主要的诺斯替流派之一。在圣经旧约结束到第一次尼西亚公会议的这段时间（大约是公元前四世纪到公元三世纪），地中海地区流传着大量诺斯替主义的思潮。历史上的瓦伦丁在大约公元二世纪期间于罗马任教，他结合了诺斯替和圣经。著名的瓦伦提尼派信徒包括赫拉克里翁（Heracleon，约建于 175 年）、托勒密、弗洛里努斯、阿克西奥尼库斯和狄奥多图斯。
公元 4 世纪，罗马皇帝狄奥多西一世颁布了《帖撒罗尼迦敕令》，宣布尼西亚基督教为罗马帝国的国教，瓦伦丁教派被基督教学者谴责为异端。由于早期教会领袖鼓励销毁诺斯替主义的文本，因此瓦伦丁教派的大部分文献都来自其批评者和诋毁者。例如里昂的爱任纽和罗马的希波吕托斯。据说瓦伦提努斯是一位多产作家；然而，他的作品仅存于亚历山大的克莱门特、希波吕托斯和安西拉的马塞勒斯的引文中。大多数学者还认为，瓦伦提努斯写了《真理福音》，这是纳格哈马迪文本之一。
瓦伦提尼体系
最初有一个 Pleroma（字面意思是 "充满"）。在 Pleroma 的中心有一位原始的父亲或 Bythos，他是万物之始，经过漫长岁月的沉默和沉思，他投射出三十个 Aeons，即代表十五种对称或互补的天堂原型。其中就有索菲亚。索菲亚的软弱、好奇和激情导致她从冥界坠落，创造了世界和人类，而这两者都是有缺陷的。瓦伦丁派把《旧约》中的上帝认定为半神，是物质世界不完美的创造者。
人是这个物质世界的最高存在，既有精神本性，也有物质本性。救赎的工作就是将前者从后者中解放出来。人类个体获得这种知识会对宇宙秩序产生积极影响，并有助于恢复这种秩序，救赎的关键是悟性而非信仰。
永恒
[12]灵子属于纯粹理想的、非本体的、可知的或超可知的世界；它们是非物质的，是超本体的观念。它们与产生它们的源泉一起构成了灵界。从非物质到物质，从非名到名，是由女性永恒索菲亚的缺陷、激情或罪恶造成的。
Epiphanius alleges that the Valentinians "set forth their thirty aeons in mythologic fashion, thinking that they conformed to the years of Jesus".[13] Of the eight celestial beings of the Ogdoad, four are peculiar to the Valentinian system. The third pair of Aeons, Logos and Zoe, occur only here, and the place of this pair is not firmly established, and occur sometimes before and sometimes after the fourth pair of Aeons, the Anthropos and the Ekklesia. We cannot be far wrong in suspecting that Valentinus was influenced by the prologue of the fourth Gospel (we also find the probably Johannine names Monogenes and Parakletos in the series of Aeons).[14]
Sophia[edit]
In Valentinianism, Sophia always stands absolutely at the center of the system, and in some sense she seems to represent the supreme female principle.
Sophia is the youngest of the Aeons. Observing the multitude of Aeons and the power of begetting them, she hurries back into the depth of the Father, and seeks to emulate him by producing offspring without conjugal intercourse, but only projects an abortion, a formless substance. Upon this she is cast out of Pleroma and into the primal sub-stratum of matter.[15] In the Valentinian systems, the fall of Sophia appears in double guise. The higher Sophia still remains within the upper world after creating a disturbance, and after her expiation and repentance; but her premature offspring, Sophia Achamoth, is removed from the Pleroma, and becomes the heroine of the rest of the drama.[14] This fallen Sophia becomes a world creative power.
Plérome de Valentin, from Histoire critique du Gnosticisme; Jacques Matter, 1826, Vol. II, Plate II.
Sophia Achamoth, or "Lower Wisdom", the daughter of "Higher Wisdom", becomes the mother of the Demiurge, identified with the God of the Old Testament.
