The Mysteries of Seth
The LORD hath made all things for
himself: yea,
even the wicked for the day of evil. Proverbs 16:4
Almost anyone today could declare that Adam and Eve had two sons,
Cain and Abel. The third son is more difficult to name; he is Seth.
The third son was provided by God as a replacement for the slain
Abel, according to Genesis. He was sired rather late in life by
Adam, for Adam is said to have been 130 years old at the time. The
historian Josephus wrote that Seth was a very great man and that
his descendants were the discoverers of many mysterious arts,
including astrology. The descendants of Seth then inscribed the
records of their occult discoveries, according to Josephus, on two
pillars, one brick, the other stone, so that they might be
preserved in times of future disasters.
In the treatise: The Apocalypse of Adam, the Gnostics presented us
with a scripture that tells not only of Seth (and his father) but
of the future of the esoteric tradition of gnosis in ages to come.
It begins: The disclosure given by Adam to his son Seth in his
seven hundredth year. And he said: "Listen to my words, my son
Seth. When God created me out of the earth, along with Eve your
mother, I went along with her in a glory which she had seen in the
aeon from which she came forth. She taught me the word of Gnosis of
the eternal God. And we resembled the great eternal angels, for we
were higher than the God who created us."
After thus informing us once again of the spiritually superior
status of Eve, the scripture goes on to recount how the creator
turned against Adam and Eve, robbing them of their glory and their
knowledge. Humans now served the creator "in fear and in slavery,"
so Adam stated. While previously immortal, Adam now knew that his
days were numbered. Therefore, he said he now wanted to pass on
what he knew to Seth and his descendants.
In the prediction it becomes apparent that "Seth and his seed"
would continue to experience gnosis, but that they would be subject
to many grave tribulations. The first of these would be the flood,
during which angels would rescue the Gnostic race of Seth and hide
them in a secret place. Noah, on the other hand, would advise his
sons to serve the creator God "in fear and slavery all the days of
your life." After the return of the illumined people of Seth's
kind, the creator would once again wrathfully turn against them and
try to destroy them by raining fire, sulfur, and asphalt down on
them-an allusion, perhaps, to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Once
again many of the Gnostics would be saved by being taken by great
angels to a place above the domain of the evil powers.
Much later there would be a new era with the coming of the man of
light ("Phoster"), who would teach gnosis to all. The Apocalypse of
Adam concludes with this passage:
This is the hidden knowledge of Adam which he gave to Seth, which is the holy baptism of those who know the imperishable Gnosis through those who are born of the Logos, through the imperishable Illuminator, who himself came from the holy seed (of Seth) Jesseus, Mazareus, Jessedekeus.
These names, which are obviously versions of the name of Jesus (they are found in other scriptures also), identify the culmination of the Gnostic tradition in the figure of Jesus. The "Race of Seth" is thus a biblical metaphor for those following this tradition. In the Gnostic book Pistis Sophia, Jesus identifies himself as coming from the "Great Race of Seth".
Old Answers to New
Controversies
The current interest in Genesis raises many serious questions. Not
a few of these have been illuminated by the neglected light shed by
the scriptures quoted earlier. Not unlike the old Gnostics, today's
questioning scholars and laypersons are provoked by Genesis to
critiques and even to inventions of new variations on the ancient
theme. Consider how deeply the social conditions of many countries
have been influenced by the picture the orthodox version of Genesis
presents concerning Eve and, by implication, women in general. Any
of the several scriptures of the Nag Hammadi collection would shed
an entirely different and more benign light on these issues.
Secondly, consider the political implications of the story of
Genesis. Elaine Pagels, in her fascinating book Adam, Eve, and the
Serpent (1988), pointed out that the long-held attitude of the
Christian church of submitting to greatly flawed systems of secular
government was usually justified by the "fallen condition" of
humanity as first described in Genesis. Following largely the
interpretations of Saint Augustine, most Christians felt that even
bad governments were to be preferred to liberty because humans are
so corrupted by Adam and Eve's original sin that they are in
capable of governing themselves. The libertarian fervor of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that gave rise to the American
and French revolutions was clearly not motivated by the spirit of
Genesis. The statement that "all men are created equal" does not
occur in that scripture, but sprang from the inspiration of the
American revolutionaries, who drew from Hermetic, Gnostic, and
similar non-mainstream sources.
Thirdly, there remains the terrifying problem of the character of
the God of Genesis. Agreeing with Karen Armstrong, we find Jack
Miles, in his provocative book God: A Biography writing: "Much that
the Bible says about him is rarely preached from the pulpit
because, examined too closely, it becomes a scandal." Perhaps we
may need to take a second look at the Gnostic proposition that the
creator mentioned in Genesis is not the true and ultimate God. The
unfavorable potential present in the Book of Genesis did not go
unnoticed throughout history. Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai, a religious
teacher prominent in the years after A.D. 70, warned that the
Genesis story of creation should not be taught before even as many
as two people. Saint Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin,
wrote that many of the narratives in the Old Testament were "rude
and repellent." He certainly included those in Genesis.
The Dinka tribesmen of the Sudan have a point. The creation myth of
any culture has a profound effect on the attitudes, social mores,
and political systems that prevail. So long as the Book of Genesis
remains a basic text for Jews, Christians, and Muslims we can
expect the societies within which these religions flourish to be
influenced by this book. Still, there is some hope on the horizon.
Although the Gnostic alternatives to the content of Genesis are
still usually neglected, as indeed they were on television and in
the press last year, some prominent figures of our culture are
beginning to take notice. To mention but one such figure, Harold
Bloom has become one of the most prominent voices calling attention
to the creative character of the Gnostic alternative to mainstream
religion. His books American Religion (1992) and Omens of
Millennium (1996) have made a powerful case for the timeliness and
perennial value of the positions taken by Christian Gnostics,
Jewish Kabbalists, and Sufi mystics, all of whom are inspired by a
common gnosis. It may be useful to conclude with an incisive and in
our view definitive statement from the pen of this scholar:
If you can accept a God who coexists with death camps, schizophrenia, and AIDS, yet remains all-powerful and somehow benign, then you have faith, and you have accepted the covenant with Yahweh.... If you know yourself as having an affinity with the alien or stranger God, cut off from this world, then you are a Gnostic, and perhaps the best and strongest moments still come to what is best and oldest in you, to a breath or spark that long precedes this Creation.