The Spiritual Seed the Church of the 'Valentinians'

565 Pages·2005·2.816 MB·English

by  Einar Thomassen

The Spiritual Seed
Einar Thomassen - 978-90-47-41716-3
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Nag Hammadi and
Manichaean Studies
Editors
Stephen Emmel & Johannes van Oort
Editorial Board
H.W. Attridge – R. Cameron – W.-P. Funk
I. Gardner – C.W. Hedrick – S.N.C. Lieu
P. Nagel – D.M. Parrott – B.A. Pearson
S.G. Richter – J.M. Robinson – K. Rudolph
W. Sundermann – G. Wurst
VOLUME 60
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The Spiritual Seed
The Church of the “Valentinians”
by
Einar Thomassen
BRILL
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2006
Einar Thomassen - 978-90-47-41716-3
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thomassen, Einar.
The spiritual seed : the church of the “Valentinians” / by Einar Thomassen.
p. cm.—(Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies, ISSN 0929-2470; v. 60)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 90-04-14802-7 (alk. paper)
1. Valentinians. 2. Gnosticism. 3. Gnostic literature. 4. Valentians—Rituals.
I. Title. II. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean studies; 60.
BT1475.T46 2006
299’.932—dc22 2005054253
ISSN 0929-2470
ISBN 90 04 14802 7
© Copyright 2006 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior
written permission from the publisher.
Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill
provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance
Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA.
Fees are subject to change.
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CONTENTS
Abbreviations .............................................................................. xv
Introduction ................................................................................ 1
PART I
VALENTINIANISM EAST AND WEST
Chapter One: The Valentinians of Irenaeus ........................ 9
The structure of Book I ........................................................ 11
Inconsistencies in the presentation of “the Valentinians” .... 13
The two meanings of “the Valentinians” ........................ 13
Unity and diversity of “the Valentinians” ...................... 15
The “Valentinians” and the “Ptolemaeans” .................... 17
The conflicting reports on the “Ptolemaeans” ................ 20
Conclusions ............................................................................ 22
Chapter Two: “Valentinus” in Iren. Haer. I 11:1 ................ 23
Chapter Three: The doctrine of Theodotus ........................ 28
The spiritual body of the Saviour ........................................ 30
The Saviour himself needed redemption ............................ 31
Christ as Sophia’s son .......................................................... 34
The suffering of the deity (?) ................................................ 37
Chapter Four: The two “schools” .......................................... 39
Tertullian’s testimony ............................................................ 39
Hippolytus’ testimony ............................................................ 40
Valentinus on the Saviour’s body ........................................ 41
What is the Saviour’s body? ................................................ 41
The inaccuracy of Hippolytus .............................................. 43
Chapter Five: The soteriology of The Tripartite Tractate ........ 46
The incarnation ...................................................................... 47
The heavenly and the earthly church .................................. 50
The dialectics of mutual participation ................................ 52
Conclusion .............................................................................. 57
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vi contents
Chapter Six: The soteriology of Irenaeus’ system ................ 59
Chapter Seven: The soteriology of Exc. 43:2–65 ................ 62
The advent of the Saviour and the composition of
his body .............................................................................. 62
Inconsistencies in the soteriological status of the
spirituals .............................................................................. 64
Explanation of these inconsistencies .................................... 68
Chapter Eight: The soteriology of Iren. Haer. I 7:2 ............ 73
Chapter Nine: The soteriology of Hipp. Haer. VI 29–36 .. 77
Chapter Ten: Provisional conclusions .................................... 81
Chapter Eleven: Eastern soteriologies: The Treatise on
Resurrection ................................................................................ 83
Chapter Twelve: Eastern soteriologies: The Interpretation of
Knowledge .................................................................................. 86
Chapter Thirteen: Eastern soteriologies: The Gospel of Philip 90
The conception and composition of the Saviour ................ 90
The ritual context of the generation of the Saviour’s
body .................................................................................... 93
Conclusion .............................................................................. 102
Chapter Fourteen: The soteriology of Heracleon ................ 103
Heracleon’s commentary on John 2:12–22 ........................ 104
The descent into matter ........................................................ 108
The Saviour came to redeem the spirituals ........................ 112
The absence of a pre-existent church as the body of the
Saviour ................................................................................ 115
The position of Heracleon .................................................... 118
Chapter Fifteen: The position of Ptolemy ............................ 119
The Letter to Flora .................................................................. 119
The position of the Demiurge .............................................. 120
Ptolemy’s system .................................................................... 121
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contents vii
The Saviour as demiurge .................................................. 122
A psychic Christ? .............................................................. 124
A soteriology of mutual participation? ............................ 127
Conclusion .............................................................................. 128
PART II
THE THREE DIMENSIONS OF VALENTINIANISM
Chapter Sixteen: Salvation in history and ritual .................. 133
The soteriological contrast pattern ...................................... 134
The parallelism of salvation history and baptism .............. 135
The Saviour as agent and model of salvation .................... 137
Event and symbol .............................................................. 138
Result 1: Ambiguity in the narrative .............................. 139
Result 2: Ambiguity in the ritual .................................... 140
Resolving the ambiguities: The power of the “Name” ...... 141
The saved Saviour ................................................................ 143
Chapter Seventeen: Salvation in history and protological
myth ........................................................................................ 146
The Gospel of Truth .................................................................. 146
History and protology ............................................................ 148
The revelation of the book of names .................................. 150
The function of the Saviour ................................................ 152
From history to protology .................................................... 155
The protological mediator .................................................... 158
The unity and difference of Father, Son, and aeons ........ 161
Concluding remarks .............................................................. 163
Chapter Eighteen: Protology, salvation history, and ritual .. 166
The Tripartite Tractate .............................................................. 166
Protology and the fall ........................................................ 166
The origins of matter and soul ........................................ 167
The origin of the spiritual church .................................... 167
Cosmogony ........................................................................ 167
Anthropogony and human history .................................. 168
The incarnation .................................................................. 169
