14 see p. 94, n. 51 supra.
5"Trois Steles," 557.

146

ECHOES AND REPERCUSSIONS

the Manichaeans were zealous proselytizers, and their ability to translate

or adapt their message into the conceptual or mythological framework of
various religions is well known.6 It is also no secret that the Manichaeans

used to translate even the names of the heroes of their mythology in

order for them to appear as deities familiar to the peoples they were
addressing.? But the presence of Seth in Manichaean texts is so central
that his figure was probably part and parcel of Mani's own theological Bilclung and not a later adoption for missionary purposes.
The recently published Cologne Mani Codex, an official biography of the

Paraclete, tells us that in addition to the Apocalypses attributed to the

Genesis figures Adam, Enoch, and Shem, Mani also knew an Apocalypse
written by Sethel, Adam's son.8 These works, which he probably first read
while still living among the Elchasaites, are mentioned in the context of
ecstatic heavenly ascensions of the prophets. The passages cited describe

the encounter of the prophets with angels, and the secret teachings
transmitted by the latter to the former. According to the portion quoted
from this "Apocalypse of Seth," Seth was taken out of the world by the
"Great Angels." Elsewhere, a shining figure appeared to Sethel and
brought him to another place on high. Seth is said to have described, in
his other books, just how "the great mysteries of [divine] greatness" were
revealed to him.9 None of these four Apocalypses can be identified with
any extant work, and it is difficult to fully appreciate their nature from the
fragmentary remaining citations. In any case, these contain no unmistakably Gnostic elements and could well belong to lost Jewish apocryphal
works.10

The importance of the figure of Seth in Manichaean teachings is underlined by the fact that the only Old Testament figures who appear in all the
reports of the Muslim heresiographers about the Manichaeans are Adam,

Noah, and Seth." Augustine's testimony reveals that the Manichaeans

believed Seth to have been the first righteous one snatched up by angels
6For instance, the Chinese treatise edited by E. Chavannes and P. Pelliot (JA 18 [19111,
499-617) was written in the literary genre of a Buddhist sutra.

7W. B. Henning, "The Book of the Giants," BSOAS 11 (1943), 52-53, repr. in his
Selected Papers, 11, 115 -13 7.

8CMC 50:8-52:7; see A. Henrichs, "Mani and the Babylonian Baptists," HSCP, 77
(1973), 39, n. 29. On the literary genre of aaorcaAutpecc in Gnosticism, see Nock, "Gnosticism," 200, n. 11. On books written by Patriarchs, see Hom. 14:29-31. To these Old Testament prophetic figures, Mani added Buddha, Zoroaster, Jesus (the Messiah Logos of God),
and Paul. Mani himself (or his twin of light) was the Paracletd; Keph. 14:14ff.; see MPs.
42:22. He also called himself the "seal of the prophets" or, in the Pauline fashion, the apostle of Jesus Christ (CMC 46:1 -3). These conceptions were based on the belief (accepted by
the Elchasaites) in various reincarnations of Jesus. See p. 75, n. 39, of Henrichs and
Koenen's edition of CMC (ZPE 19 [19751) and CMC 70:20-23. Cf. pp. 96-97 supra.
9I yco-ra varrlpca rijc
(CMC 52:5-7).
10See I. Gruenwald, "Manichaeism and Judaism in Light of the Cologne Mani Codex,"

ZPE50 (1983), 29-45.

"Henning, "Henochbuch," 27. According to Shahrastan7, the Manichaean line of biblical
prophets included Adam, Seth, Noah, and Abraham, while at-Murtada mentioned only
Adam, Seth, and Noah.

GNOSTIC MYTHS IN MANICHAEAN GARB

147

to heaven, like Enoch.12 In other Manichaean texts, Seth is mentioned as

the first in such lists of prophets, together with Enosh, Enoch, and
Shem.13

One of the Manichaean psalms lists the addressees of prayers by various categories of believers:
The cry of a Virgin (irapOEvoc) to Sethel, Amen.
The cry of a Continent One (EyKparnc) to Adam, Amen.
The cry of a Married One (Eyyaos) to Eve, Amen.14

Allberry notes in his edition that 7rap9EVoc and EyKpa-r-qs "seem to

correspond to the Elect and the Auditores. The Eyyaos is the non."15 "Virgin" and "Continent One" also probably refer to
Manichaean.
the two stages of sexual purity known in Syriac Christianity as bethulutha
and gedushatha,16 for it is known that early Manichaeism developed in
close contact (and tension) with ascetic trends in Syriac Christianity, to
.

which the baptist sects belonged.17 It is most significant that in this psalm,
Seth is more highly regarded than his father. This fact no doubt reflects
the Gnostic (in contrast to the Jewish) figure of Seth; according to Apoc.

Adam (64:24-65:13), Seth was the recipient of the glory which had lell
his parents. This conception of Seth as higher than Adam was buttressed
by the correlate theological development according to which the Primordial Man preceded the earthly Adam.18 In some sense, Seth was also superior to the apostles of all later generations. In the psalm quoted above,

the cry (presumably a call for help) was not only addressed to Seth,
Adam, or Eve, but also to other entities, which correspond, at various levels, to these three figures. The context reveals the extent to which Eve,
the source of lust in humanity, was denigrated by Manichaean encratism.
While "the cry of a Virgin" was also addressed to the Land of Light, the
Father, or the spirit, and "the cry of a Continent One" to the New Aeon,

emanations, the moon, or the soul, that of a "Married One" was

addressed to the world, the Archon, the stars, or the body.
In the Homilies, Seth is described as crowned,'9 and in another psalm,

the community is asked "to sing together to Sethel," who is "our

12Contra Fausiuni 19.3 (498 Zycha) "olim promulgata per Enoch et Seth et ceteros eorum
similes iustos, quibus eadem illustres tradiderunt angeli."
13Keph. 12:10ff.; see Hon,. 68:lSff.; also 14:30. See also Turfan fragment M 299a (Henning, "Henochbuch," 28).
14MPs. 179:22-24.
151bicl., 179, n. on IL 8ff.

16A. Voobus, Celibacy, a Requirement,%or Admission in the Early Syrian Church (Papers of
the Estonian Theological Society in Exile 1; Stockholm, 1951), esp. 21ff.
17For a fresh examination of the evidence, see P. Nagel, Die Thon,aspsalnren c/es koptischPsahnenbuches (Quellen, N.F. I; Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 1980),

19-27.

18MPs. 142:3-4: "The Second Man, Adam, fell into.... Sethel also, his son...." Note
that neither Cain nor Abel is mentioned.
19Hom. 61:14-23.

148

ECHOES AND REPERCUSSIONS

Saviour," the "apostle of Electship," the "giver of life" (?) to souls.20 In

a different context, both Seth and Adam and their generations are contrasted to later humankind. In the Golden Age of the first two generations, life spans were long, but later on, "the Powers which rule over the
years" made months and years shorter, so that man now had a shorter life
expectancy.21

Seth also appears in some Middle Iranian fragments found at Turfan at

the beginning of this century. These fragments provide important paral-

aspects of Manichaean anthropogony previously known only

thorugh the reports of Theodore bar Khonai and Ibn al-Nadim. In one of
lels to

these fragments, Adam asked Saglon (Sakla)22 to order the unwilling Eve
to nurse the newborn child.23 In response, Saglon tried to take Adam away
from religion. Adam then drew seven white circles on the ground, around
the child, and prayed to the gods. There the fragment breaks off. Despite
its brevity, however, this passage helps reconstruct the Manichaean story
of Seth's birth.
Other fragments, unfortunately very corrupt, were recently edited by
Werner Sundermann, who has noted that they belonged to a longa fabula

about the protoplasts and their child.24 Adam and Eve are here called
Gehmurd and Murdyanag, while the demiurge is the demon Saklon, who
inspired lust in Murdyanag.25 She thus was able to seduce Gehmurd
through her nakedness, despite his attempt to remain chaste. When the
child was born, the demons tried to suppress him, but his father saved
him by drawing seven magical circles around him and reciting a prayer.
Then Saklon unsuccessfully tried to poison the child. The fragments add
that after the child's birth, Gehmurd did not know his wife for 80 years;
20MPs. 144:1-7; 146:12-13.

21 Keph. LVII, 145:23-31. Cf. Gen 6:3. This opposition of the Golden Age in the times
of Adam and Seth (and under their rule) to the moral decadence (accompanied by tyranny)
in later generations is not unique. A similar pattern also appears in the Chronicle of Michael
the Syrian (chap. 4, p. 2 Syriac; 5 trans.).
221n
some Middle Iranian fragments, the name "Sammael" occurs; e.g., in AndreasHenning, Mir. Man. 111, 881-883 (repr. in Henning, Selected Papers, 1, 308-310). Henning
notes that "Sammael," as a name of the devil, also occurs in Mandaean literature (882, n.
1). The Manichaean fragment is also translated by J. P. Asmussen, Mgnichaean Literature
(Persian Heritage Series 22; Delmar, NY: Scholars' Facsimiles and Reprints, 1975), 106.
23W. Henning, "Ein manichaisches Bet- and Beichtbuch," SPAW (1936), 48, fragment
IIR, 15-26. The child (gnck, see note on e 22, p. 101) is not explicitly named in the text.
On the figure of the Child in Manichaean mythology, see Henrichs-Koenen, ZPE 5 (1970),
183f.; cf. Keph. 35:27-28.
24Mittelpersische

and partische kosniogonische and Parabeltexte c/er Maaichder (Schriften zur

Geschichte and Kultur des alien Orients 8; Berliner Turfantexte IV; Berlin: Akademie,
1973), 70-75. The Fragments are M 4500 (= 18.1); M 5566 and M 4501 (= 18.2); M 5567

= 18.3); M 4502 ( = 18.4).

25The
same theme already occurred in the Acta Archelai, the first extant Christian antiManichaean polemic; see Hegemonius, Acta Archelai (ed. C. H. Beeson; GCS; Leipzig:
Hinrichs, 1906), 20.5-6. See also Mir. Mar. I, 191 -197 ( = Henning, Selected Papers, 1, 17-23;
trans. also in Asmussen, Manichaean Literature, 127-129).

GNOSTIC MYTHS IN MANICHAEAN GARB

149

Gehmurd and his son went to the East. The name of the child, Sitil,

appears only in another, extremely corrupt, fragment.26

The demon Saklon (or Saglon) should be identified with the Ashaqlun
of Theodore bar Khonai's notice.27 In the Liber Scholioruru, Ashaqlun was
the son of the King of Darkness, and both Adam and Eve were born from
his union with his consort Namrael, or Nabroel, a mythological figure also
present in a Gnostic text, Gos. Eg., as a "great demon," Sakla's consort
who begot "assisting (irapao-ra-rew) angels" with him.28
In the chapter of his Fihrist entitled "Beginning of generation according
to the doctrine of Mani," Ibn al-Nadim recorded a shorter version of the

same myth.29 Here, the leader of the archons was a figure named alSindid. Flugel gives to the name a connotation of military command or
physical strength, mentioning that it also appears as a byname of Goliath.
Dodge, similarly, renders Sindid as "Valiant Captain." But this is not the
only possible translation of the word. Lane's Lexicon, while giving meanings of the word which do carry military overtones, also notes that it may
emphasize political power,30 "a noble man ... one who presides over a

people and their affairs of importance and things in general; a lord."