The Gnostics are children of Sophia; from her the heavenly seed, the divine spark, descended into this lower world, subject to the Heimarmene (destiny) and in the power of hostile spirits and powers; and all their sacraments and mysteries, their formulae and symbols, must be in order to find the way upwards, back to the highest heaven. This idea that the Gnostics know themselves to be in a hostile and evil world is reflected in the conception of Sophia. She became likewise a fallen Aeon, who has sunk down into the material world and seeks to free herself from it, receiving her liberation at the hands of a heavenly Redeemer, exactly like the Gnostics.[16]
The goddess who sinks down into the material may readily be identified with Ruach (רוח), the Spirit of God, who broods over Chaos, or even with the later Chokhmah, who was generally conceived of as a world-creating agent.[16]
This system was very closely followed by Valentinus, who may have come to know these doctrines in Egypt.[16][Note 1] Irenaeus characterizes the Gnostics as believing themselves to be pneumatici i.e those who exclusively have a perfect knowledge of God, and have been initiated into the mysteries of Achamoth.[17]
Anthropos[edit]
The chief influence at work here seems to have been the idea of the celestial Anthropos (i.e. the Primal Man) – of whom the myth originally relates that he has sunk into matter and then raised himself up from it again – which appears in its simple form in individual Gnostic systems, e.g. in Poimandres (in the Corpus Hermeticum) and in Manichaeism.[16]
According to Valentinus,[18] the Anthropos no longer appears as the world-creative power sinking down into the material world, but as a celestial Aeon of the upper world (or even as the supreme god), who stands in a clearly defined relationship to the fallen Aeon.[16] Adam was created in the name of Anthropos, and overawes the demons by the fear of the pre-existent man. This Anthropos is a cosmogonic element, pure mind as distinct from matter, mind conceived hypostatically as emanating from God and not yet darkened by contact with matter. This mind is considered as the reason of humanity, or humanity itself, as a personified idea, a category without corporeality, the human reason conceived as the World-Soul.[citation needed] It is possible that the role of the Anthropos is here transferred to Sophia Achamoth.[16]
It is also clear why the Ekklesia appears together with the Anthropos. With this is associated the community of the faithful and the redeemed, who are to share the same fate with him. Perfect gnosis (and thus the whole body of Gnostics) is connected with the Anthropos.[14][19]
Christ[edit]
Next to Sophia stands a male redeeming divinity. In the true Valentinian system, the Christ is the son of the fallen Sophia, who is thus conceived as an individual. Sophia conceives a passion for the First Father himself, or rather, under pretext of love she seeks to draw near to the unattainable Bythos, the Unknowable, and to comprehend his greatness. She brings forth, through her longing for that higher being, an Aeon who is higher and purer than herself, and at once rises into the celestial worlds. Christ has pity on the abortive substance born of Sophia and gives it essence and form, whereupon Sophia tries to rise again to the Father, but in vain. In the enigmatic figure of Christ we again find hidden the original conception of the Primal Man, who sinks down into matter but rises again.[14]
In the fully developed Ptolemaean system we find a kindred conception, but with a slight difference. Here Christ and Sophia appear as brother and sister, with Christ representing the higher and Sophia the lower element. When this world has been born from Sophia in consequence of her passion, two Aeons, Nous (mind) and Aletheia (truth), by command of the Father, produce two new Aeons, Christ and the Holy Ghost; these restore order in the Pleroma, and in consequence all Aeons combine their best and most wonderful qualities to produce a new Aeon (Jesus, Logos, Soter, or Christ), the "First Fruits" whom they offer to the Father. And this celestial redeemer-Aeon now enters into a marriage with the fallen Aeon; they are the "bride and bridegroom". It is boldly stated in the exposition in Hippolytus' Philosophumena that they produce between them 70 celestial angels.[20]
This myth can be connected with the historic Jesus of Nazareth by further relating that Christ, having been united to the Sophia, descends into the earthly Jesus, the son of Mary, at his baptism, and becomes the Saviour of men.[16]
Horos[edit]
A figure entirely peculiar to Valentinian Gnosticism is that of Horos (the Limiter). The name is perhaps an echo of the Egyptian Horus.[14][21]
