Valentinian and Sethian Apocalyptic Traditions

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ATTRIDGE/VALENTINIAN AND SETHIAN APOCALYPSES 173
Valentinian and Sethian
Apocalyptic Traditions*
HAROLD W. ATTRIDGE
The paper reexamines the relationship between “apocalyptic” and “gnostic”
traditions, on the assumption that global definitions of these phenomena are
problematic. Valentinian and Sethian corpora in the Nag Hammadi collection
display different appropriations of apocalyptic literary forms and conceptual
schemes. Apart from a few late works with traces of Valentinian positions, this
tradition largely ignores features characteristic of apocalyptic literature.
Valentinian eschatology seems to be founded primarily on philosophical
cosmology and psychology. Sethian texts preserve many features of Jewish
revelatory literature, and many details associated with various eschatological
schemes familiar from apocalyptic sources. The most extensive use of the
characteristic “heavenly ascent” topos in Sethian literature, however, seems to
be a third-century development, perhaps responding to contemporary forms of
religious propaganda.
It has been almost forty years since R. M. Grant made his famous, and
frequently discussed, suggestion that Gnosticism was born out of disap-
pointed apocalyptic hopes.1 While containing an element of truth, the
very formulation seems curiously dated. At the end of the millennium we
are much more aware of the difficulties of dealing with each term of
*A version of this paper was presented to the joint session of the Nag Hammadi
and Pseudepigrapha groups at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature
in Orlando, November 22, 1998. The subject of the joint session was the relationship
of “apocalyptic” and “Gnosticism.”
1. Robert M. Grant, Gnosticism and Early Christianity (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1959; rev. ed. 1966), 27–38. For other attempts to relate the two
entities globally, see George MacRae, “Apocalyptic Eschatology in Gnosticism,” in
David Hellholm, ed., Apocalypticism in the Mediterranean World and the Near East:
Proceedings of the International Colloquium on Apocalypticism Uppsala, August 12–
17, 1979 (Tübingen: Mohr [Siebeck], 1983), 317–25. In the same collection, Hans G.
Kippenberg, “Ein Vergleich jüdischer, christlicher und gnostischer Apokalyptik,”
751–68, treats Or. World, Gr. Pow., Asclepius, 1 2 Ap. Jas, concentrating on the fall
of Jerusalem.
Journal of Early Christian Studies 8:2, 173–211 © 2000 The Johns Hopkins University Press
174 JOURNAL OF EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES
Grant’s equation, much more inclined to frame issues in literary and
sociohistorical terms rather than exclusively in terms of the history of
ideas, more inclined to see diversity rather than unity, and consequently,
less ready to deal with the large abstractions.
Research into “Gnosticism,” particularly in the wake of Michael Will-
iams’ “dismantling of a dubious category,”2 has made us acutely aware of
the diverse phenomena covered by that label. Research into the apocalyp-
tic tradition by Adela Collins,3 James VanderKam,4 David Frankfurter,5
Brian Daley,6 and others,7 has highlighted the diversity of early Christian
apocalyptic literature and thought. At the same time scholars such as
Ithamar Gruenwald,8 Guy Stroumsa,9 and Birger Pearson,10 and others,11
2. Michael Allen Williams, Rethinking “Gnosticism”: An Argument for Disman-
tling a Dubious Category (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996).
3. Cosmology and Eschatology in Jewish and Christian Apocalypticism, JSJSup 50
(Leiden: Brill, 1996).
4. The Jewish Apocalyptic Heritage in Early Christianity, CRINT 3.4 (Assen: Van
Gorcum; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996).
5. Elijah in Upper Egypt: The Apocalypse of Elijah and Early Egyptian Christian-
ity, Studies in Antiquity and Christianity (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993); idem, “Early
Christian Apocalypticism: Literature and Social World,” in John J. Collins, ed., The
Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism, vol. 1: The Origins of Apocalypticism in Judaism
and Christianity (New York: Continuum, 1997), 415–53.
6. The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology (Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), and “Apocalypticism in Early Christian
Theology,” in Bernard McGinn, ed., The Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism, vol. 2:
Apocalypticism in Western History and Culture (New York: Continuum, 1997),
1–47.
