Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit

The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit, also known as the Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians, is a Sethian Gnostic text found in Codices III and IV of the Nag Hammadi library. The text describes the origin of three powers: the Father, the Mother, and the Son, who came forth from the great invisible Spirit. The text emphasizes Seth as the origin of the seed of eternal life and the great, incorruptible race. It concludes with a prayer and a statement that it was written by the great Seth and placed in the mountain Charaxio to be revealed at the end of times. This opening describes the creation of the universe and the origin of the three powers: the Father, the Mother, and the Son. These powers are said to have come forth from the great invisible Spirit, who is the light of the aeons, the truth, and the incorruptions. The three powers are said to have emerged from the silence of the unknown Father, and they each have their own ogdoad-power. The first ogdoad is associated with the Father, the second with the Mother, and the third with the Son. The text describes the characteristics and powers of each of these three entities and how they were brought forth from the bosom of the Father through his providence. Part of the text has multiple missing and unrecoverable lines, making it difficult to understand. A hidden, invisible mystery comes forth, written as the seven vowels, 22 times each. Several beings sing praises and give glory to the great, invisible, virginal Spirit and his male virgin. The great self-begotten living Word also appears, the son of the great Christ and the silence, who is the true god and the unborn physis. The text also mentions the singing of myriad angels, the eternal aeons, and providence from silence. The text describes the creation of the divine Autogenes and the incorruptible man Adamas through the power of the great Logos. They give praise to the great Spirit and ask for a son, who is born as the great incorruptible Seth.

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Related concepts (4)

Zostrianos

Zostrianos is a Sethian Gnostic text. It is the first tractate of two in Codex VIII of the Nag Hammadi library. It takes up 132 of the 140 pages in the codex, making Zostrianos the longest tractate of the entire library. However the text is extensively damaged, especially in the center, making the document difficult to fully understand. The Coptic manuscript is a translation of a Greek original, likely written in Alexandria in c. 200 AD. In the text, Zostrianos goes on a heavenly journey and receives divine knowledge from the aeons.

Sethianism

The Sethians were one of the main currents of Gnosticism during the 2nd and 3rd century CE, along with Valentinianism and Basilideanism. According to John D. Turner, it originated in the 2nd century CE 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. 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.

Nag Hammadi library

The Nag Hammadi library (also known as the "Chenoboskion Manuscripts" and the "Gnostic Gospels") is a collection of early Christian and Gnostic texts discovered near the Upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945. Thirteen leather-bound papyrus codices buried in a sealed jar were found by a local farmer named Muhammed al-Samman. The writings in these codices comprise 52 mostly Gnostic treatises, but they also include three works belonging to the Corpus Hermeticum and a partial translation/alteration of Plato's Republic.