SETHIANS. - Name of a Gnostic sect which, identifying Seth (v.) or Sethites, placed the patriarch Seth at the center of its speculation.
Origen, *Fragmenta in Epistolam ad Titum*, in the *Apologia* of Pamphilus (PG 14, 1303 D; in *Comm. in Mt.* [CB, 11 ser. 28, p. 51, 10]) knew of this group, and so did Epiphanius, *Panarion* 30, 2 (ed. K. Holl, I [CB, 23] p. 72, 3-5). Serapion of Thmuis distinguishes the Sethians from the Marcionites and Valentinians (*Adversus Manichaeos*, ed. K. Casey [Cambridge 1931], p. 30; cf. also Didymus, *Epist. Ind.*: PG 39, 1813 C). The name of the sect probably does not derive from the use of writings attributed to the patriarch, but from the belief in belonging to the spiritual offspring of Seth. This idea is based on an interpretation of Seth’s sons as “sons of God” (Gen. 5:3 and 6:2). The speculation is probably of Jewish origin, and for this reason Jewish Gnosticism was only slightly Christianized (identification of Seth and Christ). Perhaps the origin of Sethian speculation should be sought in Mesopotamia, where it is found even later in the milieu of the Audiani (v.). The Sethians are one of the oldest currents of Gnosticism, sometimes hiding under the generic name of Gnostics, sometimes under other names (e.g., Archontics). The Gnostic Library discovered at Nag Hammadi in Egypt comes from a Sethian environment. For the doctrines of the Sethians, see Hippolytus, *Refutatio*, V, 19-22, and Epiphanius, *Haereses*, 39 (cf. Pseudo-Tertullian, *Adversus omnes haereses*, 2; Philastrius, *Haereses*, 3).