they produce between them 70 celestial sons (angels). (In the other accounts these angels no longer appear as the sons of the celestial pair, but as the heavenly attendants accompanied by whom the Soter approaches Sophia.) It is obvious from the number 70 that we have here a marriage between a celestial and divine pair. This marriage relation between the Soter and Sophia is expounded in quite a material way even in Irenaeus iii. 3, 4, where the Old Testament phrase πᾶν ἄρρεν διαvοῖγον μήτραν is translated, “the Pan (the all, a name for the Soter), the masculinity which opens the mother’s womb.” This myth of the redeemer, as we shall see more fully below, and as may be mentioned here, is of great significance for the practical piety of the Valentinian Gnostics. It is the chief idea of their pious practices mystically to repeat the experience of this celestial union of the Soter with Sophia. In this respect, consequently, the myth underwent yet wider development. Just as the Soter is the bridegroom of Sophia, so the heavenly angels, who sometimes appear as the sons of the Soter and Sophia, sometimes as the escort of the Soter, are the males betrothed to the souls of the Gnostics, which are looked upon as feminine. Thus every Gnostic had his angel standing in the presence of God, and the object of a pious life was to bring about and experience this inner union with the celestial abstract personage. This leads us straight to the sacramental ideas of this branch of Gnosticism (see below). And it also explains the expression used of the Gnostics in Irenaeus i. 6, 4, that they always meditate upon the secret of the heavenly union (the Syzygia).
(10) With this celestial Soter of the Valentinians and the redemption of Sophia through him is connected, in a way which is now not quite intelligible to us, the figure of Jesus of Nazareth and the historical redemption connected with his name. The Soter, the bridegroom of Sophia, and the earthly Jesus answer to each other as in some way identical. Here again we recognize the entirely artificial compromise between Gnosticism and Christianity. It is characteristic of this that in one passage in the account of Irenaeus it is directly stated that the redeemer came specially on account of the psychici, for the pneumatici (the Gnostics) already belong by nature to the celestial world, and no longer require any historical redemption, while the hylici have fallen beforehand into damnation, so that with the psychici only is there any question as to whether they will turn to redemption or damnation, and for them the historical redeemer is of efficacy (Irenaeus i. 6, 1). This assertion is in thorough agreement with the fundamental tendency of Gnostic piety; for the Gnostics individual redemption has actually been accomplished in the union between the Soter and Sophia, and is effected for the individual Gnostics in repeating the experience of this union. So that in effect they no longer require the historical redemption through Jesus.
(11) Among the manifold confusion of opinions as to the nature and characteristics of the Redeemer Jesus of Nazareth, certain explanations stand out as characteristically Valentinian, especially those in which it is laid down that even the redeemer has a threefold nature; from his mother, Sophia, he derived his nature as a pneumaticos, in the world of the Demiourgos he was united with the Christos, and finally a wonderful bodily nature was formed for him from celestial elements, which was yet not of earthly material. As such he was miraculously born of the Virgin, as through a canal (διὰ σωλῆνος). The compromises with the Catholic Church are here obvious. According to this theory Jesus, having an element of the psychical nature, can appear in virtue of this as the son of the Demiourgos, i.e. of the Old Testament God, and as the Redeemer of the psychici; and when we read of this miraculous bodily nature, which is not composed of earthly material, there is an obvious compromise between the fundamental heresy of Gnosticism, Docetism and the dogma of the Christian Church as to the true bodily nature of the Redeemer. Into this already complicated Christology is now introduced by an obscure combination, in the systems known to us, the idea that upon this Jesus, so constituted, yet another celestial nature, the Christos or the Soter, has descended at his baptism. This is the older and peculiar Gnostic conception of Irenaeus i. 30, which appears to have been introduced into Valentinianism at a late stage of its development. The express statement is Hippolytus 6, 35, that this doctrine was shared only by the Italic branch of the Valentinians, but disclaimed by the Anatolian branch, also bears on the point.
