valentinianism

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Valentinianism

Valentinianism is a Gnostic Christian movement thatwas founded byValentinusin the second century AD.Valentinianism was one of the major Gnostic movements.Its influence was extremely widespread, not just withinRome, but also from Egypt through Asia Minor and Syriain the east, and Northwest Africa.[1]

Later in the movements history it broke into two schools,an Eastern school and a Western school. Disciplesof Valentinus continued to be active into the 4th cen-tury AD, after the Roman Empire was declared to be

Christian.[2]

Valentinus and the Gnostic movement that bore his namewere considered threats to Christianity by church lead-ers and Christian scholars, not only because of theirinfluence, but also because of their doctrine, practicesand beliefs. Gnostics were condemned as heretics, andprominentChurch fatherssuch asIrenaeus of LyonsandHippolytus of Romewrote against Gnosticism. Most ev-idence for the Valentinian theory comes from its criticsand detractors, most notably Irenaeus, since he was espe-cially concerned with refuting Valentinianism.[3]

1 History

Valentinuswas born in approximately 100 AD and diedinAlexandriain approximately AD 180.[4] According toEpiphanius of Salamis, a Christian scholar, he was bornin Egypt and schooled in Alexandria.Clement of Alexan-dria (c. 150 c. 215), another Christian scholar andteacher, reports that Valentinus was taught byTheudas,a disciple of the apostlePaul.[5] It is reputed that he wasan extremely eloquent man who possessed a great deal of

charisma and had an innate ability to attract people.[6] Hewent toRomesome time between AD 136 and 140, inthe time ofPope Hyginus, and had risen to the peak ofhis teaching career between AD 150 and 155, during thetime ofPius.[7]

Valentinus is said to have been a very successful teacher,and for some time in the mid-2nd century he was evena prominent and well-respected member of theCatholiccommunity in Rome. At one point during his career hehad even hoped to attain the office of bishop, and ap-parently it was after he was passed over for the positionthat he broke fromthe Catholic Church.[5] Valentinus was

said to have been a prolific writer; however, the only sur-viving remains of his work come from quotes that havebeen transmitted by Clement of Alexandria, Hippolytus

andMarcellus of Ancyra. Most scholars also believe thatValentinus wrote theGospel of Truth, one of the NagHammadi texts.[4]

Notable Valentinians includedHeracleon (fl. ca. 175),Ptolemy, Florinus, Axionicus andTheodotus.

2 The Valentinian System

The theology that Irenaeus attributed to Valentinus is ex-tremely complicated and difficult to follow. There issome skepticism among scholars that the system actuallyoriginated with him, and many believe that the systemIrenaeus was reacting against was that of the later Valen-tinians, and not Valentinus himself.

2.1 Synopsis

According to Irenaeus, the Valentinians believed that atthe beginning there was aPleroma(literally, a 'fullness).At the centre of the Pleroma was the primal Father orBythos, the beginning of all things who, after ages of si-lence and contemplation, projected thirty Aeons, heav-enly archetypes representing fifteensyzygiesor sexuallycomplementary pairs. Among them was Sophia. Sophiasweakness, curiosity and passion led to her fall from thePleroma and the creation of the world and man, both ofwhich are flawed. Valentinians identified theGodof theOld Testamentas theDemiurge,[8] the imperfect creatorof the material world. Man, the highest being in this ma-terial world, participates in both the spiritual and the ma-terial nature. The work of redemption consists in freeingthe former from the latter. One needed to recognize theFather, the depth of all being, as the true source of di-vine power in order to achieve gnosis(knowledge).[9] TheValentinians believed that the attainment of this knowl-edge by the human individual had positive consequenceswithin the universal order and contributed to restoringthat order,[10] and that gnosis, not faith, was the key tosalvation. Clement wrote that the Valentinians regardedCatholic Christians as simple people to whom they at-tributed faith, while they think that gnosis is in them-selves. Through the excellent seed that is to be found

in them, they are by nature redeemed, and their gno-sis is as far removed from faith as the spiritual from thephysical.[11]