Since "ruler" is the primary meaning of apXcev, there is no reason not to
26M 1859 (= 21; 77 Sundermann), where only three words can be deciphered: Saklon, Sitil, and religion (dyn).
27This central text, first edited and translated by H. Pognon (Inscriptions mandaites des
coupes de Khouabir, II [Paris: Welter, 18991, text 127-131, trans. 184-187) has subsequently
been translated and studied by M. A. Kugener and F. Cumont, in Cumont, Recherches sur Ie
Maniche'isme, 1, La Cosmogonie Manicheenne d'apres Theodore bar Khoni (Brussels: Lamertin,
1908), 7-42; H. H. Schaeder, in Schaeder and R. Reitzenstein's Studien zum antiken Synkretismus aus bran and Griechenland (Studien der Bibliothek Warburg 7; Leipzig: Teubner, 1926),

342-347; and A. Yohannan and A. V. W. Jackson, in.Jackson, Researches in Manichaetsm

(New York: Columbia, 1932), 221-254.
28CG III, 57:18-22; IV, 69:2-3. On Nabroel see Cumont, Recherches, 42, n. 3, and 160,
n. 79 infra; Jackson, Researches, 249, n. 118. As Cumont remarks (p. 74) the name comes
from the biblical Nimrod (Nc$pcLS). In the Byzantine Formula of Abjuration, Sakla, mentioned together with Nebrod, was called "the prince of fornication" (ivnro Tov LaKXn rov r-qc
7ropvcLac apXovroc Kai rris NE$pdi6; PG 1, 1464 B). In other Turfan fragments (M 309 and
M 4) Asagiun's concort is (star. Cf. A. Christensen, Les types du premier hommnte et du premier
roi clans I histoire legendaire des Iraniens (Archives d'e'tudes orientales 14; Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell, 1917), 103. Priscillian mentions Nebrod in a list of Manichaean demons;
see H. Chadwick, Priscillian of Avila: the Occult and the Charismatic in the Early Church
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1976), 94-95. In Mandaean mythology, Nebroel was identified with
Namrus, the world-mother of Ginza VI; see Rudolph, Die Mandaer (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck
& Ruprecht, 1960), 184, n. 5, and Bousset, Haupiprobleme,28. In the exegesis of the Peratae, Nebroel is a positive figure, as are Esau and the serpent.
29Fliigel, text 58-61, trans. 90-93, nn. 242-271. See Dodge's translation, The Fihrist of
al-Nac/im, 11, 783-786.

30Lane, Arabic English Lexicon, IV, 1731 -1732. On the other hand, Payne Smith's
385) also gives a military meaning for arkun: clux, found in Mandaean
(although Macuch-Drower, A Mandaic Dictionary, does not list the word). The two meanings might have been present in Mani's own language, an Aramaic dialect admittedly close
to Mandaean. See F. Rosenthal, "Die Sprache Mani's," in Die aramaitische Forschung seit
Th. Nbldeke's Vero/fentlichungen (Leiden: Brill, 1939), 207-211. Since al-Nadim's source
seems to have been Persian, it is hard to guess through which channels al-Sindid came.
Thesaurus (I,

ECHOES AND REPERCUSSIONS

150

recognize in al-Sindid, simply the archon, i.e., Saklas, Saklon, Ashaqlun,3'

the leader of the archons. Clear textual indications also support this
identification. Al-Sindrd first appeared in the text only after Abel's death

(60 FlUgel) and taught Eve the magic practices that enabled her to seduce
Adam. But the text refers to "those archons and that Sindid"32 as if they
had already been mentioned. In fact, only the archon ('al-arkun) had
appeared previously (59 FlUgel), in a passage where his incestuous relations with his daughter Eve were mentioned. Later on, al-$indid persuaded Eve to join him against Adam and the newborn who is "not from
us, but a stranger" (gharib); the leader of the archons recognized
immediately that Adam's son was not under his sway, but rather an aXto his power.33 Finally,
is said to have become an
opponent of "Adam and later generations" (61 Flugel). Cain, "the ruddy
man,"34 was born from the union of Eve with al-Sindid, exactly as in the

Gnostic texts he had been born from her union with the demiurge. As
noted, the Gnostic ambivalence toward Eve disappeared in Manichaean
contexts. Also specifically Manichaean is the idea of the incestuous intercourse between Cain and his mother Eve, which does not appear in the
earlier Gnostic sources.
In Mandaean mythology, however,
is said to have been born from
Hibil's sexual relations with Hawwa. Hibil himself was not Adam's son,
for he "was not sown from the seed of man" (Ginza R. X, 242; 243
Lidzbarski). Hibil actually appears to have inherited some of the features
elsewhere associated with Seth. He was called, for instance, a "youth."35

Ibn al-Nadim further reports that Eve bore to Cain a son, Abel, and
two

daughters,

Wise-of-Ages

(hikrnat a/-dahr)36

and

Daughter-of-

31A1-Jahiz gives the form Saqlun (K. Kessler, Maui: Eorschungen ilber die ManichOische
Religion [Berlin: Reimer, 1889), 361, 368), while the demiurge appears under the name
Lou-Yi in Trait Chapannes-Pelliot (525, n. 1).

32Dodge (11, 785, n. 200) states: "The name [al Sindid] probably refers to the Angel who
raped Wise of Ages." This is not at all certain, at least if one recognizes in the story told by
al-Nadim a version of the myth previously told in I-Iyp. Arc/i. If al-5indid is Sakla, he did
not succeed in raping Norea, Eve's pure daughter. In any case, it would be surprising if the
two pure maidens, Faryd and Barfaryad (or Purfaryad) would be born from the rape of
Wise-of-Ages by the lustful archon. Despite the fact that the details of the myth are far
from clear in this version, it is not likely that the pure maidens were daughters of Sakla.
330ne can safely suppose that the Aramaic (Syriac?) Vorlage (of the Persian) had here
nukraya, i.e., kkoyctrijc. On Seth being called the
in Gnostic traditions, see
Puech, "Les nouveaux crits gnostiques," 126134; ci my "Aher: a Gnostic," in Layton,
ed.,

II, 808818.
34A1-ra Jul al-aqar. I do not recall any other place where Cain is called "ruddy," but this

epithet brings to mind the biblical etymology for Esau's name, Edom, from adorn, "red"
(Gen 25:30). By way of contrast, Abel, the pure one, is named "the white man" (al-rajul
al-a/wad) in Ibn al-Nadim's account. On Cain as son of Eve and the demiurge, see chap. II
35Segelberg, "Old and New Testament Figures in Mandaean Version," 232. The Mandaean versions of the myths appear to be later developments.
36According to the
GunzO,k Vita,; a Zoroastrian polemical treatise of the 9th cen-

tury, the myth of the seduction of the archons involved the "daughters of Time." They
were sent by the twelve glorious ones ( = the twelve glorious virgins evoked by the

GNOSTIC MYTHS IN MANICHAEAN GARB

151

Corruption (ibnat al-hirs).37 Cain took Daughter-of-Corruption for a wife,

while he gave Wise-of-Ages to Abel. But Wise-of-Ages was seduced by a
good angel and gave birth, as the angel promised, to two girls whom she
named Raufaryad and Barfaryad.38 Faryad is a Persian word, the basic
meaning of which is "help," "cry for help."39 In this female pair, I propose to recognize the Manichaean transformation of the Gnostic Norea,
Eve's pure daughter. Norea, indeed, was characterized by the cry, "Res-

cue me!" which she raised to the heavenly powers when the demiurge
tried to seduce her:
But Norea turned, with the might of [

... ] and in a loud voice [she]

cried out [up to] the Holy One, the God of the Entirety, "Rescue
[$0n0EEV] me from the Archons of Unrighteousness and save me
from their clutches-forthwith! "40

As for Adam and Eve's child, a handsome male with a comely visage,
he remained nameless at the beginning of his life. When al-Sindid convinced Eve not to nurse him, Adam said that he would feed the child on
cows' milk and fruit from trees.41 Then al-Sindid made all cows and fruit
trees disappear, and Adam drew three magic circles around the child. On
them he wrote the names of the king of paradise, the Primordial Man,
and the Spirit of Life, and prayed to God to feed the child. This prayer
was answered, and near the child grew a lotus tree, out of which milk
flowed. Adam fed the child (al-sabi) with the milk, and called him "by
its name [i.e., the name of the tree]. Then he called him Shathil."42 Later
Messenger in Theodore bar Khonai's version) to arouse the male demons' lust. See
Cumont, Recherches, 1, 60. See p. 155, n. 58 infra.
37Corruption, al-hirs, appeared already in al-Nadim's report as one of the five mates of
the male demon involved in the creation of Adam.

38Flugel's Arabic text (60) has ,jaiyad and baifaryad, which he translates "komm zur
Hilfe" and "bringe Hilfe"; Dodge reads faryad and pud, dyad, which he translates "Lamentation" and "Laden with Lamentation."
39See F. Steingass, A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary (Beirut, 1970 [1892]), 126.

The presence of this Persian name makes it clear that al-Nadim's Manichaean source was
either Persian or an Arabic translation from the Persian. For other instances of doubling of
figures in Manichaeism, see Bousset, Haupiproblente, 77.

40Hyp. Arch. 92:32-93:2. The great angel Eleleth (Sagacity) then came to Norea's help
(Hvp. Arch. 93:8-10). But Norea herself inherited from her mother the role of helper (/3or1
Octa) of Gnostic mankind (Hyp. Arch. 91:34-92:3). Help is a central concept of Manichaean
as well as Gnostic theology; Mani's helper and protector was his twin: Eyw fiE E7rtKOVpOc (ToV

KM 0vka6 Ecrwac Kara rranra Kacpbi' (CMC 33:2-6). On the use of (3o7lO0's, see CMC
In MPs. 209:24-30 and 210:1-16, Adamas of Light succored (/30-q0ei11) the youth
(nNINoy) beneath the pit at the bottom of Hades and then fettered the demons. U. MPs.

32:2.

206:1 Of.

41This association of milk and trees is reminiscent of the Iranian legends about
Zarathustra's birth and early education. See, for instance, Denkari, VII, chap. 2, 19-42,
trans. M. Mole', La Legencle de Zoroasire selon les texies pehlevis (Travaux de l'institut
d'e'tudes iraniennes de l'Universite' de Paris 3; Paris: Klincksieck, 1967). 1 owe this reference
to Dr. William Darrow.

420n the etymology of this name, see chap. III supra. In the Eihrist, the child's name
appears only when its etymology can be accounted for.

ECHOES AND REPERCUSSIONS

152

on, Shathil convinced his father Adam to free himself from the bonds of
lust, to leave Eve and go with him to the East, to the light of God's wisdom (i.e., to paradise, where Adam died). The story ended with the note
that Shathil, (Rau)faryad, Barfaryad, and Wise-of-Ages managed their
affairs in sadiqut,43 while Eve, Cain, and Daughter-of-Corruption went to
hell.