(12) The close of the drama and the final accomplishment of the redemption is also depicted by the Valentinian writings in accordance with the old Gnosticism. A general ascent takes place, the Soter returns with the liberated Sophia into the Pleroma, and likewise the Gnostics with the angels with whom they are connected. But it is characteristic of the Valentinian system that the Demiourgos and the psychici who are connected with him also ascend to the eighth or highest heaven of Achamoth, while the remaining material world sinks into flames.
VI. The first survey of these confused speculations, these myths gathered together and preserved from the ancient world, this marshalling together of the most varied traditions, and above all, these artificial attempts at compromise dictated by practical prudence, makes us inclined to doubt whether it was possible for any true piety to coexist with all this. Yet such piety existed, indeed we have here a set of regular mystics. It is not, indeed, a purely spiritual and mystical piety, but a mysticism much distorted and over-grown with sacramental additions and a mysterious cult. But all this is not without an inner value and an attractive atmosphere. Our information, it is true, is scant; most of it is to be found in the fragments of the letters and homilies of the master of the school preserved for us by Clemens. The central point of the piety of Valentinus seems to have been tha mystical contemplation of God; in a letter preserved in Clemens ii. 20, 114, he sets forth that the soul of man is like an inn, which is inhabited by many evil spirits. “But when the Father, who alone is good, looks down and around him, then the soul is hallowed and lies in full light, and so he who has such a heart as this is to be called happy, for he shall behold God.” But this contemplation of God, as Valentinus, closely and deliberately following the doctrines of the Church, and with him the compiler of the Gospel of John declares, is accomplished through the revelation of the Son. This mystic and visionary also discusses the Psalm which is preserved in the Philosophumena of Hippolytus (6, 37). With celestial enthusiasm Valentinus here surveys and depicts the heavenly world of aeons, and its connexion with the lower world.[1] Exalted joy of battle and a valiant courage breathe forth in the sermon in which Valentinus addresses the faithful (Clemens iv. 13, 91): “Ye are from the beginning immortal and children of eternal life, and desire to divide death amongst you like a prey, in order to destroy it and utterly to annihilate it, that thus death may die in you and through you, for if ye dissolve the world, and are not yourselves dissolved, then are ye lords over creation and over all that passes away.” From Tertullian, de carne Christi cap. 17, 20, we learn that Valentinus composed psalms. We may conjecture that these psalms were similar in their kind to the beautiful odes of Solomon which have lately been discovered, though without suggesting that these particular psalms were specifically Gnostic or Valentinian.
VII. But with this mysticism, of which we possess only a few of the beautiful flowers, is connect the mystery and cult of the sacrament. The lofty spirituality of the Gnostic degenerates over and over into a distinctly material and sensual attitude, in which all kinds of efforts are made actually to assimilate to oneself the divine through external means. Our authorities for the sacramental practises of the Valentinians are preserved especially in the accounts of the Marcosians given Irenaeus i. 13 and 20, and in the last section of Excerpta ex Theodoto. We must point out once again how the mother aeon stands absolutely at the centre of this cult. There are moreover various figures in the fully developed system of the Valentinians who are in the Gnostic’s mind when he calls upon the Mother goddess; sometimes it is the fallen Achamoth, sometimes the higher Sophia abiding in the celestial world, sometimes Aletheia, the consort of the supreme heavenly father, but it is always the same person, the Mother goddess, on whom the fervent faith of the Gnostics is fixed. Thus a baptismal confession of faith of the Gnostics (Irenaeus i. 21, 3) runs “In the name of the unknown Father of all, by Aletheia, the mother of all, by the name which descended upon Jesus.” And in almost all the sacramental prayers of the Gnostics handed down to us by Irenaeus, the mother is the object of the invocation. If the interpretation generally given of the Aramaean baptismal formula by Irenaeus in the same passage is correct, it began with the words, “In the name of Achamoth.” Hence we can understand how, according to Irenaeus i. 5, 3, Sophia Achamoth had among the Valentinians the title of kyrios (lord), and, a question closely connected with this, why they did not call Jesus kyrios, but Soter, as Irenaeus expressly assures us (i. 1, 3). Kyrios is the title given to the hero who is subject of a cult among a given body of people, and the heroine of the cult of the Valentinians, Sophia Achamoth there receives this title.
