9

The Three Steles of Seth

L ike other Sethian texts, the Three Steles of Seth is a text featuring the salvation of the offspring of Seth. The Three Steles praise each member of the divine family in turn: the invisible father (addressed, as in the Secret Book of John, as the One [or monad], the five, the ineffable); his counterpart, Barbelo; and the self-conceived child. The Jewish historian Josephus recounts a story of how the descendants of Seth preserved the wisdom of Adam, Eve, and Seth by inscribing it on two steles of brick and stone, in order to preserve it through hell and high water. This legend becomes the occasion for explaining the origin of the present text, in which the original two steles may have become three to allow for praise to the threefold nature of the divine family. A similar legend may suggest that Hermetic texts were also preserved on steles and thus were communicated to later generations. This legend is recounted in the Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth.

The Three Steles of Seth claims to be the original set of divine hymns of praise formulated through heavenly Seth and his father, Geradamas, and recovered as a latter-day collection of hymns. Reading them, it is easy to imagine the gnostic Sethian community at worship, offering hymns of praise to the divine family. The text concludes with instructions for the use of the hymns: they are to be used in a liturgy of ecstatic ascent—inviting the worshiper to approach god, see god, and learn “about things infinite”—and return from ascent .

The contents of the hymns recall other texts written in the spirit of Seth, such as the Secret Book of John, the Vision of the Foreigner, the Sermon of Zostrianos, and Marsanes. 1 The Three Steles of Seth reflects Jewish and neoplatonic philosophical ideas, the latter particularly in the numerous references to the neoplatonic triad of existence, life, and mind.

The Three Steles of Seth was likely composed in Greek. The date and place of composition are unknown, though Alexandria, Egypt, is as likely a place of composition as any other that has been proposed. Since the neoplatonic philosopher Plotinos taught a course against the gnostics in 265–66 CE , and his student Porphyry mentions Zostrianos, the Foreigner (Allogenes), and other gnostic works, the first half of the third century has been proposed as a plausible time of composition.

THE THREE STELES OF SETH 2

The revelation of Dositheos 3 about the three steles of Seth, 4 father of the living and unshakable race. 5 He remembered what he saw, understood, and read, and gave it to the chosen, just as it was written there.

Often I have joined in glorifying with the powers, and I was considered worthy by the immeasurable majesties.

The steles are as follows:

THE FIRST STELE OF SETH

I praise you, father Geradamas, 6

I, your son Emmacha Seth, 7

whom you produced without generation

for the praise of our god.

I am your son

and you are my mind, O my father.

I have sown and produced,

but you have seen the majesties

and have stood endlessly.

I praise you, father.

Praise me, father.

Because of you I am,

because of god you are,

because of you I am with him.

You are light and you see light.

You have revealed light.

You are a Mirotheas,

you are my Mirotheos. 8

I praise you as god,

I praise your divinity.

Great is the good one, self-conceived, 9 who stood,

the god who was first to stand.

You came in goodness,

you appeared

and you revealed goodness.

I shall speak your name,

you are a primary name.

You are unborn,

you have appeared to reveal the eternal.

You are who is,

so you have revealed those who really are.

You are uttered by a voice,

but by mind you are glorified.

You are powerful everywhere

so the world of senses also knows you,

because of you and your seed.

You are mercifu l

and from another race, 10

and it is placed over another race. 11

Now, you are from another race,

and it is placed over another race.

You are from another race,

you are different.

You are merciful,

you are eternal.

You are placed over a race,

you made all these increase

because of my seed,

and you know it is placed in generation. 12

But they are from other races,

they are different.

They are placed over other races,

they are placed in life.

You are a Mirotheos.

I praise its power given to me.

You who made the masculinities

that really are three times male, 13

who were divided into five, 14

who were given to us in triple power,

who were conceived without generation,

who came forth from the superio r

and for the inferior entered the midst,

you are a parent through a parent,

a word from a command.

We praise you, triple male,

you have unified all through them all,

you have empowered us.

You came into being from One, 15

from One you left.

You have come to One.

You have saved,

you have saved,

you have saved us,

you who are crowned and crown.

We praise you eternally,

we praise you,

we who are saved,

who are perfect beings,

who are perfect because of you,

who have become perfect with you.

