Seth

Siblings: Cain, Abel, Norea, and Azura

**Seth** is one of the sons of the biblical figure Adam, and the younger brother to Cain and Abel. According to one account, every time Adam's wife Eve gave birth, she gives birth to twins, except in the case of Seth.

## Overview

Seth is one of the three named sons of Adam, and he is said to be born in Adam's likeness. He was born after Cain had murdered Abel, and he was sometime regarded as Abel's replacement to mend Adam's broken heart. Seth could have been born before the Murder.

Seth and Eve travel to the doors of the Garden to beg for some oil of the Tree of Mercy (or the Tree of Life). On the way Seth is attacked and bitten by a wild beast, which goes away when ordered by Seth. Michael refuses to give them the oil at that time, but promises to give it at the end of time, when all flesh will be raised up, the delights of paradise will be given to the holy people and God will be in their midst. On their return, Adam says to Eve, "What hast thou done? Thou hast brought upon us great wrath which is death." Later, only Seth can witness the taking-up of Adam at his funeral in a divine chariot, which deposits him in the Garden of Eden. According to *Genesis*, Seth lived to the age of 912.

In the *Antiquities of the Jews*, Josephus refers to Seth as virtuous and of excellent character, and reports that his descendants invented the wisdom of the heavenly bodies, and built the "pillars of the sons of Seth", two pillars inscribed with many scientific discoveries and inventions, notably in astronomy. They were built by Seth's descendants based on Adam's prediction that the world would be destroyed at one time by fire and another time by global flood, in order to protect the discoveries and be remembered after the destruction.

One was composed of brick, and the other of stone, so that if the pillar of brick should be destroyed, the pillar of stone would remain, both reporting the ancient discoveries, and informing men that a pillar of brick was also erected. Josephus reports that the pillar of stone remained in the land of Siriad in his day although this was false as it was stated that there was no way for any pillars of Seth to survive the deluge, because the deluge buried all such pillars and edifices far underground in the sediment of its waters.

## Description

### Jewish Version

Seth figures in the pseudepigraphical texts of the *Life of Adam and Eve* (the *Apocalypse of Moses*). It recounts the lives of Adam and Eve from after their expulsion from the Garden of Eden to their deaths. While the surviving versions were composed from the early 3rd to the 5th century, the literary units in the work are considered to be older and predominantly of Jewish origin. There is wide agreement that the original was composed in a Semitic language in the 1st century AD/CE.

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaqi refers to Seth as the ancestor of Noah and hence the father of all mankind, all other humans having perished in the Great Flood.

### Christianity

The 2nd-century BC Book of Jubilees, regarded as non canonical except in the Alexandrian Churches, also dates his birth to 130 AD. According to it, in 231 AD Seth married his sister, Azura, who was four years younger than he was. In the year 235 AD, Azura gave birth to Enos.

Seth is commemorated as one of the Holy Forefathers in the Calendar of Saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church, along with Adam, Abel, and others, with a feast day on July 26. He is also included in the Genealogy of Jesus, according to Luke 3:23–38.

The Sethians were a Christian Gnostic sect who may date their existence to before Christianity. Their influence spread throughout the Mediterranean into the later systems of the Basilideans and the Valentinians.

Their thinking, although it is predominantly Judaic in foundation, is arguably strongly influenced by Platonism. Sethians are so called for their veneration of the biblical Seth, who is depicted in their creation myths as a divine incarnation; consequently, the offspring or 'posterity' of Seth are held to comprise a superior elect within human society.