Apocalypse of Dositheus

DOSITHEUS, APOCALYPSE OF. A Gnostic document found in the Nag Hammadi library (cf. Apocryphal New Testament), and as yet unpublished. The last of five documents in Codex VII (pp. 118. 10-127. 27), it contains in its title a reference to the three Stelae (pillars or tables) of Seth, which Doresse links with an allusion in another work, the Apocalypse of Zostrianus. The three stelae are in fact hymns, each occupying three pages of text. In style according to Doresse it recalls some of the Hermetic documents. A Dositheus is mentioned in the Pseudo-Clementines as a rival of Simon Magus, but to link him with this apocalypse is pure speculation. For the details available see Doresse, Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics (ET London 1960), 188ff.