You who are complete,

who complete,

who are perfect through all these,

who are everywhere similar,

triple male,

you have stood,

you were first to stand.

You have been divided everywhere,

you have remained one.

Whomever you wished

you have saved,

and you wish

that all who are worthy be saved.

You are perfect,

you are perfect,

you are perfect .

THE SECOND STELE OF SETH

Great is the first eternal realm,

male virgin Barbelo, 16

the first glory of the invisible father.

You who are called perfect

first saw

that the one who really preexists

is not. 17

From that one and through it

you have come into being first and forever,

you who are nonexistent from One, the indivisible, triple power.

You are a triple power,

you are a great One from a pure One.

You are a superior One,

first shadow of the holy father,

light from light.

We praise you,

maker of perfection,

donor of eternal realms.

You saw that those who are eternal

are from a shadow.

You have conferred multiplicity,

you have found and remained One,

while still conferring multiplicity through division. 18

You are a threefold replication,

truly you are replicated three times.

You are One, of the One,

and you are from its shadow.

You are hidden,

you are a world of knowledge,

you know that those who are of the One are from shadow .

And they are yours in your heart.

Because of them you made the eternal be,

you made divinity live,

you made knowledge good,

in blessedness you made the shadows flowing from the One.

You made one in understanding;

you made another in creation.

You made the equal and the unequal,

the similar and the different.

You have empowered in generation and formation,

by that which is, to others . . .

. . . and generation.

You have given these strength,

hidden in the heart,

and you came forth to them and from them.

You are divided among them

and become a great male first-appearing mind.

Father god,

divine child,

maker of multiplicity,

in dividing all those who really are, 19

you revealed to them all a word.

You possess them all without birth,

eternally, imperishably.

Because of you salvation has come to us,

from you comes salvation.

You are wisdom, 20

you are knowledge,

you are truth.

Because of you is life,

from you life.

Because of you is mind,

from you mind.

You are mind ,

you are a world of truth.

You are a triple power,

you are a threefold replication,

truly you are replicated three times,

the eternal realm of eternal realms.

You alone see purely the first, undying, unborn ones

and the first divisions, as you were divided.

Unify us as you were unified.

Teach us what you see.

Give us strength so we may be saved to eternal life.

We are a shadow of you . . .

as you are a shadow of that first preexistent one.

Hear us first.

We are eternal.

Hear us as perfect beings.

You are the eternal realm of eternal realms,

the all-perfect one, who is established.

You have heard,

you have heard.

You have saved,

you have saved.

We give thanks,

we praise always,

we shall glorify you.

THE THIRD STELE OF SETH

We rejoice

we rejoice

we rejoice.

We saw

we saw

we saw what really preexists,

that it really is

and is the first eternal one.

You, unborn,

from you come the eternal ones

and eternal realms ,

the all-perfect ones, who are established,

and the perfect beings.

We praise you, nonbeing,

reality before realities,

first being before beings,

father of divinity and life,

creator of mind,

donor of goodness,

donor of blessedness.

We all praise you,

you who know,

with glorifying praise,

you, because of whom all these are . . .

who know yourself through yourself alone.

There is nothing active prior to you.

You are spirit, alone and living.

You know the One,

that we cannot speak of this One,

which is yours everywhere.

Your light enlightens us.

Command us to see you

so we may be saved.

Knowledge of you is our salvation.

Command!

If you command,

we have been saved.

Truly we are saved

We have seen you through mind.

You are all these

and save them all,

you who will not be saved

nor have been saved by them.

You have commanded us.

You are One,

you are One,

as one might tell you,

you are One .

You are a single, living spirit.

How shall we give you a name? 21

We have none.

You are their existence,

you are their life,

you are their mind. 22

In you they rejoice.

You ordered them saved

through your word . . .

the single glory, at the fore,

O hidden one, blessed Senaon, who conceived himself, 23

Asineus

Mephneus

Optaon

Elemaon, the great power

Emouniar

Nibareus

Kandephoros

Aphredon

Deiphaneus

you who are my Armedon

you generator of powers

Thalanatheus

Antitheus.

You are in you,

you are before you,

and after you none have come to act.

How shall we praise you?

We cannot,

but we thank you,

we who are inferior.

For you commanded us ,

you who are our superior,

to glorify you

as best we can.

We praise you because we are saved

and we always glorify you.