1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demiurgehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Testamenthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_(wisdom)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeon_(Gnosticism)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bythoshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleromahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodotus_of_Byzantiumhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy_(gnostic)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracleonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nag_Hammadi_libraryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nag_Hammadi_libraryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Truthhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcellus_of_Ancyrahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippolytus_of_Romehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Churchhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Pius_Ihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Hyginushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_of_Tarsushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theudas_(teacher_of_Valentinius)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_of_Alexandriahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_of_Alexandriahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphanius_of_Salamishttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandriahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentinus_(Gnostic)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippolytus_of_Romehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irenaeus_of_Lyonshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_fathershttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Empirehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_the_2nd_centuryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentinus_(Gnostic)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnostic


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2 2 THE VALENTINIAN SYSTEM

2.2 Aeons

The superstructure of the celestial system, the celestialworld of Aeons, is here developed in the most com-plicated way. These Aeons belong to the purely ideal,noumenal, intelligible, or supersensible world; they are

immaterial, they are hypostatic ideas. Together with thesource from which they emanate they form the Pleroma.The transition from the immaterial to the material, fromthe noumenal to the sensible, is brought about by a flaw,or a passion, or a sin, in the female Aeon Sophia.

Scheme of the Aeons

Epiphanius alleges that the Valentinians set forth theirthirty aeons in mythologic fashion, thinking that they con-formed to the years of Jesus.[12] Of the eight celestialbeings of the Ogdoad, four are peculiar to the Valen-tinian system. The third pair of Aeons, Logosand Zoe,occur only here, and the place of this pair of Aeons isnot firmly established, and occur sometimes before andsometimes after the fourth pair of Aeons, the Anthroposand the Ekklesia. We cannot be far wrong in suspect-ing that Valentinus was influenced by the prologue of thefourthGospel (we also find the probably Johannine namesMonogenesandParakletosin the series of Aeons).

2.3 Sophia

In Valentinianism, Sophia always stands absolutely at thecenter of the system, and in some sense she seems to rep-resent the supreme female principle.

Sophia is the youngest of the Aeons. Observing the mul-titude of Aeons and the power of begetting them, shehurries back into the depth of the Father, and seeks toemulate him by producing offspring without conjugal in-tercourse, but only projects an abortion, a formless sub-stance. Upon this she is cast out of Pleroma and intothe primal sub-stratum of matter.[13] In the Valentiniansystems, the fall of Sophia appears in double guise. Thehigher Sophia still remains within the upper world after

creating a disturbance, and after her expiation and repen-tance; but her premature offspring, Sophia Achamoth, isremoved from the Pleroma, and becomes the heroine of

the rest of the drama. This fallen Sophia becomes a worldcreative power.

Plrome de Valentin, from Histoire critique du Gnosticisme;Jacques Matter, 1826, Vol. II, Plate II.

Sophia Achamoth, or Lower Wisdom, the daughter ofHigher Wisdom, becomes the mother of the Demiurge,identified with the God of the Old Testament.

The Gnostics are children of Sophia; from her theheavenly seed, the divine spark, descended into thislower world, subject to the Heimarmene (destiny) andin the power of hostile spirits and powers; and all theirsacramentsand mysteries, their formulae and symbols,must be in order to find the way upwards, back to the

highest heaven. This idea that the Gnostics know them-selves to be in a hostile and evil world reacted in the samedirection upon the conception of Sophia. She becamelikewise a fallen Aeon, who has sunk down into the ma-terial world andseeks to free herself fromit, receiving herliberation at the hands of a heavenly Redeemer, exactlylike the Gnostics.

The goddess who sinks down into the material may read-ily be identified withRuach(

), theSpiritof God, whobroodsover Chaos, or even with the later Chokhmah,whowas generally conceived of as a world-creating agent.

