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Session Four Session Four THE PHENOMENON AND SIGNIFICANCE OF GNOSTIC SETHIANISM BY HANS-MARTIN SCHENKE ONE of the most important insights bestowed upon us by the Nag Hammadi Library comes in the form of the discovery, or rather the elucidation, of a variety of Gnosticism that may be well compared to Valentinianism in both extent and historical importance.* In the Nag Hammadi codices there exists a constellation of texts that clearly stand apart as a relatively close-knit group (however much they may also be related to other Nag Hammadi writings). Clear membership in the group is enjoyed not only by the texts that are central to it, but also by those that are peripheral. This text group includes: The Apocryphon of John (CG 11,1; III,]; IV,J; plus the BG version and the parallel in Irenaeus Haer. 1.29) The Hypostasis of the Archons (11,4) The Gospel of the Egyptians (111,2; IV,2) The Apocalypse of Adam (V,5) The Three Ste/es of Seth (Vll,5) Zostrianus (VIII,]) Melchizedek (IX,1) The Thought of Norea (IX,2) M arsanes (X) Allogenes (Xl,3) The Trimorphic Protennoia (XIII) In the light of the above-mentioned text group, still other writings can be seen to belong to this variety of Gnosticism. These are, of original Gnostic writings (besides the aforementioned BG,2), the Untitled Treatise of the Codex Brucianus; and from the domain of antiheretical literature (besides the aforementioned system of Irenaeus • Heartfelt thanks are due to my colleague and friend Bentley Layton for translating this paper into English. THE PHENOMENON OF GNOSTIC SETHIANISM 589 Haer. 1.29), the doctrines of the so-called Gnostics, Sethians, and Archontics of Epiphanius (Haer. 26.39.40). The texts of this group shed light upon one another if compared synoptically; and the proportion and relationship of common, shared material to special, unique material permits a process of deduction that leads to considerable insight not only into the development of the teaching they contain, but also into the history of the community that transmitted them. One instance of how these texts illuminate one another is the way certain shadowy figures suddenly spring to life. Thus the lightgiver Eleleth, who in most texts of our group looks like a long-dead component of the system, unexpectedly encounters us in the Hypostasis of the Archons as a surprisingly lively savior and revealer (93: 2 ff.), and in the Gospel of the Egyptians and the Trimorphic Protennoia is even the luminous being who gives rise to the origin of the lower world (CG III 56: 22 ff. = IV 68: 5 ff.; XIII 39: 13 ff.). Thus, too, in Allogenes Youel, "the one pertaining to all the glories," 1 who according to the Gospel of the Egyptians is merely the consort of the thrice-male child2 (=divine Autogenes= celestial Adamas), 3 plays a leading role as giver of revelation (CG XI 50 :20; 52: 14; 55: 18, 34; 57 :25). An outline of my view of this phenomenon, based on a lecture delivered in 1971, 4 has already been published. It is not my intention to bring up what was said before, to the extent that it still seems correct. Rather, I should like to make certain additions, to shift the emphasis somewhat, and to stress certain points that have become important in the interim, generally approaching the same topic from a slightly different perspective and in a more fundamental way. Although in our text group both major and minor issues are interesting and important, and there are problems of both general and very specific import, I would stress that its special significance lies largely in the fact that it is also limited, and therefore constitutes a readily 1 The strange stereotyped epithet T.\Nleooy THpoy probably renders only a single Greek adjective, perhaps something like 1tavtvoo~oc;. 2 I no longer hold to my former understanding of <90Miii- tiiooyT N.\/1.oy (and the like) as "Dreimiinnerkind'' (NTS 16 (1969] 197 n. I; Studia Coptica, [below, n. 4], 170). This was an exegetical exaggeration. 3 Cf. further the Untitled Treatise from Codex Brucianus (ed. Baynes) 18.29, 48.3; Zost 53: 14; 54: 17; 63: 11; 125: 14. 4 "Das sethianische System nach Nag-Hammadi-Handschriften," Studia Coptica (P. Nagel, ed.; BBA 45; Berlin, 1974) 165-73. .
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