Valentinus

Witness the antiquity of the name.

If, however, thou perseverest in asking, beware lest that man of might exclaim, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is wonderful? I next added that we need not consider whence Catholics derived this name, because neither was it wont to be any imputation against the Valentinians if they were called after Valentinus, nor the Phrygians if from Phrygia, nor the Novatians if after Novatian.

At this you are grievously excited, and rouse yourself as if pierced with a sting.

For in your wrath you thus exclaim, Is it ever any objection to that holy man Cyprian, that his people bear the name of Apostaticum, Capitolinum, or Synedrium? Thou revilest, but lo, I am not moved.

Great is the care of that mother for her children, and tender her affection.

The good are honoured, the haughty are chastised, the sick are cared for, no one perishes, no one is despised, the young are kept safe under the indulgent protection of a mother.

The church is without spot or wrinkle, that is without heresies, without Valentinus, without Catafrigians, without Novatians.

For in these are certain spotted and wrinkled folds, envious of the ornaments of the precious vesture.

Not a single church figure in the first 300 years rejected it, and most of them stated it clearly in the work's still extent.

And it's interesting, the only ones who rejected it, he says, were heretics like Gnostics, Marcion, Valentinus, the Manichaeans and so forth.

So he goes into the Gnostic doctrine that certain people are predestined to salvation and they don't have free will to turn away.

And he starts saying the first time we're seeing that, or where we're really seeing that, I should say, is among the Gnostics.

Let's put it at 200.

This is Valentinus' fragments at the year 200.

So Milo mentioned Valentinus a little bit.

Valentinus, the way that Bentley Layton describes him is he's a reformer of Sethian Gnosticism.

And that's his tradition.

That's who he was educated by.

And he's trying to make Sethianism seem a little bit more palatable and a little bit more acceptable with what other Christians think.

And he's a great writer.

if it be not a carnal intention my lord but as i judge a calling of the spirit that thou inquirest of us the faith of the catholic verity thou before all talling thy rise as far as appears from a streamlet at a distance and not holding to the fountain and source of the principal church shouldst in the first instance have shown what or how different are the opinions which thou followest thou shouldst unfold thyself as to what cause more particularly had loosened thee from the unity of our body for those parts for which a remedy is sought should be laid bare whereas now if i may so say the bosom of correspondence being closed we see not on what members more especially we have to bestow our care for such are the heresies which have sprung forth from the christian head that of the mere names the role would be immense for to pass over the heretics of the jews docetheus the samaritan the sadducees and the pharisees It were not long to enumerate how many grew up in the times of the apostles, Simon, Magus, and Meander, and Nicolaus, and others hidden by an inglorious fame.

What again in later times were Ebion, and Apollos, and Marcion, and Valentinus, and Cerdan, and not long after them the Cataphrygians and Novatians, not to notice any recent swarms.

Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing.

The rush of racing? Nothing beats it.

A spouse, it is clear, but also a wife, and an helpmeet taken from her husband, and therefore bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh.

For of her, David saith, Thy wife shall be as the fruitful vine upon the walls of thine houses, thy children like the olive branches round about thy table.

great therefore is the progeny of this virgin and without number her offspring wherewith the whole world is filled wherewith the populous swarm ever throngs the circumfluous hive great is the care of that mother for her children and tender her affection the good are honoured the haughty are chastised the sick are cared for no one perishes no one is despised the young are kept safe under the indulgent protection of a mother The church is without spot or wrinkle, that is, without heresies, without Valentinus, without Cataphrygians, without Novatians, for in these are certain spotted and wrinkled folds, envious of the ornaments of the precious vesture.

But the sinner and the penitent are not a spot on the church, because as long as he sinneth and repenteth not, he is put without the church.

All right.

He begins with Valentinus, the absurd ideas, the disciples of Valentinus about the name, order, origin, conjugal productions of the aeons and the usage of passages of scripture to justify these absurd, ridiculous myths.

So we see with Valentinus, one of the first most famous of the Gnostics, he did what our friend who called in just did, right? How do we know Jesus isn't talking about the monad in the Gospel of John? Why ought we think Jesus is talking about the monad? On what basis? Because, I don't know, because maybe it's esoteric, bro.

Oh, okay, well then maybe it's talking about the pleroma and its offspring that Valentinus says.

This was my first critique when we started the live stream today.

There is no one Gnosticism, as you will see from Irenaeus.

The Sphinx from Mystery Men.

where every phrase is an intentional contradiction, but that's because it's mystical, bro, and you don't get it.