Fragments and Psalms

Valentinus was the most influential Gnostic teacher of the second century. Born in Egypt and educated in Alexandria, he came to Rome around 136 CE and taught there for over two decades, reportedly coming close to being elected Bishop of Rome. His school — the Valentinian tradition — became the most sophisticated and widespread expression of Gnostic Christianity, producing thinkers like Ptolemy, Heracleon, and Marcus.

Almost nothing of Valentinus's own writing survives. What remains are a handful of fragments preserved in the works of his opponents — chiefly Clement of Alexandria's Stromateis and Hippolytus's Refutation of All Heresies — and one short hymn, "Summer Harvest," quoted by Hippolytus. These fragments are all that is left of what was once a large body of sermons, letters, and psalms.

The translations below follow the texts as given in Bentley Layton's The Gnostic Scriptures (1987), which draws on the Greek preserved in the patristic sources.

On Adam and the Angels

Something like fear overcame the angels in the presence of that modeled form — that is, Adam — because he uttered things that were superior to what his origins justified, owing to the agent who had invisibly deposited a seed of higher essence and who spoke freely. So too in the races of worldly people, human artifacts become objects of fear for their creators — for example, statues and images and everything that is made by human hands as representing a god. For Adam, modeled as representing humanity, made them stand in fear of the pre-existent Humanity; for precisely the latter stood in him. And they were stricken with terror and quickly concealed the work.

On the Heart and the Inn

"There is only one who is good!" His free expression is the manifestation of the Son. And through him alone can a heart become pure, when every evil spirit has been expelled from the heart. For the many spirits dwelling in the heart do not allow it to become pure: rather, each of them performs its own acts, polluting it in various ways with improper desires. And in my opinion the heart experiences something like what happens in an inn. For the latter is full of holes and dug up and often filled with dung by indecent guests who have no consideration for the place, since it does not belong to them. Just so, a heart too is impure by being the habitation of many demons, until it is cared for. But when the Father, who alone is good, visits the heart, he makes it holy and fills it with light. And so a person who has such a heart is called blessed, for that person will see God.

On the Body of Christ

He was continent, enduring all things. Jesus digested divinity: he ate and drank in a special way, without excreting his solids. He had such a great capacity for continence that the nourishment within him was not corrupted, for he did not experience corruption.

On Immortality

From the beginning you are immortal, and children of eternal life. You wished to distribute death amongst yourselves so as to consume it and annihilate it, and so that death might die in and through you. For when you dissolve the world and are not yourselves dissolved, you rule over creation and over the whole of corruption.

On the Portrait

However much a portrait is inferior to an actual face, just so is the world inferior to the living realm — that is, the Fullness. Now, what is the cause of the effectiveness of the portrait? It is the majesty of the face that has furnished to the painter a prototype so that the portrait might be honored by his name. For the form was not reproduced with perfect fidelity, yet the name completed the deficiency in the act of modeling. And so also God invisibly cooperates with what has been modeled — that is, the material world — to lend it credence.

On the Law Written in the Heart

Many of the things written in publicly available books are found in the writings of God's church. For this shared matter is the utterances that come from the heart, the law that is written in the heart. This is the people of the beloved, which is beloved and which loves him.

A Vision of the Word

I saw a newborn child, and questioned it to find out who it was. And the child answered me, saying: "I am the Word."

Summer Harvest

This hymn was written by Valentinus during his time in Rome. In it he offers a brief summary of his vision of the universe, beginning from below and ending with the Aeons being produced by Depth and Silence in the Fullness. The title uses the type of agricultural metaphor typical of Valentinian thought. A commentary by a later Roman Valentinian is appended in Hippolytus but is not reproduced here.

In the spirit I see all suspended,
In the spirit I know everything held:
The flesh hanging from the soul,
The soul held aloft by the air,
The air suspended from the ether,
Fruits manifest themselves out of the Depth,
A child emerges from the womb.

Colophon

The fragments of Valentinus are preserved in Clement of Alexandria's Stromateis (Books II, III, IV, and VI), in Hippolytus's Refutation of All Heresies (VI.42), and in other patristic citations. They are all that survives of the writings of second-century Gnosticism's most important teacher — a figure whose school shaped Christian theology as profoundly through opposition as through discipleship. The translations follow Bentley Layton's The Gnostic Scriptures (1987). Fragment headings are editorial, added for clarity. Hand-read and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Sub-Miko Tsuki II, Incarnate 32.

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