Aspects of Valentinianism and differentiation within it and from Sethianism

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Aspects of Valentinianism and differentiation within it and from Sethianism

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In an article in The Codex Judas Papers: Proceedings of the International Congress on the Tchacos Codex held at Rice University, Houston, Texas, March 13–16, 2008, April DeConick, ed., Brill, 2009, titled -

'Apostles as Archons: The Fight for Authority and the Emergence of Gnosticism in the Tchacos Codex and Other Early Christian Literature', pp.243ff,

- April DeConick has a section about Theodotus the Valentinian, an eastern Valentinian prominent in the mid- to late- second century, which she starts by noting that Clement of Alexandria recorded him as teaching that


“the Apostles were substituted for the twelve signs of the Zodiac, for, just as birth is directed by them, so is rebirth by the Apostles (οἱ ἀπόστολοι μετετέθησαν τοῖς δεκαδύο ζῳδίοις, ὡς γὰρ ὑπ᾽ ἐκείνων ἡ γένεσις διοικεῖται, οὕτως ὑπὸ τῶν ἀποστόλων ἡ ἀναγέννησις)” [Clem. Alex., Exc. 25.2].

Here we encounter the exact teaching that the [Sethian] author of the Gospel of Judas was trying to eradicate. Each [Valentinian] Apostle was a counterpoint for the stars that controlled Fate. Once baptized, the initiate was no longer dominated by the negative rule of the stars. Instead the positive Apostles controlled his or her fate.

Theodotus expounds on this, noting that Fate is the coming together of many opposing forces, which cannot be seen. It guides the course of the stars and even governs through them. In this way, the Zodiac and the planets have power over human beings and direct human births. The twelve signs of the Zodiac and the seven wandering stars sometimes rise in conjunction and sometimes in opposition. The human being shares in the qualities of the stars wrestling with each other in the skies [Clem. Exc. 69.1—71.2]. It is from this “battle of the Powers” that the Lord frees the newly converted Christian. The Lord gives the Christian peace from the Powers and Angels who are like “soldiers” and “brigands” fighting for and against God [Clem. Exc. 72.1-2].

How was this accomplished? A new strange star arose in the sky, which destroyed “the old astrological arrangement (τὴν παλαιὰν ἀστροθεσίαν)” of the stars and the planets. This new star “revolved on a new path of redemption (ὁ καινὰς ὁδοὺς καὶ σωτηρίους τρεπόμενος)” and corresponded to the Lord himself who “came down to earth to transfer from Fate to his providence those who believed in Christ” [Clem. Exc. 74.2].

This means that Fate through the stars continues to control unbelievers, but for those who realize that the birth of the Savior released them from Fate, baptism is in order [Clem. Exc. 75.1]. Baptism is called “death” because Christians are no longer under the rule of “evil archons (πονηραῖς ἀρχαῖς)” and it is called “life” because Christ is now the sole Lord [Clem. Exc. 76.1—77.1]. This is the context of the oft-quoted but misunderstood phrase: “Until baptism Fate is real, but after it the astrologists are no longer correct. It is not the washing alone that is liberating, but the knowledge of who we were, what we have become, where we were or where we have been put, where we hasten to go, from what we are redeemed, what birth is, what rebirth is” [Clem. Exc. 78.1-2].

Such language is reminiscent of Ignatius of Antioch who writes to the Ephesians about this same cosmic restructuring. He states that at Jesus’ birth “a star in the heaven shone more brightly than all the others.” This new star is described as the cosmic pole. Thus Ignatius goes on to say that “all the other stars with the sun and the moon gathered around that star in chorus.” So bright was the star that it left astrologers bewildered. So great was their bewilderment that they asked, “Where could this newcomer have come from, so different from the others?” The old “empire of evil” was overthrown, for God was now appearing in human form to bring a new order, life eternal. All creation, Ignatius explains, was thrown into chaos over this restructuring, which God put into place in order to destroy death.

