The Sethian Myth in the Gospel of Judas: Soteriology Or Demonology?
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THE SETHIAN MYTH IN THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS: SOTERIOLOGY OR DEMONOLOGY? John D. Turner As the original editors and virtually all other scholars note, the Gospel of Judas falls within the branch of Christian Gnosticism that claimed to be descended from Seth, the third son of Adam, commonly known as “Sethian” or “Classical” Gnosticism. Indeed, page 49 refers to “the incorruptible [generation] of Seth” that the divine Autogenes or Self- generated One revealed to the twelve luminaries occupying the divine luminous cloud that encompassed the divine Adamas and his son Seth.1 Beginning in the late the second century, the exaltation of the heav- enly Seth and the holy generation descended from him becomes a prominent theme in gnostic literature, attested not only in Epiphanius’ reports on the Sethians and Archontics, but also in six narrative rev- elations (the Apocryphon of John, the Apocalypse of Adam, the Gospel of Egyptians, Melchizedek, and Zostrianos) of the eleven Nag Hammadi titles included in the corpus of Nag Hammadi treatises conventionally called Classical or Sethian Gnostic.2 As a Christian Sethian revelation dialogue between Jesus and Judas Iscariot, the Gospel of Judas has its closest formal affi nity with the Apocryphon of John, while the content and outline of its mythical narrative is in many respects similar, not only to the mythology of the Apocryphon and the Gospel of Egyptians, but also to portions of the Apocalypse of Adam, and Zostrianos. In addition it also incorporates material very similar to the non-Sethian work Eugnostos the Blessed (possibly of ‘Ophite’ provenance). On closer inspection, however, it turns out that the Sethian myth employed by the Gospel of Judas is of a very odd sort, containing a number of departures in content and sequence from its instances in 1 Gos. Jud. TC [49] 1 “And [in] that [cloud] 2 [Seth was begotten aft er] 3 the image [of his father Adamas] 4 and aft er the likeness of [these] angels. 5 He revealed the incor- ruptible 6 [generation] of Seth 7 to the twelve [luminaries].” 2 Pan. 39.3, 39.5, 40.7. Th ree Sethian treatises,Norea, Allogenes, Steles Seth, and Marsanes off er few if any traces of mythical narrative. 96 john d. turner other Sethian works, and—unlike all other instances and testimonia of Sethian mythology—off ers no soteriological narrative at all. In order to account for this phenomenon, I begin with a brief summary of the more broadly-attested features of Sethian mythology, and then con- tinue with an examination of the content of the theogony, cosmogony, and anthropogony of the Sethian myth that Jesus reveals to Judas in this strange gospel, if indeed it can even be considered to be a “gospel” at all. Sethian Mythology As in the Apocryphon of John, many Sethian treatises locate at the summit of the hierarchy a supreme trinity of Father, Mother and Child comprising the supreme Invisible Spirit, his “fi rst thought” Barbelo, and their child, the divine Autogenes. Th e Invisible Spirit seems to transcend even the realm of being itself, which properly begins with Barbelo as his projected self-refl ection. Th e Autogenes Child is self- generated from Barbelo either spontaneously or from a spark of the Father’s light, and is responsible for the creation and ordering of the remainder of the transcendent realm, which is structured around the Four Luminaries Harmozel, Oroiael, Daveithai, Eleleth and their asso- ciated transcendent aeons or eternal realms. Th e fi rst three of these aeons become the heavenly dwellings of the archetypal Adam, Seth, and Seth’s off spring, while the fourth aeon, Eleleth, is the dwelling of the last of the aeonic beings, Sophia. Below this, the transitory realm of becoming originates either directly from the Luminary Eleleth’s urging or from Sophia’s own mis- taken attempt to instantiate her own self-willed contemplation of the Invisible Spirit, but without its permission. Th is act brings into being the chief Archon or world ruler named variously Yaldabaoth, Saklas, Samael, Nebruel, etc. Th e Archon then steals from his mother Sophia a portion of the supreme Mother’s divine essence, which he uses to create yet other archons as well as the phenomenal world. In response to the Archon’s false boasting in his sole divinity, the mother Barbelo projects the true divine image, that is, the archetypal human, of which the Archon produces a defective earthly copy. He then attempts to capture the divine power stolen from Sophia by infusing it into the earthly protoplast. Th is projection constitutes the fi rst of Barbelo’s three major salvifi c initiatives, which mark three successive phases of .