The task of Horos is to separate the fallen Aeons from the upper world of Aeons. At the same time he becomes a kind of world-creative power, who in this capacity helps to construct an ordered world out of Sophia and her passions. He is also called Stauros (cross), and we frequently meet with references to the figure of Stauros. Speculations about the Stauros are older than Christianity, and a Platonic conception may have been at work here. Plato had already stated that the World-Soul revealed itself in the form of the letter Chi (X), by which he meant that figure described in the heavens by the intersecting orbits of the sun and the planetary ecliptic. Since through this double orbit all the movements of the heavenly powers are determined, so all "becoming" and all life depend on it, and thus we can understand the statement that the World-Soul appears in the form of an X, or a cross.[14]
The cross can also stand for the wondrous Aeon on whom depends the ordering and life of the world, and thus Horos-Stauros appears here as the first redeemer of Sophia from her passions, and as the orderer of the creation of the world which now begins. Naturally, then, the figure of Horos-Stauros was often assimilated to that of the Christian Redeemer.[14] We possibly find echoes of this in the Gospel of Peter, where the Cross itself is depicted as speaking and even floating out of the tomb.[citation needed]
Monism[edit]
Peculiarly Valentinian is the above-mentioned derivation of the material world from the passions of Sophia. Whether this already formed part of the original system of Valentinus is questionable, but at any rate it plays a prominent part in the Valentinian school, and consequently appears with the most diverse variations in the account given by Irenaeus. By it is effected the comparative monism of the Valentinian system, and the dualism of the conception of two separate worlds of light and darkness is overcome:[14]
This collection [of passions] ... was the substance of the matter from which this world was formed. From [her desire of] returning [to him who gave her life], every soul belonging to this world, and that of the Demiurge himself, derived its origin. All other things owed their beginning to her terror and sorrow. For from her tears all that is of a liquid nature was formed; from her smile all that is lucent; and from her grief and perplexity all the corporeal elements of the world.[22]
Demiurge[edit]
This derivation of the material world from the passions of the fallen Sophia is next affected by an older theory, which probably occupied an important place in the main Valentinian system. According to this theory the son of Sophia, whom she forms on the model of the Christ who has disappeared in the Pleroma, becomes the Demiurge, who with his angels now appears as the real-world creative power.[14]
According to the older conception, he was an evil and malicious offspring of his mother, who has already been deprived of any particle of light.[18][failed verification] In the Valentinian systems, the Demiurge was the offspring of a union of Sophia Achamoth with matter, and appears as the fruit of Sophia's repentance and conversion.[14] But as Achamoth herself was only the daughter of Sophia, the last of the thirty Aeons, the Demiurge was distant by many emanations from the Supreme God. The Demiurge in creating this world out of Chaos was unconsciously influenced for good by Christ; and the universe, to the surprise even of its Maker, became almost perfect. The Demiurge regretted even its slight imperfection, and as he thought himself the Supreme God, he attempted to remedy this by sending a Messiah. To this Messiah, however, was actually united Christ the Saviour, who redeemed men.
Creation of Man[edit]
With the doctrine of the creation of the world is connected the subject of the creation of man. According to it, the world-creating angels – not one, but many – create man, but the seed of the spirit comes into their creature without their knowledge, by the agency of a higher celestial Aeon, and they are then terrified by the faculty of speech by which their creature rises above them and try to destroy him.[14]
It is significant that Valentinus himself is credited with having written a treatise upon the threefold nature of man,[23] who is represented as at once spiritual, psychical, and material. In accordance with this there also arise three classes of men: the pneumatici, the psychici, and the hylici.[14] This doctrine dates at least as far back as Plato's Republic.
The first, the material, will return to the grossness of matter and finally be consumed by fire.
The second, or psychical, together with the Demiurge as their master, will enter a middle state, neither heaven (Pleroma) nor hell (matter).
The third, the purely spiritual men will be completely freed from the influence of the Demiurge and together with the Saviour and Achamoth, his spouse, will enter the Pleroma divested of body and soul.