7. For treatments of individual texts, see Karen L. King, Revelation of the Un-
knowable God, with Text, Translation, and Notes to NHC XI,3 Allogenes, California
Classical Library (Santa Rosa: Polebridge, 1995); Theodore A. Bergren, Sixth Ezra:
The Text and Origin (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998); Nils Arne Pedersen,
Studies in the Sermon on the Great War (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 1996).
8. From Apocalypticism to Gnosticism: Studies in Apocalypticism, Merkavah
Mysticism, and Gnosticism (Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 1988).
9. Another Seed: Studies in Gnostic Mythology, NHS 24 (Leiden: Brill, 1984).
10. “The Problem of ‘Jewish Gnostic’ Literature,” in Charles Hedrick and Robert
Hodgson, eds., Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism and Early Christianity (Peabody: Hen-
drickson, 1986), 15–36; for further bibliography on the point see John Turner,
“Typologies of the Sethian Gnostic Treatises from Nag Hammadi,” in Louis Pain-
chaud and Anne Pasquier, eds., Les textes de Nag Hammadi et le problème de leur
classification: Actes du colloque tenu à Québec du 15 au 19 Septembre 1993, BCNH,
Études 3 (Québec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval; Louvain: Peeters, 1995), 182
n.16.
11. See the review of the general issue in Jarl Fossum, The Name of God and the
Angel of the Lord: Samaritan and Jewish Concepts of Intermediation and the Origin
of Gnosticism, WUNT 36 (Tübingen: Mohr [Siebeck], 1985), 1–24.
ATTRIDGE/VALENTINIAN AND SETHIAN APOCALYPSES 175
have rightly insisted that there are strands of continuity between Jewish
traditions and various elements of the phenomenon of Gnosticism.12 David
Frankfurter has usefully summarized the state of this question, with strong
attention to the Egyptian context.13 A review of the important recent
contributions of Daley and Frankfurter may serve as a useful starting
point for this inquiry.
Recent Discussion
a. Brian Daley. Many of the treatments either of eschatology in general
or of the survivals of Jewish apocalypticism in the early Church use a
broad and undifferentiated category of Gnosticism. Thus Brian Daley’s
treatment of eschatology among the Gnostics14 offers a catalogue of
eschatological opinions, founded upon the notion of “material creation
as a prison for the true, immaterial self.”15 The first example is the
Valentinian tenet of a “‘restoration [apokatastasis] of heavenly reality to
its original state.”16 Daley suggests that “some Gnostic sects [emphasis
mine] seem to have made free use of apocalyptic traditions about the end
of the world,” including a notion of a consuming fire in Irenaeus’
account of the Valentinians (Adv. Haer. 1.7.1).17 He also calls attention
to the more explicit eschatological scenarios in Origin of the World,
Concept of Our Great Power, and the Paraphrase of Shem, all of which
he dates to the fourth century,18 rightly labeling them “descriptions of
12. See especially Birger Pearson, Gnosticism, Judaism, and Egyptian Christianity
(Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990). For the influence of the “myth of the watchers” from
Enochic literature, see Birger Pearson, “Jewish Sources in Gnostic Literature,” in
Michael Stone, ed., Jewish Writings of the Second Temple Period, CRINT 11.2
(Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), 443–81; Stroumsa, Another Seed; John C. Reeves,
Jewish Lore in Manichaean Cosmogony: Studies in the Book of Giants Traditions
(Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1992), and the convenient summary in
James VanderKam, “1 Enoch, Enochic Motifs, and Enoch in Early Christian Liter-
ature,” in idem and Adler, Apocalyptic Heritage, 70–76.
13. “The Legacy of Jewish Apocalypses in Early Christianitiy: Regional Trajecto-
ries,” in VanderKam and Adler, Apocalyptic Heritage, 129–200, esp. 150–62.
14. Daley, Hope, 25–32. Perhaps the earliest version of such a survey is Malcolm
Peel, “Gnostic Eschatology and the New Testament,” NT 12 (1970): 141–65.
