In the gnostic “Second Treatise of the Great Seth,” Christ himself provides a first-hand description of how he descended into the man Jesus’ body, occupied it for the length of his ministry, and then died only in appearance. Like other gnostic teachers, such as Basilides, the unknown author of this book thinks that Simon of Cyrene, who bore Jesus’ cross, was mistakenly crucified in his place, while Jesus looked on and laughed. Those who ascribe to a literal understanding of Christ’s death are said to proclaim “a doctrine of a dead man”; in so doing they subject themselves to “fear and slavery”; they are “small and ignorant.”
As in the Coptic Apocalypse of Peter, these false believers are the proto-orthodox Christians, who foolishly believe that the Jewish Scriptures are true (from Adam to the Patriarchs, Moses, and the prophets) and that the Creator of the world is almighty. In fact, the ancient Jews and their God himself are all a “laughingstock.” Those who do not see the deeper truths about God and Christ from the Scriptures—i.e., those without gnosis—are “like dumb animals.” They think that “they are advancing the name of Christ,” especially in persecuting those who have been liberated (i.e., the Gnostics); but in fact they are completely ignorant.
The name Seth does not occur anywhere in the tractate except in the title; in the Old Testament, he is said to be the third son of Adam and Eve. Some gnostic groups maintained that he was the first to whom gnosis came, the progenitor of the Gnostics themselves. This book, which was discovered at Nag Hammadi (see page 19), probably dates from the third century.
I visited a bodily dwelling. I cast out the chons was disturbed. And all the physical one who was in it previously, and I went matter of the archons along with the pow- in. And the whole multitude of the ar- ers born of the earth began to tremble
Translation by Roger A. Bullard and Joseph A. Gibbons, in Nag Hammadi Codex VII (Nag Hammadi Studies, 30) ed. Birger Pearson (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996); used with permission.
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when it saw the likeness of the image, since it was mixed. And I was the one who was in it, not resembling him who was in it previously. For he was a worldly man, but I, I am from above the heavens. I did not refuse them, on the one hand, and I became Christ. But on the other, I did not reveal myself to them in the love which was coming forth from me. I was revealing that I am a stranger to the regions below.
There was a great disturbance in the whole earthly region, with confusion and flight, and (in) the plan of the archons. And some were persuaded, when they saw the acts of power which were being accomplished by me. And they flee, namely all these who are descended by race from the one who fled from the throne to the Sophia of Hope—since she had previously given indication concern ing us and all those who were with me— these of the race of Adonaios. Yet others fled as though (sent) from the World Ruler and those with him, and brought every punishment upon me. And there was a flight of their mind about what counsel they would take concerning me, thinking that the(ir) Greatness is (the) All, and speaking lying witness against the Man also and the whole greatness of the assembly. It was not possible for them to know who the Father of truth is, the Man of the greatness. And these took the name because of �pollution� and ig- norance—which (is) a burning and a ves sel which they created for destruction of Adam, which they had made in order to cover up those who are equally theirs.
But they, the archons belonging to the place of Yaldabaoth, lay bare the circuit of the angels. This is what humanity was going around seeking because they did not know the Man of truth. For Adam appeared to them, the one whom they had fashioned. And a disturbance of fear occurred throughout their entire dwell
ing, lest perhaps the surrounding angels stand against them. For on account of those who were offering (him) praise I died, though not in reality, because their archangel was vain. And then a voice of the World Ruler came to the angels “I am God and there is no other beside me.”1But
I laughed with joy when I considered his conceit. And he kept saying all the more, “Who is Man?”2 And the entire army of
his angels who had seen Adam and his dwelling were laughing at his smallness. And in this way their thought came to be removed away from the Greatness of the heavens, who is the Man of truth, whose name they saw because he is in the smallness of a dwelling place. Since they are foolish in the senselessness of their vain thought, namely their laughter, it became defilement for them. The whole greatness of the Fatherhood of the Spirit was resting in its places, and I was with him, since I have a thought of a single emanation from the eternal ones and the unknowable ones, undefiled and immeas urable. I placed the small Ennoia in the world, having disturbed them and fright ened the whole multitude of the angels and their ruler. And I examined them all with burning and fire on account of my thought. And each of their activities they did on account of me. And trouble and fighting arose around the Seraphim and Cherubim, since their glory will perish, and the disturbance which is around Adonaios this side and that, and (around) their dwelling—(reaching) to the World Ruler and the one who said “Let us seize him.” Others again (said), “The counsel shall not come to be.” For Adonaios knows me because of Hope.