However, it is not unanimous the belief that material or psychical people were hopeless. Some have argued from the existent sources that humans could reincarnate in any of the three times, therefore a material or psychical person might have the chance to reborn in a future lifetime as a spiritual one.[24]
We also find ideas that emphasize the distinction between the soma psychikon and the soma pneumatikon:
Perfect redemption is the cognition itself of the ineffable greatness: for since through ignorance came about the defect ... the whole system springing from ignorance is dissolved in gnosis. Therefore gnosis is the redemption of the inner man; and it is not of the body, for the body is corruptible; nor is it psychical, for even the soul is a product of the defect and it is a lodging to the spirit: pneumatic (spiritual) therefore also must be redemption itself. Through gnosis, then, is redeemed the inner, spiritual man: so that to us suffices the gnosis of universal being: and this is the true redemption.[25]
Soteriology[edit]
Salvation is not merely individual redemption of each human soul; it is a cosmic process. It is the return of all things to what they were before the flaw in the sphere of the Aeons brought matter into existence and imprisoned some part of the Divine Light into the evil Hyle (matter). This setting free of the light sparks is the process of salvation; when all light shall have left Hyle, it will be burnt up and destroyed.
In Valentinianism the process is extraordinarily elaborate, and we find here developed particularly clearly the myth of the heavenly marriage.[26] This myth, as we shall see more fully below, and as may be mentioned here, is of great significance for the practical piety of the Valentinian Gnostics. It is the chief idea of their pious practices mystically to repeat the experience of this celestial union of the Saviour with Sophia. In this respect, consequently, the myth underwent yet wider development. Just as the Saviour is the bridegroom of Sophia, so the heavenly angels, who sometimes appear as the sons of the Saviour and Sophia, sometimes as the escort of the Saviour, are the males betrothed to the souls of the Gnostics, which are looked upon as feminine. Thus every Gnostic had her unfallen counterpart standing in the presence of God, and the object of a pious life was to bring about and experience this inner union with the celestial abstract personage. This leads us straight to the sacramental ideas of this branch of Gnosticism (see below). And it also explains the expression used of the Gnostics in Irenaeus,[27] that they always meditate upon the secret of the heavenly union (the Syzygia).[20]
"The final consummation of all things will take place when all that is spiritual has been formed and perfected by gnosis."[17]
Gnosis[edit]
The central point of the piety of Valentinus seems to have been that mystical contemplation of God; in a letter preserved in Clement of Alexandria,[28] he sets forth that the soul of man is like an inn, which is inhabited by many evil spirits.
But when the Father, who alone is good, looks down and around him, then the soul is hallowed and lies in full light, and so he who has such a heart as this is to be called happy, for he shall behold God.[29]
But this contemplation of God, as Valentinus declares, closely and deliberately following the doctrines of the Church and with him the compiler of the Gospel of John, is accomplished through the revelation of the Son. This mystic also discusses a vision which is preserved in the Philosophumena of Hippolytus:[29]
Valentinus ... had seen an infant child lately born; and questioning (this child), he proceeded to inquire who it might be. And (the child) replied, saying that he himself is the Logos, and then subjoined a sort of tragic legend...[30]
With celestial enthusiasm Valentinus here surveys and depicts the heavenly world of Aeons, and its connection with the lower world. Exalted joy of battle and a valiant courage breathe forth in the sermon in which Valentinus addresses the faithful:
Ye are from the beginning immortal and children of eternal life, and desire to divide death amongst you like a prey, in order to destroy it and utterly to annihilate it, that thus death may die in you and through you, for if ye dissolve the world, and are not yourselves dissolved, then are ye lords over creation and over all that passes away.[29][31]
Sacraments[edit]
The authorities for the sacramental practices of the Valentinians are preserved especially in the accounts of the Marcosians given in Irenaeus i. 13 and 20, and in the last section of Clement of Alexandria's Excerpta ex Theodoto.[29]
In almost all the sacramental prayers of the Gnostics handed down to us by Irenaeus, the Mother is the object of the invocation. There are moreover various figures in the fully developed system of the Valentinians who are in the Gnostic's mind when he calls upon the Mother; sometimes it is the fallen Achamoth, sometimes the higher Sophia abiding in the celestial world, sometimes Aletheia, the consort of the supreme heavenly father, but it is always the same idea, the Mother, on whom the faith of the Gnostics is fixed. Thus a baptismal confession of faith of the Gnostics[32] runs:
In the name of the unknown Father of all, by Aletheia, the Mother of all, by the name which descended upon Jesus.[29]
Bridal Chamber[edit]
The chief sacrament of the Valentinians seems to have been that of the bridal chamber (nymphon).[29] The Gospel of Philip, a probable Valentinian text, reads:
There were three buildings specifically for sacrifice in Jerusalem. The one facing the west was called "The Holy". Another, facing south, was called "The Holy of the Holy". The third, facing east, was called "The Holy of the Holies", the place where only the high priest enters. Baptism is "the Holy" building. Redemption is the "Holy of the Holy". "The Holy of the Holies" is the bridal chamber. Baptism includes the resurrection and the redemption; the redemption (takes place) in the bridal chamber.
