jan 1, 325 - The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit ~

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Sometimes referred to as the Gospel of the Egyptians (not to be confused with a 2nd cent. text of that name known only through quotations), this work was produced some time in the late third or early 4th century, before about 350 CE (the date fo the Nag Hammadi MS)

On the purpose of the work: "the emphasis of the Holy Book seems to lie upon the well-defined ritual of baptism and the invocatory prayers that conclude the work (III 63,4-68,1; cf. IV 74,17-80,15), while the preceding sections seem to provide a mythological justification for them in the form of an elaborate theogony. In the second part, the three advents (parousiai) of Seth are summarized, namely, his descents at the flood, at the conflagration (of Sodom and Gomorrah), and at the judgment of the archons, to save his seed ('saints') who have gone astray in the world, a scheme of three descents similar to those of the illuminator in the Revelation of Adam. It is on his third descent that Seth is said to descend in a body begotten by the Word (Logos) and prepared for him by the 'virgin' (probably Barbelo), put on Jesus, and defeat the powers of the thirteen aeons." (The Nag Hammadi Scriptures, p. 247)

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