15. Daley, Hope, 26, citing Ap. John 30.25–31.4 (sic).
16. Daley, Hope, 26. Treat Res. 44.31; Irenaeus Adv. Haer. 1.8.4, 1.14.1
(Marcosians); Or. World 127.14–17 (sic), Gos. Phil. 67.15–18; Tri. Trac. 122.19–23.
Daley also notes the opinion of Basilides that each would be content with its own:
Hippolytus Ref. 6.27.1–4.
17. This is another key text. Cf. MacRae, “Apocalyptic Eschatology,” 321; Peel,
“Gnostic Eschatology,” 158.
18. Daley, “Apocalypticism,” 35–36. There are indisputable fourth-century fea-
tures in these texts, such as the reference to the Anomoians at Gr. Pow. 40.7, although
176 JOURNAL OF EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES
this destruction of the universe in the grand apocalyptic style.”19 Such
destruction includes thunder and earthquakes,20 cosmic disturbances,21
archon-instigated war,22 disease and depopulation,23 eventual victory of
the Pleroma over hostile powers,24 and the return of the faithful to
eternal light.25 The passages cited by Daley have played a prominent role
throughout the history of the discussion of “Apocalyptic and Gnosti-
cism,” usually serving to make the point that Gnostics did not com-
pletely avoid future eschatology.26
Daley also notes the attention given to individual eschatology, the post-
mortem judgment in 1 Apoc. Jas. 33.2–36.1 and various descriptions for
the state of bliss, rest, light and glory, fellowship with the saved, loving
union with the Father, and mystical marriage. Most of the sources for
these items are Valentinian, although he does note the themes of light and
glory in 2 Seth 67.10, 68.7 and Gr. Pow. 46.8–12.27 He also notes the
post-mortem punishments in Thomas the Contender and the Pistis Sophia.28
By the time he wrote his article for the Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism,
Daley came to draw a nuanced and concise inference from his review of
the data:
this could be a redactional gloss. Cf. Frederik Wisse and Francis E. Williams, “The
Concept of Our Great Power: VI,4:36,1–48,15,” in Douglas M. Parrott, ed., Nag
Hammadi Codices V,2–5 and VI with Papyrus Berolinensis 8502,1 and 4, NHS 11
(Leiden: Brill, 1979), 291–92. On the Paraphrase of Shem, see Frederik Wisse, “NHC
VII,1: The Paraphrase of Shem,” in Birger A. Pearson, ed., Nag Hammadi Codex VII,
NHMS 30 (Leiden: Brill, 1996), 1–23. Wisse (22) tentatively assigns the text to the
second or third century, but notes (21) affinities with Manichaean motifs. For the
possibility of redactional layers in Orig. World., see Appendix I.
19. Daley, Hope, 26.
20. Or World 125.33; Gr. Pow. 44.5; Para. Shem 44.11.
21. Or. World 126.10–14; Gr. Pow. 45.31–46.5; Para. Shem 45.9–31.
22. Gr. Pow. 43.35–44.31; Or. World 126.5–8; Para. Shem 44.22–26.
23. Or. World 126.3; Gr. Pow. 44.6–10.
24. Or. World 126.19–21; 126.22–35; Gr. Pow. 46.22–47.9.
25. Or. World 126.35–127.14; Gr. Pow. 47.9–26.
26. See Appendix I for the key texts, the prominence of which in earlier surveys is
striking. MacRae (“Apocalyptic Eschatology,” 320–22) cites extensively Or. World
125.32–127.14; Trimorphic Protennoia 44.12–19, 42.19–21; and the Paraphrase of
Shem 43.28–45.31. Peel (“Gnostic Eschatology,” 155–59) cast his net more widely in
his discussion of “‘Endzeit’ Speculation,” where he combines patristic testimonies,
Manichaean evidence, and Nag Hammadi materials. Nonetheless, his key text is Or.
World, for most of the examples of “Jewish-Christian apocalyptic imagery” describ-
ing the “Endzeit.”
