Seth (son of Adam)

Seth is born to Adam and Eve after Cain kills Abel. Eve names him with a Hebrew word meaning "appointed," saying God has appointed another child in Abel's place (Genesis 4:25). Genesis 5 lists him at the head of the line that leads to Noah, and says he lived 912 years.

Seth gained a large following of legend. Josephus says his descendants studied the heavens and set up two pillars, one of brick and one of stone, to preserve their knowledge through flood or fire. A long Christian tradition, found in Julius Africanus and the Cave of Treasures, reads the "sons of God" of Genesis 6 as Seth's descendants living on a holy mountain near Paradise, who later broke their oath and went down to the daughters of Cain. Gnostic groups known as Sethians treated Seth as a heavenly figure, and Islamic tradition counts him (Shith) as a prophet.

The Sethite reading is an alternative to the Enochic reading of the sons of God as fallen angels. Seth himself is known from Genesis and later interpretation.