What we have here is a commonly held Christian belief that the Christ event broke down the old cosmic structures and replaced them with new structures that allow for liberation. Quite literally, Jesus is a new star that the cosmos now revolves around. The Zodiacal signs are the twelve Apostles arrayed around him, replacing the evil Archons who have up until that time controlled human Fate. As such, Jesus replaces the old cosmic pole, becoming the new route for the soul and spirit to escape this world. The new pole corresponds to the Cross which Jesus uses to carry the saved “on his shoulders” into the Pleroma [Clem. Exc. 42.1—3]. Once the initiate undergoes baptism, Christ becomes their new path of salvation, saving both the Elect (the Valentinians) and the Called (the members of the Apostolic Church) by bearing them aloft [Clem. Exc. 53.1—2]. Christians literally are transferred from the lower regions of the earth up the cosmic pole to the Pleroma. Thus Ephesians 4:9–10 ... “He who ascended also descended. That he ascended, what does it imply but that he descended? He it is who descended into the lower parts of the earth and ascended above the heavens” [Clem. Exc. 43.5]. [pp.268-70]


DeConick then notes a differentiation between Valentinians and Sethians regarding ' Apostolic Christianity ' -


... Why did Theodotus teach that, for Christians at least, the evil Zodiacal Powers have been overcome and replaced with the good Apostles? The answer is simple. The Valentinians were not opposed to Apostolic Christianity, like the Sethian Christians appear to have been ...



DeConick then discusses differentiation between eastern and western Valentinianism as noted by and thus through Irenaeus -


When Irenaeus talks about the western Valentinians attached to Ptolemy’s teaching, he does not present us with the same correspondences that Theodotus has. Instead of the good twelve Apostles replacing the evil cosmic Zodiac, Irenaeus says that he knows of Valentinians who follow both Ptolemaeus’ and Marcus’ systems. They all align the Apostles with the twelve last emanations in the Pleroma, the Duodecad.

According to Irenaeus, the Valentinians say that the production of the Duodecad of aeons corresponds to the election of the twelve apostles [Iren. Adv haer.. 1.3.2]. The twelfth emanation, the suffering Sophia, corresponds with Judas the twelfth apostle, as does the woman who suffered from the twelve-year flow of blood, but for different reasons. That is, the correspondence with Judas has a different meaning from the correspondence with the hemorrhaging woman.

The Valentinians used Judas specifically to indicate the correspondence between his “apostasy” and that of the twelfth Aeon. Thus Irenaeus writes that they think that Sophia’s suffering points to Judas’ apostasy because both were associated with the number twelve. He reiterates this by saying that the Valentinians relate the suffering Sophia to the betrayal of Judas. Thus her suffering was her error, when she did what was forbidden. It is Sophia’s betrayal that results in her suffering which the Valentinians said corresponded to Judas’ betrayal of Jesus, a correspondence which Irenaeus cannot accept [Iren. Adv haer.. 2.20.2].

Why does this correspondence bother him? Because, he explains, the rest of stories about Sophia and Judas do not match. Sophia repents while Judas does not. So, Irenaeus concludes, Judas cannot be a type of Sophia. But the lack of correspondence on the issue of repentance did not appear to bother the Valentinians who thought another story corresponded to Sophia’s repentance. It was the woman who suffered with the flow of blood for twelve years, not Judas, who was used by the Valentinians as a correspondence of repentance, a correspondence that Origen confirms when he says that the Valentinians thought the hemorrhaging woman symbolized Prounicos, while never mentioning Judas [Origen c. Cel.. 2.35].

This point appears to have been well-known since Celsus [is said to] speak of it as well [Origen c. Cel.. 2.35]. The repentance of the wanton Sophia was correlated with the woman’s turn to touch Jesus’ garment and receive healing. Irenaeus explains that the Valentinians think that the woman who was sick for twelve years corresponds with Sophia who was stretching to touch the garment of the Son, the hem, to stay her dissolution. She was stopped by Horos, the power that went forth from the Son, healed by him and so she ceased to suffer any more [Iren. Adv haer.. 1.3.3; 2.20.1—2.21.1].

