LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM 137Geradamas ("Adam the stranger"), the heavenly human
Seth, heavenly son of Geradamas, whose offspring are the Sethian gnostics
Sophia, divine wisdom from among the aeons
Yaldabaoth, also called Sakla, Samael, child of Sophia, arrogant first ruler
and creator of this world Authorities, powers, archons, rulers, angels,
demons, lackeys of Yaldabaoth
Adam and Eve
Noah
Moses
Yahweh and Elohim, sons of Yaldabaoth and Eve, also called Cain and Abel
The savior, forethought or Jesus
John son ofZebedee, a student of Jesus and the supposed author or editor
of the Secret Book of John
The offspring or seed of Seth, the unshakable race, the Sethian gnosticsAll this takes place, the Secret Book of John declares, "in order that when
the spirit comes down from the holy realms, it may raise up the seed and heal
it of what it lacks, that the entire realm of fullness may be holy and lacking in
nothing." Ultimately, then, god saves and is saved, and with god all those,
called the offspring of Seth, who participate in light and wisdom. Thus divine
wisdom, personified as Sophia, is finally vindicated, and the glorious fullness
of the divine is realized.
All four extant versions of the Secret Book of John are preserved in Coptic,
but a version of the Secret Book of John was most likely composed in Greek in
the second century or earlier. The text is now known in short and long ver-
sions; the long version is the one translated here.^2
- For another Sethian text in this volume that closely parallels the Secret Book of John, most
significantly in its revelation about the One, see the Vision of the Foreigner. Other mythologi-
cal creation accounts with similarities to the Secret Book of John appear particularly in the
Sethian texts collected here, but also in On the Origin of the World and the Paraphrase of
Shem. Among heresiological works, see especially Irenaeus, on the Barbelognostics, or gnostics
of Barbelo, in Against Heresies 1.29.1—4.