Refutation of All Heresies, Vol. 2

Pythagorean and Platonic foundation. For Plato in the Timaeus modeled himself entirely on Pythagoras, as is seen...

This page contains an analysis of Valentinus’s system. It notes that he is the first of the "heretics" whose thought aligns more closely with modern European philosophical categories than the earlier, "unclean" imagery of Western Asian traditions. Valentinus populated the space between the Supreme Being and the Savior with a series of personified attributes, likely inspired by Zoroastrian Amshaspands (Archangels) or the Egyptian paut neteru (company of the gods).

Valentinus's view of the ignorance and folly of the Demiurge The creator god, often viewed as inferior or ignorant in Gnostic thought. seems to be taken directly from the Ophite teaching. Since he identifies this creator with the God of the Jews, it logically leads to the rejection of the Old Testament, except perhaps for the Psalms, Proverbs, and historical portions. He is as predestinarian as Calvin, assigning complete beatitude to the Pneumatics (Spirituals) only, while relegating the Psychics (Souled ones) to an inferior heaven and dooming the Hylics (Material ones) to complete destruction. Yet, the class to which each of us is assigned is not based on conduct, but on the discretion of Sophia, the Mother of all Living.

The most marked novelty in Valentinus's teaching is the cause of this partial salvation. It is not the fruit of God's love, but the final stage of a scheme for the reconstruction of the universe. First, the Pleroma (Fullness of the Godhead) is purified by separating from it the Ectroma (the abortion to which Sophia gave birth in her ignorance). Then, the Ectroma is freed from her passions by Christ and the Holy Spirit and made the Mother of Life. Finally, this material world—the creation of the God of the Jews—is to be purged by the mission of Jesus from the gross elements introduced by that God's clumsy ignorance. This theory is very different from the geocentric ideas of that era and approaches modern scientific hypotheses regarding the marginal place of humanity in the vast scheme of things.