This system was very closely followed by Valentinus, who

may have come to know these doctrines in Egypt.[Note 1]Irenaeuscharacterizes the Gnostics as thepneumaticiwhohave a perfect knowledge of God, and have been initiated
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chokhmah_(Kabbalah)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirithttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramentshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destinyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johanninehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Gospelhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logoshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogdoad#In_Gnosticismhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphanius_of_Salamis


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2.6 Horos 3

into the mysteries of Achamoth.[14]

2.4 Anthropos

The chief influence at work here seems to have been the

idea of the celestial Anthropos(i.e. the Primal Man) of whom the myth originally relates that he has sunk intomatter and then raised himself up from it again whichappears in its simple form in individual Gnostic systems,e.g. inPoimandres(in the Corpus Hermeticum) and inManichaeism.

According to Valentinus,[15] the Anthropos no longer ap-pears as the world-creative power sinking down into thematerial world, but as a celestial Aeon of the upper world(or even as the supreme god), who stands in a clearly de-fined relationship to the fallen Aeon. Adam was createdin the name of Anthropos, and overawes the demons by

the fear of the pre-existent man. This Anthropos is acosmogonic element, pure mind as distinct from matter,mind conceived hypostaticallyas emanating from Godand not yet darkened by contact with matter. This mind isconsidered as the reason of humanity, or humanity itself,as a personified idea, a category without corporeality, thehuman reason conceived as theWorld-Soul. It is possi-ble that the role of the Anthropos is here transferred toSophia Achamoth.

It is also clear why the Ekklesia appears together withthe Anthropos. With this is associated the community ofthe faithful and the redeemed, who are to share the same

fate with him. Perfectgnosis(and thus the whole body ofGnostics) is connected with the Anthropos.[16]

2.5 Christ

Next to Sophia stands a male redeeming divinity. Inthe true Valentinian system, the Christ is the son of thefallen Sophia, who is thus conceived as an individual.Sophia conceives a passion for the First Father himself,or rather, under pretext of love she seeks to draw near tothe unattainable Bythos, the Unknowable, and to compre-

hend his greatness. She brings forth, through her longingfor that higher being, an Aeon who is higher and purerthan herself, and at once rises into the celestial worlds.Christ has pity on the abortive substance born of Sophiaand gives it essence and form, whereupon Sophia tries torise again to the Father, but in vain. In the enigmatic fig-ure of Christ we again find hidden the original conceptionof the Primal Man, who sinks down into matter but risesagain.

In the fully developed Ptolemaean system we find a kin-dred conception, but with a slight difference. Here Christand Sophia appear as brother and sister, with Christ rep-

resenting the higher and Sophia the lower element. Whenthis world has been born from Sophia in consequenceof her passion, two Aeons, Nous (mind) and Aletheia

(truth), by command of the Father, produce two newAeons, Christ and the Holy Ghost; these restore order inthe Pleroma, and in consequence all Aeons combine theirbest and most wonderful qualities to produce a new Aeon(Jesus, Logos, Soter, or Christ), the First Fruits whomthey offer to the Father. And this celestial redeemer-

Aeon now enters into a marriage with the fallen Aeon;they are the bride and bridegroom. It is boldly stated inthe exposition in Hippolytus Philosophumenathat theyproduce between them 70 celestialangels.

This myth can be connected with the historic Jesus ofNazareth by further relating that Christ, having beenunited to the Sophia, descends into the earthly Jesus, theson of Mary, at his baptism, and becomes the Saviour ofmen.

2.6 Horos

Coptic crossadopted by early Christian Gnostics

A figure entirely peculiarto Valentinian Gnosticism is thatofHoros(the Limiter). The name is perhaps an echo ofthe EgyptianHorus.[17]

The task of Horos is to separate the fallen Aeons fromthe upper world of Aeons. At the same time he becomesa kind of world-creative power, who in this capacity helpsto construct an ordered world out of Sophia and her pas-sions. He is also called Stauros (cross), and we frequentlymeet with references to the figure of Stauros. Specula-

tions about the Stauros are older than Christianity, and aPlatonicconception may have been at work here. Platohad alreadystatedthat the World-Soul revealed itself in
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timaeus_(dialogue)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonismhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crosshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coptic_crosshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_of_Nazarethhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_of_Nazarethhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refutation_of_all_Heresieshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Fruitshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anima_mundi_(spirit)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypostasis_(philosophy)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manichaeismhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Hermeticumhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poimandreshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Kadmon


