Seth (Heb. Shelh, T:'^^, i. e. compensation ,• Sept. and New Test. 2(;:>; Joseph us, 'EijBot; [Ant. i, 2, 3]; A. V. " Sheth" in 1 Chron. i, 1 ; Numb, xxiv, 7), the third son of Adam (born B.C. 4042), and the father of Enos (when 105 years old) ; he died at the age of 912 (Gen. iv, 25, 26 ; V, 3-8 ; 1 Chron. i, 1 ; Luke iii, 38). The significa- tion of his name (given in Gen. iv, 25) is "appointed" or " put" in the place of the murdered Abel, and Delitzsch speaks of him as the second Abel; but Ewald {Gesck. i, 353) thinks that another signification, wliich he pre- fers, is indicated in the text, viz. " seedling," or "germ." The phrase "children of Sheth" (Numb, xxiv, 17) has been understood as equivalent to all mankind, or as de- noting the tribe of some unknown Moabitish chieftain; but later critics, among whom are Rosenmiiller and Ge- senius (Thesanr. p. 346), bearing in mind the parallel passage (Jer. xlviii, 45), render the phrase "children of noise, tumultuous ones," i. e. hostile armies. See
SlIKTII.
In the 4th century there existed in Egypt a sect calling themselves Sethians, who are classed by Nean- der (C/;. I/ist. ii, 115, ed. Bohn) among those Gnostic
SETII
597
SE TON APHTHITON"
sects which, in opposing Judaism, approximated to pa- ganism. (See also Tillemont, Memoires, ii, 318.) Ire- meus (i, 30 ; comp. Massuet, Dissert, i, 3, 14) and Thc- odoret {Ilivret. Fab. xiv, 306), without distinguishing between them and the Ophites, or worshippers of the serpent, say that in their system Seth was regarded as a divine effluence or virtue. Epiphanius, who devotes a chapter to tliem {Ade. liter, i, 3, 39), says that they identiticd Seth with our Lord. — Smith. See (iuandt, De Christo in Nomine Sethi A dumbrato (Regiom. 1720),
SETII, Traditions concerning. There are many traditions concerning Seth (q. v.), not only in Rabbinic, but also in Christian, writings. According to the Rab- binic traditions, Seth was one of the thirteen who came circumcised into the world. The rest were Adam, Enoch, Noah, Shem, Terak, Jacob, Joseph, Jloses, Samuel, David, Isaiah, and Jeremiah {Midrash Tilliin, fol. 10, col. 2). The book Skene Luchoth says that the soul of the right- eous Abel passed into the body of Seth, and afterwards this same soul passed into Moses; thus the law, which was known to Adam and in which Abel had been in- structed, was not new to Moses (Eisenmenger, Neuent- decktes Judenthum, i, 645). Josephus relates that after the things that were to take place had been revealed to Seth — how the earth was to be destroyed, first with wa- ter and then with fire — lest those things which he had discovered should perish from the memory of his pos- terity, he set up two pillars, one of brick, the other of stone, and he wrote thereon all the science he had ac- quired, hoping that, in the event of the brick pillar per- ishing by the rain, the stone would endure (.l«^ i, 2). Suidas (s. v. S//.^) says, " Seth was the son of Adam : of him it is said the sons of God went in unto the daughters of men — that is to say, the sons of Seth went in unto the daughters of Cain ; for in that age Seth was called God, because he had discovered Hebrew let- ters and the names of the stars, but especially on ac- count of his great piety, so that he was the first to bear the name of God." Anastasius Sinaita (q. v.) in his 'Oo?;yoc, p. 269 (ed. Gretser [Ingolst. 1606J), says that when God created Adam after liis image and likeness, he breathed into him grace and illumination and a ray of the Holy Spirit. But when he sinned this glor^' left him, and his face became clouded. Then he became the father of Cain and Abel. But afterwards, it is said in Scripture, " he begat a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth," which is not said of Cain and Abel; and this means that Seth was begotten in the likeness of unfallen man, and after the image of Adam in paradise ; and he called his name Seth — that is, by interpretation, "resurrection," because in him he saw the resurrection of his departed beauty and wis- dom and glorj^, and radiance of the Holy Spirit. And all those then living, when they saw how the face of Seth shone with divine light, and heard him S|ieak with divine wisdom, said, "He is God." Therefore his sons were commonly called the sons of God. That Seth means "resurrection" is also the opinion of Augustine {De Ciritale Dei, xv, 17, 18): "Ita Seth, quod inter- pretatur resurrcctio."
The most remarkable of the traditions, however, is undoubtedly the one which we read in the Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, c. 19 :
"While John, therefore, was thus teaching those in Hades, the first-created and forefather Adam heard and said to his sou Seth, My son, I wish tliee to tell the fore- fathers of the race of men and the proi)hets all that thou heardest from Michael, the archangel, when I sent tliee to the gates of Paradise to implore God that he mifjlit send thee his angel to give thee oil from the tree of mercy, with which to anoint my body when I was sick. Then Seth said, Prophets and patriarchs, hear. When my father Adam, the first-created, was about to fall, once upon a time, into death, he sent me to make entreaty to God, very close by the gate of Paradise, that he would ^uide me by an angel to the tree of compassion, and that Imight take oil and anoint my father, and that he might rise up from his sickness, which thing, therefore, 1 then did. And after the prayer an angel of the Lord came and said to me. What, Seth, dost thou ask? Dost thou ask oil which