Seth
(West Asian mythology)
Representations on gravestones in Upper Egypt, dating from the third millennium BC, attribute to Seth a donkey-like appearance, with long legs, long and broad ears, and a short upright tail. But over the centuries the god was transformed into a fabulous beast, not unlike a massive dog. Seth was ‘lord of Upper Egypt’, his sacred city being Ombos, and in that capacity he became a rival to his nephew Horus. Myth recounts the struggle between these adversaries, following the murder of Osiris by Seth, who temporarily seized power in Upper Egypt. By the Greeks Seth was identified with Typhon, a huge monster who fought with Zeus, was defeated and buried in Sicily under Mount Aetna, whose volcanic rumblings and eruptions were the monster's struggles. Nepthys, the wife of Seth and sister of Osiris, was associated with the rites of burial, since she and Isis acted as guardians of the head and feet of the coffin. Nephthys means ‘the lady of the castle’.
During the Hyksos occupation of the delta Seth enjoyed a short supremacy, because the Semitic invaders adopted him as their own god but, unlike the pharaohs, regarded him as the only god and even attempted to impose his cult on the rest of Egypt which had retained its independence. The hekaukhasut, ‘the rulers of forein lands’, or the Hyksos to us, found that Seth had much in common with their own Baals. Moreover, the city of Avaris, their capital, was an old cult centre of the god. After the expulsion of the Hyksos about 1570 BC the country was reunited by the Pharaoh Amosis and the other Egyptian gods restored. However, an indirect legacy of Seth's elevation may have been the attempt made by Amenophis IV to replace all the gods with Aton, the solar disc.
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Ancient Egyptian god and patron of the 11th nome, or province, of Upper Egypt. A trickster, he was a sky god, lord of the desert, and master of storms, disorder, and warfare. He was the brother of Osiris, whom he killed, and he was antagonistic to Horus, the child of Osiris's sister, Isis. Seth's cult largely died out in the 1st millennium , and he was gradually ousted from the Egyptian pantheon. He was later regarded as entirely evil and identified as a god of the Persians and other invaders of Egypt.
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Third son of Adam and Eve, born after the murder of Abel by his brother Cain; he was the father of Enosh and lived 912 years. His name was given him by Eve who said, "For God has apointed (Hebrew Seth) another seed for me instead of Abel" (Gen 4:25).
Concordance
Gen 4:25-26; 5:3-4, 6-8. I Chr 1:1. Luke 3:38
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(Set or Sutekh) [Di]
Egyptian god, member of the Heliopolitan Ennead as son of Nut and Geb, brother of Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys, and husband of Nephthys. Represented as an animal with a long, graceful, greyhound-like body, long, stiff, forked tail, and square-topped ears unlike any of the canine family. His animals were the pig, the donkey, the hippopotamus, and the desert oryx. He was known as the Red God, god of the desert and thunderstorms; and above all as the murderer of Osiris. He was a very ancient god, not originally regarded as wicked, who gradually fell into disrepute during Egypt's long history. However, even as late as the 19th Dynasty, Sety I claimed him as his god, and he was a favourite with the kings of that period. The Greeks identified him with Typhon; and by Christian times, he had sunk in rank to an evil spirit or demon rather than a god.
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Seth, in the Bible, son of Adam and Eve, father of Enosh. In the chronology in the Gospel of St. Luke, Seth is an ancestor of Jesus. The Nag Hammadi codices preserve revelatory discourses ascribed to or allegedly emanating from Seth. The Second Treatise of Seth emphasizes the docetic nature of the Passion of Jesus. The Three Steles of Seth are liturgical pieces.
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Seth
IN BRIEF: n. - Evil Egyptian god with the head of a beast that has high square ears and a long snout; (Old Testament) third son of Adam and Eve.
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categories related to 'Seth'
- Gods and Divinities - Seth: brother and enemy of Osiris and god of evil (Egypt)
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This article is about the third son of Adam and Eve. For other uses, see Seth (disambiguation).
| Saint Seth the Patriarch | |
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.jpg) Church icon of Seth |
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| Holy Forefather, Antediluvian Patriarch, and Prophet | |
| Honored in | Judaism Christianity Islam |
Seth (Hebrew: שֵׁת, Standard Šet, Tiberian Šēṯ; Arabic: شيث Shith or Shiyth; "Placed; appointed"), in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, he was the third son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, who were the only other of their children mentioned by name. According to Genesis 4:25, Seth was born after the slaying of Abel by Cain, and Eve believed God had appointed him as a replacement for Abel.
