Valentinus
- founder of the Valentinians, the most celebrated of the
Gnostic sects (see Gnosticism) of the 2d cent. The little
that is known of his life is found in the works of early
Christian theologians who refuted him, such as St. Irenaeus
and Clement of Alexandria. Probably born in Egypt, Valentinus
received his education in Alexandria and after c.135 taught
in Rome, where he attracted brilliant converts. --Valentinus,
The Columbia Encyclopedia(1)
It
is no exaggeration to say that Valentinus is the greatest
figure known to us from the heterodox sects active in the
early Christian period that were, until recently, haphazardly
lumped together as “Gnostic”. Valentinus did not set out
to form a competing movement from the group that eventually
would become the orthodox Roman Church under Constantine.
It was only when the burgeoning Church rejected the allegorical
and cosmic understanding of the Savior advanced by Valentinus
(among others) in favor of the historicized myth* we know
as Orthodox Christianity that Valentinians became a seperate
Church. Bentley Layton says of Valentinus: Valentinus
(A.D. ca. 100-ca. 175) was born in the Egyptian Delta, at
Phrenobis. He enjoyed the good fortune of a Greek education
in the nearby metropolis of Alexandria, the world capital
of Hellenistic culture. In Alexandria he probably met the
Christian philosopher Basilides (see Part Five), who was
teaching there, and may have been influenced by him. There,
too, he must have made the acquiantance of Greek philosophy.
Valentinus's familiarity with Platonism may have come to
him through study of Hellenistic Jewish interpretation of
the bible, for in a passage of one of his sermons he seems
to show knowledge of a work by the great Alexandrian Jewish
allegorist and philosopher Philo Judaeus
…Valentinus's distinguished career as a teacher began in
Alexandria, sometime between A.D. 117 and 138. Since most
of the Fragments of his works (VFr) were preserved by a
second-century Christian intellectual in Alexandria, Valentinus
may have written and published in Alexandria while he was
teaching there. If so, his considerable expertise in rhetorical
composition, which is evident in these Fragments, must have
been acquired while he was studying in Alexandria. Valentinus's
followers in Alexandria later reported that he had claimed
a kind of apostolic sanction for his teaching by maintaining
that he had received lessons in Christian religion from
a certain Theudas, who-he said- had been a student of St.
Paul. If there is any truth in this claim, his contact with
Theudas and his reading of St. Paul may have occurred in
Alexandria.
-- Bentley Layton ,The Gnostic Scriptures
Stephen Hoeller, in his essay Valentinus: A Gnostic for
All Seasons gives a concise definition of the Gnostic,
or at least Valentinian, view of the Creation: The
often-debated cosmogony of Valentinus might be most profitably
understood as being based on a single existential recognition,
which might be summarized thus: Something is wrong. Somewhere,
somehow, the fabric of being at the existential level of
human functioning has lost its integrity. We live in a system
which is lacking in essential integrity, and thus is defective.
So-called orthodox Christians as well as Jews recognize
that there is a certain "wrongness" in human existence,
but they account for it chiefly in terms of the effects
of human sin, original or other. Jews and Christians hold
that whatever is wrong with the world and human existence
is the result of human disobedience to the creator.(2)
This
seems to be the fundamental difference between the Gnostic
and Orthodox theologies, though it ought to be remembered
that the Gnostics, including the Valentinians, valued individual
interpretation over doctrine, so that a (fairly broad) range
of ideas can be gathered under the name Gnostic. In The
Tree of Gnosis: Gnostic Mythology from Early Christianity
to Modern Nihilism author Ioan P. Couliano notes that
the mythological systems devised by the Valentinians (and,
for that matter, Catholics) could be viewed as a game, with
each choice leading to new possibilities but also closing
off others. For instance, if the Serpent in the Garden is
Satan (as in the Catholic reading) then the eating of the
fruit from the Tree of Good and Evil is a catastrophic error.
If, however, the Serpent is a messenger, representative
or disguise of the powers that exist beyond the Limit (i.e,
that dwell in the Pleroma) then the knowledge of Good and
Evil is, ultimately, a necessary, though painful, step toward
the raising of humans back/up to the Light of the upper
Realms. If the expulsion from paradise is necessary, then
what is the correct understanding of the Creator and his
curse upon the Man and Woman? So we can see that these choices
are not merely technical details, as the radically divergent
world views of the Gnostic, later heterodox, and various
orthodox movements through out the Christian period show.
This is understood early on in the history of Christianity,
as the gospel of Thomas demonstrates: The
disciples said to Jesus, `Tell us how our end will be.`
Jesus said, `Have you discovered, then, the beginning, that
you look for the end? For where the beginning is, there
will the end be. Blessed is he who will take his place in
the beginning; he will know the end and will not experience
death.` (Logion 18)
A
time-traveling Valentinian, seeing the Apocalyptic hysteria
and nonsense that grips the Christianity of the present (at least in the U.S.)
would, I think, simply point out that the perpetually unsuccessful
predictions of the End are a logical outcome of a failure
to understand the nature of the Universe, and therefore
the nature of Salvation. Whereas the Gospel of Philip says A
Gentile does not die, for he has never lived in order that
he may die. He who has believed in the truth has found life,
and this one is in danger of dying, for he is alive
today,
we might say that a person who is deluded by the Powers
into thinking they have found “the Truth” - which we may
consider to being more like understanding than mere belief
- but have in fact believed a lie are simply dead, never
having lived. In short: The
rulers (archons) wanted to deceive man, since they saw that
he had a kinship with those that are truly good. They took
the name of those that are good and gave it to those that
are not good, so that through the names they might deceive
him and bind them to those that are not good. And afterward,
what a favor they do for them! They make them be removed
from those that are not good and place them among those
that are good. These things they knew, for they wanted to
take the free man and make him a slave to them forever.