Irenaeus goes on to critique further the correspondence between Judas and Sophia. His words put me in mind of the tradition about Judas as the “thirteenth” apostle in the Gospel of Judas. In order to argue against the Valentinian teaching, he says that Judas is not the twelfth apostle, but was cast out of that seat and replaced by Matthias. Because he was expelled from the twelfth number, he cannot correspond with the twelfth Aeon Sophia, but is an extra apostle outside of the Pleroma. Although Irenaeus does not use the number thirteen to describe Judas, knowledge of this tradition appears to me to be the basis for his correction of this Valentinian doctrine. He goes on to argue that Sophia is the thirtieth aeon, not the twelfth, humoring himself further with the numbers game. He even goes so far as to suggest that Matthias and Judas might align with the upper and lower Sophias, but he disregards this idea because he says that Sophia is in actuality three: the restored aeon, her reasonable self, and her suffering self [Iren. Adv haer.. 2.20.4—5]. [pp.271-3]


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Re: the Cosmic Pole #1

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MrMacSon wrote: Sat May 21, 2022 7:27 pm
'Apostles as Archons: The Fight for Authority and the Emergence of Gnosticism in the Tchacos Codex and Other Early Christian Literature', pp.243ff:


... Ignatius of Antioch [in] Ephesians about this same cosmic restructuring...states that at Jesus’ birth “a star in the heaven shone more brightly than all the others.” This new star is described as the cosmic pole ... “all the other stars with the sun and the moon gathered around that star in chorus” ...

What we have here is a commonly held Christian belief that the Christ event broke down the old cosmic structures and replaced them with new structures that allow for liberation. Quite literally, Jesus is a new star that the cosmos now revolves around. The Zodiacal signs are the twelve Apostles arrayed around him, replacing the evil Archons who have up until that time controlled human Fate. As such, Jesus replaces the old cosmic pole, becoming the new route for the soul and spirit to escape this world. The new pole corresponds to 'the Cross' which Jesus uses to carry the saved “on his shoulders” into the Pleroma [Clem. Exc. 42.1—3]. Once the initiate undergoes baptism, Christ becomes their new path of salvation, saving both the Elect (the Valentinians) and the Called [Clem. Exc. 53.1—2].

Christians literally are transferred from the lower regions of the earth up the cosmic pole to the Pleroma. Thus Ephesians 4:9–10 ... “He who ascended also descended. That he ascended, what does it imply but that he descended? He it is who descended into the lower parts of the earth and ascended above the heavens” [Clem. Exc. 43.5].



Further on in the article, -


Pistis Sophia

A fourth century text, the Pistis Sophia, represents the height of Gnostic speculation about cosmic correspondences. The text is dependent on
the late third century Books of Jeu, and together they appear to comprise a formulaic compendium of Gnosis. The cosmology assumed by
these books is not that of a single school of Gnosis, but rather an eclectic blend of Sethian, Valentinian, and Manichaean teachings ... that appears to represent a sort of standardization of Gnostic thought in the fourth century.

The Thirteenth Aeon

The God-world in Pistis Sophia is called the “Treasury of Light.” Below this is the thirteenth Aeon, a divine world of twenty-four invisible emanations, with Authades, a disobedient Aeon, in charge. Pistis Sophia is one of these emanations. At some point, she decides to cease performing the “mystery of the thirteenth Aeon,” and instead turns to worship the light shining from the Treasury above the thirteenth Aeon ...
.. < . . snip . . >
Pistis Sophia directs a series of repentant prayers to the Treasury of Light, and eventually Jesus emerges to save her and other souls trapped in Ialdabaoth-Adamas’ cosmic system. He does this by physically moving Pistis Sophia to a place at the top of the twelfth cosmic realm, but below the thirteenth middle or in-between aeon. This upper edge of the twelfth realm is identified as the place where the decans are located. She is safe here from further assault by the archons who reside spatially below her. Jesus leaves her in this upper region until he can take her to her place in the height at the end of time.