In summary, we have seen that Seth was a central figure of-Manichaean

mythology, and that in this mythology, the description of mankind's first
generations appears to be a later, more developed, baroque version of the

Gnostic myths studied in Part I of this work. Indeed, it is based on the

rape of Eve (which is also found in Hebrew midrashim), but also keeps
trace of the figure of Gnostic Norea.
The Seduction of the Archons

The myth of "the seduction of the archons" is a good illustration of

Mani's well-known propensity for borrowing from different cultural and
religious milieus. One version of the myth, indeed, is reported in Zoroastrian texts. The Bundahishn (a text redacted only in the centuries following the Arab conquest, but which retains much earlier traditions) recalls
how in the Urzeit Ahriman sent the god Narsai in the shape of a naked
fifteen-year-old lad (an age symbolic of early manhood in Zoroastrianism)
to TaKi the prostitute, and how the latter was filled with desire for him.44
Based on yet another Mazdaean version of the same myth reported by
Theodore bar Khonai, Cumont, followed by Widengren,45 concludes that
it is this myth which lies directly at the origin of the Manichaean seduction myth. This argument, however, fails to convince because it does not
take into account the existence of the myth in Gnostic contexts that were
in no way under direct Iranian influence. There is no denying the fact
that the seduction myth, which appeared in various forms, may well have
been the survival of some ancient nature myth, as F. C. Burkitt pointed
out;46 but it is far from certain that Mani borrowed the myth directly from
an Iranian source (although it does appear more clearly in Manichaean
traditions than in Gnostic versions). By now it is apparent'that Mani borrowed relatively little from Iranian mythology.47 The exact means of
transmission through which the seduction myth reached Mani remains a
matter for speculation (according to Ephrem, Mani received the myth
43Flugel translates, "folgten mit der $iddikut (der Gemeinde der Wahrhaftigen)," giving
to a/ sacliq ci the meaning of the Arabic root sdq (trust). The word itself, however, is not
Arabic, but must come from Syriac zadiqutha, "righteousness." This basic meaning should
be preferred here.
44Bunc/a1jis1jn IV.1 -8;
follow the edition and translation of B. T. Anklesaria, Zand1

Akas7h, Iranian or Greater Bundahishn (Bombay: 1956), 46-47.

45Cumont, Recherehes, 1, 61 -62; G. Widengren, Mani and let- Manichdisntus (Stuttgart:
Kohlhammer, 1961), also 61-62.
The Religion of the Manichees (Cambridge: University Press, 1925), 29.
47See for instance Henning, "Giants," 52, as well as the overall evidence of CMC.

GNOSTIC MYTHS IN MANICHAEAN GARB

153

from Bardaisan),48 but there is little doubt that the major role was played
by Jewish traditions, probably mediated by Gnostic or gnosticizing reinterpretations and developments.

Far from being limited to the story of Seth, Gnostic influence upon
Manichaean mythology is also reflected in the myths about the archons
and their seduction. In Judaism the fall of the angels was seen as a single
event, a turning-point in the course of history; in its Gnostic reinterpretation the myth became a pattern inherent in history, under the sway of
lustful archons. Nevertheless, the evil-doings of Sakla and his acolytes
were kept within the framework of the Genesis story in the Gnostic
works, which claimed to give the true exegesis of the biblical text. Manichaeism, a fuller, even baroque, development of Gnostic trends, brought
the blossoming Gnostic mythology to its logical conclusion: the severing
of its links with the Hebrew Bible. Manichaean mythology, this "simulation of reason" (in Paul Ricoeur's words), had not only etiological, but
also scientific pretensions. It did not simply attempt to account for human

history, or even for human nature-it aimed at no less than a comprehensive analysis of the cosmos, its phenomena, and its very creation.
Every theologoumenon used by Mani was totally reinterpreted and
integrated into a new mythological framework. Manichaeism carried to
the extreme the process, begun with Gnosticism, of shifting myths back
to earlier stages in the Vorzeit and to "higher" levels of reality. Thus, in
Manichaean contexts, some of the central elements of the seduction myth
are found in cosmological accounts. The lustful archons of Gnosticism
appear in Manichaean traditions as the sons and daughters of Darkness, or
else as demons crucified on the vault of the heavens (or from whose skins
the heavens were made). According to Theodore bar Khonai's testimony,
Thereupon the Living Spirit gave command to his three sons, the one
to kill and the other to flay the Archons, the Sons of Darkness, and
that they should deliver them to the Mother of Life. The Mother of

Life spread out the heaven with their skins and made ten heavens,
and they threw the body of these to the Earth of Darkness, and they
made eight earths.49

Henning has pointed out that these demons are a transformation of the
Watchers of 1 Enoch.50 Actually, one of the Middle Persian texts edited by
Henning (M 625 C) knows the original Aramaic name of the Watchers,
cyr.51 For Henning, however, the Manichaean myth came directly from
I Enoch. He does not mention the significance of these demons for
48See his Fourth Dialogue with Hypatius, in C. W. Mitchell, ed. and trans., S. Ephraim's
Prose Refutations of Man!, Marcion and Bardaisan, I (London, 1912), 122-124.
49Liber Scholiorunt XI, p. 128, trans. 188 Pognon; cf. Cumont, Recherches, 27; Jackson,
Researches, 233-235. I usually quote according to Yohannan's translation (in Jackson), but
sometimes depart from it. The text has eleven heavens, but the correct number is ten. See
the parallels given by Jackson, Researches, 234, n. 48.

50''Giants," 53 ( = Selected Papers, 11, 116).

51"Henochbuch," 29 (= Selected Papers, I, 341).

ECHOES AND REPERCUSSIONS

154

Mani's Gnostic consciousness. The very fact that the myth was transferred

to the realm of cosmogony indicates a major shift from the myth of

I Enoch. Like I Enoch, Manichaean mythology presented the Watchers'

binding as a punishment for their sin; but it was only after they had swallowed the Primordial Man and his five sons that the Living Spirit captured
and crucified (or bound) them.52
Keph. LXX tells us that when the Watchers (Eypr)yopot) came down
from heaven, during the vigil of the great King of Honor
one of the
cosmic periods which preceded the creation of the earth), they brought
with them earthquakes and malice (171:16-19). Keph. LXX adds that
with them "rebellion and ruin came about on the earth" (92:31), and that
(i.e.,,

on their account the four angels53 received their orders: they bound
the Egregoroi with eternal fetters in the prison of the dark (?); their
sons were destroyed upon the earth. (93:25-28; cf. 117:1-9)

According to Henning, however, the heavenly origin of the Watchers "did

not square with Mani's conviction that no evil could come from good,"
and he therefore "transformed them into `demons,' namely those demons
who had been imprisoned in the skies, under the supervision of the Rex
Honoris" when the world was created.54

In chap. II we saw how the foiled attempt of the archons to rape the
pure women was transformed, in some Gnostic traditions, into a voluntary
seduction of the archons by these women. In Manichaeism, the seduction
of the archons became a complex myth, central to the cosmic "economy
of salvation." The texts give us various account of this myth. While the
myth itself has been studied, the functional differences between its versions have not hitherto been satisfactorily analyzed, not even by Cumont,
who has offered a thorough study of the topic. For instance, when he

notes that the same expression ("he revealed his forms") was used in
conjunction with both the Living Spirit and the Messenger, he simply
states: "Cette identite ... semble indiquer que l'Esprit-Vivant a eu
recours au meme artifice que le Messager."55 It is my opinion, however,
52Liber Schol. XI, p. 127, trans. 186 Pognon; Jackson, Researches, 225-226; Cumont,
Reseerches, 54. In Gos. Eg., similarly, the Great Seth recognized the devil's scheme, and

Jesus "the living one," "whom he had put on," nailed the powers of the thirteen archons;
CG 111, 64:1 -4.

53The four angels are Raphael, Michael, Gabriel, and Istrael in I Enoch 10:1. Henning
("Giants," 54) mentions that "they are frequently invoked by name in Manichaean prayers
(e.g., M 4 d 19, f 6; M 20) as Rwp'yl, Myx'yl, Gbr'yl and Sr'yl (Istrael)." These should be
identified with the "four helpers" of Norea. Syncellus (Chronography, 22 Dindorf), quoting

from "the first book of Enoch on the Watchers," has Michael, Ouriel, Raphael, and
Gabriel, as in I Enoch 9:1.
54The same idea is in Asmussen, Manichaean Literature, 103.
55Recherches, 30, n. 5; see esp. Appendix 1, 54-68; "La Seduction des Archontes." Cf.

Widengren, Mani, 60-62; idem, ed., Der Manichaisntus (Wege der Forschung 168;
Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1977), XXVIII and XXIX, n. 50. See also
Puech, Manicheisnte, 80 and 172, n. 324, which adds new texts to Cumont's documentation,

and the texts translated by Asmussen, Manichaean Literature, 130-131. Cf. E. Benveniste's

GNOSTIC MYTHS IN MANICHAEAN GARB

155

that these accounts should be seen as referring to three different versions

of the etiological myth, which were meant, in Manichaean "science," to
explain the various phenomena of cosmogony, life, and death.
1. The first version, the cosmogonical, was described by Theodore bar
Khonai as follows:56
The Living Spirit (ruha hayd) revealed his forms (gale Sara/eh) to the
sons of Darkness; and from the Light which had been swallowed by
them from these Five Luminous Gods he purified the light and made
the Sun, the Moon and more than a thousand stars.57

While the text is rather elliptic, it should be understood that the light
from which the cosmos was created came out in the semen of the sons of
Darkness when they were sexually aroused by the body ("the forms") of
the Living Spirit. (The word for "spirit," ruha, is masculine but can refer
to a feminine entity.) This first version is thus part of the cosmogonical
process.

11. The Messenger (izgada) is the main character of the second version
of the seduction of the archons. After evoking the twelve virgins "with

their vestments and with their crowns and with their attributes,"58 the
Messenger sailed in his vessel of light (the moon) across the heavens, and
when he reached the middle of its vault,
he revealed his forms, male and female, and was seen by all the
archons, the sons of Darkness, males and females. And at the sight
of the Messenger, who was beautiful in his forms, all the archons

remarks in Le Monde Oriental 26 (1932-1933), non vidi. An Iranian form of the Manichaean
myth is found in the Skand Gunian k Vicar (ed. and trans J. de Me'nasce; Collectanea Friburgensia 30; Friburg: Librairie de l'Universite', 1945), chap. 16. 28-37, trans. pp. 253-255. In
this work, the archons are called niazandaran (p. 260, n. on 16. 31-33).
56129, trans. 189 Pognon; Cumont, Recherches, 29; Schaeder, Siudien, 344 bott.; Jackson,
Researches, 236-237.
y)dfir men alpha. Jackson, Researches, 237, has "and the light (of the Stars)
more than a thousand." See his long n. 63. Pognon would seem to be correct when he

emends it to nuhre (plural) and thus translates "et des lumie'res au nombre de plus de
mille." These "lights" are probably the equivalent of the Greek iwonpec and refer to
lights other than the sun and the moon, i.e., the stars.
58129 Pognon; Jackson, Researches, 241. The twelve virgins were also called the twelve
great Majesties, or again the twelve daughters (Train' Chavannes-Pelliot, 567, 568 n. 3). See
Jackson, Researches, 241, n. 78, and Noldeke's remark in Cumont, Recherches, 35, n. 2,
about the identity of Persian (from Turfan) and Syriac names. These twelve virgins might
be identified with the twelve pilots who sailed in the "small vessel" with the emanations,
Jesus, the Mother of Life, and the Virgin of Light, while the third Messenger sailed in the
big vessel (Acta Archelai 13.2 [21 Beeson]). In the Skand-Gumanik Vicar, the twelve virgins

were called "the twelve Glorious Daughters of Zurvan." On the Virgin of Light, see
Bousset, Haupiprobleme, 62, for whom she is a duplication of the figure of Barbelo. This Virgin of Light also appeared in Pistis Sophia, where she stood above the thirteenth aeon (see
Haupiproblenre, 61-63, 76-77). See also Bohlig, "Zur Vorstellung vom Lichtkreuz in Gnostizismus and Manichaismus," in B. Aland, ed., Gnosis, FesischrW.tiir Hans Jonas, 473-491.

