204 LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM
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.^1 '
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 superior- 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. - 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 Sethi-
ans. 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. - The seed of Seth is "mortalized," placed in the realm of earthly procreation, in the Sethian
gnostics present in this world. - 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 spiri-
tual 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.