27. Daley, Hope, 27.
28. Thom. Cont. 141.4–18, 141.32–142.2; PS 147. It is misleading to note here the
Apoc. John 30.25–31.4, which uses the “world is hell” metaphor. Cf. Tri. Prot. 36.4,
40.22, 41.4.
ATTRIDGE/VALENTINIAN AND SETHIAN APOCALYPSES 177
Second-century Gnosticism showed little interest in the future of the world
or the body and little sense of an impending crisis of judgment.29 Apart
from speculating about a final cosmic conflagration that would consume all
matter (see Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1.7.1), Valentinian writers seem to have
been mainly interested in a future for the enlightened few that lay totally
apart from the world and its history, and to have interpreted Christian
resurrection hope in entirely spiritual terms (see Treatise on Resurrection,
Nag Hammadi I, 4).30 Those texts in the Nag Hammadi collection with
strong apocalyptic features are probably of later origin, perhaps as late as
the fourth century.”31
The distinction between the eschatological concerns of Valentinian
sources and certain Nag Hammadi texts containing apocalyptic eschatology
is useful. Daley’s observations raise questions about the appropriation of
Jewish “apocalyptic” materials in early Christianity, but the limitation to
eschatological belief narrows the focus of the inquiry.
b. David Frankfurter. Frankfurter’s contribution to the volume of essays
on the apocalyptic heritage edited by James VanderKam and William
Adler is more directly related to the topic of the survival or influence of
Jewish apocalyptic in Gnostic circles.32 Frankfurter makes a number of
important analytical moves. (1) He organizes data within a geographical
matrix, rightly arguing that regional differentiation is an essential
component in tracing ancient religious phenomena. (2) He attends to the
distinction, long ago drawn by John Collins and the contributors to
Semeia 14, between apocalypticism as a social phenomenon and apoc-
alypses as a literary phenomenon. In treating Gnostic texts as heirs to
Jewish apocalypses, Frankfurter usefully incorporates the work of
Francis Fallon from that Semeia volume.33 (3) Frankfurter suggests a
number of categories and issues to be considered in tracing the heritage
of Jewish apocalypses in Gnostic sources: (a) the authoritative tradition
of a legendary seer; (b) the function of the holy book; (c) the self-
definition of the community addressed as “elect,” “saints,” “children of
29. On this point Daley relies on MacRae, “Apocalyptic Echatology,” 319–20.
Peel, “Gnostic Eschatology,” 150–55, adopts a similar position, with an assembly of
data on “Realized Eschatology” and “Ascent of the Pneuma-Self.”
30. This is obviously a major concern of Peel, both in “Gnostic Eschatology,” 159–
62, and in his work on the Treatise on Resurrection. See n. 66 below.
31. Daley, “Apocalypticism,” 8–9; he refers the reader to “Revival of the Apoc-
alyptic Genre” later in his essay.
32. “The Legacy of Jewish Apocalypses in Early Christianity: Regional Trajecto-
ries,” in VanderKam and Adler, Apocalyptic Heritage, 129–200, esp. 150–62.
33. Francis Fallon, “The Gnostic Apocalypses,” Semeia 14 (1979): 123–58,
modified by Frankfurter, “Legacy,” 157. See Appendix II.
178 JOURNAL OF EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES
light,” etc.; (d) liturgical realization of ascents, transformations, and
ecstatic experiences; (e) as well as formal literary relationships.
Frankfurter finds in Egypt a fertile environment that fostered numerous
quests for Gnosis, or revealed wisdom. Egyptian priestly and scribal
traditions, Hermeticism, various strains of Judaism, urban and rural,
form the background for early Christian speculative streams. Frankfurter’s
indebtedness to MacRae, Pearson, Stroumsa, et al. is clear.
Yet within his essay lies an urge to generalization similar to what we
encountered in Daley. At the beginning of his treatment of Gnosticism as
heir to Jewish Apocalypses he notes:34
The following section generalizes across Gnostic sects while focusing as
much as the data allow upon developments within Egypt (including
Alexandria). It should be remembered that the evolution of Gnosticism
owes much to religious trends in Syria (Thomas and Johannine traditions)
and Rome (Valentinians); however, the speed at which Syrian traditions
entered Egypt (Gospel of Thomas; P. Oxy 1; P. Oxy 655; Gospel of John:
P.Rylands 457; Manichaean texts) militates against dividing Syrian and
Egyptian Gnosticism too strongly.