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4 2 THE VALENTINIAN SYSTEM

the form of the letter Chi (X); by which he meant thatfigure described in the heavens by the intersecting orbitsof thesunand the planetaryecliptic. Since through thisdouble orbit all the movements of the heavenly powers aredetermined, so all becoming and all life depend on it,and thus we can understand the statement that the World-

Soul appears in the form of an X, or a cross.The cross can also stand for the wondrous Aeon onwhom depends the ordering and life of the world, andthus Horos-Stauros appears here as the first redeemer ofSophia from her passions, and as the orderer of the cre-ation of the world which now begins. Naturally, then, thefigure of Horos-Stauros was often assimilated to that ofthe Christian Redeemer. We possibly find echoes of thisin theGospel of Peter, where theCrossitself is depictedas speaking and even floating out of the tomb.

2.7 Monism

Peculiarly Valentinian is the above-mentioned deriva-tion of the material world from the passions of Sophia.Whether this already formed part of the original systemof Valentinus is, indeed, questionable, but at any rate itplays a prominent part in the Valentinian school, and con-sequently appears with the most diverse variations in theaccount given by Irenaeus. By it is effected the compara-tive monism of the Valentinian system, andthe dualism ofthe conception of two separate worlds of light and dark-ness is overcome:

This collection [of passions] ... was thesubstance of the matter from which this worldwas formed. From [her desire of] returning [tohim who gave her life], every soul belongingto this world, and that of the Demiurge him-self, derived its origin. All other things owedtheir beginning to her terror and sorrow. Forfrom her tears all that is of a liquid nature wasformed; from her smile all that is lucent; andfrom her grief and perplexity all the corporealelements of the world.[18]

2.8 Demiurge

This derivation of the material world from the passionsof the fallen Sophia is next affected by an older theory,which probably occupied an important place in the trueValentinian system. According to this theory the son ofSophia, whom she forms on the model of the Christ whohas disappeared in the Pleroma, becomes the Demiurge,and this Demiurge with his angels now appears as the realworld-creative power.

According to the older conception, he was an evil and

malicious offspring of his mother, who has already beendeprived of any particle of light.[15] In the Valentiniansystems, the Demiurge was the offspring of a union of

Sophia Achamoth with matter, and appears as the fruitof Sophias repentance and conversion. But as Achamothherself was only the daughter of Sophia, the last of thethirty Aeons, the Demiurge was distant by many emana-tions from the Supreme God. The Demiurge in creatingthis world out of Chaos was unconsciously influenced for

good by Christ; and the universe, to the surprise even ofits Maker, became almost perfect. The Demiurge regret-ted even its slight imperfection, and as he thought himselfthe Supreme God, he attempted to remedy this by send-ing a Messiah. To this Messiah, however, was actuallyunited Christ the Saviour, who redeemed men.

2.9 Creation of Man

With the doctrine of the creation of the world is con-nected the subject of the creation of man. According to

it, the world-creating angels not one, but many createman, but the seed of the spirit comes into their creaturewithout their knowledge, by the agency of a higher ce-lestial Aeon, and they are then terrified by the faculty ofspeech by which their creature rises above them, and tryto destroy him.

It is significant that Valentinus himself is credited withhaving written a treatise upon the threefold nature ofman,[19] who is represented as at once spiritual, psychi-cal and material. In accordance with this there also arisethree classes of men, thepneumatici, thepsychiciand thehylici. This doctrine dates at least as far back as PlatosRepublic

.

The first, the material, will return to the grossness ofmatter and finally be consumed by fire.

The second, or psychical, together with the Demi-urge as their master, will enter a middle state, nei-ther heaven (Pleroma) nor hell (matter).

The purely spiritual men will be completely freedfrom the influence of the Demiurge and togetherwith the Saviour and Achamoth, his spouse, will en-ter the Pleroma divested of body and soul.

