Gnosticism Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==== Sethite-Barbeloite ==== {{Main|Sethianism}} Sethianism was one of the main currents of Gnosticism during the 2nd to 3rd centuries, and the prototype of Gnosticism as condemned by Irenaeus.{{sfn|Quispel|2005|p=3510}} Sethianism attributed its ''gnosis'' to [[Seth]], third son of [[Adam and Eve]] and ''[[Norea]]'', wife of [[Noah]], who also plays a role in [[Mandeanism]] and [[Manicheanism]]. Their main text is the ''Apocryphon of John'', which does not contain Christian elements,{{sfn|Quispel|2005|p=3510}} and is an amalgam of two earlier myths.{{sfn|Magris|2005|p=3517}} Earlier texts such as [[Apocalypse of Adam]] show signs of being pre-Christian and focus on Seth, third son of Adam and Eve.{{sfn|Temporini|Vogt|Haase|1983}} Later Sethian texts continue to interact with Platonism. Sethian texts such as [[Zostrianos]] and [[Allogenes]] draw on the imagery of older Sethian texts, but use "a large fund of philosophical conceptuality derived from contemporary Platonism, (that is, late middle Platonism) with no traces of Christian content."{{sfn|Turner|1986|p=59}}{{refn|group=note|The doctrine of the "triple-powered one" found in the text Allogenes, as discovered in the Nag Hammadi Library, is "the same doctrine as found in the anonymous [[Parmenides]] commentary (Fragment XIV) ascribed by Hadot to Porphyry [...] and is also found in [[Plotinus]]' [[Ennead]] 6.7, 17, 13β26."{{sfn|Turner|1986|p=59}}}} According to [[John D. Turner]], German and American scholarship views Sethianism as "a distinctly inner-Jewish, albeit syncretistic and heterodox, phenomenon", while British and French scholarship tends to see Sethianism as "a form of heterodox Christian speculation".{{sfn|Turner|2001|p=257}} Roelof van{{nbsp}}den{{nbsp}}Broek notes that "Sethianism" may never have been a separate religious movement, and that the term refers rather to a set of mythological themes which occur in various texts.{{sfn|Broek|2013|p=28}} According to Smith, Sethianism may have begun as a pre-Christian tradition, possibly a [[syncretic]] cult that incorporated elements of Christianity and Platonism as it grew.{{sfn|Smith|2004}} According to [[Hildegard Temporini-GrΓ€fin Vitzthum|Temporini]], Vogt, and Haase, early Sethians may be identical to or related to the [[Nazarenes (sect)|Nazarenes]], the [[Ophites]], or the sectarian group called [[Heresy|heretics]] by [[Philo]].{{sfn|Temporini|Vogt|Haase|1983}} According to Turner, Sethianism was influenced by [[Christianity]] and [[Middle Platonism]], and originated in the second century as a fusion of a Jewish baptizing group of possibly priestly lineage, the so-called ''Barbeloites'',{{sfn|Turner|2001|pp=257β258}} named after [[Barbelo]], the first emanation of the Highest God, and a group of Biblical exegetes, the ''Sethites'', the "seed of [[Seth]]".{{sfn|Turner|2001|p=258}} At the end of the second century, Sethianism grew apart from the developing Christian orthodoxy, which rejected the [[Docetism|Docetic]] view of the Sethians on Christ.{{sfn|Turner|2001|p=259}} In the early third century, Sethianism was fully rejected by Christian heresiologists, as Sethianism shifted toward the contemplative practices of Platonism while losing interest in their primal origins.{{sfn|Turner|2001|pp=259β260}} In the late third century, Sethianism was attacked by neo-Platonists like [[Plotinus]], and Sethianism became alienated from Platonism. In the early to mid-fourth century, Sethianism fragmented into various sectarian Gnostic groups such as the [[Archontics]], Audians, [[Borborites]], and Phibionites, and perhaps [[Stratiotici]], and Secundians.{{sfn|Turner|2001|p=260}}{{sfn|Turner|1986|p=59}} Some of these groups existed into the Middle Ages.{{sfn|Turner|2001|p=260}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page