![]() |
Zostrianos is a Sethian Gnostic text.[1] It is the first tractate of two in Codex VIII of the Nag Hammadi library.[2] It takes up 132 of the 140 pages in the codex, making Zostrianos the longest tractate of the entire library.[3][4] However the text is extensively damaged, especially in the center,[2][3] making the document difficult to fully understand.[3][4] The Coptic manuscript is a translation of a Greek original, likely written in Alexandria in c. 200 AD.[5] In the text, Zostrianos goes on a heavenly journey and receives divine knowledge from the aeons.[2][4]
The work is likely the same Zostrianos that Porphyry criticized in Life of Plotinus.[2][4][6] Like other Sethian Gnostic texts Marsanes, Allogenes, and Three Steles of Seth, its ideas appear more Middle Platonic or Neoplatonic than Christian.[5][7] However, Porphyry said that these works belonged to Christian heretics.[7] Bentley Layton explains this apparent contradiction with the belief that Zostrianos was written by a Gnostic Christian author who was fascinated with Eastern religious heroes who had special knowledge relating to the divine, such as Zoroaster.[5]