Sethianism
Gnostic sect
The Sethians (Ancient Greek: Σηθιανοί, romanized: Sēthianoi) are one of the main currents of Gnosticism during the 2nd and 3rd century AD, along with Valentinianism and the Basilidians. According to John D. Turner, it originated in the 2nd century AD as a fusion of two distinct Hellenistic Judaic philosophies and was influenced by Christianity and Middle Platonism. However, the exact origin of Sethianism is not properly understood.
History
Mentions
The Sethians (Latin Sethoitae) are first mentioned, alongside the Ophites, in the 2nd century, by Irenaeus (who was antagonistic towards Gnosticism) and in Pseudo-Tertullian (Ch. 30). According to Frederik Wisse, all subsequent accounts appear to be largely dependent on Irenaeus. Hippolytus repeats information from Irenaeus.
According to Epiphanius of Salamis (c. 375), Sethians were in his time found only in Egypt and Palestine, but fifty years earlier, they had been found as far away as Greater Armenia.
Philaster's (4th century AD) Catalogue of Heresies places the Ophites, Cainites, and Sethians as pre-Christian Jewish sects.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sethianism” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.