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Valentinian Christianity: Texts and Translations - Hardcover | Diverse Reads

Valentinian Christianity: Texts and Translations

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Valentinus, an Egyptian Christian who traveled to Rome to teach his unique brand of theology, and his followers, the Valentinians, formed one of the largest and most influential sects of Christianity in the second and third centuries. But by the fourth century, their writings had all but disappeared suddenly and mysteriously from the historical record, as the newly consolidated imperial Christian Church condemned as heretical all forms of what has come to be known as Gnosticism. Only in 1945 were their extensive original works finally rediscovered, and the resurrected “Gnostic Gospels” soon rooted themselves in both the scholarly and popular imagination.

Valentinian Christianity: Texts and Translations brings together for the first time all the extant texts composed by Valentinus and his followers. With accessible introductions and fresh translations based on new transcriptions of the original Greek and Coptic manuscripts on facing pages, Geoffrey S. Smith provides an illuminating, balanced overview of Valentinian Christianity and its formative place in Christian history.

ISBN-13: 9780520297463

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: University of California Press

Publication Date: 07-21-2020

Pages: 360

Product Dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

Geoffrey S. Smith is Assistant Professor of Biblical Greek and Christian Origins and Fellow of the Nease Endowment in the Institute for the Study of Antiquity and Christian Origins in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Guilt By Association: Heresy Catalogues in Early Christianity.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Valentinus and the Valentinian Tradition 1

Greek Texts

I Fragments of Valentinus 9

II Ptolemy's Letter to Flora 17

III Fragments of Heracleon 31

IV Excerpts of Theodotus 57

V Anonymous Commentary on the Prologue of John 109

VI Anonymous Letter 115

VII Anonymous Commentary on Valentinus's "Summer Harvest" 123

Coptic Texts

VIII Gospel of Truth 127

IX Treatise on the Resurrection 155

X Tripartite Tractate 165

XI Gospel of Philip 255

XII Valentinian Exposition 297

Inscription

XIII Flavia Sophe 309

Bibliographies 315

Indices 339