We also find ideas that emphasize the distinction betweenthesoma psychikonand thesoma pneumatikon:

Perfect redemption is the cognition itself ofthe ineffable greatness: for since through ig-norance came about the defect ... the wholesystem springing from ignorance is dissolvedin gnosis. Therefore gnosisis the redemptionof the inner man; and it is not of the body,for the body is corruptible; nor is it psychi-cal, for even the soul is a product of the de-

fect and it is a lodging to the spirit: pneumatic(spiritual) therefore also must be redemptionitself. Throughgnosis, then, is redeemed the
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Republic_(Plato)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Crosshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Peterhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecliptichttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_(letter)


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inner, spiritual man: so that to us suffices thegnosisof universal being: and this is the trueredemption.[20]

2.10 Soteriology

Salvation is not merely individual redemption of each hu-man soul; it is a cosmic process. It is the return of allthings to what they were before the flaw in the sphere ofthe Aeons brought matter into existence and imprisonedsome part of the Divine Light into the evilHyle(matter).This setting free of the light sparks is the process of sal-vation; when all light shall have left Hyle, it will be burntup and destroyed.

In Valentinianism the process is extraordinarily elaborate,and we find here developed particularly clearly the mythof the heavenly marriage.[21] This myth, as we shall see

more fully below, and as may be mentioned here, is ofgreat significance for the practical piety of the Valen-tinian Gnostics. It is the chief idea of their pious practicesmystically to repeat the experience of this celestial unionof the Saviour with Sophia. In this respect, consequently,the myth underwent yet wider development. Just as theSaviour is the bridegroom of Sophia, so the heavenly an-gels, who sometimes appear as the sons of the Saviourand Sophia, sometimes as the escort of the Saviour, arethe males betrothed to the souls of the Gnostics, whichare looked upon as feminine. Thus every Gnostic hadher unfallen counterpart standing in the presence of God,and the object of a pious life was to bring about and ex-perience this inner union with the celestial abstract per-sonage. This leads us straight to the sacramental ideas ofthis branch of Gnosticism (see below). And it also ex-plains the expression used of the Gnostics in Irenaeus, [22]

that they always meditate upon the secret of the heavenlyunion (the Syzygia).

The final consummation of all things will take placewhen all that is spiritual has been formed and perfectedbygnosis.[14]

2.11 Gnosis

The central point of the piety of Valentinus seems to havebeen that mystical contemplation of God; in a letter pre-served in Clement of Alexandria,[23] he sets forth that thesoul of man is like an inn, which is inhabited by many evilspirits.

But when the Father, who alone is good,looks down and around him, then the soul ishallowed and lies in full light, and so he whohas such a heart as this is to be called happy,for he shall behold God.

But this contemplation of God, as Valentinus declares,closely and deliberately following the doctrines of the

Church and with him the compiler of the Gospel of John,is accomplished through the revelation of the Son. Thismystic also discusses a vision which is preserved in thePhilosophumenaof Hippolytus:

Valentinus ... had seen an infant childlately born; and questioning (this child), heproceeded to inquire who it might be. And(the child) replied, saying that he himself isthe Logos, and then subjoined a sort of tragiclegend...[24]

With celestial enthusiasm Valentinushere surveys and de-picts the heavenly world of Aeons, and its connectionwith the lower world. Exalted joy of battle and a valiantcourage breathe forth in the sermon in which Valentinusaddresses the faithful:

Ye are from the beginning immortal andchildren of eternal life, and desire to dividedeath amongst you like a prey, in order to de-stroy it and utterly to annihilate it, that thusdeath may die in you and through you, for ifye dissolve the world, and are not yourselvesdissolved, then are ye lords over creation andover all that passes away.[25]

3 Sacraments

Our authorities for the sacramental practices of theValentinians are preserved especially in the accounts oftheMarcosiansgiven in Irenaeus i. 13 and 20, and inthe last section of Clement of Alexandrias Excerpta exTheodoto.

