The Valentinians: Ancient Christian Gnostics?

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I find Valentinians, Sethians, Hermeticists, and all so called Gnosticism to be utterly fascinating.

Wonderful! Actually working on an episode on the Epistle to Flora and Summer Harvest for next week!

"Not making things out of thin pneuma." I noticed the subtle joke. I laughed.

There's a sci-fi book calked Mysterium, by Robert Charles Wilson where a small Michigan town gets pulled into an alternate reality where Valentinus DID become Bishop of Rome and a gnostic form of Christianity became orthodox. One line resounded with me. The new world's religious investigators found the Christianity of the transported townsfolk almost Jewish in nature, due to their strict monotheism.

I’m so fascinated with Gnosticism please keep covering this stuff!

Went straight from here to listening to a reading of the entire Tripartite Tractate - about 2 hrs long. Despite it's ethereal subject matter and esoteric jargon, I think it's quite easy for a modern person to absorb, because it's written more like a logical thesis than a typical piece of scripture. It's so clearly written by a highly intelligent Hellenic person who has accepted the Jewish savior and aspects of Jewish mysticism and is trying to re-imagine them in a way that makes more sense to a Greek mind. Utterly fascinating.

This channel gives me so many interesting topics to discuss with my dad. Thanks Andrew!

I just found your channel and your introduction alone had me sold. The clarity, care and respect with which you present the historical context, prejudices and misconceptions are extraordinary. And the quality of the presentation holds up until the end. Now I have backlog of videos to watch. I promise to not pay much attention to the production quality of your early videos 😜

I just did a paper for one of my religion classes on Gnostic literature with Valentinian cosmology at the center. It was really fun, excited for this video.

Being in these early groups must have been fascinating. Not only do you have people raised Jewish you have people coming from a Greek and Roman background.

The bride groom and bridal chamber play a large role in Eastern Orthodox theology, specifically surrounding the crucifixion and the church’s role as the bride of Christ.

As always, an interesting analysis of this religous system. Real history, people and their beliefs are always far more interesting and diverse than we tend to believe because of our prism of experience and beliefs.

The "Angel of the Great/Mightly Council" title is very familiar to the Eastern Orthodox tradition. It is apparently how one of the bits of the famous "Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God..." passage in Isaiah is translated in Septuagint and, consequently, in the translations dependent on it (e.g. into Church Slavonic).

One of my youthful follies was looking into gnosticism, and somehow it managed to fly right over my head that gnosticism was a stream of Christianity, and that the "demiurge" theology is a cosmological attempt for Christians to reconcile God as he appears in the Old Testament, with the God that Jesus teaches. Somehow (I won't say how) I kept thinking of gnosticism as a kind of seperare philosophy, rather than as a branch of explicitly Christian thought. It makes so much more sense now. Thanks!

I've really struggled to wrap my head around Valentinianism for the longest time. This was helpful.

I am overwhelmingly thankful to see Dr. Ismo Dunderberg and his research mentioned. He has provided exceptional insight into the Valentinians, and his book "Beyond Gnosticism" is a must read for anyone looking for in-depth information into the School of Valentinus.

I recently read a translation of the Gospel of Truth and had immense difficulty understanding what the authors meant by "spirit" and "soul". This presentation helped a lot.

Wow. Extremely interesting, wish I knew so much more about the various "Gnostic" beliefs such a shame so much is lost to time or undiscovered.

I love these deep dives. You keep the pace moving at exactly the speed I wish to imbibe it all. This is so helpful in understanding a variety of very disparate philosophies. Thank you.