Miscellanies 4.13.89
Summary: Valentinus taught that the spiritual, immortal by nature, came down to destroy death, which is the Creator's work; he reads “no one sees God's face and lives” of the Creator, and calls the world an image inferior to the living Aeon.
Greek text · Stählin 2:287
Καὶ περὶ μὲν τούτων πολὺς ὁ λόγος, ὃν ἐν ὑστέρῳ σκοπεῖν ἀποκείσεται κατὰ καιρὸν διαλαμβάνουσιν. Οὐαλεντῖνος δὲ ἔν τινι ὁμιλίᾳ κατὰ λέξιν γράφει· ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς ἀθάνατοί ἐστε καὶ τέκνα ζωῆς ἐστε αἰωνίας καὶ τὸν θάνατον ἠθέλετε μερίσασθαι εἰς ἑαυτούς, ἵνα δαπανήσητε αὐτὸν καὶ ἀναλώσητε, καὶ ἀποθάνῃ ὁ θάνατος ἐν ὑμῖν καὶ διʼ ὑμῶν. ὅταν γὰρ τὸν μὲν κόσμον λύητε, ὑμεῖς δὲ μὴ καταλύησθε, κυριεύετε τῆς κτίσεως καὶ τῆς φθορᾶς ἁπάσης. φύσει γὰρ σῳζόμενον γένος ὑποτίθεται καὶ αὐτὸς ἐμφερῶς τῷ Βασιλείδῃ, ἄνωθεν δὲ ἡμῖν δεῦρο τοῦτο δὴ τὸ διάφορον γένος ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ θανάτου καθαίρεσιν ἥκειν, θανάτου δὲ γένεσιν ἔργον εἶναι τοῦ κτίσαντος τὸν κόσμον. διὸ καὶ τὴν γραφὴν ἐκείνην οὕτως ἐκδέχεται· οὐδεὶς ὄψεται τὸ πρόσωπον τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ζήσεται ὡς θανάτου αἰτίου. περὶ τούτου τοῦ θεοῦ ἐκεῖνα αἰνίττεται γράφων αὐταῖς λέξεσιν· ὁπόσον ἐλάττων ἡ εἰκὼν τοῦ ζῶντος προσώπου, τοσοῦτον ἥσσων ὁ κόσμος τοῦ ζῶντος αἰῶνος.
English · Claude translation
Much could be said about these things, which will be reserved for examination later, when we treat of them at the right time. Valentinus writes word for word in a homily: “From the beginning you are immortal, and you are children of eternal life, and you wished to divide death among yourselves, so that you might spend and use it up, and death might die in you and through you. For when you dissolve the world but are not yourselves dissolved, you are lords over creation and all corruption.” For he too, like Basilides, supposes a race saved by nature, and that this distinct race has come down here from above for the destruction of death, and that the origin of death is the work of the one who created the world. That is why he takes that Scripture thus: “No one will see the face of God and live,” as though he were the cause of death. He hints at this God when he writes in these very words: “As much as the image is less than the living face, so much is the world inferior to the living Aeon.”
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The quotations are Valentinus, fragments 4 and 5 (preserved only here), and Exod 33:20.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.13.89 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/13/89/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 4.13.89 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/4/13/89/).
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