Gripla - 2022, Page 336

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This, and of course the combination of the Quest with the Cross, would
erase the heretical aspect of Sethianism and put the focus on Christ as the
redeemer.18
While the roots of these legends can be traced to pre-Christian Judaic
literature, the extant material evidence dates to the Christian period.19
The earliest extant version of the Quest (albeit quite different from the
one summarized above) is found in the Jewish pseudepigraphal text The
Apocalypse of Moses, written in Greek but thought to be a translation of an
Aramaic text from the first century CE.20 The earliest Christian adapta-
tion of the Quest is found in the Gospel of Nicodemus, which includes only
a passing mention of Seth going to Paradise for the Oil of Life. This
mention is also found in the Old Norse-Icelandic adaptation of the text,
Niðrstigningarsaga.21 The Apocalypse is thought to have been adapted into
Latin, with much modification, in the form of the Vita Adae et Evae, pro-
bably around the fourth century CE.22 In both the Apocalypse and the Vita,
18 For an overview of the history of Sethianism and the texts connected to the Gnostic group,
see Klijn, Seth in Jewish, Christian and Gnostic Literature, 81–117.
19 Murdoch, Hanz Folz and the Adam-Legends: Texts and Studies, 3.
20 Quinn, Quest, 15–16. For a summary of this text, see Klijn, Seth in Jewish, Christian and
Gnostic Literature, 18–19. An updated edition can be found in D. A. Bertrand, La vie grecque
d’Adam et Eve, Recherches Intertestamentaires 1 (Paris: Maisonneuve, 1987).
21 Dario Bullitta, Niðrstigningar Saga. Sources, Transmission, and Theology in the Old Norse
“Descent into Hell,” Toronto Old Norse and Icelandic Series 11 (Toronto: University of
Toronto Press, 2017). English translation found on 135–36; Old Norse-Icelandic edition
found on 159–60.
22 Quinn, Quest, 31; D. S. Russel, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (London: SCM, 1987),
14–16. For a summary of this text, see Klijn, Seth in Jewish, Christian and Gnostic Literature,
16–18. The establishing of a single vita is not possible, as the texts are fluid. Meyer never-
theless printed an edition and separated the known manuscripts into three classes, mostly
based on German exemplars. His class III, the vita material with the Cross material, is what
is found in Old Icelandic literature. Mozley makes a new edition, this time based mostly
on English manuscripts, and shows that there is even more variation than was evident in
Meyer’s work, noting that some Cross material was expanded to include the legend of the
eight parts of Adam. More details of this classification can be found in Murdoch, Hanz
Folz and the Adam-Legends: Texts and Studies, 4; J. H. Mozley, “The ‘Vita Adae,’” Journal
of Theological Studies 30 (1929): 121–47. For a potential connection between the eight
parts of Adam and Norse mythology, see Grant Macaskill, “The Adam Traditions and the
Destruction of Ymir in the Eddas,” The Embroidered Bible: Studies in Biblical Apocrypha and
Pseudepigrapha in Honour of Michael E. Stone, Studia in Veteris Testamenti Pseudepigrapha
26 (Leiden: Brill, 2017): 653–669. Murdoch notes that, “Most important of all, however:
the Adamic narrative represented by the Latin vita continues to change and develop when
it moves into the vernacular. The Latin tradition provides the basis for an equally complex