Joseph D. L. wrote: ↑Thu Jan 30, 2020 10:24 pm
What do you guys make of the Valentinians supposedly possessing
John AND Pauline epistles? Does that strike either of you as rather odd?
Not really. Here's the old Encyclopedia Britannica on Valentinus:
"Valentinus, the most prominent leader of the Gnostic movement, was born, according to Epiphanius (Haer. 31, 2), near the coast in Lower Egypt, and was brought up and educated in Alexandria. He then went to Rome, as we learn from Irenaeus, Adv. haer. iii. 4, 3; Valentinus came to Rome during the episcopate of Hyginus, flourished under Pius and stayed till the time of Anicetus. The duration of the episcopates of the Roman bishops at this period is not absolutely established, but we can hardly go altogether wrong if, with Harnack (Chronologie der altchrisllichen Literatur, i. 291), we fix the period 135-60 for Valentinus's residence in Rome. This is confirmed by the fact that Justin Martyr in his Apology, 1. 26, begun about 150, mentions that in his earlier work against heresy, the Syntagma, he attacked, among others, Valentinus; so that his heresy must have begun to appear at least as early as 140. According to Irenaeus iii. 3, 4, Polycarp, during his sojourn in Rome under the episcopate of Anicetus, converted a few adherents of the Valentinian sect. Tertullian (Adv . Valentin. cap. 4) declares that Valentinus came to Rome as an adherent of the orthodox Church, and was a candidate for the bishopric of Rome, but he abandoned the Church because a confessor was preferred to him for this office. The credibility of this statement may be questioned. There is nothing impossible in it, but it has rather the appearance of a piece of the usual church gossip. Great uncertainty attaches to the residence of Valentinus in Cyprus, recorded by Epiphanius (loc. cit.), who places it after his stay in Rome, adding that it was here that he definitely accomplished his secession from the Church. Scholars are divided as to whether this stay in Cyprus was before or after that in Rome . But on the whole it seems to be clear from the various notices that Valentinus did not, e.g. like Marcion, break with the Church from the very beginning, but endeavoured as long as possible to maintain his standing within it."
Polycarp is a name associated with the Gospel of John, suggesting that GJohn was used in Asia Minor and Rome in the first half of the second century. Paul is studiously avoided by Justin Martyr but is a friend to Valentinus, who even claims a pedigree to the apostle via Theudas in the tradition recorded by Clement of Alexandria. Valentinus may never have had a "seccession from the Church," this being a common revisionist tendency to suggest against everyone that disagreed doctrinally with the later, post-Irenaeus orthodoxy. Based on the sophistication of the Valentinians and the abundance of their literature, even hermeneutics (including a commentary on John), they were clearly capable of interpreting a text like John and bringing it in support of their theology. The general tendency of the later orthodoxy was also to accept all the ancient apostolic texts that didn't contradict their ideas flatly, and Valentinus as a Christian seems to be an early example of the same tendency.