As Sophia was united with the Saviour, her bridegroom, so the faithful would experience a union with their angel in the Pleroma (cf. the "Higher Self" or "Holy Guardian Angel"). The ritual of this sacrament is briefly indicated: "A few of them prepare a bridal chamber and in it go through a form of consecration, employing certain fixed formulae, which are repeated over the person to be initiated, and stating that a spiritual marriage is to be performed after the pattern of the higher Syzygia."[32] Through a fortunate chance, a liturgical formula which was used at this sacrament appears to be preserved, though in a garbled form and in an entirely different connection, the author seeming to have been uncertain as to its original meaning. It runs:
I will confer my favor upon thee, for the father of all sees thine angel ever before his face ... we must now become as one; receive now this grace from me and through me; deck thyself as a bride who awaits her bridegroom, that thou mayest become as I am, and I as thou art. Let the seed of light descend into thy bridal chamber; receive the bridegroom and give place to him, and open thine arms to embrace him. Behold, grace has descended upon thee.[33][34]
Other key features of the doctrine of the Bridal Chamber included the use of mirrors as part of the decor, and the idea that those who had partaken in the rituals would be able to beget children in the world to come.[citation needed]
Baptism[edit]
Besides this the Gnostics already practiced baptism, using the same form in all essentials as that of the Christian Church. The name given to baptism, at least among certain bodies, was apolytrosis (liberation); the baptismal formulae have been mentioned above.[33]
The Gnostics are baptized in the mysterious name which also descended upon Jesus at his baptism.[clarification needed] The angels of the Gnostics have also had to be baptized in this name, in order to bring about redemption for themselves and the souls belonging to them.[33][35]
In the baptismal formulae the sacred name of the Redeemer is mentioned over and over again. In one of the formulae occur the words: "I would enjoy thy name, Saviour of Truth." The concluding formula of the baptismal ceremony is: "Peace over all upon whom the Name rests."[32] This name pronounced at baptism over the faithful has above all the significance that the name will protect the soul in its ascent through the heavens, conduct it safely through all hostile powers to the lower heavens, and procure it access to Horos, who frightens back the lower souls by his magic word.[35] And for this life also baptism, in consequence of the pronouncing of the protecting name over the baptized person, accomplishes his liberation from the lower daemonic powers. Before baptism the Heimarmene is supreme, but after baptism the soul is free from her.[33][36]
According to Jorunn J. Buckley, a Mandaean baptismal formula was adopted by Valentinian Gnostics in Rome and Alexandria in the 2nd century CE.[37]: 109
Death[edit]
With baptism was also connected the anointing with oil, and hence we can also understand the death sacrament occurring among some Valentinians consisting in an anointing with a mixture of oil and water.[25] This death sacrament has naturally the express object of assuring the soul the way to the highest heaven "so that the soul may be intangible and invisible to the higher mights and powers".[25] In this connection we also find a few formulae which are entrusted to the faithful, so that their souls may pronounce them on their journey upwards. One of these formulae runs:
I am a son from the Father – the Father who had a pre-existence, and a son in Him who is pre-existent. I have come to behold all things, both those which belong to myself and others, although, strictly speaking, they do not belong to others, but to Achamoth, who is female in nature, and made these things for herself. For I derive being from Him who is pre-existent, and I come again to my own place whence I went forth...[38]
Another formula is appended, in which there is a distinction in the invocation between the higher and lower Sophia. Another prayer of the same style is to be found in Irenaeus i. 13, and it is expressly stated that after prayer is pronounced the Mother throws the Homeric helmet (cf. the Tarnhelm) over the faithful soul, and so makes him invisible to the mights and powers which surround and attack him.[33]
Reaction[edit]
On the other hand, a reaction took place here and there against the sacramental rites. A pure piety, rising above mere sacramentalism, breathes in the words of the Gnostics preserved in Excerpta ex Theodoto, 78, 2:
But not baptism alone sets us free, but knowledge (gnosis): who we were, what we have become, where we were, whither we have sunk, whither we hasten, whence we are redeemed, what is birth and what rebirth.[33]
Relationship with the Church[edit]
The distinction between the human and divine Saviour was a major point of contention between the Valentinians and the Church. Valentinus separated Christ into three figures; the spiritual, the psychical and material. Each of the three Christ figures had its own meaning and purpose.[39] They acknowledged that Christ suffered and died, but believed that "in his incarnation, Christ transcended human nature so that he could prevail over death by divine power".[40] These beliefs are what caused Irenaeus to say of the Valentinians, "Certainly they confess with their tongues the one Jesus Christ, but in their minds they divide him."[41] In one passage in the account of Irenaeus, it is directly stated that the redeemer assumed a psychical body to redeem the psychical, for the spiritual already belong by nature to the celestial world and no longer require any historical redemption, while the material is incapable of redemption,[17] as "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption".[42]
Many Valentinian traditions and practices also clashed with those of the Church. They often met at unauthorized gatherings and rejected ecclesiastical authority, based on their belief that they were all equal. Members of the movement took turns administering sacraments, as well as preaching.[43] Among the Valentinians, women were considered to be equal, or at least nearly equal to men. There were female prophets, teachers, healers, evangelists and even priests, which was very different from the Church's view of women at the time.[44] Valentinians held normal jobs, got married and raised children just like Christians; however they regarded these pursuits as being less important than gnosis, which was to be achieved individually.[45] The beliefs of the Valentinians were much more oriented towards the individual than the group, and salvation was not seen as being universal, as it was in the Church.
The main disagreements between the Valentinians and the Church were in the notions that God and the creator were two separate entities, the idea that the creator was flawed and formed man and Earth out of ignorance and confusion, and the separation of Christ's human form and divine form. Church authorities believed that Valentinian theology was "a wickedly casuistic way of subverting their authority and thereby threatening the ecclesiastical order with anarchy."[43] The practices and rituals of the Valentinians were also different from those of the Christian Church; however they considered themselves to be Christians and not pagans or heretics. By referring to themselves as Christians they worsened their relationship with the Church, who viewed them not only as heretics, but as rivals.[46]
Although the Valentinians publicly professed their faith in one God, "in their own private meetings they insisted on discriminating between the popular image of God – as master, king, lord, creator, and judge – and what that image represented: God understood as the ultimate source of all being."[47] Aside from the Church fathers, however, "the majority of Christians did not recognize the followers of Valentinus as heretics. Most could not tell the difference between Valentinian and orthodox teaching."[47] This was partially because Valentinus used many books that now belong to the Old and New Testaments as a basis for interpretation in his own writing. He based his work on proto-orthodox Christian canon instead of on Gnostic scripture, and his style was similar to that of early Christian works. In this way, Valentinus tried to bridge the gap between Gnostic religion and early Catholicism.[48] By attempting to bridge this gap, however, Valentinus and his followers became the proverbial wolves in sheep's clothing. "The apparent similarity with orthodox teaching only made this heresy more dangerous – like poison disguised as milk."[47] Valentinian Gnosticism was "the most influential and sophisticated form of Gnostic teaching, and by far the most threatening to the church."[47]
Early Christianity has been described as "a complex network of individual parties, groups, sects, or denominations."[49] This inconsistency made Gnostic sects such as Valentinianism threatening to the proto-orthodox sect.
