8. The Three Steles of Seth
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 wis-
dom 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 re-
covered as a latter-day collection of hymns. Reading them, it is easy to imag-
ine 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 wor-
shiper to approach god, see god, and learn "about things infinite"—and re-
turn from ascent.