Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter XI.—The opinions of Valentinus, with those of his disciples and others. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter XI.—The opinions of
Valentinus, with those of his disciples and others.
1. Let us now
look at the inconsistent opinions of those heretics (for there are some
two or three of them), how they do not agree in treating the same points,
but alike, in things and names, set forth opinions mutually discordant.
The first2799
2799 That is, the
first of the two or three here referred to, not the first of the Gnostic
teachers, as some have imagined. [The Gnosticism of one age may be
essentially the same in spirit as the Agnosticism of another.]
| of them, Valentinus, who adapted the principles of the heresy
called “Gnostic” to the peculiar character of his own school,
taught as follows: He
maintained that there is a certain Dyad (twofold being), who is
inexpressible by any name, of whom one part should be called Arrhetus
(unspeakable), and the other Sige (silence). But of this Dyad a second
was produced, one part of whom he names Pater, and the other Aletheia.
From this Tetrad, again, arose Logos and Zoe, Anthropos and Ecclesia.
These constitute the primary Ogdoad. He next states that from Logos and
Zoe ten powers were produced, as we have before mentioned. But from
Anthropos and Ecclesia proceeded twelve, one of which separating from the
rest, and falling from its original condition, produced the rest2800
2800 Viz., all outside of the
Pleroma. | of the universe. He also supposed two beings of the
name of Horos, the one of whom has his place between Bythus and the rest
of the Pleroma, and divides the created Æons from the uncreated Father,
while the other separates their mother from the Pleroma. Christ also was
not produced from the Æons within the Pleroma, but was brought forth by
the mother who had been excluded from it, in virtue of her remembrance of
better things, but not without a kind of shadow. He, indeed, as being
masculine, having severed the shadow from himself, returned to the
Pleroma; but his mother being left with the shadow, and deprived of her
spiritual substance, brought forth another son, namely, the Demiurge,
whom he also styles the supreme ruler of all those things which are
subject to him. He also asserts that, along with the Demiurge, there was
produced a left-hand power, in which particular he agrees with those
falsely called Gnostics, of whom to we have yet to speak. Sometimes,
again, he maintains that Jesus was produced from him who was separated
from their mother, and united to the rest, that is, from Theletus,
sometimes as springing from him who returned into the Pleroma, that is,
from Christ; and at other times still as derived from Anthropos and
Ecclesia. And he declares that the Holy Spirit was produced by
Aletheia2801
2801 Corrected from
Ecclesia in the text. | for the inspection and
fructification of the Æons, by entering invisibly into them, and that,
in this way, the Æons brought forth the plants of truth.
2. Secundus again affirms that the primary Ogdoad
consists of a right hand and a left hand Tetrad, and teaches that the one
of these is called light, and the other darkness. But he maintains that
the power which separated from the rest, and fell away, did not proceed
directly from the thirty Æons, but from their fruits.
3. There is another,2802
2802 Some have supposed that the name of this teacher was
Epiphanes, and that the old Latin mistakenly translates this by
clarus; others think that Colorbasus is the teacher in
question. | who is a renowned teacher among them, and who,
struggling to reach something more sublime, and to attain to a kind of
higher knowledge, has explained the primary Tetrad as follows: There is [he says] a certain Proarche who existed
before all things, surpassing all thought, speech, and nomenclature, whom
I call Monotes (unity). Together with this Monotes there exists a power,
which again I term Henotes (oneness). This
Henotes and Monotes, being one, produced, yet not so as to bring forth
[apart from themselves, as an emanation] the beginning of all things, an
intelligent, unbegotten, and invisible being, which beginning language
terms “Monad.” With this Monad there co-exists a power of the
same essence, which again I term Hen (One). These powers then—
Monotes, and Henotes, and Monas, and Hen—produced the remaining
company of the Æons.
4. Iu,
Iu! Pheu, Pheu!—for well may we utter these tragic exclamations
at such a pitch of audacity in the coining of names as he has displayed
without a blush, in devising a nomenclature for his system of falsehood.
For when he declares: There is a certain Proarche before all things,
surpassing all thought, whom I call Monotes; and again, with this Monotes
there co-exists a power which I also call Henotes,—it is most
manifest that he confesses the things which have been said to be his own
invention, and that he himself has given names to his scheme of things,
which had never been previously suggested by any other. It is manifest
also, that he himself is the one who has had sufficient audacity to coin
these names; so that, unless he had appeared in the world, the
truth would still have been destitute of a name. But, in that case,
nothing hinders any other, in dealing with the same subject, to affix
names after such a fashion as the following: There2803
2803 The Greek text is wanting till the end of
this section. | is a certain Proarche, royal, surpassing all
thought, a power existing before every other substance, and extended into
space in every direction. But along with it there exists a power which I
term a Gourd; and along
with this Gourd there exists
a power which again I term Utter-Emptiness. This Gourd and
Emptiness, since they are one, produced (and yet did not simply produce,
so as to be apart from themselves) a fruit, everywhere visible, eatable,
and delicious, which fruit-language calls a Cucumber. Along with
this Cucumber exists a power of the same essence, which again I call a
Melon. These powers, the Gourd, Utter-Emptiness, the Cucumber, and
the Melon, brought forth the remaining multitude of the delirious melons
of Valentinus.2804
2804
[1 Kings xviii. 27. “It came to pass that
Elijah mocked them,” etc. This reductio ad absurdum of our
author is singularly applicable to certain forms of what is called
“Modern Thought.”] | For if it is fitting that that
language which is used respecting the universe be transformed to the
primary Tetrad, and if any one may assign names at his pleasure, who
shall prevent us from adopting these names, as being much more credible
[than the others], as well as in general use, and understood by all?
5. Others still, however, have called their primary and
first-begotten Ogdoad by the following names: first, Proarche; then Anennoetos;
thirdly, Arrhetos; and fourthly, Aoratos. Then, from the first, Proarche,
there was produced, in the first and fifth place, Arche; from Anennoetos,
in the second and sixth place, Acataleptos; from Arrhetos, in the third
and seventh place, Anonomastos; and from Aoratos, in the fourth and
eighth place, Agennetos. This is the Pleroma of the first Ogdoad. They
maintain that these powers were anterior to Bythus and Sige, that they
may appear more perfect than the perfect, and more knowing than the very
Gnostics! To these persons one may justly exclaim: “O ye trifling
sophists!” since, even respecting Bythus himself, there are among
them many and discordant opinions. For some declare him to be without a
consort, and neither male nor female, and, in fact, nothing at all; while
others affirm him to be masculo-feminine, assigning to him the nature of
a hermaphrodite; others, again, allot Sige to him as a spouse, that thus
may be formed the first conjunction.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|