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135 - Valentinian

Valentinus, a Greek-speaking Egyptian Gnostic philosopher, appeared in Rome as the propagator of an elaborate cosmological and soteriological system about 135, and may have continued to labor there with some intermissions until about 160. His system is far the most elaborate and was far the most popular of those developed in Egypt. He seems to have remained in nominal connection with the regular churches until after his departure from Rome.

His was the form of Gnosticism with which Irenaeus came into closest contact and which was the occasion of the writing of his great work against heresies. The philosophical basis of his system was identical with that of Basilides ; but he was not so care» ful as Basilides to insist on the original non-existence of God and everything. He starts out with Depth (Buthos) and Silence (Sige} as the eternal male and female principles. These project Mind and Truth, which in turn project Word and Life. These produce Man and Church (not the mundane). Rejoicing in their productivity, they produce and present to the Father ten aeons, a perfect number. Man and Church project twelve aeons, of which the last is Wisdom (Sophia).

This lowest aeon sought to emulate the Father by independently producing offspring. The result was an abortion, who ignorantly proceeded to create this world and to involve in matter a portion of the divine substance that he possessed. This Demiurge was identified with the God of the Jews, and the Old Testament Scriptures were regarded as inspired by him. Mind and Truth projected, thereupon, Christ and the Holy Spirit to restore Form, to destroy the abortion, and to comfort the sorrowing Sophia.

The work of redemption is to liberate the spiritual nature in man from the evil material existence and the passions by which it is enslaved and to facilitate its escape into the pleroma (divine fullness). For this purpose the thirty asons are supposed to have joined in projecting Jesus, the great High Priest, whose incarnation was only apparent, and whose task it was to restore Sophia and all of the spiritual substance that had become diffused and enslaved through the Demiurge.