While Frankfurter’s treatment, like that of Daley, is enormously help-
ful, we can be more precise about the heritage of Jewish apocalyptic by
paying more attention to specific group variation. There are some other
issues raised by both essays, such as their use of “sect” as a designation
for the social phenomenon behind the literature involved here, that may
be problematic, but we shall leave that question aside.
Regional and Group Variation
This essay will focus on two related textual collections and test whether
there are specific differences in their appropriation of Jewish apocalyptic
elements. Three sorts of data are pertinent: (a) literary accounts of revela-
tory experiences, (b) eschatological scenarios, and (c) the quest for revela-
tory experience. Specific motifs derived from Jewish haggadic and apoca-
lyptic traditions (e.g., the Enochic “myth of the watchers”) are relevant,
although they will not be at the center of this study.
The argument of this essay can be distilled to two complex proposi-
tions that extend and supplement the observations of Daley and Frank-
furter. (1) Valentinian teachers eschewed the literary trappings of Jewish
and early Christian apocalyptic literature; although occasionally inter-
ested in “visions,” they presumed that the major “ascent” was eschat-
ological. In their eschatology, while disposed to interpret apocalyptic
34. Frankfurter, “Legacy,” 150 n. 98.
ATTRIDGE/VALENTINIAN AND SETHIAN APOCALYPSES 179
scenarios in an allegorical or “realized” sense, they maintained a philo-
sophically respectable view of the consummation of history but could
occasionally draw upon apocalyptic descriptions of the end, particularly
from early Christian texts that had achieved some authoritative status,35
to give expression to their belief. (2) “Sethians,” much closer to their
Jewish literary roots, used apocalyptic literary conventions and appar-
ently did engage in practices designed to provide revelatory experience.
Nonetheless, they distanced themselves from their Jewish roots, particu-
larly in texts with evidence of a ritual setting for revelatory experience.
Although, like the Valentinians, their eschatology focuses on the fate of
the soul and they use eschatological categories metaphorically, their inter-
est in cosmic or historical eschatology remains and perhaps serves as one
basis for several of the late apocalypses from Nag Hammadi.
I. THE START OF THE VALENTINIAN TRADITION:
VALENTINUS
Whatever Irenaeus may have thought of them, the Valentinians known to
us are resolutely Christian. The letter of Ptolemy to Flora36 even affords
us some sense of their attitude toward the scriptural legacy of Israel. This
evidence does not give much hope that we will find extensive explicit and
direct use of Jewish apocalypses or apocalyptic forms in Valentinian texts
and, indeed, such data are rare.
The Fragments of Valentinus
The exiguous fragments of Valentinus himself, which have attracted con-
siderable attention of late, yield little evidence of an apocalyptic literary
form. There is, however, a hint of a visionary experience:
For Valentinus says he saw a newborn babe, and questioned it to find out
who it was. And the babe answered him saying that it was the Word.37
35. For analysis of the use of earlier Christian materials in one Valentinian text, see
Jacqueline A. Williams, Biblical Interpretation in the Gnostic Gospel of Truth from
Nag Hammadi, SBLDS 79 (Atlanta: Scholars, 1988).
36. Text: Gilles Quispel, Ptolémé, Lettre à Flora: Analyse, texte critique, traduc-
tion, commentaire et index grec, 2d ed. SC 24 (Paris: Cerf, 1966); translation: Bentley
Layton, The Gnostic Scriptures (Garden City: Doubleday, 1987), 306–15.
37. Hippolytus Ref. 6.42.2, fr. A in Layton, Gnostic Scriptures, 230–31; fr. 7 in
Völker; commentary in Christoph Markschies, Valentinus Gnosticus, WUNT 65
(Tübingen: Mohr [Siebeck], 1992), 205–17.