In almost all the sacramental prayers of the Gnosticshanded down to us by Irenaeus, the Mother is the objectof the invocation. There are moreover various figures inthe fully developed system of the Valentinians who are inthe Gnostics mind when he calls upon the Mother; some-times it is the fallen Achamoth, sometimes the higherSophia abiding in the celestial world, sometimes Aletheia,the consort of the supreme heavenly father, but it is al-ways the same idea, the Mother, on whom the faith of theGnostics is fixed. Thus a baptismal confession of faith ofthe Gnostics[26] runs:

In the name of the unknown Father of all,by Aletheia, the Mother of all, by the namewhich descended upon Jesus.

3.1 Bridal Chamber

The chief sacrament of the Valentinians seems to havebeen that of the bridal chamber (nymphon). The Gospelof Philip,a probable Valentinian text, reads:
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6 3 SACRAMENTS

There were three buildings specifically forsacrifice in Jerusalem. The one facing thewest was called The Holy. Another, facingsouth, was called The Holy of the Holy. Thethird, facing east, was called The Holy of theHolies, the place where only the high priest

enters. Baptism is the Holy building. Re-demption is the Holy of the Holy. The Holyof the Holies is the bridal chamber. Bap-tism includes the resurrection and the redemp-tion; the redemption (takes place) in the bridalchamber.

As Sophia was united with the Saviour, her bridegroom,so the faithful would experience a union with their an-gel in the Pleroma (cf. the Higher Self or HolyGuardian Angel). The ritual of this sacrament is brieflyindicated: A few of them prepare a bridal chamber

and in it go through a form of consecration, employ-ing certain fixed formulae, which are repeated over theperson to be initiated, and stating that a spiritual mar-riage is to be performed after the pattern of the higherSyzygia.[26] Through a fortunate chance, a liturgical for-mula which was used at this sacrament appears to be pre-served, though in a garbled form and in an entirely differ-ent connection, the author seeming to have been uncertainas to its original meaning. It runs:

I will confer my favor upon thee, for thefather of all sees thine angel ever before hisface ... we must now become as one; receivenow this grace from me and through me; deckthyself as a bride who awaits her bridegroom,that thou mayest become as I am, and I asthou art. Let the seed of light descend into thybridal chamber; receive the bridegroom andgive place to him, and open thine arms to em-brace him. Behold, grace has descended uponthee.[27]

Other key features of the doctrine of the Bridal Chamberincluded the use of mirrors as part of the decor and theidea that those who had partaken in the rituals would be

able to beget children in the world to come.

3.2 Baptism

Besides this the Gnostics already practicedbaptism, us-ing the same form in all essentials as that of the Chris-tian Church. The name given to baptism, at least amongcertain bodies, wasapolytrosis(liberation); the baptismalformulae have been mentioned above.

The Gnostics are baptized in the mysterious name whichalso descended uponJesus at his baptism. The angels of

the Gnostics have also had to be baptized in this name, inorder to bring about redemption for themselves and thesouls belonging to them.[28]

In the baptismal formulae the sacred name of the Re-deemer is mentioned over and over again. In one ofthe formulae occur the words: I would enjoy thy name,Saviour of Truth. The concluding formula of the bap-tismal ceremony is: Peace over all upon whom the Namerests.[26] This name pronounced at baptism over the

faithful has above all the significance that the name willprotect the soul in its ascent through the heavens, conductit safely through all hostile powers to the lower heavens,and procure it access to Horos, who frightens back thelower souls by hismagicword.[28] And for this life alsobaptism, in consequence of the pronouncing of the pro-tecting name over the baptized person, accomplishes hisliberation from the lower daemonic powers. Before bap-tism the Heimarmeneis supreme, but after baptism thesoul is free from her.[29]

3.3 Death

With baptism was also connected the anointing with oil,andhence we canalso understand the death sacrament oc-curring among some Valentinians consisting in an anoint-ing with a mixture of oil and water.[20] This death sacra-ment has naturally the express object of assuring thesoul the way to the highest heaven so that the soulmay be intangible and invisible to the higher mights andpowers.[30] In this connection we also find a few formu-lae which are entrusted to the faithful, so that their soulsmay pronounce them on their journey upwards. One ofthese formulae runs:

I ama son from the Father the Father whohad a pre-existence, and a son in Him who ispre-existent. I have come to behold all things,both those which belong to myself and others,although, strictly speaking, they do not belongto others, but to Achamoth, who is female innature, and made these things for herself. ForI derive being from Him who is pre-existent,and I come again to my own place whence Iwent forth...[31]

Another formula is appended, in which there is a dis-tinction in the invocation between the higher and lowerSophia. Another prayer of the same style is to be found inIrenaeus i. 13, and it is expressly stated that after prayer ispronounced the Mother throws theHomeric helmet(cf.the Tarnhelm) over the faithful soul, and so makes himinvisible to the mights and powers which surround andattack him.

3.4 Reaction

On the other hand, we see how here and there a reaction

took place against the sacramental rites. A pure piety,rising above mere sacramentalism, breathes in the wordsof the Gnostics preserved inExcerpta ex Theodoto, 78, 2:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarnhelmhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cap_of_invisibilityhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_(paranormal)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptism_of_Jesushttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptismhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Guardian_Angelhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Guardian_Angelhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_Self


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8 6 REFERENCES

Egyptian myth must certainly have suggestedthe idea of the Valentinian Demiurge; asIsis did of Sophia or Achamoth; mutatisnominibus, the words of Plutarch very nearlyexpress the Valentinian theory; ,

. Then again the termsin which Plutarch speaks of the functions ofIsis, are suggestive of the Valentinian notion,where they are not Platonic. No doubtthey may have received from him a deeperPlatonic colouring, but it is impossible notto believe that the fundamental ideas ofthe Valentinian theory were received fromthe theosophy of ancient Egypt, when hesays, For Isis is the female principle ofnature, the recipient of every Gnostic naturalproduct, as the nurse and comprehensiveprinciple () in Plato. But by themany she is called the million-named, for

moulded ( f. l. ) byreason she embraces all forms and ideas.And congenital with her is Love of the firstand mightiest of all, which is one and thesame with the Good; this she desires andfollows after, but she avoids and repels allparticipation with Evil, being to both indeedas space and matter, but inclining alwaysof her own accord to the better principle,occasioning in it the procreative impulseof inseminating her with emanations andtypes in which she rejoices and exults, asimpregnated with produce. For produce isthe material image of Substance, and thecontingent is an imitation of that which IS.Harvey 1857, pp. 22-4

6 References

[1] Green 1985, 244

[2] Green 1985, 245

[3] Wilson 1958, 133

[4] Holroyd 1994, 32

[5] Roukema 1998, 129

[6] Churton 1987, 53

[7] Filoramo 1990, 166

[8] Goodrick-Clarke 2002, 182

[9] Pagels 1979, 37

[10] Holroyd 1994, 37

[11] Roukema 1998, 130

[12] Mead 1903, 396.

[13] Irenaeus i. 29

[14] Irenaeus i. 6, 1

[15] Irenaeus i. 29, 30


[17] Horus, according to Francis Legge, generally appeared inAlexandriawith hawks head and human body dressedin the cuirass and boots of a Roman gendarme orstationarius, which would be appropriate enough for a sen-tinel or guard. Legge 1914, 105.


[19] Schwartz,A porien, i. 292


[21] Irenaeus i. 30


[23] ClemensStromataii. 20, 114

[24] HippolytusPhilosophumena6, 37

[25] Clemens iv. 13, 91



[28] Excerpta ex Theodoto, 22

[29] Excerpta ex Theodoto. 77

[30] Irenaeusloc. cit.