Now we shall glorify you

that we be saved to eternal salvation.

We have praised you

for we can.

We have been saved.

You always wished

us to do it.

We have done it. . . .

Whoever remembers these 24 and always glorifies will be perfect among the perfect and free of suffering beyond all things. They all praise these, individually and collectively, and afterward they will be silent.

As assigned, they ascend. After silence, they descend from the third. They praise the second, and afterward the first. The way of ascent is the way of descent. 25

So understand, as those who are alive, that you have succeeded. You have taught yourselves about things infinite. Marvel at the truth within them, and at the revelation. 26

1 . Marsanes, which is the single text preserved in Nag Hammadi Codex X, is very fragmentary and not included in this volume.

2 . The Three Steles of Seth: Nag Hammadi Codex VII, 5, pp. 118, 10 to 127, 27; translated from the Coptic by Marvin Meyer.

3 . Dositheos was a Samaritan religious leader and the teacher of Simon Magus. Simon Magus is discussed in Acts of the Apostles 8 and elsewhere in early Christian literature.

4 . Or “three pillars of Seth.” Steles are monuments, well known in the Middle East, typically with significant public inscriptions.

5 . This phrase describes the gnostics, who cannot be shaken and do not waver in their commitments.

6 . As in the Secret Book of John, Geradamas is the perfect exalted human, heavenly Adamas or Adam, the father of Seth.

7 . The meaning of Emmacha is unknown. Elsewhere in gnostic literature featuring Seth reference is also made to Emmacha Seth (in Zostrianos) or Eli Eli Machar Machar Seth (in the Baptismal Ceremony of the Gospel of the Egyptians).

8 . Forms of this name or epithet for the divine are also used in the Three Forms of First Thought.

9 . Coptic autogenes (from Greek).

10 . Coptic kegenos, a term similar to Allogenes. Geradamas is Adam the stranger or foreigner from the heavenly realm, and Sethians are said to belong to another race, the unshakable race of perfect humankind.

11 . The references here and in the following lines to “another race” indicate the divine realm of the pleroma above, as well as the people of Seth here below. Heavenly Geradamas is from the divine fullness above, and his seed, particularly heavenly Seth, is over the gnostic race of Sethians. In the Secret Book of John, Geradamas places his son Seth in a position of power in the second aeon of the divine pleroma, with the luminary Oroiael, and the offspring of Seth are in the third aeon, with the luminary Daveithai. The Sethian gnostics here below in turn trace their origin from the offspring of Seth above.

12 . The seed of Seth is “mortalized,” placed in the realm of earthly procreation, in the Sethian gnostics present in this world.

13 . That is, triple male, a term of praise in which maleness symbolizes what is heavenly. This term is used in the Secret Book of John and elsewhere.

14 . In the Secret Book of John, the father’s realm of five consists of Barbelo and the four spiritual attributes requested by Barbelo. Elsewhere the five can indicate other divine attributes or emanations, or even five seals, as at the end of the Secret Book of John.

15 . In the Three Steles of Seth the One is referred to in Coptic as oua (masculine) and ouei (feminine), and as monas (from Greek), here and below.

16 . Barbelo is the divine mother, the first emanation or thought of the invisible father.

17 . The divine is beyond existence.

18 . These lines describe the mystery of how in a sense the One may also be three, how the singular may also be plural. Here the issue is in large part a neoplatonic, philosophical issue. In other times and places the issue becomes a Christian issue, in trinitarian discussions.

19 . Or “all those who really exist.”

20 . Sophia.

21 . The One, as in the Secret Book of John, is ineffable and transcends every finite name.

22 . That is, you are existence, life, mind—the neoplatonic triad.

23 . The section of the hymn that follows contains a series of spiritual or mystical names of the divine; Asineus and Mephneus are partially restored. Such spiritual names are also used in the hymns in Zostrianos and the Foreigner (Allogenes).

24 . That is, “these steles.”

25 . This paragraph gives instructions for the order of the hymns, with intervening silence, in the liturgy of ecstatic ascent and descent.

26 . After a concluding title, the manuscript adds a scribal note that refers either to the Three Steles of Seth or the codex in general: “This text belongs to the fatherhood; it is the son who wrote it. Bless me, father. I bless you, father, in peace. Amen.”