Eschatology ........................................................................ 169
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viii contents
History and ritual .................................................................. 169
The Saviour as agent and model of salvation ................ 169
From the redeeming and redeemed Saviour, to the
redeeming and redeemed church ................................ 172
A shifted focus .................................................................... 177
Protology and ritual .............................................................. 178
Protology, salvation history, ritual ........................................ 182
Protology as salvation history ............................................ 182
Protology and restoration: Conflicting soteriologies ........ 184
Protology and incarnation ................................................ 186
Chapter Nineteen: Conclusion to Part II .............................. 188
PART III
VALENTINIAN PROTOLOGY
Chapter Twenty: The pleromatology .................................... 193
The two main types .............................................................. 193
Iren. Haer. I 1–3 .................................................................... 195
From Father and Son to Tetrad ...................................... 196
The deferral of duality ...................................................... 198
The rupture ........................................................................ 198
Hipp. Haer. VI 29:2–30:5 ...................................................... 200
Iren. Haer. I 11:1 .................................................................. 204
Iren. Haer. I 11:2 .................................................................. 205
Iren. Haer. I 11:3 .................................................................. 206
Iren. Haer. I 11:5 .................................................................. 207
Iren. Haer. I 12:1 .................................................................. 208
Iren. Haer. I 12:3 .................................................................. 209
Exc. 6–7:3 ................................................................................ 211
Iren. Haer. I 8:5 .................................................................... 213
Epiph. Pan. XXXI 5–6 ........................................................ 218
The epistolary introduction .............................................. 218
First principles: A redacted text ...................................... 219
The generation of the Ogdoad ........................................ 222
The Duodecad and the Decad ........................................ 224
A self-contained protology ................................................ 227
A Valentinian Exposition ............................................................ 231
The structure of the Pleroma .......................................... 231
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contents ix
First principles .................................................................... 233
The generation of the Son .............................................. 234
A second version of the protology .................................. 235
Combination of the two versions .................................... 236
The Limit .......................................................................... 238
A discrepancy in the protological account ...................... 240
Iren. Haer. I 14 (The Sige of Marcus) .................................. 241
Being as text ...................................................................... 241
The plurality in the Name ................................................ 244
Chapter Twenty-One: The myth of separation and
restoration .............................................................................. 248
Systems with one Sophia ...................................................... 248
The Tripartite Tractate .......................................................... 248
Iren. Haer. I 11:1 .............................................................. 251
Exc. 23:2, 32–33 (Theodotus) ............................................ 253
A Valentinian Exposition ........................................................ 255
Systems with two Sophias .................................................... 257
The two Sophias ................................................................ 257
Sophia and Christ .............................................................. 258
The Sige of Marcus ............................................................ 261
Chapter Twenty-Two: Chronology of the protologies ........ 263
The priority of type A over type B .................................... 263
Type B systems with one Sophia ........................................ 266
Chapter Twenty-Three: The meaning and origins of
Valentinian protology ............................................................ 269
Valentinian protology as Neopythagorean physics .............. 270
Moderatus and Irenaeus’ system on the origin of
matter .............................................................................. 271
“Extension,” “spreading out,” “withdrawal,” and
“division” ........................................................................ 275
The Limit .......................................................................... 279
“Audacity,” “otherness,” “movement,” “independence” 283
“Passion” ............................................................................ 288
The origins of the type A protology .................................... 291
Attestations of the model .................................................. 292
A Neopythagorean source? ................................................ 293
Affinities with The Chaldean Oracles and later
Neoplatonism .................................................................. 295
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x contents
Relation to the Neoplatonic system of triads .................. 298
The embryological model ...................................................... 307
The formation of the Entirety in the Father’s womb .... 307
The background in ancient embryology .......................... 309
The theory of embryonic formation in other
Valentinian documents .................................................. 312
Protology and Soteriology ................................................ 313
Chapter Twenty-Four: The transformation of eschatology
to protology ............................................................................ 315
The manifestation of the saints ............................................ 315
The disclosure of the spirituals in the world .................. 316
The manifestation “from above” ...................................... 320
The manifestation of the Valentinian §kklhs¤a .............. 323
The union with the angels ................................................ 325
From eschatological to protological manifestation, and
their ritual actualisation .................................................... 326
PART IV
VALENTINIAN INITIATION
Chapter Twenty-Five: The evidence for Valentinian
initiation .................................................................................. 333
Exc. 66–86 .............................................................................. 333
Immersion in water ............................................................ 333
“Sealing” ............................................................................ 333
Anointing ............................................................................ 335
Sacred meal ........................................................................ 336
Consecration of water, bread and oil .............................. 336
Renunciation ...................................................................... 337
Catechesis ............................................................................ 337
Preparatory discipline ........................................................ 338
The limitations of the evidence ........................................ 339
Conclusions ........................................................................ 340
The Gospel of Philip .................................................................. 341
Two patterns ...................................................................... 341
Anointing is superior to water baptism .......................... 342
Status of the eucharist ...................................................... 344
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