110 LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOMlight is communicated to enlightened gnostics. Genesis hints that Seth marked
a new beginning for humanity after the violence that plagued the relation-
ship of the brothers Cain and Abel. In Genesis 4, Cain is described as killing
his brother Abel and being banished for his act of murder; in the Secret Book
of John, Cain and Abel are said to have been fathered by the seductive first
ruler Yaldabaoth, who defiled Eve sexually to get her pregnant. In Genesis
4:25, in the Septuagint, Seth is said to be sperma heteron, "another seed," in
place of the dead Abel. The gnostics, in turn, described themselves as "an-
other race," the offspring or seed of Seth. Another gnostic text, part of which
is presented below, is mentioned by Porphyry as a gnostic text known to his
teacher Plotinos, and is entitled Allogenes, "Foreigner," literally "One from
Another Race."
The sacred literature of the Sethians features a mythological narrative that
provides a reinterpretation of the opening chapters of Genesis. Several of the
Sethian texts included here reflect features of this mythological narrative, but
one of the most compelling of the presentations of the myth is to be found in
the Secret Book of John. Although in its present form, in the versions of the
Secret Book of John that have been preserved in the Nag Hammadi library
and the Berlin Gnostic Codex 8502, the myth is recounted in a Christianized
form, the literary evidence (more obvious in the Coptic) suggests that the
myth derives from a hellenistic Jewish gnostic tradition that was in dialogue
with Greek mythological and philosophical traditions, particularly Greek
philosophical traditions going back to Plato.^6 This Hellenistic Jewish telling of
the gnostic creation myth describes the origin, fall, and restoration of the
light, the light within gnostics and the light within god. The cast of characters
in the myth, some of whom are known from Genesis, appear within the
Sethian texts given here. The original divine entity is the infinite One, the in-
visible spirit (revealed as the transcendent One in the Secret Book of John and
the Vision of the Foreigner). From the One emanates the divine forethought
Barbelo, and together the One and Barbelo produce a divine child, to form an
exalted triad or trinity. With the divine in the fullness or pleroma of divinity
are four luminaries, Harmozel, Oroiael, Daveithai, and Eleleth, along with
Geradamas (Adam the stranger) and his son Seth. Mother Sophia—herself an
eternal realm connected with Eleleth—miscalculates (her motives are de-
scribed in different ways), and from her mistake comes her arrogant son, the
demiurge and creator of the world named Yaldabaoth, Sakla, or Samael. At
- Philo of Alexandria gives another example of Jewish interpretation of Genesis shaped by
platonic concerns.