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.
[2] 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.
"[1] Roelof van den Broek notes that "Sethianism" may never have been a separate religious movement but that the term rather refers to a set of mythological themes that occur in various texts.
The earthly Jesus was regarded as the guise of Barbelo, appearing as the Divine Logos, and receiving Christhood when he was baptized.
Seth and Christ were identified as bearers of "the true image of God who had recently appeared in the world as the Logos to rescue Jesus from the cross.
In the early to mid-4th century, Sethianism fragmented into various sectarian Gnostic groups, like the Archontics, Audians, Borborites, and Phibionites.
[17] Birger A. Pearson also compares the "Five Seals" of Sethianism, which he believes is a reference to quintuple ritual immersion in water, to Mandaean masbuta.
The Sethian cosmogonic myth gives a prologue to Genesis and the rest of the Pentateuch, presenting a radical reinterpretation of the orthodox Jewish conception of creation and the divine's relation to reality.
[note 6] Sophia at first hides this being but subsequently escapes, stealing a portion of divine power from her in the process.
To complete this task, he spawns a group of entities known collectively as Archons, "petty rulers" and craftsmen of the physical world.
The demiurge unknowingly emanates a shadow "Image" of Adam while unwittingly transferring the portion of power stolen from Sophia into the first physical human body.
By way of this, he attempts to rape Eve, who now contains Sophia's divine power; several texts depict him as failing when Sophia's spirit transplants itself into the Tree of Knowledge.The pair eat of the tree of the divine epi-gnosis guided by Christ appearing as an "eagle" above it to guide them to remember their true "nature above".
It portrays Judas Iscariot as the "thirteenth spirit (daemon)",[22] who "exceeded" the evil sacrifices the disciples offered to Saklas by sacrificing the "man who clothed me (Jesus)".