ECHOES AND REPERCUSSIONS

156

became tilled with lust for him, the males for the form of the female,
and the females for the form of the
male.59

The myth here is two-fold, for the sexual arousal of the male and female
archons would have divergent consequences: the establishment of I/fr,
both vegetal and animal, upon the earth.
As in the first version of the seduction, the male archons emitted some
of the light they had swallowed from the semen ("that sin which was shut
up in them") of the five Luminous Gods. After the archons rejected it in

disgust, this "sin" fell upon the earth, partly on the sea ("the moist
part") and partly on the earth itself ("the dry"). In the sea, it became "a
hateful beast in the likeness of the King of Darkness," against which Adamas of Light60 was sent to fight and which he killed.61 The function of this

beast in the organization of the world remains unclear in Theodore bar

Khonai's description. On the other hand, from the "sin" which fell on
the dry earth, five trees sprang up; they represent vegetal life in Manichaean symbolism.62

Animal life, on the other hand, was created as a result of the female
archons' lust. Theodore, quoting Mani again, relates that
these Daughters of Darkness were previously pregnant of their own
nature, and on seeing the beauty of the forms of the Messenger their
51129 Pognon.

600n Adamas of Light, see F. Cumont, "Adamas, genie manicheen," in Melanges Louis
Hcnvt (Paris, 1909), 79-82; Jackson, Researches, 296-313. See further Puech, Manicheistne,
173, n. 325.

61This "hateful beast" should be connected with the "Giant of the Sea" of Keph. XLV

(114-115); nrlrac NeaAacca was created and designed Qcuypa0ciu) through the

power of lust (E7n9via) in him (115:1-2). See also Keph. LV (136:20-137:11), where the
Giant of the Sea was one of three (not two) entities engendered through an abnormal coitus
(rrvi,ovcria). He is said to have been the expulsion (ncwzpe) from the o-caaipa thrown
into the sea by the Father of Light. He in turn fashioned a creation (7rk6o-a) out of his
own fire and his own Ev9G7jotc (idea, conception). The second creation was the entity
(chucrcc) that fell upon the earth, was drawn into the sea, and became the source of death;
against it Adamas of Light was sent to fight. The third one was the entity that fell upon the
dry part of the earth, created "the tree," and remained in it. These beings belonged to the
shadow, but were made manifest in the world. Thus the Giant of the Sea apparently belongs
to the beings created by the fallen semen and fetuses of the archons and is part of the fuller
version of the myth recounted by Theodore (On the Iranian name for yiyac, see Henning,
"Giants," 54); cf. Polotsky, "Manichaismus," PWSup, IV, 255; repr. in his Collected Papers,
706. In Acta Arche/ai (chap. 36; 51 Beeson),
a dragon harassed the Fallen Angels: "alii vero
in felicitate hominum filiabus admixti a dracone adflicti, ignis aeterni poenam suscipere
meruerunt." Milik tentatively identifies this dragon with the Leviathan "who
may have
dominated the giants" (Enoch, 320). Milik also quotes (p. 336) Judaeo-Aramaic incantations
citing Mount Hermon and "the monster Leviathan" or "the Leviathan of the Sea" in the
same breath. The Leviathan and the Giant thus seem to have been related to each other.
62130,
trans. 190 Pognon; Cumont, Recherches, 39-40; Schaeder, Studien, 346; Jackson,
Researches, 246-247, n. 112. For an allusion to these five trees in Manichaeism
as typifying
plant life on earth see Jackson, "The Doctrine of Metempsychosis in Manichaeism," JAOS
45 (1925), 264, n. 70; cf. the "five trees in paradise," Gos. Thom
log. 19 (Puech, En quete de
lagnose, 11, 99-105).

GNOSTIC MYTHS IN MANICHAEAN GARB

157

fetuses (culayhon) dropped63 and fell upon the earth and devoured the
buds of the trees.

Henning has remarked that "in Manichaean parlance, `abortion'

is

synonymous with `animal."164 Augustine, too, mentioned the fall of the

fetuses-attributing it to the archons' inability to endure the beginning of
the heavens' rotation-and added that
these Abortions, both male and female, fallen upon the earth, were
able to live, develop, unite and generate. This is, they say, the origin
of all flesh-beings moving on earth, in the water, in the air.65

The way in which the fall of these abortions is connected to anthropogony

will be discussed later on.
III.

Yet another version of the seduction is described in the Acta

Archelai,66 and, with some variants, by other Christian heresiographers.67

Once again, the function of the sexual arousal of the archons was multiple. Here the myth attempts to account for natural phenomena.

The adorned virgin Horaia68 appeared to the archons who had been
borne up and crucified on the firmament by the Living Spirit. To the
male. archons she appeared as a beautiful woman, and to the female
archons as a handsome and lustful young man. Ignited by the fire of love,
all the archons ran after her, but the virgin disappeared from their sight,
and they began to sweat "like men." This sweat was rain. For his part,
the "reaping archon," frustrated by the disappearance of Horaia, began to
"cut the roots" connecting men to heaven, so that "pestilence" would
kill them. "This is the cause of death," concludes the text. This
archon's frustration was also at the origin of earthquakes, which involve
Atlas the Omophore.69 Hegemonius's source here depends on the
"anthropological" principle according to which human phenomena are
explained by referring to cosmic ones, since man is a microcosm.70
63Pognon reads yin, but Scher has the correct nh(; see Jackson, Researches, 248, n. 114.
64"Giants," 53 (= Selected Papers, Il, 116).
65Contra Faustum VI, 8 (296 Zycha); Cumont (Recherches, 41, n. 2) quotes parallel texts,
to which one should add Mir. Man. 1, 183 (= Henning, Selected Papers, 1, 9); trans. also in
Asmussen, Manichaean Literature, 124-125.
66Chap. 9 (13-15 Beeson).
67Cumont, Recherches, 54, n. 4.

687rapOevoc res '11paia KEKOO- np. vrf. On Horaia (= Norea) see pp. 53-61 supra. Cf.
the anti-Priscillian text (probably written in the early 5th century by Paulus Orosius) cited by
Puech, in E. Hennecke and W. Schneemelcher, New Testament Apocrypha, I (Philadelphia:
Westminster, 1963), 266.
69See also Acta Archetai 8.2 (11 Beeson); Cumont, Recherches, 28-29, and Appendix 2,
69-75; see further Schmidt-Polotsky, "Mani-Fund," 67; Hom., 40.
70Acta Archetai 9; 14 Beeson. On man's body as a microcosm, see Train' Chavannes Peltiot,

526: "ainsi done le corps charnel avec sa convoitise et sa concupiscence empoisonne'es et

mauvaises fut, bien qu'en plus petit, l'image fid6le de point en point de I'univers des cieux
et des terres." For Greek, Iranian, and Gnostic parallels to this conception, see R. van den
Broek, "The Creation of Adam's Psychic Body in the Apocryphon of John," 38-57, esp. 56.

158

ECHOES AND REPERCUSSIONS

In a final epiphany at the end of time (which is not linked to a "seduc-

tion"), the Messenger would again "show his image" (o rav 7Tpo4av?)
11

aiTOV 7)7) eaKOva), and the Omophore would cast off the earth,71 which
would be destroyed by a great fire. After this final Restitution
(Z iroicaTao -ao-tc), the archons would remain in their proper place, i.e.,
below, while the Father alone would be on high.72 The process of separating good from evil, of the definitive eradication of mixis, would finally be
accomplished.
Each of the crucial stages of the development of the cosmos was thus
initiated by the semen of the male archons and the aborted fetuses'of the
female archons. The very appearance of Horaia ( = Norea) and the Virgin
of Light (= Barbelo-Prunikos) suggests a connection between this myth

and the similar early Gnostic myth, obviously pre-Manichaean, which

itself was an inverted version of the attempted seduction by the archons of
the pure virgin.

The Abortions

The link between the Manichaean and the Gnostic myths becomes even

clearer when the presence and role of the abortions in Manichaean

mythology are examined. In the Kephalaia, the abortions (rvzoye)
appeared in various contexts. In Keph. XXXVIII, Mani gave a description
of the revolt and guile of the Watchers (92:12-93:32). These Watchers
then became prisoners of the Splenditenens because they had revolted during the vigil of the King of Honor,73 and aborted "the sin," mixing it with

the light (or the soul) which they released at the sight of the Envoy's
image (TZIKWN
This sin fell to earth, where it
created trees on dry land, while on the sea, "a great rebellion" originated
from it (92:14-23).74 We recognize here the second version of the seduction myth analyzed above. The fact that the Kephalaia referred to the
archons of Theodore's source by their original name, Watchers, is most
significant. Indeed, it confirms the main argument of Part I, namely, that
the Gnostic archontic figures were genetically related to the Fallen Angels
of pseudepigraphic literature. In direct line with the Enoghic traditions,
71 According to Tirnoiheus Presbyter (PG 86, col. 21), Saklas supported the earth. On the
other hand, the Anathema of Prosper, written in Latin in the 6th century, mentions that the
Manichaeans called Atlas Adam's father. Cumont has explained the confusion as stemming
from the closeness, in Syriac, between sakla and saba/a, the Porter (Recherches, 1, 74-75);
see Jackson, Researches, 296-313.
72Acia Archelai 13 (21-22 Beeson); cf. my "Aspects de I'eschatologie maniche'enne," passint.

73This mythological figure might have originated in the biblical Z13ZM 150 (see for
instance MPs. 24).
74The
great rebellion (oYN06 NBe6ce) in the sea may ultimately derive from the early
Near Eastern myth of Yamm's revolt. Yet, the great sea in which the rebels were subdued

was also called the sky (MPs. 213:1 -8), a fact which probably indicates a connection
between this rebellion and that of the Fallen Angels in / Enoch. On the rebellion of the
archons against the Living Spirit, see Keph. 58:24-25.

GNOSTIC MYTHS IN MANICHAEAN GARB

159

these Watchers were accused of having acted with guile and of having

revealed the arts to the world and the mysteries of heaven to men
(92:29-31). They were also accused of having created Adam and Eve in
order to rule the world through them and to do works of lust (ErrtOvda)

so that "the whole world became full of their lust" (93:2-5).75 The
indictment went on to mention their persecution of the churches and their

killing of the apostles and the righteous "in the Vigil of Adamas of
Light-in all times and in all generations" (93:6-8).

The abortions here seem to be the products (or the "sons") of the
Watchers. In Gnostic context the demiurge Sakla and his archons were

responsible for both the creation of Adam and Eve and the introduction
of lust into the world.76 In Keph. XXXVIII quoted above, this role was
attributed to the Watchers. In Keph. LVI, however, Mani explicitly spoke
about "all those abortions, to which Saklas belongs, as well as his consort

...

that is these who have made Adam and Eve" according to the

Envoy's image, which they had seen (137:15-22). This imitation of the
Envoy's image took place via the sin of the archons (i.e., matter, iik-q;
137:23-25). This sin, fallen upon the earth, entered trees and became
their "fruit" (Kaprrog; 137:28-29). The creators of Adam and Eve are
here said to have been the abortions. Yet in the same Kephalaion, Mani
added, "The archons have made Adam and Eve through the force (EvEpyeta) of the sin" (138:17-18).77 In 138:1-5, the myth is somewhat
more detailed; the "archon, their [abortions'] ruler" asked his companions to give him their light so that he could make them an image (EiKQly)
according to "the image of the above" (HCINC MTTel .Xace). A parallel passage has been preserved in Theodore bar Khonai's Liber Scholioruni:
when the abortions fell upon the earth,
they took thought together and recollected the form of the Messenger

which they had seen, and they said: "Where is that form which we
saw?" And Ashaglun, Son of the King of Darkness, said to the abortions: "Give me your sons and your daughters and I will make for
you a form like that which you have seen."78

He and his consort Namrael devoured the abortions' children and then
united. Namrael conceived twice and gave birth to Adam and Eve.79
75The abortions, "sons of matter" (MPs. 108:24-26) built the edifice of flesh; Keph.
171:19-21; see the title of Keph. XCV11, 246.
76Cf. p. 82 supra.

