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Valentinus
Litwa, Matthew
Litwa, Matthew
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Abstract
When Carpocrates and Basilides both flourished in Alexandria, a young theologian named Valentinus reportedly saw a vision. He beheld the Logos of God coming to him in the form of a newborn baby. Valentinus questioned the baby to find out who he was. Endowed with an eloquent tongue, the infant replied that he was the Logos, and related the substance of a “tragic tale.” There is an important parallel to this vision. When Christ first appeared to John in the Secret Book of John, he came as a child and told the apostle the mysteries of God, creation, and salvation. The child in the Secret Book suddenly becomes an old man and soon manifests himself as a tri-form being.2 It is nonetheless significant that both Valentinus and the author of the Secret Book depicted Christ as a child revealer. Was the author of the Secret Book “citing” the vision of Valentinus while taking it in a new direction? Or was Valentinus using a type scene known from the Secret Book and elsewhere? In this chapter, we will take a look at what Valentinus did and did not know about traditions later associated with Sethian, Saturninian, and Ophite Christianity based on his genuine fragments (apart from later Valentinian thought).
Keywords
theology, church history, Valentinus, Jesus Christ, God, Logos
Date
2022
Type
Book chapter
Journal
Book
Found Christianities : Remaking the World of the Second Century CE
Volume
Issue
Page Range
136
Article Number
ACU Department
Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry
Faculty of Theology and Philosophy
Faculty of Theology and Philosophy
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Open Access Status
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All rights reserved
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Controlled
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Copyright © M. David Litwa, 2022
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.