THE SEED OF SETH
The Nag Hammadi interpreting the first passages of Genesis, says that Adam did not initially know his wife Eve and that her first two conceptions Cain and Abel were contrived and conceived by the evil force (the Serpent in the Garden) who was created in error by a divine female called Sophia. This being claiming to be God, was envious of Adam who had come forth directly from the Supreme Being. Intent on derailing God’s creation and challenging the authority of the Supreme Being, the name less One about whom nothing can be said, this being whom the Nag Hammadi equates with Jahweh began to recreate Adam in his own image (“let us make man in our own image and likeness”), thus causing him to Fall from his pristine god-state.
The Nag Hammadi insists that both Cain and Abel were conceived when the evil one and his cohorts defiled Eve sexually (The Secret Book of John, p. 131). When Abel was killed and Cain was exiled, Adam then knew his wife and she conceived and gave birth to a son whom Adam named Seth. Through this conception Adam, who though in a fallen state still bore within his gene the seed of the one true God, had given birth to an incorruptible seed. Biblical Book of Genesis says “in his own (Adam’s) likeness, in his own image”. And Nag Hammadi says that the divine in Adam and in Eve met and produced a child and “he called him Seth, after the generation of the eternal realms”, and that God the father and God the Mother sent down their spirits to abide in the child as the hope of salvation of the humankind. He is “the seed of the great generation” (The Secret Book of John, p. 128, 344). Ham (Khem, the father of African peoples) and Japhet, the second and third of Noah’s sons are listed in The Nag Hammadi Scripture as the seed of Seth, but not Shem (the father of the Semites).
This incorruptible seed of Seth is said to be “guarded by four luminaries” who represent four divine eons. Seth is called “the Perfect son, the Word”, “the Logos-Christ”, existing in “three abiding entities: the Father, the Mother and the Child”. As the four luminaries of Seth and his seed represent each of the four eons of divine time, so do the four fish-mongering market deities of Igbo cosmology represent each of the four market days of the Igbo week. This is the origin of the Igbo deification of the number four – the four luminaries that revealed themselves as four market/time entities (plate 8). This mystery is further enshrined in Igbo cosmology in the quadrangle, the lozenge, the cross and the four-sided ichi symbols. (Plates 7a,b,c,10a,b, 9a,b)
But the similarities do not end there. The Nag Hammadi says that the entities – Father, Mother and Child “exist as perceptible speech” having within it three “aspects, three powers, and three names abiding in three n n n, three quadrangles, secretly in ineffable silence”. (Three Forms of First Thought, p. 722-723) Once again we have a tie with Igbo cosmology, for Igbo language is the only language in the world in which the words for father, mother and child all begin with n – as in nna, nne, nwa. Even the words that describe each gender begin also with n – as in nwoke, nwanyi, nwata – three powers abiding in three n n n and three quadrangles. A quadrangle is a plane with four sides such as a square or a rectangle. Quadrangles are indeed the most common geometric forms found on door posts in shrine houses and homes in Igbo-land. Its four sides symbolize the Igbo four-day week and the fact that the Igbo world is build upon four pedestals of time and space. They are the most common symbols we find on shrine objects and household implements such as women’s combs, mirror decors, chairs, seats, etc. Jeffreys and other researchers have classified quadrangles featuring V clusters in four cardinal directions as Igbo Ukwu style ichi (plate 10a,b) Through the revelations of The Nag Hammadi we now understand the mystical implications of the number four and the quadrangle better, and why they are so central to Igbo life and to the definition of God among the Igbo. Among the monoliths of Ikom, the quadrangle is main symbol that defines the spelling of the name of ‘Eve’ on the monolith dedicated to the first mother of mankind. In the monoliths as well as in The Nag Hammadi, the quadrangle is an identity mark of the Mother Goddess. The Nag Hammadi says that God is both Mother, Father and Child, but that its known manifestation is female. We can therefore conclude from the foregoing that the quadrangle (and its variations – the cross, the square, ichi, etc) is a female symbol, a representation of the Mother Essence in the Godhead. In fact the oldest known case of a person bearing the ichi mark is that of the female found among the Igbo Ukwu bonzes dated 9,000 A.D. (plate 3).
In The Nag Hammadi’s The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit said to have been written by God or Jesus Christ, the copyist refers to the Nag Hammadi as the Egyptian (which means African) Gospel, a holy secret book written by God. And Jesus Christ is intoned as “Jesus Christ, Son of God, ICH-THYS.” (p. 269) Ich or Chi is the Greek word for god-man; Thys is Greek word for fish and Ich-thys is the fish symbol associated with Christ as a godman by adherents of the Christian faith. In Greek and in Igbo cosmologies, the ich (chi) symbol of the Christ or god-man is an X as well as a cluster of concentric Vs looking like the basic shape of a palm-frond - the West African tree of life (plate 11). Both the X and the V clusters are recognized symbols of ichi in Igbo cosmology (plate 6b and 10a). The four heavenly luminaries of Igbo cosmology who instituted commerce are equally fish-mongers or fisher-kings. Like them, Jesus the Piscean Avater is identified by the symbol of the fish. His march into Jerusalem was heralded with palm-fronds which are equally sacred to the Igbo! In Igbo and in Greek/Christian theology, the fish, the palm-frond, the ichi symbol and the etymon chi define and identify the god-man! Is there still any doubt that the Christian and the Igbo symbols originate from the same source? Since the Igbo did not borrow their native tradition from the Christian one, one can only conclude that Christianity must have been fed from a long lost undercurrent of Igbo theology.