77See also Keph. LV, where the archons created Adam and Eve through the form of the
Envoy. Mani added that the good "God wanted this to happen" (133:15-16). The
ambivalence typical of Manichaean anthropology was directly reflected in anthropogony. On
Manichaean anthropogony, one may still consult E. Buonaiuti, "La prima coppia umana nel

sistema manicheo," RSO 7 (1916), 663-686, repr. in his Saggi std cristianesinto printilivo
(Citta di Castello: II Solco, 1923), 150- 171. Add the evidence of the Coptic texts, cited by
Puech, Wanic/u isrne, 80 and 173, n. 328.
78130, trans. 191 Pognon; Cumont, Recherches, 40; Schaeder, Studies, 346; Jackson,
Researches, 248 - 249.
79See 149 n. 28 supra; also Theodoret, Adv. Haer. I, 26: Tin' di'Opwirov 7rkaoOrl11ac TSITO

158

ECHOES AND REPERCUSSIONS

In a final epiphany at the end of time (which is not linked to a "seduction"), the Messenger would again "show his image" (o-rav 7rpo0667)
a&-roV rev eaKOva), and the Omophore would cast off the earth,71 which
would be destroyed by a great fire. After this final Restitution
(&lroKaraavaa"nc), the archons would remain in their proper place, i.e.,
below, while the Father alone would be on high.72 The process ofseparating good from evil, of the definitive eradication of rnixis, would finally be
accomplished.

Each of the crucial stages of the development of the cosmos was thus
initiated by the semen of the male archons and the aborted fetuses of the
female archons. The very appearance of Horaia (= Norea) and the Virgin
of Light (= Barbelo-Prunikos) suggests a connection between this myth
and the similar early Gnostic myth, obviously pre-Manichaean, which
itself was an inverted version of the attempted seduction by the archons of
the pure virgin.
The Abortions

The link between the Manichaean and the Gnostic myths becomes even

clearer when the presence and role of the abortions in Manichaean

mythology are examined. In the Kephalaia, the abortions (Nzoye)
appeared in various contexts. In Keph. XXXVIII, Mani gave a description

of the revolt and guile of the Watchers (92:12-93:32). These Watchers

then became prisoners of the Splenditenens because they had revolted during the vigil of the King of Honor,73 and aborted "the sin," mixing it with

the light (or the soul) which they released at the sight of the Envoy's
image (TZIKwN
This sin fell to earth, where it

created trees on dry land, while on the sea, "a great rebellion" originated
from it (92:14-23).74 We recognize here the second version of the seduc-

tion myth analyzed above. The fact that the Kephalaia referred to the
archons of Theodore's source by their original name, Watchers, is most
significant. Indeed; it confirms the main argument of Part I, namely, that
the Gnostic archontic figures were genetically related to the Fallen Angels
of pseudepigraphic literature. In direct line with the Enochic traditions,
71According to Timotheus Presbyter (PG 86, col. 21), Saklas supported the earth. On the

other hand, the Anathema of Prosper, written in Latin in the 6th century, mentions that the
Manichaeans called Atlas Adam's father. Cumont has explained the confusion as stemming
from the closeness, in Syriac, between sakla and sabala, the Porter (Recherches, 1, 74-75);
see Jackson, Researches, 296-313.
72Acta Archelai 13 (21-22 Beeson); cf. my "Aspects de I'eschatologie maniche'enne," passin,.

73This mythological figure might have originated in the biblical 6141Z 150 (see for
instance MPs. 24).
74The
great rebellion (oYN06 N B66C6) in the sea may ultimately derive from the early
Near Eastern myth of Yamm's revolt. Yet, the great sea in which the rebels were subdued

was also called the sky (MPs. 213:1-8), a fact which probably indicates a connection
between this rebellion and that of the Fallen Angels in / Enoch. On the rebellion of the

archons against the Living Spirit, see Keph. 58:24-25.

GNOSTIC MYTHS IN MANICHAEAN GARB

159

these Watchers were accused of having acted with guile and of having
revealed the arts to the world and the mysteries of heaven to men
(92:29-31). They were also accused of having created Adam and Eve in
order to rule the world through them and to do works of lust (Er9v .da)

so that "the whole world became full of their lust" (93:2-5).75 The
indictment went on to mention their persecution of the churches and their

killing of the apostles and the righteous "in the Vigil of Adamas of
Light-in all times and in all generations" (93:6-8).

The abortions here seem to be the products (or the "sons") of the
Watchers. In Gnostic context the demiurge Sakla and his archons were

responsible for both the creation of Adam and Eve and the introduction
of lust into the world.76 In Keph. XXXVIII quoted above, this role was
attributed to the Watchers. In Keph. LVI, however, Mani explicitly spoke
about "all those abortions, to which Saklas belongs, as well as his consort

...

that is these who have made Adam and Eve" according to the

Envoy's image, which they had seen (137:15-22). This imitation of the
Envoy's image took place via the sin of the archons (i.e., matter, ux-q;
137:23-25). This sin, fallen upon the earth, entered trees and became
their "fruit" (Kaparo(;; 137:28-29). The creators of Adam and Eve are
here said to have been the abortions. Yet in the same Kephalaion, Mani
added, The archons have made Adam and Eve through the force (EvEpycta) of the sin" (138:17-18).77 In 138:1-5, the myth is somewhat
more detailed; the "archon, their [abortions'] ruler" asked his companions to give him their light so that he could make them an image (EL'Kwv)

according to "the image of the above" (rreINC

.race). A paral-

lel passage has been preserved in Theodore bar Khonai's Liber Scholiorum:
when the abortions fell upon the earth,
they took thought together and recollected the form of the Messenger

which they had seen, and they said: "Where is that form which we
saw?" And Ashaqlun, Son of the King of Darkness, said to the abortions: "Give me your sons and your daughters and I will make for
you a form like that which you have seen."78

He and his consort Namrael devoured the abortions' children and then
united. Namrael conceived twice and gave birth to Adam and Eve.79
75The abortions, "sons of' matter" (MPs. 108:24-26) built the edifice of' flesh; Keph.
171:19-21; see the title of Keph. XCVII, 246.
76C1'. p. 82 supra.

77See

Envoy.

also Keph. LV, where the archons created Adam and Eve through the form of' the

Mani added that the good "God wanted this to happen" (133:15-16). The

ambivalence typical of Manichaean anthropology was directly reflected in anthropogony. On

Manichaean anthropogony, one may still consult E. Buonaiuti, "La prima coppia umana net
sistema manicheo," RSO 7 (1916), 663-686, repr. in his Saggi sul cristianesinto primitivo
(Citta di Castello: 11 Solco, 1923), 150-171. Add the evidence of the Coptic texts, cited by
80 and 173, n. 328.
Puech,
191
Pognon; Cumont, Researches, 40; Schaeder, Studien, 346; Jackson,
78130, trans.
Researches, 248 - 249.

79See 149 n. 28 supra; also Theodoret, Adv. Haer. 1, 26: Tier &rOpwnror 17-kcur6grcac 67ro

iou

ECHOES AND REPERCUSSIONS

As previously noted, the story told of Saglon in Middle Persian fragments from Turfan, or of al-Sindid in the Fihrist, is quite close to the
anthropogonical myth as described in Gnostic documents. The passages
cited above add new parallels between the Gnostic and the Manichaean
texts. According to Theodore's report, the abortions "took thought
together" (ethasbu tim hadede ), just as the archons in Hyp. Arch. "laid
plans" (a.NaPXWN Al NOYCYMBOAION)80 in order to create man.
And in their creation, the archons attempted "to capture that image which
had appeared to them in the Waters," i.e., the image of incorruptibility,
which they could not seize (Hyp. Arch. 87:8-20).
The Byzantine Formula of Abjuration also mentions the deeds of the
abortions. Theodor Noldeke has suggested to identify these EKTpJ,aT&
with the Nephilim of Gen 6:4 by reading nepallm instead of nepilfnt.81 It is
most significant that the Midrash had already suggested deriving nepilim
from nepalim (Gen. Rab. 26.7). This, as already noted,82 was obviously
the origin of the Gnostic concept of the abortions. Mani, however, went a
step further in his mythological development and practically identified the

Watchers themselves with the abortions. The copulation of the Sons of

God with the daughters of men became the archons' attempt to seduce

women (and was then inverted to the myth of the seduction of the

archons by the women); the products of this unseemly union in Genesis,

rov TTIq uky) (TpXol'roc-LaKXav Se rovrol' 7rpo(Tayopcvotxr v-Ka T?p' Ev"av (i)Qair(US V7TO

Ka( rov NE13po,S. Sakla was thus the archon of fornication and of matter. For
further reference, see Cumont, Recherches, 1, 73, n. 3. Cumont, who admits that the Manichaeans borrowed the figure of Sakla from the Gnostics (p. 73), thinks that
or
Nemrod was substituted for the demon Nabroel or Namrael when Babylonian Manichaeism
tried to adapt itself to the beliefs of the Roman world. But Cumont does not cite any eviTov Y(CKAi

dence of a "Babylonian" demon Nabroel. On Namrael, see further Furlani's remarks in

Ann(tli de/I'Aca(/e#nia Nazionale (lei Lintel VIII, 2 (1951), 519-531 (non vidi). It is probable
that the Gnostic Nabroel evolved from legends built around the biblical figure of the evil
king Nimrod (see Cumont's own remark, 74, n. 2). In the Bible (Gen 10:8-9), Nimrod is
called gibbor, like the sons of the benei elolum and the daughters of men in Gen 6:4b. In
Jewish and then in Muslim legends, Nimrod typified the evil tyrant: he is said to have tried
to burn Abraham-and even to kill God-by throwing arrows to.the sky. In Arabic, jabbar
has the connotation of revolt against God; see ShEncvcl. Islam, 437-438 s.v. "Namrud."
Syncellus preserved a tradition according to which Nimrod was considered to be the father of
a race of giants: NE/3pc,6, ee ov yiyavrcc (Chronography, 88 Dindorf). In Jewish and Christian legends, Nimrod was also the giant who founded Babylon; he was (like the Watchers!)
the inventor of astronomy; it is said that idolatry began with him; see references in
Ginzberg, Legends, V, 200-201. Nevertheless, the precise relationship between the Manichaean and the Jewish developments of the figure remains unclear.
80Hvp. Arch. 87:23-24. Cf. Orig. World 118:16-17.
811n his review of Kessler's Mani, in ZDMG 43 (1889), 535-536, Noldeke cites a few
instances in the LXX where EKrpma translates 5t3 (abortion): Job 3:16, Eccl 6:3; he also
refers to I Cor 15:8 (536, n. 1).
82See pp. 65-70 supra.

GNOSTIC MYTHS IN MANICHAEAN GARB

161

the Nephilim also became the archons, themselves involved in the anthropogonical process.

