Aspects of Valentinianism and differentiation within it and from Sethianism

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MrMacSon
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Re: Aspects of Valentinianism and differentiation within it and from Sethianism

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p.278 (bottom)
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It'd be interesting to know the correspondence of this reference to James as the Just with Hegesippus's ...
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Re: Aspects of Valentinianism and differentiation within it and from Sethianism

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The start of Excerpt from Theodotus,
from a set of notes written by Clement of Alexandria preserved in Codex Laurentianus V,3.


(1:1) “Father,” he quotes, “into thy hands I commit my spirit.”
What Sophia brought forth, he says, as flesh for the Logos,
namely the spiritual seed/σπέρμα that the Saviour put on when he descended.
(2) Therefore at his passion he commits Sophia to the Father
in order that he may receive her back from the Father,
and that she may not be held back here by those
who have the power to plunder her. So he commits the entire spiritual seed/σπέρμα,
the elect, by means of the utterance quoted above.


The above version is from
'The Doctrine of Theodotus', chapter three in The Spiritual Seed: The Church of the “Valentinians", 2006, by Einar Thomassen.

Thomassen subsequent comments include


This excerpt deals with the incarnation, the passion, and the spiritual seed. To understand what it says, a very important principle of Valentinian soteriology must be grasped: when the Saviour descended into the cosmos, he put on as his body, or flesh, the spiritual seed of Sophia. The mythological narrative that explains this can be found in all the systematic accounts of the Valentinian system ...

... When the Saviour eventually descended into the cosmos, the spiritual seed constituted his body. Thus they were incarnated concorporeally with the Saviour. [p.30]


The very next paragraph, fwiw:


In the present passage, the final words of Jesus on the cross are interpreted in the light of this doctrine. On the cross, the Saviour gave up his spirit, committing it to the Father. That is to say, he left behind “Sophia”—metonymically identified here with her spiritual seed—while he himself returned to the Pleroma. In consequence, the spiritual seed remains (in the form of the 'church'/the έκκλησία) for a while on earth, protected by the Father from the powers of the cosmos. [p.30-1]


The same doctrine appears in 26:1:


The visible part of Jesus was Sophia/Wisdom and the έκκλησία of the superior seed/σπερμάττων
which he put on through the flesh, as Theodotus says.
But the invisible part was the Name, which is the only-begotten Son.


Thomassen then notes,


The perspective is slightly different: whereas 1:1–2 spoke about the Saviour’s body in the context of the events on the cross, the present passage comments on the double nature of the Saviour. However, the description of the Saviour’s body is the same. The Saviour’s flesh is Sophia ≈ the έκκλησία of the spiritual/superior seed, which he put on (στολίζειν, stolizein) when he descended into the world. The second sentence refers to the Saviour inside the flesh as “the Name.” This alludes to his divine nature as the bearer and personification of the Father’s Name—an important theme in Valentinianism ...


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Re: Aspects of Valentinianism and differentiation within it and from Sethianism

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At the start of Against Heresies, Book III, Irenaeus says


Preface

Thou hast indeed enjoined upon me, my very dear friend, that I should bring to light the Valentinian doctrines, concealed, as their votaries imagine; that I should exhibit their diversity, and compose a treatise in refutation of them. Therefore have undertaken—showing that they spring from Simon, the father of all heretics—to exhibit both their doctrines and successions, and to set forth arguments against them all. Wherefore, since the conviction of these men and their exposure is in many points but one work, I have sent unto thee [certain] books, of which the first comprises the opinions of all these men, and exhibits their customs, and the character of their behaviour. In the second, again, their perverse teachings are cast down and overthrown, and, such as they really are, laid bare and open to view. But in this, the third book I shall adduce proofs from the Scriptures, so that I may come behind in nothing of what thou hast enjoined; yea, that over and above what thou didst reckon upon, thou mayest receive from me the means of combating and vanquishing those who, in whatever manner, are propagating falsehood.


I'm not sure I have previously seen anyone note Irenaeus's assertion that the Valentinian doctrines "spring from Simon"


While Adv Haers. III,4.3 contains aspects of the embellished bishops list, it asserts 'Gnostics' take rise from Simon via Menander


3. For, prior to Valentinus, those who follow Valentinus had no existence; nor did those from Marcion exist before Marcion; nor, in short, had any of those malignant-minded people, whom I have above enumerated, any being previous to the initiators and inventors of their perversity. For Valentinus came to Rome in the time of Hyginus, flourished under Pius, and remained until Anicetus. Cerdon, too, Marcion's predecessor, himself arrived in the time of Hyginus, who was the ninth bishop. Coming frequently into the Church, and making public confession, he thus remained, one time teaching in secret, and then again making public confession; but at last, having been denounced for corrupt teaching, he was excommunicated from the assembly of the brethren. Marcion, then, succeeding him, flourished under Anicetus, who held the tenth place of the episcopate. But the rest, who are called "Gnostics", take rise from Menander, Simon's disciple, as I have shown; and each one of them appeared to be both the father and the high priest of that doctrine into which he has been initiated. But all these (the Marcosians) broke out into their apostasy much later, even during the intermediate period of the Church.