[32] Rudolph 1977, 166

[33] Pagels 1979, 96

[34] Rudolph 1977, 155

[35] 1 Corinthians 15:50

[36] Holroyd 1994, 33

[37] Pagels 1979, 60

[38] Pagels 1979, 146

[39] Rudolph 1977, 206

[40] Pagels 1979, 32

[41] Layton (ed.) 1987, xxii

[42] Layton (ed.) 1987, xviii
http://tools.wmflabs.org/bibleversefinder/?book=1%2520Corinthians&verse=15:50&src=!https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ante-Nicene%2520Fathers/Volume%2520I/IRENAEUS/Against%2520Heresies:%2520Book%2520I/Chapter%2520XIII.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stromatahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stationarius_(Roman_military)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandria


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7 Bibliography

Bermejo, Fernando (1998). La escisin imposible.Lectura del gnosticismo valentiniano. Salamanca:Publicaciones Universidad Pontificia.

Churton, Tobias (1987). The Gnostics. London:Weidenfeld and Nicolson Limited.

Filoramo, Giovanni(1990). A History of Gnosti-cism. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Limited.

Green, Henry A. (1985). The Economic and SocialOrigins of Gnosticism. Atlanta: Scholars Press.

Harvey, William Wigan(1857). Sancti Irenaei I.Typis Academicis.

Holroyd, Stuart (1994). The Elements of Gnosticism.Dorset: Element Books Limited.

Layton, Bentley (ed.) (1987). The Gnostic Scrip-tures. New York: Doubleday.

Legge, Francis (1914). Forerunners and Rivals ofChristianity. New York: University Books. p. 105.

Mead, G.R.S (1903). Did Jesus Live 100 B.C.?.London: The Theosophical Publishing Society.

Mead, G.R.S(1906). Thrice Greatest Hermes: Stud-ies in Hellenistic Theosophy and Gnosis. Volume I.London and Benares: The Theosophical Publishing

Society.

Pagels, Elaine(1979). The Gnostic Gospels. NewYork: Random House.

Roukema, Riemer (1998). Gnosis and Faith in EarlyChristianity. Harrisburg: Trinity Press International.

Rudolph, Kurt(1977). Gnosis: The Nature and His-tory of Gnosticism. San Francisco: Harper and RowPublishers.

Thomassen, Einar(2005). The Spiritual Seed: TheChurch of the Valentinians (Nag Hammadi and

Manichaean Studies). Brill Academic Publishers.

Wilson, Robert McLachlan (1958). The GnosticProblem. London: A.R. Mowbray & Co. Limited.

Wilson, Robert McLachlan (1980). Valentianismand the Gospel of Truth. In Layton, Bentley. TheRediscovery of Gnosticism. Leiden. pp. 13345.

Attribution

This article incorporates text from a publication now

in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911)."Valentinus and the Valentinians". EncyclopdiaBritannica(11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

This article incorporates text from a publication nowin the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed.(1913). "Valentinus and Valentinians". Catholic En-cyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.

8 External links

Valentinus and the Valentinian Tradition an ex-tremely comprehensive collection of material onValentinian mythology, theology and tradition (fromthe Gnosis Archive website).

Patristic Material on ValentinusComplete collectionof patristic sources mentioning Valentinus.

Valentinus A Gnostic for All SeasonsExcellent in-troductory essay by Stephan A. Hoeller (from theGnosis Archive website).
http://www.gnosis.org/valentinus.htmhttp://gnosis.org/library/polem.htmhttp://www.gnosis.org/library/valentinus/index.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopediahttps://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic%2520Encyclopedia%2520(1913)/Valentinus%2520and%2520Valentinianshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domainhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica_Eleventh_Editionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica_Eleventh_Editionhttps://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911%2520Encyclop%C3%A6dia%2520Britannica/Valentinus%2520and%2520the%2520Valentinianshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domainhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einar_Thomassenhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Rudolphhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Pagelshttp://sacred-texts.com/gno/th1/index.htmhttp://sacred-texts.com/gno/th1/index.htmhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.R.S._Meadhttp://www.gnosis.org/library/grs-mead/jesus_live_100/index.htmhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.R.S._Meadhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bentley_Laytonhttp://books.google.com/books?id=HIMOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR23#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Harvey_(priest)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Filoramo


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