In the Platonic-Pythagorean tradition, the term Limit (πέρας) describes the process in which unlimited matter was kept in check. In Valentinian theology this principle was called the Boundary (ὅρος), but also, the Cross (σταυρός), the Redeemer (λυτρωτής), the Emancipator (καρπίστης), the Boundary-setter, (ὁροθέτης) and the Guide (μεταγωγεύς). Irenaeus maintains in Iren. Haer. 1.3.5 that the function of the Limit is twofold: when it strengthens the unity is it called σταυρός, but when it separates multiplicity it is called ὅρος. In Exc. C the Cross plays a double role: it both separates and strengthens (Exc. Theod. 42.1-3). The fan mentioned by John the Baptist (Mt. 3:12) is explained to be the Cross, which both purifies the saved and consumes the wicked. These notions are based on the allegorical reading of the Gospel of Matthew. The strengthening power of the Cross is depicted in the words of Jesus according to which “whoever does not take his cross cannot be my disciple” (Mt. 10:38) and the separating power of the Savior is depicted when Jesus says “I came not to send peace, but a sword”, i.e. the Cross (Mt. 10:34). The Cross and the Crucifixion were thus associated with the Pythagorean metaphysical principle of separation and unification. In this process, the Cross became a symbol of the two-fold process in which the lower essences (the Dyad) are separated from the higher ones, and at the same time, the purer essences are strengthened into a unity (the Monad). At the protological level, the separation of Sophia’s erroneous thought from the Pleroma was seen as a “crucifixion”. Matter was crucified out of the Pleroma, but at the same time the Pleroma was unified through the Cross. In the same vein, Jesus’s crucifixion was not seen in the gospel narratives as an atonement for sins but as a separation of the spiritual and psychic essences from the Savior’s material existence. The Valentinians transformed the Pauline theology of the Cross into the metaphysical theory of separation.
(University of Helsinki 2016, Risto Auvinen, Philo and the Valentinians, Protology, Cosmogony, and Anthropology, p. 82)