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In the Pentateuch
According to Genesis, Seth was born when Adam was 130 years old[1] "a son in his likeness and image."[1] The genealogy is repeated at 1 Chronicles 1:1-3. Genesis 5:4-5 states that Adam fathered "sons and daughters" before his death, aged 930 years. In Genesis 4:25, there is a folk etymology for Seth's name, which derives it from the Hebrew word for "plant" as in "plant a seed" (syt). Eve says, "God has planted another seed, under/replacing Abel's". Seth lived to the age of 912.[2]
In Jewish tradition
Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaqi) refers to Seth as the ancestor of Noah and hence the father of all mankind, all other humans having perished in the Great Flood.
In gnosticism, Seth is seen as a replacement given by God for Abel, whom Cain had slain. It is said that late in life, Adam gave Seth secret teachings that would become the kabbalah. The Zohar refers to Seth as "ancestor of all the generations of the tzaddikim" (Hebrew: righteous ones).[3]
According to Seder Olam Rabbah, based on Jewish reckoning, he was born in 130 AM. According to Aggadah, he had 33 sons and 23 daughters. According to the Seder Olam Rabbah, he died in 1042 AM.
In Islam
Islamic tradition reveres Seth as the gift bestowed upon Adam after the death of Abel. Although not one of the prophets mentioned in the Qur'an, Muslims see Seth as a prophet like his father, and the one who continued teaching mankind after the death of Adam.[4] Islamic lore gives Seth an exalted position among the Antediluvian Patriarchs of the Generations of Adam, and some sources even cite Seth as the receiver of a scripture.[5] Islamic literature holds that Seth was born when Adam was past 100 and that, by the time Adam died, Adam had already made Seth the heir to him in guiding the "Children of Adam". Muslims hold that Seth was taught of the hours of day and night as well as of the Great Flood to come and was further taught to pray to God during the hours of the night. Islam, like Judaism and Christianity, traces the genealogy of mankind back to Seth, since Abel did not leave any heirs and Cain's heirs, according to tradition, were destroyed by the Great Flood.[6]
Some Muslims believe that Seth's tomb is located in the village of Al-Nabi Shayth (literally meaning The Prophet Seth) where a mosque is named after him.
In Josephus
In the Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus refers to Seth as virtuous and of excellent character, and reports that his descendants invented the wisdom of the heavenly bodies, and built the "pillars of the sons of Seth", two pillars inscribed with many scientific discoveries and inventions, notably in astronomy. They were built by Seth's descendants based on Adam's prediction that the world would be destroyed at one time by fire and another time by global flood, in order to protect the discoveries and be remembered after the destruction. One was composed of brick, and the other of stone, so that if the pillar of brick should be destroyed, the pillar of stone would remain, both reporting the ancient discoveries, and informing men that a pillar of brick was also erected. Josephus reports that the pillar of stone remained in the land of Siriad in his day.
William Whiston, a 17/18th century translator of the Antiquities, stated in a footnote that he believed Josephus mistook Seth for Sesostris, king of Egypt, the erector of the referenced pillar in Siriad (being a contemporary name for the territories in which Sirius was venerated (i.e., Egypt). He stated that there was no way for any pillars of Seth to survive the deluge, because the deluge buried all such pillars and edifices far underground in the sediment of its waters.
In Christianity
The 2nd century BC Book of Jubilees, regarded as non-canonical except by Coptic Christianity, also dates his birth to 130 AM.[7] According to it, in 231 AM Seth married his sister, Azura, who was four years younger than he was. In the year 235 AM, Azura gave birth to Enos.[7]
Seth is commemorated as one of the Holy Forefathers in the Calendar of Saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church, along with Adam, Abel, and others, with a feast day on July 26. He is also included in the Genealogy of Jesus, according to Luke 3:23–38.[8]
See also
References
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Seth |
- ^ a b Genesis 5:3
- ^ Genesis 5:8
- ^ Zohar 1:36b
- ^ Stories of the Prophets, Ibn Kathir, Story of Adam and Seth
- ^ Encyclopedia of Islam, Shith, Online Web.
- ^ Tabari, History of the Prophets and Kings, Vol. I: Creation to the Flood
- ^ a b The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, R.H. Charles, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913. Book of Jubilees 4:7-13. ISBN 978-0-9747623-7-1.
- ^ Luke 3:23–38
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