Allogenes

Allogenes is a pseudodepigraphic apocalypse composed sometime in the early to mid-third century. The best scholarly guess is that it was written in Alexandria, Egypt. While Plotinus mentions the text in the Enneads, the Greek original is lost to history. In 1945, a badly damaged Coptic translation was discovered in central Egypt as part of the Nag Hammadi Codices.

The apocalypse features two dramatis personae: Allogenes (lit. “Stranger” or “Foreigner”) and the angelic luminary Youel. In the first part of the text, Youel reveals the nature and structure of the Godhead to Allogenes. The text of Allogenes posits a series of emanations from The Unknowable One (highest Aeon or supreme pre-existent divine principle, elsewhere referred to as the Invisible Spirit) which exists beyond the visible cosmos. The Unknowable one begets the Triply-Powered Aeon (Existence, Vitality, and Blessedness), which then gives rise to the Aeon of Barbelo or the self-knowledge of the Invisible Spirit. The ascent of Allogenes takes the pseudepigraphic figure back up through the Aeon of Barbelo and into the Triply Powered Aeon, the closest a human figure can get to the Invisible Spirit. After a period of preparation lasting 100 years, Allogenes is taken up into the Barbelo Aeon and, through withdrawal from his senses, is gifted a primary revelation of Existence.  

While Allogenes is a mythical figure, it is generally understood that the visionary ascent described in the text is representative of Platonic-Sethian practice. A similar series of ascents is described in the text. Zostrianos and a hymn of ascent to be practiced in a group setting are found in Three Steles of Seth. Both of these texts are part of the Platonic-Sethian corpus. The aim of all these ascents seems to be to experience divinization while alive and visualize the path of the nous after death.

The exact Sitz im Leben of Allogenes remains unknown. A copy of this work must have been brought to Rome in time to strongly influence Plotinus’ circle by 265-266 when the lectures for Enneads 2.9 were given[1]. We also know, from Vita Plotina 16, that two tracts entitled Zostrianos and Allogenes were circulating amongst those in Plotinus’ philosophical circle. This has led some scholars in Gnostic Studies to argue that the well-known and hugely impactful Neo-Platonic model of noetic ascent was worked out in opposition to the revelatory model put forth in Platonic-Sethian texts such as Allogenes. 

It is unknown what reception history the text had between the time of Plotinus’ philosophical circle and the Coptic translation’s publication in 1977. 

[1] Turner, Sethian Gnosticism and the Platonic Tradition, 711-720.