The Three Steles of Seth
NHC VII, 5
The following translation has been committed to the public domain and may be freely copied and used, changed or unchanged, for any purpose. It is based on the Coptic text of Nag Hammadi Codex VII, 5. The Nag Hammadi texts were written in the fourth century, subsequently buried, and then rediscovered in 1945. This tractate depicts a series of praises and petitions to a Neoplatonic triad in the form of three “steles” or monuments, depicted in translation here in three literal columns.
This translation from the Coptic is by Samuel Zinner and was edited by Mark M. Mattison with the generous support of Other Gospels.
Symbols
[ ] Gap in the text (known as a “lacuna”)
( ) Editorial insertion to clarify the text
< > Editorial correction of a scribal error
{ } Text erroneously added by the scribe
[118] Page number of the Coptic codex (hyperlinked)
[118] The revelation of Dositheos concerning the three steles of Seth, father of the living and unwavering race, which (Dositheos) saw and comprehended, and after reading (the three steles) he memorized them, and delivered (the revelation) to the elect, exactly as it was inscribed in that place.
I have frequently joined together with the powers to give glory, and I (consequently) came to deserve majestic things beyond measure.
The Three Steles
(The steles), however, are as follows:
The First Stele of Seth
Praise to Pigeradamas
I praise you, father Pigeradamas,
as your son Emmacha Seth,
whom you begot without begetting,
for the praise of our God, because I am your son,
and you [119] are my mind, O my father.
I have indeed sown and begotten,
but you have witnessed the majesties.
You have perpetually existed.
I praise you, father.
Praise me, father.
I owe my existence to you;
you owe your existence to God.
You are the reason I co-exist with that one.
You are light, because you gaze on light.
You have manifested light.
You are a Mirotheid.
You are my Mirotheos.
I praise you as God;
I praise your divinity.
Praise to the Self-Begotten One
Great is the good Self-Begotten One who has existed,
the God who existed primally.
With goodness you came.
You manifested yourself,
and you made goodness visible.
I will speak your name,
because you are a primal name.
You are unbegotten.
You have manifested yourself to make eternal things visible.
You are He Who Is.
You have therefore shown who those are who truly exist.
You are spoken by a voice,
but by mind you are glorified,
you who possess power in all places.
[The] sensory world, therefore, knows you as well,
on account of you and your seed.
You are merciful, [120]
and you come from a different race,
and it is located above a different race.
However, {you come from a different race,
and it [is located] above a different race.}
You come from a different race, because you are dissimilar,
but you are merciful,
because you are eternal.
You, however are located above a race,
because you caused all of them to grow,
but for the sake of my seed,
because you know that it is located in begetting.
They, however, come from further races,
because they are dissimilar, but
they are located above further races,
because they are located in life.
You are a Mirotheos.
I praise its power bestowed on me.
Praise to Barbelo
(You) who caused the masculinities
that truly exist to be male threefold,
the one divided into five,
which was bestowed on us in threefold power,
begotten without being begotten,
who emerged from what is superior.
For the sake of what is inferior, he emerged from the center.
You are a father by means of a father,
an utterance originating from a decree.
We praise you, Threefold-Male,
because you have joined together the All by means of all of them,
because you have enabled us.
You came to be from One.
You have emerged from One,
you have approached One.
You have saved,
you have saved,
you have saved us,
O you crowned one
who crowns!
[121] We praise you forever,
we praise you,
we the saved,
we the perfect individuals,
being perfect owing to you,
who have [become] co-perfect with you,
the Perfect One
who perfects
the One perfect by means of all of these,
who is similar in all places.
O Threefold-Male,
you came to exist.
You are the first to exist.
You were separated in all places.
You continued as One,
and those you desired to save
you have saved,
but you desire everyone who deserves it to be saved.
You are perfect,
you are perfect,
you are perfect!
The First Stele of Seth
The Second Stele of Seth
Communal Praise
Great is the primal aeon,
the male virgin Barbelo,
the primal glory of the unseen Father,
she who is called perfect.
You[1] were the first to see
that the one who truly pre-exists is nonbeing,
and from and by means of that one
you have pre-existed eternally,
the nonbeing originating from one who is an undivided threefold-[power],
you being a threefold power,
[a] mighty monad originating from [a] pure monad.
[122] You are a choice monad,
primal [shadow] of the holy Father,
light originating from light.
[We] praise you,
perfection-producer,[2]
aeon-bestower.[3]
You [saw] that the eternities
originate from a shadow,
and you have brought multiplicity into existence,
and on the one hand you continued as One,
while on the other hand bestowing multiplicity by means of separation,
you being threefold.
You are truly triadic,
being One from the One,[4]
and you originate from his shadow.
You are a concealed one.
You are a cosmos of insight,
aware that those of the One originate from a shadow,
and in thought these belong to you,
for whose sake you have enabled the eternities with subsistence.
You have enabled divinity with life.