180 JOURNAL OF EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES
Nothing indicates the context in which Valentinus saw the newborn babe
(pa›da nÆpion értig°nnhton), although a dream experience, whether fic-
tive or real, is certainly possible. There is nothing to indicate that Valentinus
claimed to have made a special heavenly journey or to have encountered
an angelus interpres.
“Vision” features in the poetic fragment on a “summer harvest.”
I see in spirit that all are hung
I know in spirit that all are formed
Flesh hanging from soul
Soul clinging to air
Air hanging from upper atmosphere
Crops rushing forth from the deep
A babe rushing forth from the womb.38
Rather than a heavenly journey or mystical ascent, the vision here seems
to be a form of spiritual insight into natural processes.
Whatever the attitude toward the literary genre and to mystical experi-
ence, Valentinus did not abandon eschatological categories. Yet the
eschatology found in his fragments has an indirect relationship at best to
that of Jewish or early Christian apocalypses. The one relevant datum is a
comment in a fragment preserved in Clement, Strom. 4.89.1–3:
From the beginning you have been immortal, and you are children of
eternal life. And you wanted death to be allocated to yourselves so that you
might spend it and use it up, and that death might die in you and through
you. For when you nullify the world and are not yourselves annihilated,
you are lord over creation and all corruption (˜tan går tÚn m¢n kÒsmon
lÊhte, Íme›w d¢ mØ katalÊhsye, kurieÊete t∞w kt¤sevw ka‹ t∞w fyorçw
èpãshw).39
This interesting fragment shows a de-eschatologizing process at work.
“Destruction of the world” takes place in the lives of the addressees who
know that they are immortal, who “nullify the world,” perhaps through a
program of ascesis, and who thus, by belief and praxis, overcome death.
Such language has precedents in the realized eschatology of early Chris-
tians.40 Whatever its relationship to future hope, Valentinus’ poetic lan-
guage has a decidedly existential tone.
38. Hippolytus, Ref. 6.37.8; fr. H in Layton, Gnostic Scriptures, 246–49; fr. 8 in
Völker; commentary in Markschies, Valentinus Gnosticus, 218–59.
39. Fr. F in Layton, Gnostic Scriptures, 240–41; fr. 4 in Völker; commentary in
Markschies, Valentinus Gnosticus, 143–46.
40. 1 Cor 7.31; 1 John 2.17, treated by Markschies, Valentinus Gnosticus, 143.
ATTRIDGE/VALENTINIAN AND SETHIAN APOCALYPSES 181
Instead of traces of Jewish apocalypses or apocalyptic thought in
Valentinus, we find hints of a poetic “vision,” and eschatological catego-
ries reinterpreted of the life of the enlightened Christian. There are also
hints of protological speculation. Valentinus is clearly aware of reflection
on the creation of the first human being that ultimately derives from
Jewish traditions, as is evident in a citation by Clement of Alexandria,
Strom. 2.36.2–4:
And even as awe overcame the angels in the presence of that modeled form
because it uttered sounds superior to what its modeling justified, owing to
the agent who had invisibly deposited in it a seed of higher essence and who
spoke freely: so too in the races of worldly people, human artifacts become
objects of awe for their creators—for example, statues and paintings and
everything that (human) hands make as representing a god. For Adam,
modeled as representing a human being, made them stand in awe of the
preexistent human being; for precisely the latter stood in him. And they
were stricken with terror and quickly concealed the work.41
The involvement of angels in the creation of Adam recalls not so much
apocalypses as Philo and haggadic midrash.42 The latter also offers the
best parallels for the notion of the implantation of “a seed of a higher
essence” in Adam.43
Whatever their relationship to Valentinian tradition, the fragments of
Valentinus show at best a secondhand, metaphorical appropriation of the
categories of traditional apocalyptic literature and thought.44
II. VALENTINIANS
a. Apocalypses?
Exactly what texts from Nag Hammadi count as Valentinian, and in what
sense, has been a matter of some debate. Einar Thomassen’s useful survey
of the corpus45 concludes that certain or very probable Valentinian texts
are: The Tripartite Tractate, the Gospel of Philip, the First Apocalypse of
James, the Interpretation of Knowledge, and the Valentinian Exposition.