Does anyone know why he refers to "all these" as Marcosians?


Adv Haers. III,12.7 starts with


From the words of Peter, therefore, which he addressed in Cæsarea to Cornelius the centurion, and those Gentiles with him, to whom the word of God was first preached, we can understand what the apostles used to preach, the nature of their preaching, and their idea with regard to God. For this Cornelius was, it is said, "a devout man, and one who feared God with all his house, giving much alms to the people, and praying to God always. He saw therefore, about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming in to him, and saying, 'Your alms have come up for a memorial before God. Wherefore send to Simon, who is called Peter'." [Acts 10:2-5] But when Peter saw the vision, in which the voice from heaven said to him, "What God has cleansed, call not common," [Acts 10:15] this happened [to teach him] that the God who had, through the law, distinguished between clean and unclean, was He who had purified the Gentiles through the blood of His Son — He whom also Cornelius worshipped.


Acts 10:6 has, in addition, "he lodges with a tanner, called Simon, whose house is close to the sea".
Acts 9 finished "43 He [Peter] stayed in Joppa a number of days after this, lodging with a tanner whose name was Simon."
  • [an aside]
    And, of course, Acts 9 starts with Saul's road to Damascus apocalypse, after which "a disciple named Ananias; to him the Lord called in a vision ... to go to the road called Straight Street; and enquire at the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus, named Saul ... [who] is at his prayers: and [who] has had a vision of a man called Ananias coming in and laying hands on him, to cure him of blindness" (Acts 9:10-12). Ananias laid hands on Saul & he recovered his eyesight. "For some days he lived with the disciples at Damascus, and from the first, in the synagogues, he preached that Jesus was the Son of God ... Saul was inspired with ever greater strength, and silenced the Jews who lived at Damascus by shewing them clearly that this was the Christ ... then the Jews plotted against him ... the disciples contrived to lower him down a wall in a hamper," yet, when "he reached Jerusalem where he tried to attach himself to the disciples, they could not believe he was a true disciple, and all avoided his company. Whereupon Barnabas took him by the hand and brought him in to the apostles."

    And then Peter heals a palsied Aeneas and raises a Tabatha from the dead ...

    Such a dense chapter. And some big names of other past and present histories ... eg. Aeneas, Ananias ...


Adv Haers. III,12.12 refers to the doctrine of Simon Magus to whom 'they' "have apostated in their opinions from Him who is God"

12. For all those who are of perverse opinions (γνώμης), having been set against the Mosaic legislation, judging it to be dissimilar and contrary to the doctrine of the Gospel, have not applied themselves to investigate the causes of the difference of each covenant. Since, therefore, they have been deserted by the paternal love, and puffed up by Satan, being brought over to the doctrine of Simon Magus, they have apostatized in their opinions (γνώμης) from Him who is God, and imagined that they have themselves discovered more than the apostles, by finding out another god; and...that the apostles preached the Gospel still somewhat under the influence of Jewish opinions, but that they themselves are purer [in doctrine], and more intelligent, than the apostles.

Note the accusation and one reason "they" have been that "brought over to the doctrine of Simon Magus" is that "the apostles preached the Gospel still somewhat under the influence of Jewish opinions".

The reference that they imagined "they have themselves discovered more than the apostles" is interesting, too.

Irenaeus immediately switches to rant about Marcion and his followers (and the Valentinians who "employ names of a more honourable kind")


[Adv. Haers. III.12.12. continued]
Wherefore also Marcion and his followers have betaken themselves to mutilating the Scriptures, not acknowledging some books at all; and, curtailing the Gospel according to Luke and the Epistles of Paul, they assert that these are alone authentic, which they have themselves thus shortened. In another work, however, I shall, God granting,...refute them out of these which they still retain. But all the rest, inflated with the false name of "knowledge," do certainly recognise the Scriptures; but they pervert the interpretations, as I have shown in the first book. And, indeed, the followers of Marcion do directly blaspheme the Creator, alleging him to be the creator of evils, [but] holding a more tolerable theory as to his origin, [and] maintaining that there are two beings, gods by nature, differing from each other,-the one being good, but the other evil. Those from Valentinus, however, while they employ names of a more honourable kind, and set forth that He who is Creator is both Father, and Lord, and God, do [nevertheless] render their theory or sect more blasphemous, by maintaining that He was not produced from any one of those Aeons within the Pleroma, but from that defect which had been expelled beyond the Pleroma. Ignorance of the Scriptures and of the dispensation of God has brought all these things upon them. And in the course of this work I shall touch upon the cause of the difference of the covenants on the one hand, and, on the other hand, of their unity and harmony.




