11
The Baptismal
Ceremony of the
Gospel of the
Egyptians
I he Gospel of the Egyptians, or, more accurately, the Holy Book
I of the Great Invisible Spirit, is a Sethian text that includes a bap-
JtL. tismal ceremony showing, in part, how a Sethian gnostic baptism
might have been celebrated. Sethian and other gnostic texts refer to baptism
and the importance of baptism. In the Secret Book of John, for example, the
awakened person is raised and sealed "in luminous water with five seals, that
death might not prevail over the person from that moment on." Another
Sethian text, the Three Forms of First Thought, describes gnostic baptism in
a series of ceremonial acts: stripping off the darkness, dressing in a robe of
light, being baptized or washed in the water of life, and being enthroned,
glorified, raised, and sealed with five seals. The point of baptism, the Three
Forms of First Thought suggests, is knowledge and enlightenment.
The Baptismal Ceremony of the Gospel of the Egyptians opens with a list
of the dignitaries who stand in attendance during the baptismal ceremony.