The underlying justification and basis to engage in a serious hunt for parallels to Mormon Doctrine is included in the assertion that the Gospel the Mormons put forth is a Restoration. A restoration of that which has been had once before at some time in the many earlier and previous dispensations. And especially two references found in the Book of Mormon. In 2 Nephi 29: 7, we read ."and I BRING FORTH MY WORD unto the Children of men, yea even upon ALL THE NATIONS of the earth. And in verse 8: "Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God." And in ALMA 29: 8 "For behold, the Lord doeth grant unto ALL NATIONS, OF THEIR OWN NATION AND TONGUE, to teach his word, yea, in wisdom, ALL HE SEETH FIT THAT THEY SHOULD HAVE." (Emphasis mine.) So, in all of the countries that I have visited I searched for their ancient records and for parallels to Mormon Doctrine that they might contain, and I bear witness they are there, as more than 80 tapes and CDs testify.
On the Web there are a number of Mormon Ranters, some taking issue with my studies and tapes of Gnostic Texts. Most of them do not realize that there are more than 35 Gnostic groups identified by various students of the early centuries of the Common Era. The texts of the Nag Hammadi represent only one source for such studies. And more than one Gnostic group is represented in the Codex collection of Nag Hammadi.
There are more than fifty-three treatises of the Nag Hammadi Library not counting nearly one complete Codex that was destroyed soon after their discovery by the mother of the discoverer who wanted to heat some tea and so burned the Codex. Eleven of the fifty-three treatises are identified as SETHIAN GNOSTIC. J.D. Turner in his book: SETHIAN GNOSTICISM AND THE PLATONIC TRADITION, PETERS, 2002, discusses how they reveal the existence of a hitherto unrecognized religious competitor of early Christianity. It seems that Sethian Gnosticism has it roots in second temple Judaism and in various first and second century sectarian baptismal movements. Sethian Gnosticism is now the earliest form of Gnosticism for which we possess a great deal of textual evidence, according to Turner. Some of the texts of Nag Hammadi represent the school of Valentinus (120-160 CE) and his followers. Codex X seems to have Valentinian material. All of the Nag Hammadi texts were bound in Codex's after 315 CE and 354 CE. They seem to have been buried in a jar sometime about the time of the Easter Edict of Athansius about 367 CE to destroy such documents and retain only what we now have in the New Testament. The jar with its contents was found in 1945. I treat details of this in my tape on the NAG HAMMADI. The Sethian texts are older and therefore of much greater interest to those of us who hunt for near-first-century Christian doctrines that could indicate some of the restoration doctrine of the present that were present at that time. In some of my tapes I have referenced the parallels found in the Valentinian documents.
Sethianism seems to have allied itself with the early Christian movement. Later it was heavily influenced by the Middle Platonism of the first three centuries. Several of its theological treatises became the subject of scrutiny in Plotinus' third century Roman seminars, according to Turner; illustrating the creeping apostasy at that time. Turner provides a commentary on and analysis of the entire corpus of Sethian literature and develops a history of the movement and its literature and practices. Platonizing effects on the Sethian doctrines become evident in the second and third centuries, particularly in such treatises as ZOSTRIANOS, ALOGENES, THREE STELES OF SETH, and MARSANES. References to some of these have been made in Mormon publications. Turner traces the profound implications of these treatises for the understanding of the origins of Neoplatonism, the history of dynamic emanations, certain aspects of Plotinus' thought, the Middle Platonic interpretation of Plato's dialogues, and especially the Parmenides. Even in these later centuries, the earlier doctrinal baggage has been carried forward and interesting material shows up in the Parmenides as I have mentioned in some of my tapes and CD's. Turner divides the Sethian Tradition into five sections, the first and last are of especial interest for our purposes. The final section offers a concluding overview of the Sethian Religion.
In the Nag Hammadi, the longest and one of the most complete of the treatises is THE SECOND LOGOS OF THE GREAT SETH, it is the second treatises in CODEX VII. In the 1973 SEMINAR PAPERS VOL 2, of the Society of Biblical Literature, of which I have been a member for more than 50 years, Joseph A. Gibbons of Staten Island, New York, provides extracts from his larger work on the translation and emendation of the test. He States: "The present text is a translation from Greek into Sahidic Coptic, a translation that, at times, shows misunderstandings of the Greek, some careless errors in the Coptic and, on a few points, betrays the theological stance of the Translator." In this summary, Gibbons points out part of the problem of the ranters. They most often refer, in their criticism, to such English Translations as James Robinson, ed. THE NAG HAMMADI LIBRARY IN ENGLISH, which does not break down the texts into what is original and what has been added over centuries. Most of more than 50 texts being devoted to the translation of the Nag Hammadi, unravel the bizarre, perverted, and biased insertions and additions, as mentioned by Gibbons, and get to the original language in which the text was written, most often Greek, with detailed commentary. Most of the texts go back into the firsts century, some before, and did not get into Sahidic until after 120 CE. Most of the Nag Hammadi texts were solidified by 318 CE or shortly thereafter, as they were incorporated into a series of bound book like Codex's, some thirteen of these exist. Only in part are we are interested in the false doctrine that was added, and when it was added, our main interest are points of doctrine that were unique or parallel to what Joseph Smith introduced through the revelation-scriptures and his teachings. We will extract a few items from the Great Seth as translated by Gibbons. As far as I know he knows nothing about the unique LDS doctrines.