You have enabled mentation with goodness.
With blessedness you enabled the shadows that flow out from the One.
You enabled this with knowledge.
You enabled a different one with <attribute>.
You enabled the equal as well as the unequal,
the similar and the dissimilar.
With begetting and forms
you have enabled additional ones with being
[in order to thrive] with begetting.
[You have] enabled these.
[123] He is the concealed one [inside] the mind,
and [you have] entered into these, and (you) [have exited from] these.
You have been divided [between them]
and you have become
a great male mind,
primal light-bringer.
O fatherly God,
divine child,
begetter of multiplicity,
in accord with a division of all those who truly exist,
you appeared to all of them as a Logos,
and they are all yours without being begotten;
(they are all yours) eternally, indestructibly,
because of you.
Communal Petition
Salvation has reached us.
Salvation comes from you.
You are wisdom,
you are knowledge,
you are truth.
Because of you life exists.
Life comes from you.
Because of you mind exists.
Mind is from you.
You are mind.
You are a cosmos of truth.
You are a threefold power.
You are threefold.
You are truly triadic,
the greatest aeon.[5]
You are the only one who purely sees
the eternities, even the primal unbegotten ones,
but (you) also (see) primal divisions, given that you have been divided.
Join us together as you have been joined together.
Teach us [the] things you see.
Enable us that we can [124] be saved for life eternal,
because [each] of [us] is a shadow of you,
[just] as you were previously a shadow [of the] primal pre-existent one.
First, hear us.
We are the eternities.
Being perfect individuals, hear us.
You are the greatest aeon[6],
the completely perfect one, who has been made one.
You have heard,
you have heard!
You have saved,
you have saved!
We give you thanks.
We praise you.
We will glorify you continually.
The Second Stele of Seth
The Third Stele
Opening Doxology
We rejoice,
we rejoice,
we rejoice!
We have seen,
we have seen,
we have seen the truly pre-existent one,
that he truly exists,
that he is the primal eternity.
O unbegotten one,
from you come the eternities
and the aeons,
the completely perfect ones, who have been made one,
and the perfect individuals.
We praise you, the nonbeing,
existence preceding existents,
the primal being preceding beings,
Father of divinity and of life,
maker of mind,
bestower of goodness,
bestower of blessedness.
All of us praise you,
the knowing one,
with a praise [that glorifies] you, [125] [owing to] whom all of [these] exist;
[you who know those who truly exist],
who know yourself by means of yourself alone,
because nothing [that is] at work existed before you existed.
You are a unique and living Spirit,
and you know the One,
because we cannot speak concerning this One,
which is yours in all places,
because your light illuminates us.
Order us to see you,
so that we can be saved.
Knowledge of you is the salvation of all of us.
Order!
If you order,
we will have been saved.
Truly we have been saved.
We have seen you by means of mind.
You are all of these
because you save all of them.
You are he who will not (need to) be saved,
nor did (you need) to be saved by them,
because you, you have ordered us.
You are One,
you are One!
Just as there is one who would say concerning you: “You are one,”
you are a unique living spirit.
How would we assign a name to you?
We do not have it (to give to you),
because you are the existence of all of these.
You are the life of all of them.
You are the mind of all of them,
because all of them rejoice in you.
[126] You ordered for all of them to be saved
by means of your Logos
[to whatever degree] they [can be (saved)].
Doxology to the Concealed One
O [unique] glory in his presence,
O concealed one,
blessed Senaon,
he who begot himself,
Asineus,
Mephneus,
Optaon,
Elemaon, the mighty power,
Emouniar,
Nibareus,
Kandephoros,
Aphredon,
Deiphaneus,
you who for me exist as Armedon,
you begetter of powers,
Thalanatheus,
Antitheus.
You dwell inside yourself,
you who exist before you yourself existed,
and after you (existed) no one began working.
Closing Doxology
How should we praise you?
We are incapable,
but we, as those who are inferior,
offer thanks to you,
because you ordered us,
you who are choice,
to glorify you
to the degree we are capable.
We praise you for our salvation.
We glorify you continually.
We will glorify you
so that we can be saved with salvation eternal.
We have praised you,
because we are capable.
We have been saved,
because you continually desired
that all of us do so.
All of us have done so. [. . .]
[127] [. . .] we, together with those who [are saved].
Conclusion
Whoever memorizes these sayings, even glorifying continually, will be perfect among the perfect, and free of suffering in anything, because all of them praise these, as individuals and as a group, and afterwards they will grow silent, and as it has been decreed for them, they will ascend.
After growing silent, they will descend from the third.
They will praise the second, and then the first.
The path of ascent is the path of descent.
Therefore, as you are alive, understand that you have arrived, and you have instructed yourselves concerning infinite matters.
Admire the truth inside of them, and the revelation.
The Three Steles of Seth
Colophon
This is the book that belongs to the father.
The son copied it.
Bless me, O father. I bless you, O father, in peace.
Amen.