Valentinian Christianity Valentinian Christianity Texts and Translations Geoffrey S. Smith UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS University of California Press Oakland, California © 2020 by Geoffrey Smith Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Smith, Geoffrey S. (Geoffrey Stephen), 1983- translator, writer of introduction. | Container of (work): Valentinus, active 2nd century. Works. Selections. Title: Valentinian Christianity : texts and translations / Geoffrey S. Smith. Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers: lccn 2019016112 (print) | lccn 2019019840 (ebook) | isbn 9780520969803 (ebook) | isbn 9780520297463 (cloth : alk. paper) Subjects: lcsh: Valentinians—History—Sources. | Church history— Primitive and early church, ca. 30–600—Sources. | Gnostic literature. Classification: lcc bt1475 (ebook) | lcc bt1475 .v35 2019 (print) | ddc 273/.1—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019016112 Manufactured in the United States of America 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Funding for this volume was made possible by a research sabbatical in the fall of 2017, generously granted by the University of Texas at Austin, and ongoing support from the Institute for the Study of Antiquity and Christian Origins. For Marina contents Introduction: Valentinus and the Valentinian Tradition 1 Greek Texts I. Fragments of Valentinus 9 II. Ptolemy’s Letter to Flora 17 III. Fragments of Heracleon 31 IV. Excerpts of Theodotus 57 V. Anonymous Commentary on the Prologue of John 109 VI. Anonymous Letter 115 VII. Anonymous Commentary on Valentinus’s “Summer Harvest” 123 Coptic Texts VIII. Gospel of Truth 127 IX. Treatise on the Resurrection 155 X. Tripartite Tractate 165 XI. Gospel of Philip 255 XII. Valentinian Exposition 297 Inscription XIII. Flavia Sophe 309 Bibliographies 315 Indices 339 Introduction Valentinus and the Valentinian Tradition To tell the story of the Valentinians is to embrace a series of enigmas. Second- century Christians accused Valentinus of heresy, but only decades earlier, he nearly became one of the most prominent leaders within the Roman church; the Valen- tinians were among the first Christians to write commentaries on the Bible, but they were also frequently accused of not taking the Scriptures seriously; and by the third century Valentinians were active throughout the Mediterranean world, from Gaul to Syria, and as far south as Egypt, yet by the end of the following century they would all but disappear from the historical record. But fortunately for us, they did not disappear without leaving a trace. Several texts written by Valentinus and his followers have survived. Some have been known since antiquity, but many more surfaced in 1945, when they were unearthed just outside of the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi. This collection brings together for the first time all of the writings known to have been composed by the so-called Valentinians. VALENTINUS Little is known about Valentinus, the patriarch and namesake of the Valentinians. Around 135 c.e. Valentinus appears to have traveled from his homeland of Egypt,1 where he may have received a formal Greek education in Alexandria, to Rome. Valentinus took his place alongside many other enterprising teachers, including Hermas, Marcion, and Justin, provincials who traveled to the empire’s capital city to present their own understanding of the teachings of Jesus and carve out a niche 1. Epiph. Pan. 31.2.2–3. 1 2 Introduction within the ever-expanding network of semi-independent house churches.2 Valen- tinus’s writings survive only in excerpts embedded within the works of other authors. From these excerpts we learn that he offered instruction on a variety of topics, including cosmology,3 anthropogony,4 Christology,5 and spiritual formation,6 and that he found value in Jewish and Christian writings, as well as secular ones.7 On account of his teaching and literary activity, Valentinus became well known in Rome and beyond. Tertullian reports that at one point Valentinus was considered for a prominent leadership position in Rome but failed to get the job because the other candidate was respected as a confessor, one who had remained faithful to Christ in a time of persecution.8 Nothing certain is known about Valentinus after his departure from Rome, which may have occurred some- time in the 160s.9 Epiphanius suggests that he continued teaching on the island of Cyprus, but many remain suspicious of this account.10 The Testimony of Truth may refer to his death, but the passage in question is ambiguous.11 2. For a discussion of this model of Christianity in Rome, see Peter Lampe, From Paul to Valenti- nus: Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003). See also Einar Thomassen, “Orthodoxy and Heresy in Second-Century Rome,” HTR 97 (2004): 241–56. 3. Valentinus, frags. 5 and 8. 4. Valentinus, frag. 1. 5. Valentinus, frag. 3. 6. Valentinus, frag. 2. 7. Several allusions to the LXX and especially the New Testament appear in Valentinus’s fragments. For an apparatus indicating some of these allusions, see Bentley Layton, The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation with Annotations and Introduction (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1995), 229–48. See frag. 6 for Valentinus’s positive assessment of secular writings. 8. Tertullian, Against the Valentinians 4.1. 9. Irenaeus, AH 3.4.3; Tertullian, Prescription 30.2. On the basis of Irenaeus, AH 3.4.3, where Ire- naeus claims that Valentinus “came to Rome in the time of Hyginus, flourished under Pius, and re- mained until Anicetus,” some scholars maintain that Valentinus died in Rome. See Gerd Lüdemann, “Zur Geschichte des ältesten Christentums im Rom,” ZNW 70 (1979): 91n12. For a critical response to this suggestion, see Einar Thomassen, The Spiritual Seed: The Church of the “Valentinians” (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 419n10. 10. Epiph. Pan. 31.7.1–2. For a critical assessment of the account, see Thomassen, Spiritual Seed, 419; and Christoph Markschies, Valentinus Gnosticus? Untersuchungen zur valentinianischen Gnosis mit einem Kommentar zu den Fragmenten Valentins, WUNT 65 (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1992), 332n284. 11. Most editors reconstruct the text of 56.1–2 as ⲱⲕ ⲉ[ⲟ]ⲗ ⲡⲡⲱⲧ [ⲡⲟⲩⲁⲗ]ⲉⲛⲧⲓⲛⲟ (“He complet- ed the course of Valentinus”). See Søren Giversen and B. Pearson, Nag Hammadi Codices IX and X, Nag Hammadi Studies 15 (Leiden: Brill, 1997); and Annie Mahé and Jean-Pierre Mahé, Le témoign- age véritable (NH IX, 3): Gnose et martyre, BCNH: Textes 23 (Quebec City: Presses de l’Université Laval, 1996). Yet Uwe-Karsten Plisch, who follows the suggestion of H.–M. Schenke, offers an alter- native reconstruction: ⲉ]ⲱⲕ ⲉ[ⲟ]ⲗ ⲡⲡⲱⲧ [ⲓ ⲟⲩⲁⲗ]ⲉⲛⲧⲓⲛⲟ (“after Valentinus completed the course”). See Uwe-Karsten Plisch, “Textverständnis und Übersetzung: Bemerkungen zur Gesamtübersetzung der Texte des Nag-Hammadi-Fundes durch den Berliner Arbeitskreis für Koptisch-Gnostische Schrif- ten,” Hallesche Beiträge zur Orientwissenschaft 26 (1998): 81–82. While many understand the phrase “complete the course” to refer to some sort of Valentinian curriculum, the expression appears as a