41. Fr. 1 in Völker; fr. C in Layton, Gnostic Scriptures, 234–35; commentary in
Markschies, Valentinus Gnosticus, 11–53.
42. Markschies, Valentinus Gnosticus, 18–24.
43. Markschies, Valentinus Gnosticus, 32–37, citing, e.g., Op. mun. 137.
44. The picture would change little if we accepted the attribution of the Gospel of
Truth to Valentinus or the relevance of Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1.11 to the teaching of
Valentinus himself.
45. Einar Thomassen, “Notes pour la délimitation d’un corpus valentinien à Nag
Hammadi,” in Painchaud and Pasquier, Textes de Nag Hammadi, 243–59.
182 JOURNAL OF EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES
Probable Valentinian texts are the Treatise on Resurrection, the Gospel of
Truth, although its final form may contain interpolations. Possible
Valentinian texts are the Exegesis on the Soul and the Authoritative
Teaching. Thomassen finds the possibility of Valentinian redaction in the
Prayer of Paul and Eugnostos. Some scholars add, at least as texts with
Valentinian elements, the Gospel of Philip,46 or one of the tractates that
features prominently in the catalogues of apocalyptic eschatology, On the
Origin of the World.47
The literary form of apocalypse is largely absent from these Valentinian
texts. The corpus consists of sermons (Gospel of Truth), dogmatic trea-
tises (Tripartite Tractate, Valentinian Exposition, Treatise on Resurrec-
tion, Authoritative Teaching), and an exegetical exposition (Exegesis on
the Soul); nary an “apocalypse” among them. The two major surveys of
the formal apocalyptic literary elements in the corpus, by Francis Fallon48
and Martin Krause49 confirm that observation. The only text with any
Valentinian elements presented in some form of apocalypse is the First
Apocalypse of James (5.3).
This possibly Valentinian work50 consists of a revelation dialogue51 in
46. For the Gospel of Philip see Martha Lee Turner, The Gospel According to
Philip: The Sources and Coherence of an Early Christian Collection, NHMS 38
(Leiden: Brill, 1996), 184–204.
47. For the possibility of both Valentinian and anti-Valentinian redactions, see Louis
Painchaud, L’Écrit sans titre: Traité sur l’origine du monde (NH II,5 et XIII,2 et Brit.
Lib. Or. 4926[1]), BCNH, Textes 21 (Québec: Les Presses de l’Université Laval;
Louvain: Peeters, 1995), 110–42, and idem, “La classification des textes de Nag
Hammadi et le phénomène des réécritures,” in Painchaud and Pasquier, Textes de Nag
Hammadi, 51–85. On the anti-Valentinian layer, see also Louis Painchaud and Timothy
Janz, “The ‘Kingless Generation’ and the Polemical Rewriting of Certain Nag
Hammadi Texts,” in John Turner and Anne McGuire, eds., The Nag Hammadi Library
After Fifty Years: Proceedings of the 1995 Society of Biblical Literature Commemora-
tion, NHMS 44 (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 439–60. They argue that an anti-Valentinian layer
of redaction is visible in “kingless” motif, at least in Apoc. Adam and Orig. World.
48. See Fallon, “Gnostic Apocalypses,” 126–47, with a convenient chart on p. 148.
For a summary of the classifications of Fallon and Krause, see Appendix II.
49. Martin Krause, “Die literarischen Gattungen der Apocalypsen von Nag Ham-
madi,” in Hellholm, Apocalypticism in the Mediterranean World, 621–37. This is a
much less satisfactory literary analysis.
50. The primary evidence is the correspondence between 1 Apoc. Jas. 33.11–35.25
with the Valentinian liturgical material in Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 1.21.5, noted by A.
Veilleux, Les deux apocalypses de Jacques, BCNH, Textes 17 (Québec: Les Presses de
l’Université Laval; Louvain: Peeters, 1986), 87–88. See also William Schoedel, in
James M. Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library in English, 2d ed. (San Fran-
cisco: Harper & Row, 1988 = NHLE2), 260. The identification is accepted by