And I was in the mouths of lions. And (as for) the counsel which they planned
about me against destruction of their de ception and their foolishness, I did not give in to them as they had devised. And I was not afflicted at all. Those there punished me, yet I did not die in solid reality but in what appears, in order that I not be put to shame by them, because these are part of me. I cut off the shame from me and I did not become faint hearted at what happened to me at their hands. I was about to become a slave to fear, but I was struck (merely) according to their sight and thought, in order that no word might ever be found to speak about them. For my death which they think happened, (happened) to them in their error and blindness. They nailed their man up to their death. For their minds did not see me, for they were deaf and blind. But in doing these things, they render judgment against themselves.
As for me, on the one hand they saw me; they punished me. Another, their fa ther, was the one who drank the gall and the vinegar; it was not I. They were hit ting me with the reed; another was the one who lifted up the cross on his shoul der, who was Simon. Another was the one on whom they put the crown of thorns. But I was rejoicing in the height over all the riches of the archons and the offspring of their error and their conceit, and I was laughing at their ignorance. And all their powers I brought into sub jection. For when I came down no one saw me. For I kept changing my forms above, transforming from appearance to appearance. And on account of this, when I was at their gates I kept taking their likeness. For I passed them by qui etly, and I was viewing the places, and I did not fear nor was I ashamed, for I was undefiled. And I was speaking with them, mixing among them through those who are mine, and I tread on those who are harsh to them jealously, and the fire I extinguished.
And all these things I kept doing on account of my will in order that this which I willed in the will of the Father above I might complete. And the Son of the Greatness, who was hidden in the region below, we brought to the height, where I am with all these aeons, which no one has seen nor understood, where the wedding of the wedding robe is, the new (wedding) and not the old, nor does it perish. For the new bridal chamber is of the heavens and perfect.
I have revealed (that) there are three paths, (which are) an undefiled mystery in a spirit of this aeon, which does not perish, nor is it partial, nor is to be spoken of; rather, it is undivided, universal, and permanent. For the soul, which is from the height, will not speak about the error which is here, nor transport itself from these aeons, since it will be transported when it becomes a free person and expe rience nobility in the world, standing be fore the Father without trouble and fear, always mixed with the mind of ideal power. They will see me from every side without hatred. For while they see me, they are being seen, being mixed with them. As for me, since they did not put me to shame, they were not shamed. As for me, since they were not afraid before me, they will pass by every gate without fear, and they will be perfected in the third glory. I was the one whose cross the world did not accept, (my) apparent ex altation, my third baptism in an apparent image, when they had fled from the fire of the seven authorities. And the sun of the powers of the archons set, darkness over took them, and the world became poor.
After they bound him with many re straints, they nailed him to the cross, and they fastened him with four nails of bronze. The veil of his temple he tore with his hands. There was a trembling that overcame the chaos of the earth, for the souls which were in the sleep below
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were released, and they were resurrected. They walked about boldly, having laid aside jealousy of ignorance and unlear nedness beside the dead tombs, having put on the new man, having come to know that blessed and perfect one of the eternal and incomprehensible Father and of the boundless light, which I am. When I came to my own and joined them with myself, there was no need for many words, for our thought was with their thought; on this account they understood what I was saying, for we took counsel concerning the destruction of the ar chons. And on this account I did the will of the Father, which I am.
When we went forth from our home, when we came down to this world and came into being in the world in bodies, we were hated and persecuted, not only (by) those who are ignorant, but by those also who think that they are advancing the name of Christ, since they are vain in ignorance. They do not know who they are, like unreasoning beasts. Those who were set free by me they persecute, since they hate them—those who, if they shut their mouth, would weep with groaning without profit because they did not know me completely. Instead, they served two masters, even a multitude. But you (pl.) will be victorious in everything, in war and battles and schism of jealousy and anger. But in the uprightness of our love we are without deceit, pure, good, having the mind of the Father in an ineffable mystery. For it (the world) was a laugh ingstock. It is I who bear witness that it was a laughingstock—since the archons do not know that it is an ineffable union of undefiled truth, like that which exists among the children of the light, of which they made an imitation, proclaiming the doctrine of a dead man and falsehoods to resemble the freedom and purity of the perfect assembly, uniting themselves in their doctrine to fear and slavery and
worldly concerns and discarded worship, being few (and) uninstructed.