-- Gospel of Phillip
Standing
around waiting for the “Rapture” - or whatever - is as self-destroying
as wallowing in the depths of depravity. Dead is dead.
It is dangerous** to speculate along such lines, however,
without keeping in mind a primary point. As Hoeller puts
it:
…Valentinian
(as well as all other) Gnosticism can be understood in psychological
terms, so that the religious mythologems treated by the
Gnostics are taken to symbolize psychological conditions
and intra-psychic powers of the mind. Taking this approach
we might conclude that what Valentinus tells us is that
because our minds have lost their self-knowledge, we live
in a self-created world that is lacking in integrity.
(Hoeller, ibid.)
Therefore,
we can see that the Gnostic (or at least the Valentinian)
perspective places the individual at the center of the soteriological
project; it cannot be otherwise if the saving knowledge
is already within you. Salvation is not an escape from punishment
for ethical sin, it is a right perception of God, the Universe
and one’s ultimate place in it. To be a Gnostic, one
must “put away childish things”(3) indeed.
Reading
the scriptures as a Valentinian
In Valentinus
and the Valentinian Tradition,
David Brons says Members
of the Valentinian school rejected the way most of their
contemporary Christians interpreted the Bible as being overly
literal. In their view, the Bible has to be interpreted
in a spiritual manner. In some cases, the literal teaching
is the spiritual meaning. e.g. the Sermon on the Mount.
But for other, passages, the true spiritual meaning lay
hidden behind the literal text in allegorical symbols. Valentinians
claimed to have the secret to unlocking this hidden spiritual
meaning. They supported these conclusions by citing Jesus
himself: "The knowledge about the secrets of the kingdom
of heaven has been given to you, but to the rest it comes
by means of parables so that they may look but not see and
listen but not understand"(Luke 8:9-10 cf. Irenaeus
Against Heresies 1:3:1). According to the Valentinian tradition,
Paul and the other apostles revealed these teachings only
to those who were 'spiritually mature' (1 Corinthians 2:6).
They identified their own teaching with these secret teachings
that Jesus taught the to the apostles.( 4)
Two
points are worth noting here. The first is that the interpretation
of sripture is paramount. It is not enough, perhaps not
really important, for the Christian to have a “correct”
list of scriptures. The Truth is in the understanding of
them (or gained through them), so that we might say that Scripture is a tool used
by the Spirit to trigger the memory of the (already latent) knowledge,
or anamnesis, of the true nature of the Universe (and thus
one’s place in it). Second, this attitude is an reiteration
of Paul, who it should be remembered had no Christian Scriptures
to work from. He took all of his insights from the
Jewish Scriptures. Clearly the actual text is not as important
as the opening of the mind to the Spirit such reading engenders.
Bron also gives an overview of the Scriptures used by the
Valentinian school, which I have adapted here. It is, however,
highly recommended that the entire Valentinus
section of the Gnostic Society website be
read as this brief essay is just a poor summary
of the depth of Valentinian theology.
Valentinian Scripture
(N) = included in Nag Hamadi Corpus
Scripture Original to the School
Gospel of Truth (N) (considered likely to have been written
by Valentinus himself)
Letter to Flora
Treatise on the Resurrection (N)
A Valentinian Exposition (N)
Tripartite Tractate (N)
The Exegesis on the Soul (N)
Acts of John
The Gospel of Philip . (N)
First Apocalypse of James(N)
Second Apocalypse of James
Letter of Peter to Philip (N)
Prayer of the Apostle Paul (N)
Writings of other Gnostics useful to
a study of Valentinian theology
The Apocryphon of James (N)
Authoritative Teaching (N)
Apocalypse of Peter (N)
Gospel of Mary
Non-Valentinian Writings used by the School
The Gospel of Thomas (N)
Gospel of the Egyptians (N)
Proclamation of Peter
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas
Allogenes (N)
Zostrianus (N)
New Testament writings known to have been read by Valentinians: Gospel according to Matthew
Gospel according to Mark
Gospel according to Luke
Gospel according to John
Romans
I Corinthians
II Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
I Peter
I John
Revelation of John
** Dangerous because it is so easy to fall into the trap
of condemning everyone else on the planet (that doesn't
see things your way) to Hell. This is a favorite past time
of Orthodox Christians of whatever flavor since (at least)
Dante. Rather, the point is, the fact of salvation is inherent
in the attainment of "Life", i.e. of Gnosis, since the one
who does so, we are told "will not taste death". Obviously
this does not refer to physical death. If you aren't in
the place of Rest here and now, you aren't going to find
it beyond the grave!
