valentinians - Synonyms for valentinians | Synonyms Of valentinians

Examples of "valentinians"
that a book was held in equal honour by the Valentinians and the orthodox seems
to prove that it must have attained its position before the separation of the Valentinians
the opinion of the Valentinians and some earlier Gnostic sects that the father of
Notable Valentinians included Heracleon (fl. ca. 175), Ptolemy, Florinus, Axionicus and Theodotus.
that Heracleon was the most in repute of the Valentinians if he were at the time
Italian school of Valentinians; but the silence of all the authorities makes it
Tertullian's "Against the Valentinians" gives a slightly different sequence. The first eight of these Aeons, corresponding to generations one through four below, are referred to as the "Ogdoad."
The chief sacrament of the Valentinians seems to have been that of the bridal chamber ("nymphon"). The "Gospel of Philip," a probable Valentinian text, reads:
Valentinus had a large following, the Valentinians. It later divided into an Eastern and a Western, or Italian, branch. The Marcosians belonged to the Western branch.
Our authorities for the sacramental practices of the Valentinians are preserved especially in the accounts of the Marcosians given in Irenaeus i. 13 and 20, and in the last section of Clement of Alexandria’s "Excerpta ex Theodoto".
Platonic usage also impacted Christian usage, for example in Gnosticism. In Tertullian's "Against the Valentinians", he gives the name to one of their thirty aeons as "monogenes" in a syzygy with "makaria", Blessedness.
Many Valentinian traditions and practices also clashed with those of the Church. They often met at unauthorized gatherings and rejected ecclesiastical authority, based on their belief that they were all equal. Members of the movement took turns administering sacraments, as well as preaching. Among the Valentinians, women were considered to be equal, or at least nearly equal to men. There were female prophets, teachers, healers, evangelists and even priests, which was very different from the Church’s view of women at the time. Valentinians held normal jobs, got married and raised children just like Christians; however they regarded these pursuits as being less important than gnosis, which was to be achieved individually. The beliefs of the Valentinians were much more oriented towards the individual than towards the group, and salvation was not seen as being universal, as it was in the Church.
The main disagreements between the Valentinians and the Church, then, were in the notions that God and the creator were two separate entities, the idea that the creator was flawed and formed man and Earth out of ignorance and confusion, and the separation of Christ’s human form and divine form. Church authorities believed that Valentinian theology was “a wickedly casuistic way of subverting their authority and thereby threatening the ecclesiastical order with anarchy.” The practices and rituals of the Valentinians were also different from those of the Christian Church; however the Valentinians considered themselves to be Christians and not pagans or heretics. By referring to themselves as Christians they worsened their relationship with the Church, who viewed them not only as heretics, but as rivals.
Can it be a coincidence that immediately after Justin, the enemy of heretics who took aim at the Valentinians ("Dial." 35. 6), we note the appearance in Italy-Rome of two representatives of this latter school who especially treasure the Fourth Gospel – namely Ptolemy and Heracleon (Hillolytus "Ref." 6. 35)? To be sure, Justin's disciple Tatian placed the Gospel of John on the same level as the synoptics, but he also broke with the church on account of profound differences in faith – poisoned, so Irenaeus thought, by the Valentinians and Marcion (AH 1. 28. 1 [=1.26.1]).
According to Irenaeus, the Valentinians believed that at the beginning there was a Pleroma (literally, a 'fullness'). At the centre of the Pleroma was the primal Father or "Bythos", the beginning of all things who, after ages of silence and contemplation, projected thirty "Aeons", heavenly archetypes representing fifteen syzygies or sexually complementary pairs. Among them was "Sophia". Sophia’s weakness, curiosity and passion led to her fall from the Pleroma and the creation of the world and man, both of which are flawed. Valentinians identified the God of the Old Testament as the Demiurge, the imperfect creator of the material world. Man, the highest being in this material world, participates in both the spiritual and the material nature. The work of redemption consists in freeing the former from the latter. One needed to recognize the Father, the "depth of all being", as the true source of divine power in order to achieve "gnosis" (knowledge). The Valentinians believed that the attainment of this knowledge by the human individual had positive consequences within the universal order and contributed to restoring that order, and that gnosis, not faith, was the key to salvation. Clement wrote that the Valentinians regarded Catholic Christians “as simple people to whom they attributed faith, while they think that gnosis is in themselves. Through the excellent seed that is to be found in them, they are by nature redeemed, and their gnosis is as far removed from faith as the spiritual from the physical”.
As bishop, Irenaeus felt compelled to keep a close eye on the Valentinians and to safeguard the church from them. In order to fulfil this duty, Irenaeus educated himself and became well informed of Gnostic doctrines and traditions. This eventually led to the compilation of his treatise.
For a brief time the empire was reunited (378–9) under the western emperor Gratian (375-383), son of Valentinian I and nephew of Valens, before he realised he needed someone to rule in the east separately, dispatching his brother in law, Theodosius I (379–395), to Constantinople. In the west the Valentinians continued in power until the death of Valentinian III (425–455).
Adversus Valentinianos, or Against the Valentinians, is a famous refutation of Valentinianism by Tertullian, an orthodox contemporary of the Gnostics and one of the first to investigate them. The work satirized the bizarre elements that appear in Gnostic mythology, ridiculing the Gnostics for creating elaborate cosmologies, with multi-storied heavens like apartment houses.
August Hahn (1819) debated whether the name "Achamōth" (Ἀχαμώθ) is originally derived from the Hebrew "Chokhmah" (חָכְמָ֑ה), in Aramaic "Ḥachmūth" or whether it signifies 'She that brings forth'—'Mother.' The Syriac form "Ḥachmūth" is testified for us as used by Bardesanes (Ephraim, "Hymn" 55), the Greek form "Hachamōth" is found only among the Valentinians: the name however probably belongs to the oldest Syrian Gnosis.
The theology that Irenaeus attributed to Valentinus is extremely complicated and difficult to follow. There is some skepticism among scholars that the system actually originated with him, and many believe that the system Irenaeus was reacting against was that of the later Valentinians, and not Valentinus himself.