When most of us think of the most important Christian figures, we think of Jesus, Abraham, Adam, Eve, Peter, Noah, Mary, Joseph, and John the Baptist. The list goes on and on but often does not include one of the most deserving candidates: Seth. Seth was the third son of Adam, the replacement of Abel (Genesis 4:25), and in Luke’s genealogy, the distant patrilineal ancestor of Jesus (Luke 3:38). That isn’t all he is known for, and to understand the bigger picture, we must revisit Genesis.
The Apocalypse of Adam (or “Revelation of Adam,” depending on the translation) contains Adam’s recounting of the event of Genesis to his son Seth. The content of this book describes a truer version of Genesis, not the one parroted by the “laughingstock” prophets of the Orthodox Old Testament (2 Seth 7). It is worth noting that while Jesus claims that everyone from “Adam to Moses and John the Baptist” (2 Seth 7) was a counterfeit father, Adam and Seth are included solely due to he whose image they were made after: Yaldabaoth.
The Apocalypse of Adam describes the true origin of the false god Yaldabaoth and his attempted imprisonment of all humanity. This was done through the removal of eternal knowledge, constant setbacks to humanity, and creating war and strife among the human race. Later in this text, Adam goes on to describe the inner workings of the False God’s illusion and important events to come, such as the flood. Adam concludes by tasking Seth with the dissemination of this knowledge amongst his “seed.” This puts Seth into the role of a teacher for all of humanity. Adam chose this to help us escape our current human condition: pain, death, and ignorance. The role of Seth as an educator and spiritual father for all of us is further elaborated on in the book of Zostrianos.
In Zostrianos 11:12, Seth is described as approaching “each soul as sufficient knowledge for them, which is why the seed of life originated from him.” He is the forefather of the Gnostic Christians and enables us to undergo gnosis. Again, in Zostrianos 15:5, he is identified as “Seth Emmacha Seth, father of the immovable race,” with the immovable race referring to the Gnostics: those who refuse to accept that they have “come under the authority of death” (Adam 2:12). While Seth is an important figure in scripture, he also serves as protector, not of our material selves, but of the bridge away from the material selves and back to the Pleroma (“heaven”) where we came from.
To fully understand Seth’s importance, one must first know the history of his followers. The Sethites were a group of biblical exegetes that claimed to be the direct descendants of Seth. Later in their story, they joined hands with the Barbeloites, those who saw through the False God’s illusion of Orthodoxy and saw Christ for what he truly was: the incarnation of Autogenes, the son of the first Emanation of the true Unknown God. Controlled by the False God, the Orthodoxy sought to burn the bridge connecting us back to the Pleroma.
As part of Yaldabaoth’s campaign to fully separate us from the spiritual world, the Sethites and Barbeloites, now called Sethians, were constantly persecuted by Orthodoxy. Nevertheless, the Sethian faith persisted. Their writings and teachings survive until today, imparting upon us the gnosis required to cross the bridge. His descendants may have faded away over one thousand years ago, yet his knowledge is eternal, and his children—all of us—are immovable. With this knowledge imparted upon us by Seth, we humans can be liberated from the grips of the demiurge and purge ourselves of material suffering. If it weren’t for him, Yaldabaoth would have already won.