Texts[edit]
Valentinian works are named in reference to the bishop and teacher Valentinius. Circa 153 AD, Valentinius developed a complex cosmology outside the Sethian tradition. At one point he was close to being appointed the Bishop of Rome of what is now the Roman Catholic Church. Works attributed to his school are listed below, and fragmentary pieces directly linked to him are noted with an asterisk:
The Divine Word Present in the Infant (Fragment A) *
On the Three Natures (Fragment B) *
Adam's Faculty of Speech (Fragment C) *
To Agathopous: Jesus' Digestive System (Fragment D) *
Annihilation of the Realm of Death (Fragment F) *
On Friends: The Source of Common Wisdom (Fragment G) *
Epistle on Attachments (Fragment H) *
Summer Harvest*
Ptolemy's Version of the Gnostic Myth
Ptolemy's Epistle to Flora
Treatise on the Resurrection (Epistle to Rheginus)
高天之上，不可视不可名之中，有一位完美的神体（AEon），叫做深渊（the Deep）。他存在于所有一切之前，是不可见，不可理解，永恒，且自生的。深渊有一位伴侣，叫做静默（the Silence），结合生下了一对孩子，叫做心灵（the Mind）和真理（the Truth）。心灵和真理结合生下了一对孩子，叫做道（the Word）和生命（the Life）。道和生命结合，生下了一对孩子，叫做人（the man）和教会（the Church）。这里说的人不是真的人类的意思，可以理解为单纯是一个神体的名字。
这八个神体就是最初的八个神体，其中心灵（the Mind）是特别的一个，是唯一一个明确说可以意识到老爹深渊（the Deep）的神体，其他神体都无法意识深渊（the Deep）的存在。然后心灵就告诉了其他神体深渊（the Deep）的存到。那么其他神体为了荣耀老爹深渊（the Deep）的存在，就又创造出了其他的十加十二个神体。
道（the Word）和生命（the Life）创造出了the profound, and commixture; the undecaying, and union; the self-originated, and pleasure; the un-moved, and incorporation; the only-begotten, and blessed one，一共是十个神体。
人（the man）和教会（the Church）创造出了the comforter, and faith; the paternal one, and hope; the maternal one, and love; the ever-intelligent, and understanding; the Ecclesiastical one, and blessedness; the desired, and Wisdom，一共是十二个神体。
上述的八加十加十二一共三十个神体共同形成了普累罗麻（Pleroma）。普累罗麻是一个纯净的意识世界，在瓦伦丁教派中就对应于诺斯替主义的异世界。
在所有的三十个神体中，最年轻也最外围的一个就是智慧（the Wisdom），一般认为这是一个阴性的神体，也有人称其为索菲亚（Sophia）。智慧对老爹深渊爆发了强烈的感情，想要见到老爹。“她冲入到父的深处，发觉所有生下来的神体都是通过交配生下来的，唯有父是自己由自己生出来的（有些版本里面父是没有配偶的）。于是她也想模仿他，无须配偶就从她自己生殖，以便不缺少父的成就。她没有想到这是惟有自生者才有的能力，因此她所能做的只是生出了一个无形的实体。智慧干了这些坏事儿之后，她自己也后悔了，于是所有的神体一起向老爹深渊祈祷。深渊就又生出了一对儿神体，称为基督（the Christ）和圣灵（the Holy spirit），用以恢复普累罗麻的和谐与宁静。基督在处理这件事的过程中，发现这个生出来的无形体必须要抛出普累罗麻才能恢复平静，因此基督就把无形体抛出了普累罗麻，形成了叫做阿卡莫特（Achamoth）的存在。 阿卡莫特在虚空之中无依无靠，产生了大量的负面情绪，包括悲伤、恐惧、困惑、无知等，此外还有一个半正面的情绪，叫做皈依。智慧看到自己的孩子受苦，就向基督来求援。由于基督并不希望离开普累罗麻，因此所有的神体合力制造出了普累罗麻的“共同果实”-耶稣（Jesus）来作为阿卡莫特的配偶。