Twelve Powers as Souls of the Apostles

Jesus’ own movement down into Chaos, and his subsequent death and resurrection, completely restructure the cosmos. As he descends, he brings with him twelve powers that he took from the twelve Saviors in the Treasury of Light. Jesus, as the angel Gabriel, cast these powers into the wombs of the apostles’ mothers. This means that his twelve apostles do not have souls created by the archons, but instead have powers from the Light Treasury [Psalm 1:8]. He claims to have done this so that the twelve can serve the entire world and are able to withstand the threat of the Archons, the sufferings and dangers of the world, and the persecutions which the Archons will bring upon them [Psalm 1:7].

As part of the cosmic restructuring, Jesus says that the twelve disciples will be installed as the new Zodiac. He explains that they will sit on twelve powers of light until all the ranks of the twelve saviors have been set up at their places of inheritance [Psalm 1:50]. This Zodiac installation appears to be temporary, until the end of time when Jesus will take the apostles to the place of their inheritance, where they will be set up as rulers over their own emanations in Jesus’ Kingdom [Psalm 2:86]. James is singled out. He corresponds with the “first” in this new Kingdom. Because he will be called “first” among all the invisible ones and gods in the twelfth and thirteenth realms, he appears to correlate with the evil Authades, but as his positive replacement, or counterpoint correspondence [Psalm 1:52].

Jesus’ death is understood as the moment when the old axis mundi was replaced. Jesus is installed as the new cosmic pole, a great beam of light that reaches from the very depth of the earth up through the heavens. As he was dying on 'the cross,' he ascends the pole and shakes up all the Powers, shaking even the earth [Psalm 1:3]. Then Jesus turns the Zodiac and the planets into new positions so that the Archons are disoriented and the astrologers cannot read the skies [[Psalm 1:18]. The Archons become confused, wandering around the skies in error, unable to understand the new cosmic orientation or their own paths in the sphere [Psalm 1:21].

Why has Jesus done this? “I have turned their paths,” he says, “for the salvation of all souls. Really truly I say to you, unless I had turned their paths, a multitude of souls would have been destroyed . . . Because of this, I have turned their paths so that they are confused and agitated, and give up the power which is in cosmic matter, which they make into souls, so that those who will be saved with all the power are purified quickly and ascend, and those who will not be saved are quickly dissolved” [Psalm 1:23].


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Re: disorientation of the archons

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MrMacSon wrote: Sat May 21, 2022 7:56 pm

... Jesus turns the Zodiac and the planets into new positions so that the Archons are disoriented and the astrologers cannot read the skies [Psalm 1:18]. The Archons become confused...unable to understand the new cosmic orientation or their own paths in the sphere [Psalm 1:21].

... ... Really truly I say to you . . . I have turned their paths so that they are confused and agitated, and give up the power which is in cosmic matter, which they make into souls ... [Psalm 1:23].


This brings to mind the accounts of the post-resurrection events in the canonical gospels
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Re: the Cosmic Pole #2

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Previously in her article, DeConick stated


The identification of the archons with the planets, the Zodiacal signs, and various degrees of the Zodiac meant that powers opposing the supreme high God controlled not only what happened on earth, but what happened to the fallen spirit. Although there are many renditions in the Gnostic literature about how this happened in terms of agents, the baseline story is that the otherworldly spirit sinks into denser and denser cosmic materials, until it lodges within a human soul and body. This process was understood as a descent of the spirit through the cosmic realms through various Zodiac gates or along the cosmic pole, the axis mundi. As the spirit sank, it literally passed through various constellations and planets, receiving along the way, the psychic or soul inclinations of each of these beings.

This speculation was assumed knowledge typical of Middle Platonic thought. Philosophers such as Numenius taught that as the psyche descended from the upper sphere of the fixed stars, it passed through certain star gates into the lower planetary spheres where certain faculties accumulated in the soul.* Some of these faculties were positive while others were negative ... [p.247]

* On this see Porphyry, Antr. nymph. 70.21–24.

