“ In the true Valentinian system the so-called Christos is the son of the fallen Aeon, who is thus conceived as an individual. Sophia, who in a frenzy of love had sought to draw near to the unattainable Bythos, brings forth, through her longing for that higher being, an aeon who is higher and purer than-herself, and at once rises into the celestial worlds. Among the Gnostics of Irenaeus we find a kindred conception, but with a slight difference. Here Christos and Sophia appear as brother and sister, Christos representing the higher and Sophia the lower element. ”

“ Peculiarly Valentinian is the above-mentioned derivation of the material world from the passions of Sophia. Whether this already formed part of the original system of Valentinus is, indeed, questionable, but at any rate it plays a prominent part in the Valentinian school, and consequently appears with the most diverse variations in the account given by Irenaeus. By it is effected the comparative monism of the Valentinian system. The dualism of the conception of two separate worlds of light and darkness is over-come by the derivation of the material world from the passions of Sophia . ”

“ At the centre of the whole Valentinian system naturally stands the idea of redemption, and so we find here developed particularly clearly the myth of the heavenly marriage already known from Irenaeus i. 30 to be Gnostic. Redemption is essentially accomplished through the union of the heavenly Soter with the fallen goddess. There is great uncertainty in the Valentinian system as to who this celestial Soter is. In the Gnostic systems of Irenaeus i. 30 he is the Christos, the celestial brother who turns back to the fallen sister. ”

“ In the Gnostic systems of Irenaeus i. 29, 30, the Anthropos (i.e. the Primal Man) no longer appears as the world-creative power sinking down into the material world, but as a celestial aeon of the upper world (or even as the supreme god) , who stands in a clearly defined relationship to the fallen goddess; it is possible that the role of the Anthropos is here transferred to Sophia Achamoth. The fallen Sophia next becomes, in like manner, a world creative power. ”

“ Oriental dualism and wildly intemperate Oriental mythology had grown into so radical and essential a part of Gnosticism that they could not be separated from it to make way for a purer and more spiritual view of religion. ”

“ According to it, the world-creating angels—not one, but many—create man, but the seed of the spirit comes into their creature without their knowledge, by the agency of a higher celestial aeon, and they are then terrified by the faculty of speech by which their creature rises above them, and try to destroy him . In the Valentinian system known to us this myth has practically lost its original freshness and colour, and can only be arrived at from allusions. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is significant that Valentinus himself is credited with having written a treatise upon the three natures (Schwartz, A porien, i. 292) . Here we have another instance of the theological compromise of the Valentinians. All the other Gnostic systems recognize only a dual division, the children of light and the children of darkness. That the Valentinians should have placed the psychici between the pneumatici and hylici signifies a certain recognition of the Christian Church and its adherents. ”

“ Before baptism the Heirmarmene is supreme, but after baptism the soul is free from her (exc. ex Theod. 77) .
With baptism was also connected the anointing with oil, and hence we can also understand the death sacrament occurring among the Valentinians consisting in an anointing with a mixture of oil and water (Irenaeus i. 21, 4) . This death sacrament has naturally the express object of assuring the soul the way to the highest heaven " so that the soul may be intangible and invisible to the higher mights and powers " (Irenaeus, loc. cit.) ”

“ The peculiar task of Horos is to separate the fallen aeons from the upper world of aeons. At the same time he becomes (first, perhaps, in the later Valentinian systems) a kind of world-creative power, who in this capacity helps to construct an ordered world out of Sophia and her passions. ”

“ She became likewise a fallen goddess, who has sunk down into the material world and seeks to free herself from it, receiving her liberation at the hands of a heavenly Redeemer, exactly like the Gnostics. Various myths have contributed towards this; one of these is the widespread naive pagan myth of a goddess who disappears, carried off by the powers of evil, to be set free and taken back to her home by a divine liberator, a brother or betrothed. ”

“ In the enigmatic figure of Christoswe again find hidden the original conception of the Primal Man, who sinks down into matter but rises again. (In the later Valentinian systems this origin of the Christos is entirely obscured, and Christ, together with the Holy Spirit, becomes a later offspring of the celestial world of aeons; this may be looked upon as an approximation to the Christian dogma) . ”

“ II) devoted to Valentinus, his teaching is definitely connected with the so-called "falsely reputed Gnostics." It will be useful, in trying to ascertain the teaching and view of life of Valentinus, to keep closely before us that of the "Gnostics" in the narrower sense of the word, as preserved in the expositions of Irenaeus (i. 29, 30) and Epiphanius (passim) . The Gnostics were par excellence worshippers of the supreme Mother-goddess, the Mὴτηρ, in whom we have no difficulty in recognizing the characteristics of the goddess of heaven of anterior Asia. ”

“ The Gnostics are children of the supreme Mother; from her the heavenly seed, the divine spark, descended in some way to this lower world, and thus the children of heaven still exist in this gross material world, subject to the Heimarmene and in the power of hostile spirits and powers ”

“ With the celestial Primal Man—of whom the myth originally relates that he has sunk into matter and then raised him-self up from it again—is associated the community of the faithful and the redeemed, who are to share the same fate with him . ”

“ A few of them prepare a bridal chamber and in it go through a form of consecration, employing certain fixed formulae, which are repeated over the person to be initiated, and stating that a spiritual marriage is to be performed after the pattern of the higher Syzygia. ”