Concept

Norea

Summary
Norea is a figure in Gnostic cosmology. She plays a prominent role in two surviving texts from the Nag Hammadi library. In Hypostasis of the Archons, she is the daughter of Adam and Eve and sister of Seth. She sets fire to Noah's Ark and receives a divine revelation from the Luminary Eleleth. In Thought of Norea, she "extends into prehistory" as "she assumes the features here of the fallen Sophia." In Mandean literature, she is instead identified as the wife of either Noah or Shem. She is also sometimes said to be the syzygy of Adam. Birger A. Pearson identifies her as "a feminine counterpart to Seth, just as Eve is the 'female counterpart' to Adam," and Roel van den Broek refers to her as "on the one hand [...] a saviour figure and on the other the prototype of the saved gnostic." According to Epiphanius of Salamis, the Borborites identified Norea with Pyrrha, the wife of Deucalion (a Greek figure similar to Noah). He suggested that the name Norea was a mistranslation of Pyrrha based on an assumed connection with nura, Syriac for "fire".. Elsewhere, Epiphanius says that the Sethians identify Seth's wife as Horaia, almost certainly another name for Norea. Birger Pearson argues that Norea is based on the Jewish legend of Naamah, and that the name Norea derives from Horaia (meaning "beautiful", "pleasant", or "lovely"), the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew name Naamah. According to Jewish legend, Naamah married Seth, opposed construction of the ark, and was sexually involved with angelic beings, characteristics shared by Norea in Hypostasis. However, Pearson notes that "her role as a seductress of the 'sons of God' has [...] been transposed in the gnostic literature, in a typically gnostic hermeneutical inversion." Pearson also argues that Noba, named as a daughter of Adam and Eve in the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, is a corrupted Latin translation of Norea. Ross Kraemer draws comparisons between Norea and Aseneth as described in Joseph and Aseneth. Both are virgins who resemble or are linked to divine female beings, receive heavenly revelations, and help others find salvation.
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