THE LAND "SEIRIS" (SIR) AND THE PEOPLE OF SERER IN JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS The Land “Seiris” (Sir) and the People of Serer in Jewish and Christian Traditions
By G. J. Reinink
In Josephus' depiction of the early history of mankind, from the time of creation up until the outbreak of the Flood, we encounter a land called Σειρίς, the name of which we search for in vain in the biblical text of Genesis (Ant. I 71).
Josephus reports that in this land, "up to the present day" (ἄχρι δεῦρο), there stands one of the pillars that was erected by the descendants of Seth before the Flood. Because Adam had predicted the twofold destruction of the world, once by fire and once by water, the Sethites erected two pillars, one of clay and the other of stone, on which they inscribed their astrological discoveries so that the stone pillar would remain if the clay pillar were washed away by the flood (Ant. I 68-71).
Since Josephus refrains from providing further geographical information, it has so far not been possible to identify the land of Seiris. A connection with the biblical שֵׂעִיר or שִׁעִיר is implausible and difficult to maintain for linguistic reasons, as Seiris is based more on Hebrew or Aramaic...שֵׂעִיר or שִׁעִיר previously mentioned. Thus, what we can gather from Josephus' account is limited to the fact that a land called Seiris is somehow connected to primeval history and that a reminiscence of this relationship still exists in the present.
Although the motif of primeval pillars or tablets, containing esoteric knowledge, appears several times in Jewish tradition, no further geographic location is provided anywhere else.
However, the fact that a land with such a name has stood within the framework of a pre-flood wisdom tradition becomes clear from a parallel in hermetic literature. From Pseudo-Manetho, Syncellus drew the information that in the land of Σηριοδιῶν pillars exist, which were erected by Thoth, the first Hermes, and inscribed in a sacred language and with sacred letters. After the flood, they were translated by Agathodaemon, the son of the second Hermes, into hieroglyphs and deposited in books in the Egyptian sanctuaries.
Just as in Jewish tradition, the motif of revelation through the discovery of a holy book or a pillar was popular in hermetic literature as well. Most often, this is a primeval esoteric science of astrological-magical character, written in mysterious letters of a foreign language, which was later made accessible to humans by a second recipient of revelation.
Despite the generality of such motifs, the relationship between Josephus' passage and Pseudo-Manetho is beyond question, as Reitzenstein already showed. But it is doubtful whether...
Reitzenstein’s conclusion, based on this correspondence, that Josephus used a source of Egyptian origin from the hermetic parallel, is correct: "They moved Adam’s descendants to live there because the Egyptians supposedly are the first humans and all peoples have adopted the cult of the gods" (9). The Egyptian origin is grounded, according to Reitzenstein, on the fact that an inscription refers to the homeland of Isis as the Σεριας γη, while Isis herself is called Σεριας.
A difficulty that we must not overlook is the fact that the term Σεριας γη is by no means a common designation of Egypt, as further examples are missing. Because this name of the land is directly associated with Isis, it seems obvious to assume that this is an isolated formation based on the often-encountered designation of the goddess, which also refers to the star Sirius (το αστερον το της Ισιδος) (10).
However, there is further evidence where the name Sir or Šir appears in connection with the pre-flood race.
In the Coptic Gnostic text The Nature of the Archons from Codex II of Nag Hammadi, a mountain (of) Sir (ΠΤOOY NCIP) is mentioned (11). When the Archons decide to kill all living things through the flood, from humans to animals (cf. Gen. 6, 7), Noah receives the command from an Archon of the powers to build an ark, to hide there with his children, animals, and birds of the air, and to place the ark on Mount Sir. Although the location of Sir is obscured here, the name surprisingly matches the name of the land in Josephus.
The same applies to the Syrian Šir (شیر), which is mentioned as the residence of the Sethites in several chronological sources from the pseudodionysian Chronicle (12). In this chronicle, there is a fairly extensive section that is introduced with the words: "About the revelation of the Magi, their coming to Jerusalem, and the offerings they brought to the Messiah" (13).
It should not be doubted that the source used by Pseudo-Dionysius can be identified with the Scriptura inscripta nomine Seth mentioned in the Opus imperfectum in Matthaeum (14). As Monneret de Villard has demonstrated, this is an originally Syriac text that originated in Christian circles in Edessa before ± 500 (15).
Despite the Christian origin, the underlying Jewish traditions are unmistakable (16). The Magi, depicted as royal sons from the East, are considered direct descendants of Seth. Through an unbroken line of transmission, they received secret books that go back to Seth. Seth, because of his purity and virtues, received permission to write a book to pass on the wisdom revealed by Adam to his descendants. These writings, which contain messages about Adam's expulsion from Paradise, commandments, and instructions concerning the coming child of redemption, lie in the treasure cave on the "Mountain of Triumph" (17) in the eastern part of Šir, and they are read monthly by the Magi. Until the appearance of the light, the tradition was passed from father to son (18).
Although in a changing form, the motifs from Josephus' account clearly emerge. The science, which goes back to ancient times, refers to a land of the same name. It is important, however, that the chronicle also conveys something about the location...
...of this land. According to the Scriptura inscripta nomine Seth, the descendants of Seth belong to a gens sita in ipso principio Orientis iuxta Oceanum. The chronicle adds that "Ocean" refers to the great world ocean lying outside the world and that Šir is located east of the land of Nod, where Adam, as the head and the beginning of all generations of the world, lived (19). It is clear that the chronicle is thinking of a location in the farthest East of the world, bordering the world ocean.