On page 243 Gibbons provides this summary of the GREAT SETH:
"GrSeth begins in the spiritual world (49,10-50-1), the realm of the Supreme God and the Mother. The speaker, to be identified later with Jesus Christ, asserts that he originates from this celes6tial region and that he is the revealer (i.e. he brings forth the "word".
In the next paragraph that I quote, I gave it to a youth assembly and offered $5.00 to anyone who might detect some error in doctrine from a LDS standpoint. See if you can find an error.
" The speaker calls together the heavenly church and presents his plan: he is to come forth to reveal "the glory" (i.e., gnosis) to those on earth who are kin to the celestial beings (50, 11-24). The heavenly church then gives its approval to the plan"
The word Gnosis means Knowledge.
One bright young lady said that it was not the Plan of Christ, but the Father's Plan. I promptly gave her the $5.00. All of the other aspects of doctrine contained in the two quotes from Gibbons are essentially good Mormon Doctrine, but no such doctrines or ideas are taught in any of the 725 Christian Churches of today or any of their off-shoots. So where did the Great Joseph get the doctrines if not through revelation?
GIBBONS CONTINUES on page 244:
"The gnostics are persecuted not only by the ignorant but by "those who think they are advancing the name of Christ" 59,19-60-12) as well. These are the orthodox whose church is formed by the archons (Satan) as an imitation of the celestial church. Its central doctrine is the crucifixion of Christ (60,13-61,28). The true Christian is the gnostic whose earthly life is patterned on the love and unity existent in the celestial church (61,28-62,27)." The insertions in parenthesis in Gibbon's text refer to the lines of the original text he is translating.
On page 246:
" The Speaker is commissioned by the heavenly church. Let us gather a church..Willingly did I come forth to reveal the glory to my kindred and my fellow-spirits, the speaker descends into the cosmos"
Page 247: "descent by taking on an earthly body."
There is commotion in heaven; the Archons (Satan) use an alternate plan:
"And there came about a disturbance and a battle surrounding the seraphim and Cherubim since their glory will be dissolved and the plan which they devised about me to do away with their error and their senselessness. I did not succumb to them as they had planned. The archons' plan is a ruse to mock man. The archons' plan is the crucifixion of Christ." But hadn't the crucifixion been preplanned and was therefore part of the plan? And where does it teach that the losers in the battle were going to have their glory dissolved? See D&C 76.
Gibbons goes on to say on page 248: "It is certain that a passion reference is completely out of place, for the context speaks about a rebellion among the angels." Wasn't the rebellion about WHO WOULD OFFER THE SACRIFICE and AN ALTERNATE PLAN?
On page 249: "teaching an explicit christology: Christ is identified with the speak of the narrative, he is equal to the Father, in another passage he is from above and alien to this world.he does the will of the Father or of the celestial church." Whoever taught there was a church in the pre-existence? Or that there was even a pre-existence.
On page 250: Gibbons "continues with the descent of the savior through the spheres. rescues the Son of Megethos and brings him to the "height," identifying the aforementioned height with the wedding of (sic) the wedding robe."
"the savior is sent, enters the realm of the archons, descends through their spheres, rescues the Son of Megethos, and opens the way for the ascent of the individual gnostic." Who ever said the archon, Satan, has the earth as his realm?
Gibbons continues: "the central teaching for the whole first half of the GrSeth: the substitutionary passion of christ. Since it begins in the celestial regions and ends with the gnostics' perfection in the third glory." This is called the Celestial Height. Is this a reference to the Celestial Kingdom? This is what the one of the Great Councils in Heaven was all about, and the selection of Christ leading to a rebellion. The rest of the story is quite familiar to LDS members. But the documents certainly testifies that Joseph Smith got it right the first time. In fact he got it right all the time.
Farther along in the GrSeth Gibbons points out another passion narrative and a mention of certain beings only mentioned in that portion of the text and he says on page 251: "nowhere else is a veil mentioned" and he then outlines the wedding sections. What would a veil have to do with weddings? He says again on page 251: "Twice references of some length are made to the celestial wedding and related concepts (bridal chamber, mystery, [ or ordinance])..the soul finding its completion..the wedding motif, a central teaching in the latter half of the GrSeth." None of this strikes any familiar chord in most of the Christian world, but does so with any temple going Mormons.
On page 252 Gibbons mentions, "the first wedding section is so placed as to explain the meaning of the "height" to which Christ brings the Son of Megethos and to which the gnostics are going..the second wedding section begins a long explicit presentation on unity with the celestial wedding functioning as the paradigm of earthly unity." Does the wedding doctrines and temple ordinances rise to such a superlative as to be for the Mormons the paradigm of earthly unity? Most temple going Mormons will say: Yes! And the rest of Christianity will not know anything of what we are talking about because it is part of the doctrines lost during the apostasy. Great doctrines were lost during the centuries after the pristine church of the first and part of the second century began to be changed. But from these ancient documents it is clear that unique doctrines were held by groups of the early centuries. These, in their perfection are restored in the present LDS Church, and practiced again in all their glory.
Gibbons points out on page 253 that the GeSeth "proves that orthodox Christianity can only be the archons (satan's) instrument to subjugate those liberated by Christ" and "is a refutation of orthodoxy's claim to be the true church." We would agree. Would you?
There is a curious item on page 260: "They nailed him to the tree and they fixed him with FOUR NAILS of brass." What is the significance of FOUR NAILS?