Cumont duly recognizes that "Mani certainly did not himself invent
from scratch this whole story of the abortions swarming upon the
earth."83 He remains unable, however, to identify the source of the Manichaean myth. Referring to Noldeke's suggestion, Cumont notes the similarity between the Manichaean description of the archons made prisoners
by Jesus (in the Fihrist's account) and the binding of the Fallen Angels by
Michael in I Enoch. Nevertheless, he concludes:
It seems impossible to admit that the extremely developed Manichaean fable could have originated in this short verse of Genesis, but
one wonders whether this verse itself does not sum up an old Semitic
legend, which Mani would have known.84

It is because he was searching for the roots of Manichaeism only in Meso-

potamian soil and in early Iranian religion that Cumont could not find
Mani's sources for the myth of the abortions and remained convinced that
the seduction myth had been borrowed by both Gnostics and Manichaeans
from "that eclectic Mesopotamian religion, in which indigenous elements
had long become combined with Iranian doctrines."85 Yet Isaac de Beausobre, the founder of Manichaean studies, with whose writings Cumont
was familiar, had suggested as early as the 18th century that Manichaean
mythology was partly rooted in Enochic literature.86
The very use of the term Eyprlyopoc in the Kephalaia (and of tyr in a

Middle Persian fragment) as a synonym fir archons not only proves

Beausobre's intuition in a definitive way, it also shows that Mani's Watchers were no longer Jewish, but Gnostic.87 Paradoxically, Manichaeism,
which carried the Gnostic trend of Mythologisierung through to the severing of its links with biblical exegesis, manifests here a clearer, more direct
influence from Jewish literature than do the Gnostic texts. This important
fact might shed light upon the different channels through which Jewish
traditions reached the Egyptian Gnostics and the Manichaeans. In both
cases, the original milieu would seem to be the Syrian Jewish-Christian
baptist trends to which the Elchasaites belonged. The precise assessment
of these channels, however, must await further research.
The Giants and the Book of Giants

The preceding section examined the extent to which Manichaean mythology developed the role of the nepilim/nepalim (abortions) and identified
83Recherches, 41.

84/bid., 41, n. 4; cf. 47, n. 4.

851bid., 68, conclusion to Appendix I.
86Histoire Critique de Manichee et du Manicheisme,

(Amsterdam, 1734), 429, n. 6. Cf.

Henning, "Giants," 52.

871t must be noted, however, that the term Eypi7Yopoc is not found in Gnostic texts.

162

ECHOES AND REPERCUSSIONS

them with the Watchers/archons, the creators of Adam and Eve. However, according to the traditional Jewish understanding, the nepilint were
considered to be giants. Keph. XLV mentions, in the same context, both
the egregoroi and the "sons of the giants":
Before the egregoroi rebelled and descended from heaven a prison had

been built for them in the depth of the earth beneath the mountains.
Before the sons of the giants (rvc9Hpe NNFIrac) were born, who
knew not righteousness and piety among themselves, thirty-six towns
had been prepared and erected, so that the sons of the giants should
live in them, that they come to beget [ ... ] who live a thousand
years. (117:1-9)

In Semitic idiom, the expression "sons of the giants" simply means

"giants." In Num 13:33, for instance, it explicitly refers to the Nephilim:
"And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak [pp
who come
from the Nephilim," which the LXX renders simply: Kai EKEL Ecypa'KaltEv
roes yiyavTac. The expression "sons of the giants" in Keph. XLV, therefore, probably reflects, directly or indirectly, a literal translation of the
Semitic expression and should be understood as "giants," i.e., referring to
the nepilini, sons of the Watchers.88

The transition from the equation "sons of the giants = sons of the
Watchers" to an identification of the Watchers with the giants was logical

and easy. That such a step was actually taken by the Manichaeans is
attested to by a passage of Alexander of Lycopolis's treatise against the
Manichaeans. Disputing their asceticism and continence, he said,
What is told in poetry about the giants is mythological. Those who
discourse about these in allegorical form put forth such things hiding
the solemnity of their tale behind the form of the myth. For example,,
when the history of the Jews speaks of the angels who consorted with
the daughters of men ...

In good Platonic fashion, Alexander thought that such stories hinted "at
the nurturing faculties of the soul," while the Manichaeans understood
them literally.89 What is important here is that for Alexander-and
presumably for the Manichaeans-the angels of Genesis 6 were considered
to be "giants."
88Bohlig offers a slightly different explanation: "Im 45 Kapitel [of the Kephalaial ist nach
den gefallenen Engeln von den 'Sohnen der Giganten' die Rede, obwohl die Giganten selbst
gemeint sind. Hier heft wohi im griechischen Art des vibe ;ov anBptitirov vor, wahrend im
Henochbuch [ch. 151 Bowie bei Synkellos [21 Dindorfl steht [Keph. 154:17]"; "Probleme des
manichaischen Lehrvortrages," in Mysterion ttncl Warheh, 231.
8937 Brinkmann; I quote the translation of van der Horst and Mansfeld, 95. For a
different understanding of this text, see Henning, "Giants," 53, n. 5. For Henning, the fact
that Alexander did not mention the Book of Giants in one breath with the Histoty o/'the Jews
"shows conclusively that he had no knowledge of Mani's book." This may well be, but it

remains that Alexander knew, and did not object to, the close relationship between the
giants and the Fallen Angels.

GNOSTIC MYTHS IN MANICHAEAN GARB

162

163

From the biblical verses, therefore, a fourfold exegetical equation was

obtained:
(1) abortions (:^[7D])

Nephilim =

(2) sons of the Watchers (i.e., sons of

'2:)

(3) giants (0 5ADz)

(4) sons of giants (pIJ7

vs)

Out of these, and through various combinations, the Manichaeans

developed the following identifications:

(1) Watchers = giants

(2) giants = abortions
(3) Watchers = abortions

Since Sakla was identified with the leader of the Fallen Angels, he
belonged to the abortions (Keph. 137:15). Because Sophia was unknown
in Manichaean literature, Sakla (who is never called Yaldabaoth) was not
presented as her aborted child. On typological grounds, the Manichaean
identification seems to have evolved from simpler (and therefore possibly
earlier) stages of Gnosticism, in which a Sophia speculation was not
known.

The complex identity of the giants may help us understand the intention and meaning of Mani's Book of Giants, which is mentioned by both
Christian and Muslim heresiographers as one of the six books written by

Mani (but not one of the four written by Scythianus).90 According to

Keph. CXLVIII (still incompletely published), the Book of Giants
(Trpa.OH NNrlrac), together with the Book of Mysteries and the
TrpaypaTcta, belonged to a trilogy of holy writings sent by Mani's twin of
light.91 Henning was the first after Beausobre (to whom he paid tribute) to
try to organize and synthesize all knowledge about this Book o/' Giants, of
which there was no direct evidence until the modern discoveries at Turfan

and in the Fayum. In two seminal articles,92 Henning accepted and

90See for instance al-Nadim, in Flugel, Mani, 73 (kitab sift al jababirah), trans. 103, and
362, n. 320. Cf. Photius, 'H ycyavreioc (3LJJXoc. Bibl., Cod. 85 (who ascribes it to Herakleion), and Timotheus: `H rav ['tyavrmv rrpayareia (PG 86, 21). See Alfaric, Les Ecritures
maniche'ennes, 11, 11, and Schmidt-Polotsky, "Mani-Fund," 40. Both Alexander of Lycopolis
(chap. 5; 8-10 Brinkmann) and Titus of Bostra (Galland, Bibl. Vet. Pairunr, V, 294) speak of
a ytyavroaXia (in Alexander's terms, rid 7-7-1(; i'Xgc Kara rOV Beov avraprrcv). Cumont
(Recherches, 1, 3-4; 11, 160-162) thinks that this ycyavro,zaXia in a Persian mythological
garb, related the fights of the monsters against heaven at the origin of the world. Henning
shows ("Giants," 53, n. 5) that the word ycyavroaXia was used by Alexander in a Greek
context, but he does not think of the possible amalgamation of the "Enochic" giants and the
archons of cosmogony.
91Cf. Schmidt-Polotsky, "Mani-Fund," 35 and 86, 11. 9-13. To my knowledge, this is the
oj
only mention of the Book Giants in a Manichaean text.
92"Henochbuch," and "Giants"; see also "Neue Materialen zur Geschichte des Manichaismus," ZDMG 90 (1936), 1-18, esp. 1-4 ( = Selected Papers, 1, 379-396).

164

ECHOES AND REPERCUSSIONS

sharpened Beausobre's guess that Mani's Book of Giants was based upon
the ypacMj Tcev yt,yav7-cov which Cainan, a great-grandson of Noah, was
said to have discovered lying in a field.93

Since Henning thought that Enochic literature was originally written in

Hebrew, he had to assume that Mani had read the Jewish Book o/' Giants
in an Aramaic translation.94 But Henning could not place this book precisely in the Enochic corpus. The discovery in Qumran Cave 4 of many
Aramaic Enochic fragments has drastically added to our knowledge of this
corpus. Although their study has only just begun, it already appears probable that Aramaic was the original language of the corpus. Furthermore,
Milik claims to have identified some of these fragments as coming from
the original Book q/' Giants, the one from which Mani was thought to have
borrowed extensively in his own work of the same title.95 Unfortunately,
Milik has so far published only a few of the relevant fragments, so that
any discussion has to remain provisional. According to Milik, this Book of
Giants dealt mainly with the story of the offspring of the Sons of God,
called the Watchers (pv) or the Holy Watchers (;'vi
and with
their wicked deeds. In the original corpus, this book probably followed the
Book of Watchers (1 Enoch 6-16). Milik assumes that the reason for the
censorship applied to the Book q/' Giants by the Christian editors of the
corpus may well have been its popularity among the Manichaeans. The
fragments published by Henning and those published so far by Milik do
not show conclusively that Mani's sole and direct source was the Jewish
Book of Giants. What they do show is that Mani knew the story told by
the Book o/' Giants. To reproduce and discuss the relevant fragments here
in detail is beyond the scope of this work. From the evidence presented
by Milik, however, it appears that some of the traditions preserved in the
Qumran fragments were known to Mani. These include the names of
Semihazah and his sons Ohya and Ahya; the names of Baraq'el and his
son Mahawai;96 and the tree metaphor for the 200 Watchers.97 Obviously,
93Histoire Critique de Manichee, 1, 429, and n. 6: "Au reste je ne sais si I'Histoire Apocvyphe
des Geans, qui portait le nom d'Enoch, n'est pas Ie livre dons parle George Syncelle, sur I'an
du Monde 2585. II raconte que Cainan, arriere-petit-Fits de Nod, se promenant dans la
Campagne, trouva I'Ecriture des Gdans, et la cacha chez Iui. Manichee pouvait avoir pulse
dans ces mauvaises sources." (See Syncellus, Chronography, 150 Dindorf.) See also H.-H.
Schaeder's recension of Schmidt-Polotsky, "Mani-Fund," in Gnomon 9 (1933), 347.
94"Henochbuch," 29-30; see Milik, Enoch, 303.
95 / Enoch 298-339. For a detailed review of Milik's book, see A.-M. Denis in Museon 90

(1977), 462-469. On Milik's discussion of the Book of Giants, Denis writes (p. 467):
"Toutes ces hypotheses en cascade sont certes ddfendables et suscitent une curiositd e,merveillde. Mais faut-il recourir a tant d'inconnues ... ?" Some of Milik's hypotheses and
conclusions have been critically examined by J. Greenfield and M. E. Stone, "The Book of
Enoch and the Traditions of Enoch," Nunten 26 (1979), 89-103. On the relationships
between the Qumran fragments and Mani's Book o/'Giants, see H.A. Klimkeit, "Der Buddha
Henoch: Qumran and Turfan," ZRGG32 (1980), 367-375, esp. 368-369.
96See Middle Persian fragments c and /, Uygur fragment, and Parthian fragment (Hen-

ning, "Giants," 60, 61, 65, 72); cf. 6Q 8.1 (Milik, Enoch, 300-301). See also Henning,
"Giants," 52-53, and "Neue Materialen," 4, where he shows that some Iranian names are
"translations" of Hebrew ones, e.g., Virogdad for Baraq)el.

