Chapter X

, there is much said about a god called Sitheus, so that it is by no means certain that the Seth after whom they were named was the patriarch of Genesis. He might be the Egyptian Set, whose name is transliterated in the Magic Papyri as Σηϊθ. His appearance in Egypt first as the brother and then as the enemy of Osiris has never been fully accounted for. See “The Legend of Osiris,” _P.S.B.A._ for 1911, pp. 145 _sqq._ Epiphanius’ attempt in the _Panarion_ (_Haer._ XXXIX. c. 3, p. 524, Oehler) to connect the genealogy of Jesus with the Seth of Genesis is not even said to depend on the doctrines of the sect, and the whole chapter reads like an interpolation. Cf. Friedländer, _Vorchristliche jüdische Gnosticismus, Göttingen_, 1898, p. 25.

Footnote 263:

Praedestinatus, _de Haeresibus_, Bk I. c. 17, p. 237, Oehler.

Footnote 264:

Matter, _Hist. du Gnost._ t. II. p. 176.

Footnote 265:

See _Acta Philippi_ before quoted _passim_.

Footnote 266:

Irenaeus, Bk I. c. 28, § 8, p. 241, Harvey. King, _Gnostics_, etc. p. 101, quotes from Tertullian, _de Praescript._, “Serpentem magnificant in tantum ut etiam Christo praeferant,” which sounds like an Ophite doctrine; but I have failed to verify the quotation.

Footnote 267:

Theodoret, _Haer. Fab._ I. 24.

Footnote 268:

_Pistis Sophia_, pp. 319, 320, Copt.

Footnote 269:

_Ibid._ p. 384, Copt.

Footnote 270:

Hippolytus, _op. cit._ Bk V. c. 13, pp. 188 _sqq._, Cruice.

Footnote 271:

See Giraud, _op. cit._ pp. 250 _sqq._ for references and editions. English translations of some of them have appeared in the “Apocryphal Acts” etc. of Clark’s _Ante-Nicene Library_, and in _Cambridge Texts and Studies_.

Footnote 272:

This is the opinion of Lipsius. See _Dict. Christian Biog._ _s.v._ Gospels, Apocryphal.

Footnote 273:

Cf. the similar expressions in the speech of the soul on the Orphic Gold Plates,