Sethian Gnostic
Scripture
"One of the chief characteristics of Gnosticism is mythopoeia, the construction of elaborate myths through which revealed gnosis is transmitted. In giving expression to their basic beliefs, the Gnostics put into story form their insights into the human predicament and the means of salvation."
- Birger A. Pearson
"The Sethian treatises divide themselves into two basic groups depending on the way one attains salvific enlightenment. One group of tractates conceptualizes the means of salvation as a horizontal, temporally successive sequence of revelatory descents into this world by a heavenly savior, while another group conceptualizes the means of salvation as a vertically oriented ascent by which a visionary practitioner enters a succession of mental states in which one is cognitively assimilated to ever higher levels of being."
- John D. Turner
"What the Sethian literature from the Nag Hammadi collection reveals is that these Gnostics were both Jews and Christians who wished to combine the biblical tradition with Platonic philosophy, the "science" of the day."
- April D. DeConick
Foundational Text:
Jewish Texts:
Christian (or Christianized) Texts:
The Gospel of Judas(pdf)
(This translation is now in question.)
Book of Allogenes
Platonizing Texts:
The above links are to The Gnosis Archive
and National Geographic (Gospel of Judas).