The way that the universe and the human being were designed by the archons means that the spirit is entrapped in the material world. This continues to be so even after death. Upon the death of the body, the soul is seized by a particular archon who is the overseer and judge of souls. Since the soul, from the time of its incarnation until its release at death, is under the influence of the demonic archons, it cannot live piously. It is unable to transform its negative psychic aspects.

So it remains impossible for it to gain its freedom and ascend back up the cosmic pole or through the star gates. Nor can it know about the existence of the supreme God, or how to worship that God since it is satiated or asleep, sedated by matter. Since the negative psychic aspects cannot be sloughed off , this also means that, upon the death of the body, the overseer archon is justified to put the soul back into another human body. Over the centuries, the spirit within the soul sinks deeper and deeper into matter. It becomes unconscious, buried alive in a tomb it can never leave.

It is only a divine action external to this cosmic system that can alter this situation. So Gnostic systems rely on the descent of redeemer gods into the universe to save the spirit.

The most powerful redeemer god in the Gnostic Christian systems is Jesus, whose advent and death result in a physical restructuring of the cosmos. The story of his birth star allowed for the theory to take root that a new star was born which replaced the old axis mundi, a bright day star around which the cosmos now revolved.

The death of Jesus was interpreted through Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 2:6–8, Ephesians 6:12, and Colossians 2:14–15, as the vanquishing of the cosmic powers. Jesus’ crucifixion was their own. This meant, for Christians, that the cosmic archons and powers no longer controlled their fate, but Jesus did. After death, their souls would be able to ascend from Hades up through the cosmos along the axis mundi, unhindered by the archons. John 10:7, “I am the door,” became a literal reality. The saved would enter the Pleroma through a new door that had opened up out of the heavens—Jesus himself.
...< . . snip . . >
... What must have been a widely circulating tradition—that the twelve apostles stood in for the Zodiac—is preserved in the Homilies: “The Lord had twelve apostles, bearing the number of the twelve months of the sun” [Hom 2:23] This sort of speculation may be as early as the first century in Christianity, and occurred as well in Judaism.32 The book of Revelation may be our earliest Christian reference to this correspondence when it describes Jerusalem as it descends down through the heavens. Upon the twelve “foundations” of the outer wall encircling the city are inscribed the twelve names of the apostles [Rev 21:10-14]

32 On the Zodiac in Judaism, see Esth. Rabba 7.11; Num. Rabba 14.18; Pesiq. Rab. 20, 27–28; Sukenik 1934, 33–35; Dothan 1962, 153–154; Kraeling 1956, 42; Charlesworth 1977, 183–200.


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Re: the cosmic polos/πόλος (or axis) #3

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From
Franklin Trammell, 'The God of Jerusalem as the Pole Dragon: The Conceptual Background of the Cosmic Axis in James'

in The Codex Judas Papers: Proceedings of the International Congress on the Tchacos Codex held at Rice University, Houston, Texas, March 13–16, 2008, April DeConick, ed., Brill, 2009, p.337f.


