Now Back to 2 Peter and the Valentinian Heresy
To set the stage, here are a few statements from the OP about 2 Peter ---
In Against the Valentinians, in Latin and attributed to Tertullian, the author clearly associated the complex cosmology of the Valentinians with the polemic in 1 Timothy 1:3-4 ---robert j wrote: ↑Tue Dec 18, 2018 2:36 pm … [in 2 Peter] what “cleverly devised myths (μύθοις)” (1:16) and what “destructive heresies” (2:1) and what “fabricated words” (2:3) was the author attacking?
I think the answer is found in other relatively late NT texts ---… so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to give heed to myths (μύθοις) and endless genealogies (γενεαλογίαις), which bring speculations rather than God's stewardship … (1 Timothy 1:3-4)
The warning against “myths and endless genealogies” provides the clue here …
... I think the complex cosmology of the Christian Valentinians … provides [the best] fit here for the myths and endless genealogies and for fabricated words.
... I think the “cleverly devised myths” (μύθοις)” in 2 Peter 1:16 --- along with the polemics on heresies in chapter 2 --- are best interpreted in light of similar attacks in the Pastorals. All attacks on the myths and genealogies of heretics.
Pastorals | Against the Valentinians *** |
… so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to give heed to myths (μύθοις) and endless genealogies (γενεαλογίαις), which bring speculations rather than God's stewardship … (1 Timothy 1:3-4) | .. if someone knowledgeable in our faith comes to these tales and immediately finds so many names of Aeons, so many marriages, so many offspring, so many dooms, so many adventures, joys, sorrows of a scattered and fragmentary godhead, will he hesitate then and there to call these the "myths and endless genealogies" which the apostle's inspiration had already condemned … (chapter 3) |
There are other parallels between Against the Valentinians and the Pastorals and 2 Peter that could be highlighted here. Here’s an interesting example with 2 Peter ---
The transfiguration scene in 2 Peter (1:16-19) bears little resemblance to the versions found in the synoptic New Testament Gospels viewtopic.php?f=3&t=598. The 2 Peter author cast the event in terms of a Mystery-Religion ritual, an experiential-sharing with the divine. The scene is cleverly introduced with the Greek term epoptai (ἐπόπται), typically translated in bibles as "eyewitness". But in an historical context, the word was used primarily as a technical term in the non-Christian Eleusinian Mysteries, widespread in the eastern Mediterranean at the time. The term was used to designate advanced initiates who had attained esoteric knowledge. This is the only instance in the Christian bible where this word is used.
The author of Against the Valentinians associated the Eleusinian Mysteries with the practices of the Valentinians as a polemic against a long initiation period, using the Latin epoptas. And shortly after, the author offered a direct conceptual link between the Valentinians and the Eleusinian Mysteries.
2 Peter | Against the Valentinians, chapter 1 |
For we have not made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ having followed out cleverly devised myths (μύθοις), but having been eyewitnesses (ἐπόπται, epoptai, advanced initiates) of His majesty. (2 Peter 1:16) [The author of 2 Peter made an Eleusinian rite into a Christian lure ... then attacked the Valentinians] | The Valentinians, as everyone knows, are the most commonly encountered sect of heretics, most common because they are mostly apostates from the true religion, quite willing to invent myths (fabulas) ... In just the same way concerning the Eleusinian mysteries … make entry difficult and perform long initiation rites before they accept the devotee (epoptas) … These people make the Eleusinian rites into Valentinian lures, sacred only because of their great silence, heavenly only because of their concealment. |
Though the Pastorals are somewhat of a "grab-bag" and encompass a broader focus, I find these parallels as no surprise in that I see the authors of the Pastorals, 2 Peter, and Against the Valentinians as doctrinal compadres.
robert j
*** translation by Mark T. Riley, 1971