They do not accept for themselves the nobility of the truth, hating the one for whom they exist and loving the one for whom they do not exist. For they did not know the Gnosis of the Greatness, that it is from above and (from) the fountain of truth. And it is not from slavery and jeal ousy and fear and love of worldly matter. For that which is not theirs and that which is theirs they use without fear and with freedom. They do not covet because they have authority and a law from themselves over the things which they would desire. But those who do not have are poor, namely, those who do not possess some thing and yet they desire it. And they lead astray those who through them are like those who have the truth of their freedom, so as to constrain us under a yoke and compulsion of concern and fear. This one is in slavery. And this one who is brought by compulsion of violence and threat has been guarded by God. But the noble-born one of the Fatherhood is not guarded, since he guards that which is his own by himself, without word or compulsion. He is united with his will, this one who is of the thought alone of the Fatherhood, that (the Fatherhood) may become perfect and unutterable through the living water, if it exists in wisdom among yourselves not only in word of hearing but in deed and fulfilled word.
For the perfect are worthy to be estab lished in this way. And they are joined with me in order that they may not share in any enmity. In a wholesome friendship I accomplish everything in the Good One, for this is the joining of truth, that they should have no adversary. But everyone who causes division—and he will learn none of their wisdom because he causes division and is not a friend— he is an enemy to them all. But the one who lives in agreement and friendship of
brotherly love by nature and not by de cree, wholly and not in part, this one is truly the will of the Father. This one is the universal and the perfect love.
For Adam was a laughingstock, and he was created from the image of a pattern of a man by the Hebdomad, as though he had become stronger than I and my breth ren. We are innocent with respect to him, since we did not sin. And Abraham was a laughing stock, and Isaac and Jacob, since they were given a name by the Heb domad, namely “the fathers from the im age,” as though he had become stronger than I and my brethren. We are innocent with respect to him, since we did not sin. David was a laughingstock since his son was named the Son of Man, having been activated by the Hebdomad, as though he had become stronger than I and the friends of my race. But we are innocent with respect to him; we did not sin. Sol omon was a laughingstock, since he thought that he was Christ, having be come arrogant through the Hebdomad, as though he had become stronger than I and my brethren. But we are innocent with re spect to him; I did not sin. The 12 proph ets were laughingstocks, since they have come forth as imitations of the true prophets. They came into being from the image of the Hebdomad, as though it had become stronger than I and my brethren. But we are innocent with respect to it, since we did not sin. Moses was a laugh ingstock, a “faithful servant,” being named “the friend”; they bore witness concerning him in iniquity, since he never knew me. Neither he nor those before him, from Adam to Moses and John the Baptist, none of them knew me nor my brethren. For a doctrine of angels is what arose through them, to keep dietary rules and bitter slavery. They never knew truth nor will they know it, for there is a great deception upon their soul, and they have no ability to find a mind of freedom ever,
in order to know him, until they come to know the Son of Man.
But concerning my Father, I am the one whom the world did not know, and on this account, it rose up against me and my brethren. But we are innocent with re spect to it; we did not sin. For the Archon was a laughingstock because he said, “I am God, and there is none greater than I. I alone am the Father, the Lord, and there is no other beside me. I am a jealous God, bringing the sins of the fathers upon the children for three and four generations,”3
as though he had become stronger than I and my brethren. But we are innocent with respect to him; for we did not sin. Though we mastered his doctrine in this way, he lives in conceit, and he does not agree with our Father. And thus through our friendship we prevailed over his doc trine, since he is arrogant in conceit and does not agree with our Father. For he was a laughingstock with (his) judgment and false prophecy.
O those who do not see! You do not see your blindness that this is who was not known. Neither did they ever know him, nor did they understand him. Concerning him they would not listen to a valid re port. On this account they trained in a judgment of error, and they raised their defiled, murderous hands against him as if they were striking the air. And the senseless and the blind are senseless al ways, being slaves always of law and worldly fear. I am Christ, the Son of Man, the one from you (pl.) who is in you. I am despised on your account, in order that you yourselves may forget what is changeable. And do not become female, lest you give birth to their evils and kin dred things: to jealousy and schism, an ger and wrath, fear and a divided heart and vain coveting which is not fulfilled. But I am an ineffable mystery to you. . . .