With the discovery of the Tchacos Codex, we now have another version of the 1 Apocalypse of James which, unlike the extant Nag Hammadi text, makes mention of the πόλος, or cosmic axis. The reference occurs during a discussion of James and Jesus with regard to the number of the rulers of the cosmos and the seventy-two inferior heavens. The passage reads:
  • ⲛⲉⲧⲛⲁⲁⲩ [ⲇⲉ] ⲉⲣⲟⲟⲩ ⲛⲉ ϭⲟⲙ ⲉⲧⲙⲡ[ϣ]ωΪ ⲛⲁΪ ⲉⲧⲉⲣⲉ ⲡⲡⲟⲗⲟⲥ ⲧⲏⲣ[>>]> [ⲱϩ]ϵ͞ ⲣⲁⲧ Ϩ͞͞Ιⲧⲟⲟⲧⲟⲩ: “[But] those who are greater than they [the seventy-two lower heavens] are the powers who are above, those through which the whole axis (of the universe) stands.”
    [see screenshot below for the full Coptic]
These superior ruling powers that are over the seventy-two inferior heavens are the twelve archons, as the Nag Hammadi version makes clear:
  • ⲁⲩ ⲱϩⲉ ⲉⲣⲁⲧⲟⲩ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ Ϩ͞͞Ιⲧⲟⲟⲧⲟⲩ ⲁⲩⲱ ⲛⲁΪ ⲛⲉ ⲛⲏ ⲉⲧⲁⲩⲡⲱϣ ϩⲙ ⲙⲁ ⲛⲓⲙ ⲉⲩϣⲟⲟⲡ ϩⲁ ⲧⲉ[ⲝⲟⲩⲥⲓ]ⲁ ⲡⲓⲙⲧⲥⲛⲟⲟⲩⲥ ⲁⲣⲭⲱⲛ: “They [the seventy-two] were established by them [the twelve], and they have been divided in every place, existing under the authority of the twelve archons.”
    [see screenshot below for the full Coptic]
According to this new passage on the polos found in the Tchacos Codex, then, the central axis around which the sphere of the cosmos revolves is established by the twelve archons.

Upon inspection of the text, it is apparent that the author of the Tchacos version of James utilizes a perceived astrological relationship between the polos and the twelve constellations of the zodiac and negatively identifies the twelve apostles with the twelve zodiacal powers. Additionally, Wolf-Peter Funk has noted that the reference to the seventy-two ‘twin partners’ in James connects them with the seventy (two) ‘lesser disciples’ who are sent out in Luke 10:1 two by two.

In this way the seventy-two represent an extension of the twelve. This correspondence, however, is part of a larger structure underlying James. Implicit to this structure is the equation of the “God who dwells in Jerusalem” with a dragon or serpent whose powers make up the cosmos. This dragon is crucified to the polos by Jesus and his archons are restrained through the affliction of the sons of light.


The article ends


The tradition of the crucified pole dragon is not explicated fully by the author of James due to his more prominent agenda which is to identify the twelve zodiacal powers who establish the axis with the twelve disciples. This correspondence between the apostles and the zodiacal powers has been emphasized over the underlying structure of the Hebrew God as the pole dragon. The author’s negative correlation between the apostles and the zodiacal powers serves to attack the representatives of apostolic Christianity by making them the type of the twelve divinities of chaos. In so doing, the author is able to identify his contemporary apostolic opponents with the ruling powers who killed Jesus and James.

This correlation functions to reverse any positive associations being made between the twelve apostles and the signs of the zodiac in other Christian traditions. In the Tchacos version of James, it is the twelve archons, corresponding to the apostles, through which the axis of powers blocking the soul’s ascension is established. The author’s employment of the number seventy-two as a designation for the lesser apostles identifies them as subordinates of the twelve overseers of the serpentine Hebrew God, the ruler of the cosmos. This doctrine of vertical correspondence evinced in James is an essential component of astrological imagination.


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Re: the cosmic polos/πόλος (or axis) #3

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MrMacSon wrote: Sun May 22, 2022 12:30 am From
Franklin Trammell, 'The God of Jerusalem as the Pole Dragon: The Conceptual Background of the Cosmic Axis in James' in The Codex Judas Papers: Proceedings of the International Congress on the Tchacos Codex held at Rice University, Houston, Texas, March 13–16, 2008, April DeConick, ed., Brill, 2009, p.337f.


