the Sethians

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Irish1975
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Joined: Fri Dec 15, 2017 8:01 am

Re: the Sethians

Post by Irish1975 »

Question for all and sundry—

When you read in certain NT texts (Pastorals, 2 Peter, Jude, Acts) the warnings against false teachers, along with ex eventu prophecies that an era of widespread false teaching is about to corrupt the fledgling christian church,

Do you think the targets of these passages are more likely to be Sethians, or Valentinians, or Marcionites, or all of the above (or none)? I suppose we should marsall all these NT passages for a full answer to this question, but I assume most people are familiar with them, and I’m just wondering if there is a good evidentiary basis for answering this question.
yakovzutolmai
Posts: 296
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 6:03 am

Re: I'm at a loss here

Post by yakovzutolmai »

billd89 wrote: Wed Mar 31, 2021 11:49 am I'm looking for Philastrius (Diversarum Hereseon Liber 3.3) in translation; I fail.

De Seth autem ipso Christum Dominum genus deducere aiunt. Quidam autem ex eis non solum genus deducere, sed etiam ipsum Christum esse asserunt atque opinantur.

Variant: "De Seth autem ipso Christum deum genus deducere aiunt. Quidam autem ex eis non solum genus de eo deducere, sed etiam ipsum Christum esse adserunt atque opinantur."

Is this correct??
"they not only asserted that Christ Our Lord descended from Seth, but also held the opinion that Christ was Seth himself”

Also, a comparison of the Patristic sources, here.
The Hyksos inverted the preeminence of Osiris and Set. We can see a similar inversion with Cain and Abel where the grain-grower is the bad guy. Not to mention the insertion of Seth in Abel's place, inheriting his role. We also have an inversion with Ishmael and Isaac, where the elder son loses preference to the younger.

Using this parallel, we can associate Isaac with Seth/Abel, by way of swapping Osiris and Set from their Egyptian role for an inverted role in the Semitic system. The parallels between Christ and Isaac are obvious.

Again, the connection to Egyptian mythology explains the esoteric importance of Isaac and Abel/Seth. It's the same story from Canaanite mythology. Where Cronus sacrifices his Only Begotten Ieoud. Or where Ba'al Hadad impregnates a cow and substitutes the calf in his place, to earn his fate in the underworld. This myth appears in the Apis bull, connected to Ptah, which also parallels Daedalus and his artificial cow and its role in creating the Minotaur.

Whatever the purpose of this proto-myth was, the Only Begotten of the Most High has to give up his life so that the Most High can win the war against Death/Chaos or otherwise claim his crown. The structure of this myth is present all over Canaanite and Egyptian mythology, and so there's no need for any Christianity to explain why Jews would draw an esoteric connection between Seth and an only begotten son of God whose death and resurrection supports the foundation of the universe. If that esoteric connection didn't exist, there wouldn't have been a story about Isaac and Abraham or Cain and Abel in the first place.
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