Second Treatise of the Great Seth
c. 3rd century AD · Gnostic Texts (Nag Hammadi & Related)
About this text
Claims to be a revelation from Christ, presenting a docetic view where Jesus was not truly crucified — someone else suffered in his place while Jesus laughed.
Significance
Important for understanding Gnostic views of the crucifixion.
How to Read This Historical Text
Second Treatise of the Great Seth is included here as a historical and educational resource, not as Scripture and not as a replacement for the biblical canon. Readers may find it useful for understanding the ideas, debates, devotional language, and literary settings that surrounded Jewish and Christian communities in different periods.
Read this text with context in mind. Notice its era, category, and relationship to canonical passages, then compare its themes with the Bible itself. Some library works preserve valuable historical background, while others represent viewpoints that many Christian traditions rejected. Inclusion in this library does not mean endorsement of every claim or doctrine in the text.
For more about how The Bible Companion handles public-domain writings, Bible translations, attribution, and devotional material, see the Sources & Editorial Policy.
Key excerpts
Excerpts forthcoming. The full text is available in the public-domain library.
Continue exploring
This text is one of 16 in the Gnostic Texts (Nag Hammadi & Related) category, and one of 62 across the entire library.