With the discovery of the Tchacos Codex, we now have another version of the 1 Apocalypse of James which, unlike the extant Nag Hammadi text, makes mention of the πόλος, or cosmic axis. The reference occurs during a discussion of James and Jesus with regard to the number of the rulers of the cosmos and the seventy-two inferior heavens. The passage reads:
  • ⲛⲉⲧⲛⲁⲁⲩ [ⲇⲉ] ⲉⲣⲟⲟⲩ ⲛⲉ ϭⲟⲙ ⲉⲧⲡ[ϣ] ⲛⲁ ⲉⲧⲉⲣⲉ ⲡⲟⲗⲟⲥ ⲧⲏⲣ[>>]> [ⲱϩ]ⲧ ⲧⲟⲟⲧⲟⲩ: “[But] those who are greater than they [the seventy-two lower heavens] are the powers who are above, those through which the whole axis (of the universe) stands.”
These superior ruling powers that are over the seventy-two inferior heavens are the twelve archons, as the Nag Hammadi version makes clear:
  • ⲁⲩ ⲱϩⲉ ⲉⲣⲁⲧⲟⲩ ⲉⲃⲟⲗ ⲧⲟⲟⲧⲟⲩ ⲁⲩⲱ ⲛⲁ ⲛⲉ ⲛⲏ ⲉⲧⲁⲩⲡⲱϣ ϩ ⲙⲁ ⲛⲓⲙ ⲉⲩϣⲟⲟⲡ ϩⲁ ⲧⲉ[ⲝⲟⲩⲥⲓ]ⲁ ⲡⲓⲙⲧⲥⲛⲟⲟⲩⲥ ⲁⲣⲭⲱⲛ: “They [the seventy-two] were established by them [the twelve], and they have been divided in every place, existing under the authority of the twelve archons.”
According to this new passage on the polos found in the Tchacos Codex, then, the central axis around which the sphere of the cosmos revolves is established by the twelve archons.

Upon inspection of the text, it is apparent that the author of the Tchacos version of James utilizes a perceived astrological relationship between the polos and the twelve constellations of the zodiac and negatively identifies the twelve apostles with the twelve zodiacal powers. Additionally, Wolf-Peter Funk has noted that the reference to the seventy-two ‘twin partners’ in James connects them with the seventy (two) ‘lesser disciples’ who are sent out in Luke 10:1 two by two.

In this way the seventy-two represent an extension of the twelve. This correspondence, however, is part of a larger structure underlying James. Implicit to this structure is the equation of the “God who dwells in Jerusalem” with a dragon or serpent whose powers make up the cosmos. This dragon is crucified to the polos by Jesus and his archons are restrained through the affliction of the sons of light.


The article ends


The tradition of the crucified pole dragon is not explicated fully by the author of James due to his more prominent agenda which is to identify the twelve zodiacal powers who establish the axis with the twelve disciples. This correspondence between the apostles and the zodiacal powers has been emphasized over the underlying structure of the Hebrew God as the pole dragon. The author’s negative correlation between the apostles and the zodiacal powers serves to attack the representatives of apostolic Christianity by making them the type of the twelve divinities of chaos. In so doing, the author is able to identify his contemporary apostolic opponents with the ruling powers who killed Jesus and James.

This correlation functions to reverse any positive associations being made between the twelve apostles and the signs of the zodiac in other Christian traditions. In the Tchacos version of James, it is the twelve archons, corresponding to the apostles, through which the axis of powers blocking the soul’s ascension is established. The author’s employment of the number seventy-two as a designation for the lesser apostles identifies them as subordinates of the twelve overseers of the serpentine Hebrew God, the ruler of the cosmos. This doctrine of vertical correspondence evinced in James is an essential component of astrological imagination.


Can you provide a screenshot of the Coptic Mac? This seems to be a really grand interpretation
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Re: the cosmic polos/πόλος (or axis) #3

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mlinssen wrote: Sun May 22, 2022 12:58 pm Can you provide a screenshot of the Coptic Mac? This seems to be a really grand interpretation
Sure

TrammellJamesPassagesTchacosCodex.PNG
TrammellJamesPassagesTchacosCodex.PNG (123.82 KiB) Viewed 1111 times
(that file-name should probably have Passage in the singular or PassagesTchacosAndNHL, but that's a very minor issue)
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Re: the cosmic polos/πόλος (or axis) #3

Post by mlinssen »

MrMacSon wrote: Sun May 22, 2022 5:19 pm
mlinssen wrote: Sun May 22, 2022 12:58 pm Can you provide a screenshot of the Coptic Mac? This seems to be a really grand interpretation
Sure