The Nag Hammadi insists that both Cain and Abel were conceived when the evil one and his cohorts defiled Eve sexually (The Secret Book of John, p. 131). When Abel was killed and Cain was exiled, Adam then knew his wife and she conceived and gave birth to a son whom Adam named Seth. Through this conception Adam, who though in a fallen state still bore within his gene the seed of the one true God, had given birth to an incorruptible seed. Biblical Book of Genesis says “in his own (Adam’s) likeness, in his own image”. And Nag Hammadi says that the divine in Adam and in Eve met and produced a child and “he called him Seth, after the generation of the eternal realms”, and that God the father and God the Mother sent down their spirits to abide in the child as the hope of salvation of the humankind. He is “the seed of the great generation” (The Secret Book of John, p. 128, 344). Ham (Khem, the father of African peoples) and Japhet, the second and third of Noah’s sons are listed in The Nag Hammadi Scripture as the seed of Seth, but not Shem (the father of the Semites).
This incorruptible seed of Seth is said to be “guarded by four luminaries” who represent four divine eons. Seth is called “the Perfect son, the Word”, “the Logos-Christ”, existing in “three abiding entities: the Father, the Mother and the Child”. As the four luminaries of Seth and his seed represent each of the four eons of divine time, so do the four fish-mongering market deities of Igbo cosmology represent each of the four market days of the Igbo week. This is the origin of the Igbo deification of the number four – the four luminaries that revealed themselves as four market/time entities (plate 8). This mystery is further enshrined in Igbo cosmology in the quadrangle, the lozenge, the cross and the four-sided ichi symbols. (Plates 7a,b,c,10a,b, 9a,b)
But the similarities do not end there. The Nag Hammadi says that the entities – Father, Mother and Child “exist as perceptible speech” having within it three “aspects, three powers, and three names abiding in three n n n, three quadrangles, secretly in ineffable silence”. (Three Forms of First Thought, p. 722-723) Once again we have a tie with Igbo cosmology, for Igbo language is the only language in the world in which the words for father, mother and child all begin with n – as in nna, nne, nwa. Even the words that describe each gender begin also with n – as in nwoke, nwanyi, nwata – three powers abiding in three n n n and three quadrangles. A quadrangle is a plane with four sides such as a square or a rectangle. Quadrangles are indeed the most common geometric forms found on door posts in shrine houses and homes in Igbo-land. Its four sides symbolize the Igbo four-day week and the fact that the Igbo world is build upon four pedestals of time and space. They are the most common symbols we find on shrine objects and household implements such as women’s combs, mirror decors, chairs, seats, etc. Jeffreys and other researchers have classified quadrangles featuring V clusters in four cardinal directions as Igbo Ukwu style ichi (plate 10a,b) Through the revelations of The Nag Hammadi we now understand the mystical implications of the number four and the quadrangle better, and why they are so central to Igbo life and to the definition of God among the Igbo. Among the monoliths of Ikom, the quadrangle is main symbol that defines the spelling of the name of ‘Eve’ on the monolith dedicated to the first mother of mankind. In the monoliths as well as in The Nag Hammadi, the quadrangle is an identity mark of the Mother Goddess. The Nag Hammadi says that God is both Mother, Father and Child, but that its known manifestation is female. We can therefore conclude from the foregoing that the quadrangle (and its variations – the cross, the square, ichi, etc) is a female symbol, a representation of the Mother Essence in the Godhead. In fact the oldest known case of a person bearing the ichi mark is that of the female found among the Igbo Ukwu bonzes dated 9,000 A.D. (plate 3).
In The Nag Hammadi’s The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit said to have been written by God or Jesus Christ, the copyist refers to the Nag Hammadi as the Egyptian (which means African) Gospel, a holy secret book written by God. And Jesus Christ is intoned as “Jesus Christ, Son of God, ICH-THYS.” (p. 269) Ich or Chi is the Greek word for god-man; Thys is Greek word for fish and Ich-thys is the fish symbol associated with Christ as a godman by adherents of the Christian faith. In Greek and in Igbo cosmologies, the ich (chi) symbol of the Christ or god-man is an X as well as a cluster of concentric Vs looking like the basic shape of a palm-frond - the West African tree of life (plate 11). Both the X and the V clusters are recognized symbols of ichi in Igbo cosmology (plate 6b and 10a). The four heavenly luminaries of Igbo cosmology who instituted commerce are equally fish-mongers or fisher-kings. Like them, Jesus the Piscean Avater is identified by the symbol of the fish. His march into Jerusalem was heralded with palm-fronds which are equally sacred to the Igbo! In Igbo and in Greek/Christian theology, the fish, the palm-frond, the ichi symbol and the etymon chi define and identify the god-man! Is there still any doubt that the Christian and the Igbo symbols originate from the same source? Since the Igbo did not borrow their native tradition from the Christian one, one can only conclude that Christianity must have been fed from a long lost undercurrent of Igbo theology.