466 LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM
was crucified, while Jesus stood above it all, laughing at the ignorance and
foolishness of the rulers. (Similar interpretations may be found in the Qur'an
and other Islamic accounts of the death or apparent death of Tsa, that is,
Jesus.) The present text also polemicizes against "those who think that they
are advancing the name of Christ" but end up persecuting the gnostics, who,
Jesus says, "have been liberated by me." These hostile people in the emerging
orthodox church, the text claims, are confused in their christology, and they
proclaim "a doctrine of a dead man," according to which they believe, quite
mistakenly, that they should worship, follow, and imitate a dead, crucified
Christ. Unlike the gnostics, Jesus observes, they do not have "the knowledge
of the greatness that it is from above and from a fountain of truth."
The Second Treatise of the Great Seth is another text from the Nag Ham-
madi library, and like other texts in the collection it was composed in Greek.
Gregory Riley suggests a date of composition in the second half of the second
century, in part on the basis of the characterization of the opponents in the
emerging orthodox church as small (or, few, of little account) and ignorant
(or uninstructed). He guesses that Alexandria may be a possible place of com-
position. The Second Treatise of the Great Seth does not give a systematic
treatment of its gnostic themes, but some ideas of Sethian and Valentinian
character may be identified. Many of the characters in the Second Treatise of
the Great Seth are also presented in the Secret Book of John and other gnostic
texts in this volume.
THE SECOND TREATISE
OF THE GREAT SETH
1
I AM IN YOU AND YOU IN ME
The perfect majesty is at rest in the ineffable light, in the truth of the mother^2
of all these, and all of you that attain to me, to me alone who am perfect,
i. The Second Treatise of the Great Seth: Nag Hammadi library, Codex VII,2, pp. 49,10 to 70,12;
translated by Roger A. Bullard and Joseph A. Gibbons in Robinson, Nag Hammadi Library in
English, rev. ed., pp. 363-71; modified in consultation with the translation by Gregory Riley in
Pearson, Nag Hammadi Codex VII, pp. 129-99 and revised by Willis Barnstone.
- Gregory Riley translates this as "the truth, the mother" (personified truth is then understood
to be the mother), on the basis of the assumed Greek original (in Pearson, Nag Hammadi
Codex VII, pp. 146-47).