[2] Valentinus produced a variety of writings, but only fragments survive, largely those quoted in rebuttal arguments in the works of his opponents, not enough to reconstruct his system except in broad outline.
[1] Epiphanius of Salamis wrote (c. 390) that he learned through word of mouth (although he acknowledged that it was a disputed point) that Valentinus was "born a Phrebonite" in the coastal region of Egypt, and received his Greek education in Alexandria, an important and metropolitan early center of Christianity.
In Adversus Valentinianos, iv, Tertullian says Valentinus was a candidate for bishop before turning to heresy in a fit of pique, along with Marcion.
Just like those (restless) spirits which, when roused by ambition, are usually inflamed with the desire of revenge, he applied himself with all his might to exterminate the truth; and finding the clue of a certain old opinion, he marked out a path for himself with the subtlety of a serpent.Epiphanius of Salamis wrote that Valentinus became a Gnostic after he had suffered a shipwreck in Cyprus and became insane.
It was one of the major gnostic movements, having widespread following throughout the Roman Empire and provoking voluminous writings by Christian heresiologists.
[16] While Valentinus was alive, he made many disciples, and his system was the most widely diffused of all the forms of Gnosticism, although, as Tertullian remarked, it developed into several different versions, not all of which acknowledged their dependence on him ("they affect to disavow their name").
The first series of beings, the aeons, were thirty in number, representing fifteen syzygies or pairs sexually complementary.
Through the error of Sophia, one of the lowest aeons, and the ignorance of Saklas, the lower world with its subjection to matter is brought into existence.
Man, the highest being in the lower world, as individuals exists in one of three states: pneumatic (spiritual), psychic (animate), or hylic (material) nature.
Of the mid-2nd century thinkers and preachers who were declared heretical by Irenaeus and later mainstream Christians, only Marcion of Sinope is as outstanding as a personality.
The contemporary orthodox counter to Valentinus was Justin Martyr, though it was Irenaeus of Lyons who presented the most vigorous challenge to the Valentinians.
Marcellus, who believed Father and Son to be one and the same, attacked his opponents by attempting to link them to Valentinus: In the fourth century, Marcellus declared that the idea of the Godhead existing as three hypostases (hidden spiritual realities) came from Plato through the teachings of Valentinus,[19] who is quoted as teaching that God is three hypostases and three prosopa (persons) called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: Now with the heresy of the Ariomaniacs, which has corrupted the Church of God...
A modern student, M. T. Riley, observes that Tertullian's Adversus Valentinianos retranslated some passages from Irenaeus, without adding original material.
As with all the non-traditional early Christian writers, Valentinus has been known largely through quotations in the works of his detractors, though an Alexandrian follower also preserved some fragmentary sections as extended quotes.
"[27] Indeed, the overarching theme of the text is the revelation of the oneness of Christian believers with the "Father" through the "Son", leading to a new experience of life characterized by the words "fullness" and "rest".