GNOSTIC MYTHS IN MANICHAEAN GARB

165

these bits of evidence are insufficient to support any argument about a

direct literary relationship between the two works entitled Book of Giants.
In any case, there remains the question of why Mani was so interested
in this body of literature that he himself contributed to it and publicized it
among his followers (according to Henning, "The Book of Giants was published in no less than six or seven languages") ?98 Henning thinks that
Mani was led to Enochic literature by his so "strongly pronounced interest
in myths and legends of ancient times,"99 while Milik opines,
This Jewish work fell into the hands of a young Parthian aristocrat, a
member of a strict Christian sect. Delighted with its narrative charm
and moved by some underlying metaphysical truths, Mani decided to
give it a place among his own literary works. He confined himself to
an adaptation which seems to me not very thoroughgoing: in places a
word-for-word translation, in places resumes of the narrative sections,
in places slight elaboration.'00

What both Henning and Milik are in fact saying is that Mani wrote the
Book of Giants-and had translations made of it-because he loved Matchen. This is not a very convincing argument when dealing with a theologian of genius such as Mani. If he wrote the book, it is because he
intended it to transmit an essentially religious message. And if he loved
the writing that became the source of his own work, he must have found
religious value in it. But what were these "underlying metaphysical
truths" which Mani discovered in the traditions about the giants? One
inference follows from the identification of the Manichaean mythologoumena as typically Gnostic, for it stands to reason that Mani's interest
in the giants and their deeds was similar to the Gnostics' interest in them.
Hence in his Book of Giants, as in the Kephalaia and the sources quoted
by Theodore bar Khonai and Ibn al-Nadim, Mani set out to develop a
Gnostic understanding of the giants-the pervasive myth of the lustful
archons and their wicked deeds throughout history.

In fact, the scant fragments of the Book of Giants themselves may

preserve traces of Gnostic mythologoumena. In fragment i from the
Kawdn,101 the 400,000 righteous ones were killed by fire, naphta, and
brimstone. This motif does not appear in the Qumran fragments, but in
Apoc. Adani 75:9-10, the forces of evil used fire, sulphur, and asphalt
against the Gnostics, who, according to the same text, numbered
400,000.102 This number also appears elsewhere in Manichaean texts. In
97See Midgle Persian fragment d (Henning, "Henochbuch," 29, and "Giants," 66); cf.
4Q En Giants (Milik, Enoch, 304).
98"Giants," 55.
99"Henochbuch," 32.

100Milik, Enoch, 310. Cf. his "Turfan et Qumran, Livre des Ge'ants juif et maniche'en," in
Tradition taut Glaube, das ,Jruhe Christentunr in seiner Uniweh: Festgabe Jiir Karl Georg Kuhn
(Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1971), 124.
101Henning, "Giants," 58, trans. 62. See also Sogdian fragment g, ibid., 68-69.
102Apoc. Adam 73:15-20, 74:12-16. On this number, see 85, nn. 15, 16 supra.

ECHOES AND REPERCUSSIONS

166

Horn.

68:18, 400,000 righteous ones are mentioned in connection with

Enoch, while the Psalter refers, also in connection with Enoch, "the
Righteous who were burnt in the fire," and the "multitude that were
wiped out-four thousand."103
In the Sogdian fragment g, the demons (i.e., the Watchers) are said to
have imprisoned
all the helpers that were in the heavens. And the angels themselves
descended from the heaven to the earth. And (when) the two hundred demons saw those angels, they were much afraid and worried.'04

The 200 Watchers of I Enoch can be recognized here, even though

"helpers" as a designation for angels or archangels does not appear in the
Enochic literature published so far. While the Prince of Light was called

"our helper" in 1 QM XIII.10, the term "helper" seems to have been

especially common in Gnostic texts. To be sure, these two motifs might
also have been present in the Jewish work, but evidence for that is still
lacking. On the other hand, the traces of Gnostic mythologoumena found
in the Manichaean fragments are too scant for us to postulate a gnosticized version of the Book of Giants as Mani's source.
Whatever the case with the Manichaean Book of Giants, the evidence

cited above (and especially from the Kephalaia) leaves no doubt that if
Mani knew the Jewish legends, it was a Gnostic or gnosticizing reading.,of
them with which he became acquainted, most probably while living among
the Elchasaites,105 and which he himself sought to develop. That is to

say, for Mani, the complex called "giants" was the embodiment of evil
through history; these figures were the equivalent of the Gnostic archons.
As in Gnosticism, only by fighting them and opposing their evil designs
could the forces of righteousness reach salvation.

Milik claims to have identified another (late) witness to the original

Book of Giants. For him the Midrash of Shenihazai and Azael is a retroversion into Hebrew of the Manichaean Book of Giants:

A scholarly Babylonian rabbi could have found and understood

without difficulty the Syriac [sic] Book of Giants, as recently as the
early Middle Ages.106

The author of the Jewish adaptation of the Manichaean Book of

Giants will readily be acknowledged as the rabbi Joseph who is mentioned at the beginning of the midrash on gemhazai and `Aza'el. It is

103MPs. 143:7-8; see Allberry's references there.

104Henning,

"Giants," 68-69. See Keph. 93:22, 97:33, 98:3, 127:8, etc., where the Greek

13or10oc is kept.

'5This is also the opinion of J. C. Greentield and M. E. Stone, "The Enochic Pentateuch
and the Date of the Similitudes," HTR 70 (1977), 51 -65, esp. 62.
106Milik, Enoch, 335.

GNOSTIC MYTHS IN MANICHAEAN GARB

167

in fact R. Joseph bar Hiyya (died A.D. 333), who was the successor to
Rabba bar Nahmani in the academy of Pumbedita.107

This identification, however, rests on rather weak grounds; it is somewhat

difficult to imagine a 4th-century Rabbi translating Manichaean tales and

publicizing them among his own flock.108 Yet certain details of the

Midrash of Shenrhazai and Azael do indeed suggest that this work belonged
to the same kind of literature as the Jewish Book q/' Giants. In a dream,
Heyya and Aheyya, Shemhazai's sons, saw an angel descending from the

firmament and "cutting down all the trees so that there remained only
one tree containing three branches." This dream and these images are

very close to the Qumran, rather than to the Manichaean fragments of the
Book of Giants. 4Q En Giantsb mentions the dreams of Shemihaza's sons
about a garden, while 6Q 82 speaks of "three shoots," apparently Noah's
sons.109 Milik's intuition, therefore, sound more plausible if amended to
understand the medieval version of the Midrash of Shenrhazai and Azae( as
a late, but direct witness of the Jewish Book of Giants, of which Mani's
own book was a gnosticized version.
While my suggestion cannot be confirmed conclusively, it is of interest
to recall the contexts in which the Midrash o/' Shenrhazai and Azae/ has

been encountered in the course of this work:

its

heroine, the pure

Esterah, was also identified with Seth's sister (Armenian Death of Adanm);

a very similar story, found in a Hermetic context, gave indications of a

Jewish origin (To Horus). Furthermore, it seems to me that if the story
of Esterah's escape from the lustful Shemhazai indeed belonged to the
Jewish Book of Giants, then the myth of Norea's escape from the clutches
of the archons would merely be the reformulation of a legend already
present in Jewish literature. In its Gnostic reformulation, the legend
acquired a new and precise soteriological significance, thus becoming a
full-fledged myth. Such a suggestion, however plausible, must remain
speculative because it rests upon a nudrash directly attested only in
medieval versions. In the course of this work, therefore, I have deliberately avoided basing my analysis on the evidence of Shenrhazai and
Azae% although the midrashic material clearly bears upon the argument
developed here. It would indeed strengthen the conclusions of Part I by
indicating that the "inversion process" of the myth of the Fallen Angels
was already well advanced in Jewish traditions before the birth of Gnosticism.

1071bicl., 339.

1080n the extent to which Babylonian communities remained isolated from one another,
see J. B. Segal, "Mesopotamian Communities from Julian to the Rise of Islam," Proceedings
of the Brilish Academy 45 (1955), 109-139.
109Milik, Enoch, 304, 309.

CONCLUSION

THE GNOSTIC SEXUAL MYTH

The three parts of this inquiry have addressed, both genetically and structurally, some major themes of Gnostic mythology. The evidence analyzed
here shows how the dualistic vision of history corresponds to the dualistic
anthropology of the Gnostic Weltanschauung.
As we have seen, the view, still widely held, according to which Gnostic thought totally negated time appears to be unfounded, or at least, lim-

ited to those trends-neither the earliest nor the main ones-for which
salvation was attainable only in the immediacy of personal election.
Indeed, the early Gnostic conception of time reveals the deep influence of
Jewish eschatology. The importance of Heilsgeschichte did not seem to

grow with the increasing christianization of the texts, and there are no
grounds for claiming, with Rudolph, that the Historisierung of the Gnostic
savior was due to Christian influences.' In the Gnostic system of belief,
history was conceived of as a permanent conflict between the Gnostics and
the forces of evil. The latter, ruled by the demiurge and his acolytes, the
archons, all of whom keep the rest of mankind under their sway, unceasingly sought either to destroy the Gnostics, who were born from the pure

"other seed" of Seth, or to pervert them through lustful unions. At the

end of time, the forces of evil would be defeated.
We can now understand better how some Gnostics thought themselves

to be the seed of Seth, the "other seed," and how their core myth was
directly related to the problem of the origins of evil and righteousness.
This core myth, consisting of the pure birth of Seth and of its corollary,
Eve escaping from the lust of the demiurge and the archons, itself
evolved from the Jewish aggadic tradition about Eve's seduction by Satan,
which resulted in the birth of Cain. We have seen how Satan's adulterous
relations with Eve were integrated by the Gnostics into the paradigm of
mixis: the union of the angels descended from heaven with the women.

From these unions, the giants were born and evil came upon the earth,
prompting God to send the flood. For the Gnostics, the leader of these
angels was no longer Shemhazai or Satan, as in the Jewish forms of the
myth, but the demiurge himself, Yaldabaoth or Sakla (who also retains a
Jewish name of Satan, Sammael). Parallel. to their indictment of the
satanized demiurge, these Gnostics developed an "anthropodicy"; their
claim to redemption rested upon their continued purity, while the rest of
mankind was tainted by lust.
Gnosis, 163.

CONCLUSION

170

Paradoxically, gnosis has been encountered here rather little. In the

early Gnostic trends, the major emphasis appears to have been placed on
the sexual mythology; only later did it move to the saving knowledge.
This impression is corroborated by Hippolytus's testimony:
Therefore, the priests and chiefs of the doctrine were the first who
were called Naassenes, being thus named in the Hebrew tongue: for
the serpent is called naas. A.f'ierwards, they called themselves Gnostics, alleging that they alone knew the depths.2

This evolution, which led Gnostic thought away from mythology to metaphorical theology, may be detected, for instance, in Valentinian language.3
Yet in order to introduce freedom into Gnostic thought, the Valentinians
expanded the predestinarian dualism of the early Gnostics into a tripartite
anthropology; the "psychics," to whom Abel belonged, could choose election and join the Gnostics.
Time and again, I have insisted upon the importance of the Jewish elements, which were thoroughly reinterpreted or inverted in Gnosticism.
These elements came not only from apocalyptic texts, but also from tradi-

tions later recorded in rabbinic literature; they appeared not as merely

discrete mythologoumena, but rather pervaded all of early Gnosis, before
its double encounter with Christianity and Middle Platonism. These Jewish elements could hardly be later influences upon a movement further
and further estranged from anything Jewish; they must point to Jewish
roots of Gnosticism, roots which appear to have run very deep.
q
Arguing against H. Jonas, R. Grant claims-in agreement with
Hippolytus-that the roots of Gnosticism were not mythological, but philosophicaL4 The results of this inquiry point to a third option: that the emergence of Gnosticism was strongly related to exegetical problems of the first

chapters of Genesis. We have seen that Gnostic mythology was established upon a hermeneutical basis directly inherited from Judaism. The
radicalization of these Jewish exegetical traditions and their crystallization

seem to have been at the core of the key Gnostic myths. Moreover, we
have found no reason to assume any Christian mediation through which
these traditions would have reached the Gnostics. Problems of major
importance for the Gnostics were also dealt with in the philosophical tradition (mainly in the Academy), but it seems that the Gnostics' discovery
of this tradition and the extensive influence it exercised upon Gnostic
thought were nonetheless secondary. It may be useful to note that this

centrality of exegesis to the origins of Gnostic thought runs counter to

2Elenchos 5.6. Cf. M.

