Sethian Literature
4
The Secret Book
of John
P I ^
I he Secret Book (or Apocryphon) of John is a classic work of
I Sethian gnostic mythology. It presents an early and elegant ver-
.JL. sion of the gnostic myth of creation. Versions of the myth articu-
lated here will resurface throughout the texts that are included in this volume.
The Secret Book of John was almost certainly widely distributed in its time: no
fewer than four copies of it have survived, and Irenaeus of Lyon, in his tract
Against Heresies, attempts to debunk certain "heretics," also called Barbelog-
nostics or Barbeloites, whose system of thought resembles that of the Secret
Book of John.
The Secret Book of John presents a mythological account of the creation,
fall, and salvation of the world and the people within the world, featuring
Sophia in the role of the wisdom of god. In its present form it is a Christian
text consisting of discourses and disclosures of Jesus set within the framework
of a dialogue between John and Jesus. The Secret Book of John thus stands
within the Johannine tradition, the tradition of the Gospel of John and other
texts attributed to John; the scholar Karen L. King has even suggested that
Sethian gnostics have considered it to be Part Two of the gospel.^1 This Christ-
ian form of the text appears to be based on an earlier Jewish text that addressed
i. King, "The Apocryphon of John: Part II of the Gospel of John?"