耶稣来到阿卡莫特身边后，将她身上的负面情绪清除出去，这些清除出去的负面情绪就形成了德慕革（Demiurge）。在大多数诺斯替主义流派中，德慕革就是物质世界的造物主，就相当于是耶和华的位置。但是诺斯替主义者并不认可造物主，在他们心中，谁制造出了物质，谁就是邪恶的，因此诺斯替主义者基本都是反耶和华的。
按照瓦伦丁的教义，德慕革的特征是无知，也就是不知道普累罗麻的存在。阿卡莫特在被耶稣清理过之后，已经能够看到普累罗麻的存在，摆脱了无知的状态，和耶稣一起成为了属灵的（spiritual）存在。耶稣和阿卡莫特就一起形成了灵界普纽玛特（pneumat）。
但是德慕革不知道阿卡莫特和普累罗麻的存在，因此德慕革狂妄的称自己为宇宙中唯一的存在，并创造出了物质界，也就是圣经中上帝七日造人的传说。德慕革本身是属魂的（psyche），基本可以认为是人类负面情绪的集合。
德慕革还在物质界中派出了自己的先知（摩西、以利亚等等）用来指导人类的活动。但是，有时候阿卡莫特会越过德慕革影响这些先知，“在不为德慕革所知的情况下，母亲经常通过他们的嘴巴来传达她的消息，把自己的信息嵌入到世界之神的信息之中。”换句话说呢，就是瓦伦丁教徒可以从圣经中翻出偶尔的一句或者两句，把这两句解释为是来自灵界普纽玛特的信息，把圣经拆成对自己有利的和对自己不利的两个部分，对自己有利的就承认，不利的就说是来自德慕革的。
人包含了三个部分，身来自物质世界；魂来自于无知的德慕革；灵来自于耶稣和阿卡莫特，是关于上界普累罗麻的信息。如果有人感受到了来自灵界普纽玛特的信息，那他的人生任务就是想办法回到普累罗麻中。为了阻止人们回到普累罗麻中，德慕革设置了阿奇翁（Archon）这个职位，一般是七个阿奇翁来层层拦截人向普累罗麻的回归。很多诺斯替流派主张德慕革本身也是一个阿奇翁。而所谓的“灵知”，就是突破这七层阻拦所需要的知识。比如说如果把阿奇翁看作是守门者的话，在奥立金（Origen）的诺斯替流派里面有如下的答案：
对“第一与第七”应这样回答：“我，是纯粹的诺斯（Nous）的一句话，圣子与圣父的一件杰作，带着一个印有生命特征的象征——我打开你们用你们的移涌锁住的世界的们，再次自由的通过你们的能量。父，让恩典与我同在，让它与我同在。”
对萨巴多则要这样回答：“第五个能量的掌权者，统治者萨巴多，你的创造的律法提倡者，现在已为恩典所取消，因为恩典比你的五重能量更强大，看一下这个你的技艺所无法摧毁的象征，让我通过吧。”
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从普通人的角度看瓦伦丁教派
汉斯约纳斯对诺斯替的神话思辨体系总结除了七个相继过渡的先验图式（见《古代诺斯替主义经典文集》【中】张新樟 编）：
这个世界与神之间的距离（距离的先验图式）；
这个禁闭的世界（洞穴先验图式）；
人被囚禁在这个世界中（低处或此世的先验图式）；
迷路的体验（迷宫的先验图式）；
自我不属于这个世界（否定或孤独的图式）；
神是绝对的高于这个世界（高处、外面或彼岸的先验图式）
此外还有一些指向性的运动包含在所有这些图式之中，把这些图式构成一个整体：堕落、失去本源以及所有这些的相反运动（向上与向下运动的先验图式）
我认为这七个图式很好的总结了诺斯替主义（包括瓦伦丁教派）的主要特征，可以说是“被困的异乡人”这个意象的具体扩展。这个教义当然有很多可以吐槽的地方，比如至上的深渊（the Deep）何以无法阻止堕落的发生，是否这意味着深渊并非至上的存在（善花何以开出恶果？）比如这个教义是不是过于复杂了，以至于瓦伦丁教派内部都有各种各样的不同的说法，还有说深渊创造了365个神体的，貌似这也太随意了等等。但是这些分析，爱任纽已经做的很充分了，我再重复一遍实在没有太大的意义。要真的理解瓦伦丁派的教义从何而来，还是要回到公元前的历史中，回顾一下诺斯替提思想的起源才行，这就是我们下一节要做的事情。
最后说几个名词是在后面会反复用到的，我们需要记住：普累罗麻（pleroma），移涌/神体（AEon），普纽玛特（pneumat），德慕革（demiurge），阿奇翁（Archons），这些概念大概是从上向下堕落的顺序排列的。
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