Rediscovery, 11, 796-807.

Smith, "The History of the Term gnostikos," in Layton, ed.,

3See for instance E. Pagels, The Johannine Gospel in Gnostic Exegesis: Heracleon's Commeniary on John (SBLMS 17; Nashville - New York: Abingdon, 1973), 98-113, esp. 103.
41n his review of Jonas, Gnosis and spdiantiker Geist, 11, in JTS, N.S. 7 (1956), 313.

THE GNOSTIC SEXUAL MYTH

171

Harnack's argument that Marcion was not a Gnostic because he was

mainly interested in biblical exegesis.5
What were the major exegetical elements in the earliest stages of Gnos-

mythology? A reconstruction of the Gnostic Uisystent has been

attempted by H.-M. Schenke.6 In the original mythology, according to
him, the unknown God and his consort Sophia had their abode in the
tic

Ogdoad. Sophia, however, became pregnant of herself; she aborted, and

her imperfect child was the demiurge, who fell down to the Hebdomad
and then created the planets and the world with the help of six angels.
One great problem with this reconstruction, however, is that the myth
described by Schenke is much too complex to be considered primitive.
George MacRae has plausibly suggested that the fall of Eve must have
played a crucial role in the accretion process through which the Gnostic
Sophia myth was built.7 It remains impossible to reconstruct exactly the
successive steps through which the "fall" of Eve could have played such a
role. Yet it follows from the present research that the connection between
the "fall" of Eve and the fall of Sophia is best understood when the following mythologoumena, first developed in pre-Gnostic Jewish literature,
are taken into account:
The rape of Eve.
The imperfect beings (nepi/inn-Giants -abortions) emerging from
sinful sexual unions.
The heavenly counterparts of Eve and Adam.
The double identification of the descent of the angels with a fail;
and of this fall with the fall of Satan and his seduction of Eve.

50f Marcion's "Cainite" attitude to the biblical text, Harnack could say: "Das wahre
Christentum is daher objectiv biblische Theologie and nicht anderes"; Marcion: Das
Evangeliunr vonr frenrden Gott: Eine

_ur Geschichu' der Grundlegung der kadrolischen

Kirclre; Neuc .Studien zu Marrion (TU 45; Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1924), 142.

6"Das Problem der Beziehung zwischen Judentum and Gnosis," Ka/ros 7 (1965),
124-133.

7"The Gnostic Sophia Myth," 99. In Gnostic texts, Sophia was also linked with the
heavenly Anthropos. The relationship between these two figures has been discussed both by

Bousset (Hcruptprobleme, 217) and by Quispel ("Der gnostische Anthropos," 214, 223).
Bousset favors the historical precedence of the Urnrensch, while Quispel thinks that only later
did this myth take the place of Sophia's fall. This discussion now appears to be outdated.

The new texts make it clear that the male and female aspects of God and of the Immortal
Man are concomitant in Gnostic thought. See, for instance, D. M. Parrot, "Evidence of
Religious Syncretism in Gnostic Texts from Nag Hammadi," in Pearson, ed., Religious .Swr
cretisin in Antiyui(v, 173-189, esp. 178-179. Sophia and Anthropos should be seen as complementary parts of the complex Gnostic myth that seeks to explain the emergence of both
evil and the pure seed; the difference between these two principles, as Schenke points out
(Der Gort "Mensch", 67), is that while Sophia functions on a cosmological level, the Anthro-

pos functions as an anthropogonical principle. Only in Manichaeisni would the Anthropos

become integrated to the cosmological myth.

172

CONCLUSION

Every piece of evidence seems to confirm the conjecture that the cradle
of some of the earliest Gnostic groups was among Palestinian or Syrian
baptist sects of Jewish background.8 The precise social milieu and condi-

tions in which Gnosticism arose, however, remain beyond our grasp.

Similarly, and despite the overall presence of Seth in Gnostic mythology,

we remain unable to detect the actual existence of a specific group of

"Sethians," as the Church Fathers described them. But this question is
secondary to the main problem raised by research into Gnostic origins:
How did the passage from the Jewish God to the Gnostic demiurge, from
monotheism to dualism, come about? How could the idea of an ignorant
creator, weak and witless, arise on the fringes of Judaism? We speak of

"dialectics" or of "revolution,"9 but such terms merely underscore the

strangeness of the phenomenon, they do not explain it.
It would seem, however, that a hierarchical duality between God and
His demiurgic angel did develop inside Judaism, before the first Christian
century, in order to answer the problem of biblical anthropomorphisms.10

The Gnostics, who were obsessed by another problem, that of the

existence of evil and its source, picked up this duality between God and
the demiurge and radicalized it by demonizing the demiurge and identifying him with Satan. Here, too, the identification of evil with matter,
important though it may be, is only secondary to the demonization process, which transformed a hierarchical duality into a coigflic/ing dualism.

The same puzzling passage from monotheism to dualism can also be

observed in early Manichaeism. The myths analyzed here in no way indicate that Manichaeism represented an "Iranian" form of Gnostic dualism,
as opposed to those trends represented by the Nag Hammadi texts and the
reports of the Church Fathers.'' Genetic analysis of some of the basic
Manichaean myths reveals the same Jewish sources that underlie other
Gnostic myths, strengthening what has become indubitable since the
discovery of' the Cologne Mani Codex: that Mani grew up in a JewishChristian gnosticizing community. How texts such as the Book oj' Giants
were transmitted to Mani and his disciples is not known. A chain such as
Qumran (Essenes) - Jewish-Christian groups -> Syriac "Gnostic" Christians -> Manichaeans remains speculative.12 Here again, the basic fact is
8Bohlig, Kopnsche-gnosliscltc Apokulipsen, 95; MacRae, "Apoc. Adam Reconsidered," 577.

9E.g. Quispel's affirmation that the idea of the demiurge as a subordinate ruler "originated in Palestine among rebellious and heterodox Jews"; "The Origins of the Gnostic
Uemiurge," in Avriakon: %eslsclurill Johannes Quasten (Munster: AschendorfF, 1970), 276.

10G. Strounisa, "Le couple de l'Ange et de I'Esprit, traditions juives et chretiennes," RB

88 (1981), 42-61. See also hem, "Form(s) of God: Sonic Notes on Metatron and Christ,"
and A. F. Segal, Two Powers in Heaven: Ear/v Rabbinic Reports about Christianity and Gnosticism (SJLA 25; Leiden: Brill, 1977).
This taxonomy, developed by Jonas, is accepted anew by Rudolph (Gnosis, 74). On the

nature of Manichacan dualism, see now my "Konig and Schwein: zur Struktur des manichaischcn Dualisnius," in J. Taubcs, ed., Gnosis and Polink (Paderborn: Schoningh, 1984),
141 -153.
121-his chain was proposed by J. C. Greenfield, in his Prolegomenon to H. Odeberg,

/// Enocli (New York: Ktav, 1973), XLI-XLII.

THE GNOSTIC SEXUAL MYTH

173

that Enoch and related material were current in a number of circles and
played a major role in the crystallization of Gnostic mythologies.

In the course of his anti-Manichaean polemics (in Contra Faustuni),

Augustine coined the expression salvator salvandus. The religionsgeschicht/iche Schule considered the myth of the savior who himself needed salvation to be the central Gnostic myth. While the figure of Norea may in
fact fit this conception, Norea is not the central Gnostic savior figure; she
may equally be viewed as representing the Gnostics themselves in their
combat against the archons. For their main savior figure, Seth, we have
found no evidence that he ever needed to be saved.13 The words of A/logenes 50:33-36 are appropriate here: "that you might escape in safety to
the One who is yours, who was first to save and who does not need to be
saved." It could not be said more clearly that for the Gnostic author, salvator salvandus non est. The notion of a "redeemed redeemer" does not
seem to be inherent to all Gnostic trends. The findings of the present

work thus agree with those of C. Colpe, who found the model of the
Gnostic erloster Erloser, as propounded by Reitzenstein, to be wanting.14
The Christian heresiologists often accused the Gnostics of lewdness and

licentiousness, sometimes with appalling details of the Gnostics' sexual

behavior. 15 Nothing in the Gnostic texts themselves supports these accusations. On the contrary, the texts consistently reiterate their total condemnation of lustful acts. This discrepancy has led some scholars to insist
upon the element of slander in the descriptions of the Church Fathers. 16
Yet the phenomenon may be explained without total reliance on defamation. The obsessive preoccupation of the Gnostics with sex, as reflected
in their mythology, could well have shocked the Fathers, who misinterpreted it as a clear sign of their unchaste behavior. But the student of
religion should not be surprised by the combination of strongly ascetic
behavior and sexually-centered mythology.17

In 1826 Daniel Parker, a Baptist preacher in Georgia, published a pam-

phlet in which he established his doctrine of the "two-seeds-in-theSpirit." According to it, two seeds were planted in Eve, one by God and
the other by Satan; the election of each individual is determined by the
seed from which he or she came. Everyone is thus either a Son of God or
a "son of Satan." And there still exists in the United States a small
13Contra H.-C. Puech, "Archontiker," RAC 1, 641. See also Schenke, "Gnosis," in J.
Leipold and W. Grundmann, Untwelt des Christenaons, I (Berlin: Evang. Verlaganstalt, 1965),
32. But see Manichaean developments, pp. 148-149 supra.
14Die religionsgeschichtliche Scdule: Datstellung and Kritik ihres Bildes vont ,tmostischen Erliiser
nrythus (FRLANT, N.F. 60: Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1961), esp. 191. See

Colpe, "Die gnostische Gestalt des erlosten Erlosers," Der Islam 32 (1955), 195-214.

15E.g. Epiphanius, Pan. 26; see the remarks of A. Henrichs, "Pagan Ritual and the
Alleged Crimes of the Early Christians," Kyriakon, 28-29.

16E.g. H. Chadwick, "The Domestication of Gnosis," in Layton, ed., Rediscovery, 1,

3-I5; cf. my "Ascese et Gnose: aux origines de la spiritualitd chretienne," Revue Thomisve,
81 (1981), 557-573.
17See my remarks, "The Gnostic Temptation," Numen 27 (1980), 278-286.

174

CONCLUSION

Baptist community of believers in the "two-seeds-in-the-Spirit." 18

This quirky resurgence of a predestinarianism so close to that of the

Gnostic myths studied here is a reminder to the historian that he or she

alone cannot hope to deal adequately with

phenomenon as complex as Gnosticism.

all

facets of a religious

18S. E. Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American People (Garden City: Doubleday,
1975), 11, 177, n. 11. Parker's pamphlet is not listed in the National Union Catalogue.

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Cyril of Jerusalem,Catecheses, PG 33.

Disc. 8- 9: Hermes en Haute-Egypte: les textes hermetiques de Nag
Hammadi et leurs
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3 Enoch, or the Hebrew Book oj' Enoch, H. Odeberg, ed. and trans. (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1928).

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bibliography, see:
see:
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Scholer,
Nag Hanimadi
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N H S 1;
Leiden: Brill,
Scholer, D.
D. M., Nag
1948-1969 ((NHS
1; Leiden:
1971), with annual
annual supplements
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NovT.
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