Valentinus
Home > Gnostics > Valentinus Valentinus At a Glance Treatise Genre: (3/5) *** Reliability of Dating: (3/5) *** Length of Text: Greek Original Language: Ancient Translations: Modern Translations: Estimated Range of Dating: 120-160 A.D. Chronological List of Early Christian Writings Discuss this text on the Early Writings forum. Text Valentinus's Myth according to Irenaeus The Divine Word Present in the Infant On the Three Natures Adam's Faculty of Speech Adam's Name Jesus' Digestive System (Epistle to Agathopous) Annihilation of the Realm of Death The Source of Common Wisdom (On Friends) The Vision of God (Epistle on Attachments) Summer Harvest Gospel of Truth by Valentinus or a Valentinian Gnostic.
Resources Wace: Valentinus Catholic Encyclopedia: Valentinus and Valentinians The Threefold Nature of a Lost Valentinian Text Offsite Links Valentinus and the Valentinian Tradition Valentinus - A Gnostic for All Seasons Glenn Davis: Valentinus and the Valentinians Esoteric Temple Traditions and Valentinian Worship: Abstract of April D. De Conick The Invisible Basilica: Valentinus Bill Craig: From Easter to Valentinus Clyde Curry Smith: Valentinus The Columbia Encyclopedia: Valentinus 1911 Encyclopedia: Valentinus and Valentinians Books Bentley Layton, The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation With Annotations and Introductions (Doubleday 1987) Recommended Books for the Study of Early Christian Writings Information on Valentinus Bentley Layton writes (The Gnostic Scriptures, p.
217): Valentinus (A.D. ca. 100-ca. 175) was born in the Egyptian Delta, at Phrenobis (see Map 4). He enjoyed the good fortune of a Greek education in the nearby metropolis of Alexandria, the world capital of Hellenistic culture. In Alexandria he probably met the Christian philosopher Basilides (see Part Five), who was teaching there, and may have been influenced by him. There, too, he must have made the acquiantance of Greek philosophy. Valentinus's familiarity with Platonism may have come to him through study of Hellenistic Jewish interpretation of the bible, for in a passage of one of his sermons he seems to show knowledge of a work by the great Alexandrian Jewish allegorist and philosopher Philo Judaeus (ca.
30 B.C.-A.D. ca. 45). [GTr 36:35f may use the allegory of Gn 2:8 found in Philo Judaeus, "Questions and Anwswers on Genesis" 1.6.] Valentinus's distinguished career as a teacher began in Alexandria, sometime between A.D. 117 and 138. Since most of the Fragments of his works (VFr) were preserved by a second-century Christian intellectual in Alexandria, Valentinus may have written and published in Alexandria while he was teaching there. If so, his considerable expertise in rhetorical composition, which is evident in these Fragments, must have been acquired while he was studying in Alexandria. Valentinus's followers in Alexandria later reported that he had claimed a kind of apostolic sanction for his teaching by maintaining that he had received lessons in Christian religion from a certain Theudas, whohe said had been a student of St.
Paul. If there is any truth in this claim, his contact with Theudas and his reading of St. Paul may have occurred in Alexandria. J. Quasten writes (Patrology, v. 1, p. 260): By far more important than Basilides and his son Isidore was their contemporary Valentinus. Irenaeus (Adv. Haer. 3,4,3) states of him: 'Valentinus came to Rome in the time of Hyginus (ca. 136 to 140 A.D.), flourished under Pius (ca. 150 to 155) and remained until Anicetus' (ca. 155 to 160). Epiphanius (Haer. 31,7 to 12) is the first who reports that he was born in Egypt, educated in Alexandria, and that he spread his doctrine in Egypt before he went to Rome. Epiphanius adds that he later left Rome for Cyprus. Clement of Alexandria has six fragments of his writings incorporated into his Stromata: two of them are from his letters, two from his homilies, and two of them do not give any indication from which of his writings they are taken.