TrammellJamesPassagesTchacosCodex.PNG
(that file-name should probably have Passage in the singular or PassagesTchacosAndNHL, but that's a very minor issue)
Thanks! I only now noticed that this is DeConick - you can safely ignore all her work that handles Coptic, your knowledge of Coptic (and most certainly your general accuracy) is far greater than hers
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MrMacSon
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Re: the cosmic polos/πόλος (or axis) #3

Post by MrMacSon »

mlinssen wrote: Sun May 22, 2022 8:17 pm Thanks! I only now noticed that this is DeConick
That screenshot is from an article by Franklin Trammell (DeConick was the editor of the collated articles, though she also contributed an article herself, which I have quoted from above, and just now in another thread)
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Re: Aspects of Valentinianism and differentiation within it and from Sethianism

Post by MrMacSon »

Back to DeConick's article,
'Apostles as Archons: The Fight for Authority and the Emergence of Gnosticism in the Tchacos Codex and Other Early Christian Literature', pp.243ff,


p.275
First Apocalypse of James

The First Apocalypse of James contains within it some striking traditions about correspondences between the heavens and the earth. The
main point of the text is to reveal, through James the brother of Jesus, a secret death liturgy, a liturgy which both Irenaeus and Epiphanius
record was used by various groups of Valentinians to ensure that the soul would escape the grasp of the archons and properly ascend.

I understand this document to be Valentinian, mainly because the point of the text is to reveal, through a secret teaching to James, this Valentinian death liturgy. But in addition, the text assumes a Valentinian discussion of the nature of the primal Monad and its male and female polarities. It also uses Valentinian terminology such as “Achamoth” when referencing the fallen Sophia, and assumes distinct Valentinian doctrines such as the view that the ignorant demiurge treated the descending Son well, like his own son. Even the reference to the demiurge as “the Just God” is a Valentinian attribute.

The text encourages the believer to endure persecution (likely at the hands of other Christians) and even martyrdom. The one Valentinian who appears to have addressed the issue of martyrdom was Heracleon, and he writes that confession can happen either “in faith and conduct” or “with the mouth.” Since not everyone is brought “before authorities” to confess “with the mouth,” it is not a universal route to salvation like “works and action.” Heracleon’s teaching does not appear to me to condemn martyrdom, but to support it. So I think James tells us what Valentinianism looked like in the third century as it became more eclectic while still retaining distinctive Valentinian features.


p.276 (second half only):
DeConickApostlesAsArchons276.PNG
DeConickApostlesAsArchons276.PNG (228.06 KiB) Viewed 1078 times
DeConickApostlesAsArchons277.PNG
DeConickApostlesAsArchons277.PNG (344.61 KiB) Viewed 1078 times

p. 278:

The meaning of Jesus’ esoteric teaching [in James] is clear. The twelve disciples are “types” of the twelve archons and their heavens, while the seventy-two twin partners refer to the seventy(-two) lesser disciples sent out two-by-two according to Luke 10:1. These lesser disciples of the church correspond astrologically to the seventy-two lesser heavens.

So in the end, the secret teaching of James is that there are twelve archons who correspond to the twelve Zodical signs of the Zodiac, in which seventy-two powers—the ruling decans and horoscopes—reside. These powers are armed forces, who pursue Jesus and fight against him.

This multitude of powers is further aligned with the people in Jerusalem who plot against Jesus and arrest him, a fate and enemy that James also will face. Among them are the twelve archons who correspond with the twelve disciples, whose forgetfulness and ignorance Jesus came to rebuke, and the seventy-two lesser disciples who were sent out to preach. For the salvation of the faithful, Jesus came to rebuke the archons and to overpower each of them. And this is exactly what Jesus does. After he has revealed his full teaching to James, Jesus immediately rebukes the twelve disciples who are with him.


[continues next post]
Last edited by MrMacSon on Tue May 24, 2022 12:29 am, edited 3 times in total.
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