Apocalypse of Adam
The Apocalypse of Adam, discovered at Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt in 1945,[1] is a Sethian tractate of Apocalyptic literature dating to the first-to-second centuries AD.[2] This tractate is one of five contained within Codex V of the Nag Hammadi library.
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Content
Adam in his 700th year tells Seth how he learned a word of knowledge of the eternal God from Eve and that he and Eve were indeed more powerful than their supposed creator. But that knowledge was lost in the fall when the subcreator - the demiurge - separated Adam and Eve. Adam relates how three mysterious strangers brought about Seth's begetting and so a preservation of this knowledge. Adam then prophesizes at length attempts of the subcreator god to destroy mankind, including the prophecy of the great Deluge and of attempted destruction by fire but an Illuminator will come in the end. When the Illuminator comes, thirteen kingdoms proclaim thirteen different standard but conflicting birth legends about the Illuminator; only the "generation without a king," however, proclaims the truth.
References
- Robinson, SE (1977). "The Apocalypse of Adam". Brigham Young University Studies. 17 (2): 131–53. JSTOR 43040720.
- Meyer, Marvin W.; Robinson, James MacConkey (1977). The Nag Hammadi Library in English. BRILL. p. 256. ISBN 9789004054349.
Further reading
- Translation by George W. McRae and Douglas M. Parrott from The Nag Hammadi Library, revised edition. HarperCollins, San Francisco, 1990 (ISBN 0-06-066935-7)