Transliteration from the Coptic: “iesseos masareos iessedekeos”. A correct Greek transliteration is needed,
Ἰεσσεος Μασσάρεος Ἰεσσέδεκεος ?
Yessedekeus = Iesse + Zedek + eus ; ~Ishai-tzedekeus; Zedek (σέδεκ) is ‘Righteousness’.
Bodinger (1994) called Melchizedek the only character in the OT who, in eschatological literature, as a mortal, becomes a divine figure with messianic features. This supposes the myth was part of the propaganda formula (c.145 BC) to legitimize the Hasmonean dynasty of kings-priests, with Melchizedek as the archetype. But was Melchizedek an historic king and priest in Jerusalem, or rather a god? Zedek was a Phoencian god, 1500-1000 BC in the area around Jerusalem. Perhaps –zedek connects Yessedekeus with the Zadokites, Egyptian Jews from a nome south of the Sethrum, but I haven’t examined that.
Yesse = Latin Iesse; ⲓⲉⲥⲥⲉⲩⲥ ; Ιεσσαι/ϊσεσσαι, Ἰεσσαιος, ϊσεσσεδεκεύς
In MT Psalm 45.7 the anointed king (note the verb mashach, v 8) is probably addressed as elohim.46 The ideal king is called adoni or, on a different pointing, adonay in Psa. 110. 1, where he is said to sit at God’s right hand in heaven.47 A series of remarkable titles is piled onto the coming son of David in Isa. 9. 5: ‘Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God (el gibbor, Everlasting Father (abi—ad), Prince of Peace’. According to Isa. 11. 1–5 the ‘shoot from the stump of Jesse’ will possess the Spirit of YHWH (v 2) and will ‘smite the earth with the rod of his mouth’ (v 4). The ‘Servant of the Lord’ in Isaiah will judge the proud (41. 15–16), he functions as God’s agent for bringing revelation and redemption to the nations (42. 6–8; 49. 6), he makes atonement for Israel by the sacrifice of himself (53. 1–12),48 and after his death he will rise again to surprise kings (52. 13–15; 53. 10) and to bring justification to many (53. 11–12).49 Some of these passages show that there was a tendency in the biblical period to conceive of the Messiah in divine and not merely human terms, but they fall short of applying to the Messiah monotheistic language in either the narrow or the broad sense.
We can readily see how this ‘Yesseus-Sacrifice-of-the-Righteous Jessaeans’ might be all promises of the Messiah: a Therapeut (Servant of God), God’s Agent (intermediary, to men), Judge, Redeemer, a Righteous Savior with a Death & Resurrection (‘Arise!’ = Anatole in Philo). In other words, to be baptized in the Living Water (presumably: under the Y-M-Y holy name) is to take on the attributes of Sethic Man, in this divinization process.
As the presumed Founder of the 'Sethian cult,' this Yesseus- was a mortal (or two: Father-Son) who became an Illuminator of the Race, the Attendant (Therapeut) of 'Baptism in the Living Water': a divine figure with messianic features.
ApAdam: “The twelfth kingdom says of him that he came from two illuminators. He was nourished there.” Two Illuminators, Unnamed.
But no, several other Sethian works have FOUR Illuminators; see the common view today, following Mayer [2007], Michael J. Svigel,
The Center and the Source: Second Century Incarnational Christology and Early Catholic Christianity [2016], p.338:
In broad terms the Sethian-gnostic ‘system’ includes the following elements: the figure of Seth, son of Adam, who functions both as a heavenly Being and as a Savior, and whose spiritual descendants constitute the gnostic elect; a primordial divine triad of Father, Mother, and Son; four ‘luminaries’ (φωστῆρες: Harmozel, Oroiael, Daveithe, and Eleleth), and other angelic beings subordinate to them; and an apocalyptic schematization of history.
None of these four Illuminators is known in ApAdam; the Two Illuminators are directly associated with the Prayer of the Holy Name. Mayer [2007] thinks
Gospel of the Egyptians 52.19-53.1 has 'Gamaliel, Gabriel, Samlo, and Abrasax' for 'Harmozel, Oroiael, Daveithe, and Eleleth.' Eleleth appears in the
Hypostasis of the Archons,
Apocryphon of John, and
The Three Forms of the First Thought; these are later works, or from a different Sethian branch than ApAdam.
At the Twelfth Stage, the Divinized Man learns he came by Two Angels. Then: “This is the Gnosis of Adam, which he gave to Seth, which is the Holy Baptism of those who receive Gnosis by those born of the Logos and the incorruptible luminaries {άφθαρτοι φωστήρες; φωστῆρες τοῦ οὐρανοῦ = luminaries from heaven}, who came from the holy seed {σπέρμα τοῦ φωτός = Seed of Light}: Yesseus, Mazareus, Yessedekeus, the Living Water.”
To me, Y-M-Y looks like Three Names (i.e. Three Angels), unless we should read Two: ‘Yesseus the Sacrifice’ (Yesseus & Mazareus)
and ‘Yesseus of the Righteous God’ (Yessedekeus); Litwa has interpreted two (2), if not the identical 'name-reading'. With regards to the # of Iluminators, the Two-fold should be older than the Four-fold team. At this earlier stage, the Seed is/are still memorialized cult member(s) - their role is passed on to mainstream Jewish Angels later on, as the cult migrated/evolved. ApAdam's Unnamed Two Illuminators might be reiteration (i.e. 1 name, 2x) or some Lineage Combination (Father-Son): ‘Yesseus the Sacrifice’ and ‘Yesseus of the Righteous God’.
The Holy Name(s) "Yesseus, Mazareus, Yessedekeus" is revealed only at the end. This is important: in other NHCs, the Holy Name is just another factoid, even repeated casually - not so crucial, 'old news.' The meaning was changing, the symbols have been substituted in later works of the First Century. Why the First? After the Pogroms of 38 AD, the Temple's Destruction in 70 AD and War in 115 AD, 'orthodox' Judaism was in retreat while the heretics' cults exploded. The antisemitism of Alexandria produced a flight of 'Jewish' intellectuals across the Mediterranean; the cult could not be controlled thereafter. And yet, Sethianism was basically dead; Irenaeus (c.175 AD) is working with old materials from libraries, probably +60-100 years older.
Turner (2001) is too generous; Irenaeus is working historically and he doesn't know Sethians. They were already gone or disappearing, c.175 AD.
In 90 AD, Josephus knew of the 'progeny of of Seth' from the Syriad of Egypt. They were ancient, several hundred years old. So, to hypothetically date the Founders of sect - ‘Yesseus of the Righteous God’ (perhaps as a Judeo-Samaritan Egyptian 250 BC) and ‘Yesseus the Sacrifice’ one or two generations later - the cult had established their monuments as reported by the First Century.