Seth. Patriarchs line in iconostasis. Zhdan Dementiev, Vologda. Cathedral of the Assumption, St. Cyril-Belozersky Monastery. Museum of Cyril Belozersky Monastery



Seth,[a] in Judaism, Christianity, Mandaeism, Sethianism, and Islam, was the third son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, their only other children mentioned by name in the Hebrew Bible. According to Genesis 4:25, Seth was born after Abel's murder, and Eve believed God had appointed him as a replacement for Abel.
Genesis
According to the Book of Genesis, Seth was born when Adam was 130 years old (according to the Masoretic Text), [1] or 230 years old (according to the Septuagint),[2] "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. According to Genesis, Seth lived to the age of 912.[3]
Jewish tradition
Seth figures in the pseudepigraphical texts of the Life of Adam and Eve (the Apocalypse of Moses). It recounts the lives of Adam and Eve from after their expulsion from the Garden of Eden to their deaths. While the surviving versions were composed from the early 3rd to the 5th century,[4]:252 the literary units in the work are considered to be older and predominantly of Jewish origin.[5] There is wide agreement that the original was composed in a Semitic language[4]:251 in the 1st century AD/CE.[4]:252 In the Greek versions Seth and Eve travel to the doors of the Garden to beg for some oil of the Tree of Mercy (i.e. the Tree of Life). On the way Seth is attacked and bitten by a wild beast, which goes away when ordered by Seth. Michael refuses to give them the oil at that time, but promises to give it at the end of time, when all flesh will be raised up, the delights of paradise will be given to the holy people and God will be in their midst. On their return, Adam says to Eve: "What hast thou done? Thou hast brought upon us great wrath which is death." (chapters 5–14) Later, only Seth can witness the taking-up of Adam at his funeral in a divine chariot, which deposits him in the Garden of Eden.
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.
Seth is seen by Eve as a replacement given by God for Abel, whom Cain had slain.[6] It is said that late in life, Adam gave Seth secret teachings that would become the Kabbalah.[citation needed] The Zohar refers to Seth as "ancestor of all the generations of the tzaddikim" (Hebrew: righteous ones).[7]
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.
According to 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 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. The Perennialist writer Nigel Jackson identifies the land of Siriad in Josephus' account with Syria, citing related Mandaean legends regarding the "Oriental Land of Shyr" in connection with the visionary mytho-geography of the prophetic traditions surrounding Seth.[8]#fastitlinks.com