Adv Haers. III,12.14 refers to Simon in a quote from Acts 15 in which James, gathered with the other key apostles, Paul, Barnabas, and Peter, follows "Barnabas and Paul describing all the signs and wonders God had performed among the Gentiles by their means" (Acts 14:12b)

Acts 15:13b—18 in Adv Haers. III,12.14


13 ... James answered thus, 'Listen, brethren, to what I have to say. 14 Simon has told us how, for the first time, God has looked with favour on the Gentiles, and chosen from among them a people dedicated to his name. 15 This is in agreement with the words of the prophets, where it is written: 16 "Afterwards, I will come back, and build up again David’s tabernacle that has fallen; I will build up its ruins, and raise it afresh; 17 so that all the rest of mankind may find the Lord, all those Gentiles among whom my name is named, says the Lord," [Amos 9:11=13a] who is the doer of all this 18 God has known from all eternity what he does to-day.



Adv Haers. III,14.3 has a brief reference to Luke 7:36—50 in which the Pharisee Jesus is dining with (when a certain immoral woman began tending to Jesus' feet) is identified as Simon

Luke 7:38—50


39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner!”

40 Then Jesus answered his thoughts. “Simon,” he said to the Pharisee, “I have something to say to you.”

“Go ahead, Teacher,” Simon replied.

41 Then Jesus told him this story: “A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver to one and 50 pieces to the other. 42 But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both, cancelling their debts. Who do you suppose loved him more after that?”

43 Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he cancelled the larger debt.”

“That’s right,” Jesus said. 44 Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Look at this woman kneeling here. When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume.

47 “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” 48 Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”

49 The men at the table said among themselves, “Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins?”

50 And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”


One might wonder if there's an oblique reference to Simon the sinner also and equally being forgiven ... in both Luke 7 and in Irenaeus' Adv Haers III,14.3. There's a grab-bag of other things in Adv Haers III,14.3, and Adv Haers III,14 then finishes with


4. It follows then, as of course, that these men must either receive the rest of his narrative, or else reject these parts also. For no persons of common sense can permit them to receive some things recounted by Luke as being true, and to set others aside, as if he had not known the truth. And if indeed Marcion's followers reject these, they will then possess no Gospel; for, curtailing that according to Luke, as I have said already, they boast in having the Gospel ... But the followers of Valentinus must give up their utterly vain talk; for they have taken from that [Gospel] many occasions for their own speculations, to put an evil interpretation upon what he has well said. If, on the other hand, they feel compelled to receive the remaining portions also, then, by studying 'the perfect Gospel,' and the doctrine of the apostles, they will find it necessary to repent, that they may be saved from the danger [to which they are exposed].


It seems Irenaeus might be alluding to the Valentinians using the gospel that Marcion +/- his followers had
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Re: Aspects of Valentinianism and differentiation within it and from Sethianism

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Irenaeus, Against Heresies III,11.9


... those who are from Valentinus, being, on the other hand, altogether reckless, while they put forth their own compositions, boast that they possess more Gospels than there really are. Indeed, they have arrived at such a pitch of audacity, as to entitle their comparatively recent writing, "the Gospel of Truth," though it agrees in nothing with 'the Gospels of the Apostles,' so that they have really no Gospel which is not full of blasphemy. For if what they have published is the Gospel of Truth, and yet is totally unlike those which have been handed down to us from the apostles, any who please may learn, as is shown from the Scriptures themselves, that that which has been handed down from the apostles can no longer be reckoned 'the Gospel of truth.' But that these Gospels alone are true and reliable, and admit neither an increase nor diminution of the aforesaid number, I have proved by so many and such [arguments]. For, since God made all things in due proportion and adaptation, it was fit also that the outward aspect of the Gospel should be well arranged and harmonized. The opinion of those men, therefore, who handed the Gospel down to us, having been investigated, from their very fountainheads, let us proceed also to the remaining apostles, and inquire into their doctrine with regard to God; then, in due course we shall listen to the very words of the Lord.


Against Heresies III,16.6 is also noteworthy as a brief account of Valentinianism
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