Part III: The True Genealogy: from Jesus to Valentinus

THE RECORD #

• Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-c. 215), a respected teacher of the early Church, writes: "Likewise they allege that Valentinus was a hearer of Theudas. And he was the pupil of Paul." (Stromata 7.17.106)
• So the Valentinian chain, as their opponents themselves report it, runs: JESUS -> PAUL -> THEUDAS -> VALENTINUS.
• Paul tells us he taught a hidden wisdom to the mature: "Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect... even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world" (1 Corinthians 2:6-7). The Valentinians said Theudas received that wisdom, and Valentinus received it from him.
• Valentinus was born in Egypt (Epiphanius, Panarion 31.2, calls him a "Phrebonite" from the Egyptian coast) and educated in Alexandria.
• He came to Rome under Bishop Hyginus, flourished under Pius, and remained until Anicetus (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.4.3) -- roughly 136 to 160 CE. He taught openly in the Roman church for more than twenty years.
• Tertullian, his enemy, admits he was a candidate for bishop: "Valentinus had expected to become a bishop, because he was an able man both in genius and eloquence" (Against the Valentinians 4).
• His students formed two schools. Hippolytus of Rome records the split into an Italian school and an Eastern (Anatolian) school (Refutation of All Heresies 6.35).

Concede it openly: the Paul-Theudas link comes to us in one sentence from Clement, reporting what Valentinians "allege." We cannot verify Theudas any further. Here is why it doesn't matter: Rome's list of the earliest bishops of Rome rests on lists compiled later in the second century (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.3.3), and most historians doubt Rome even had a single ruling bishop before the mid-second century. Both successions are claims. Only one was backed by an emperor.

THE GENEALOGY TREE #

                         .   *   JESUS   *   .
                              (c. 30 CE)
                                  |
               +------------------+------------------+
               |                                     |
          THE TWELVE                          PAUL OF TARSUS
     (Peter, James, John...)               letters c. 50-60 CE
               |                         "hidden wisdom among the
               |                          perfect" (1 Cor 2:6-7)
               |                                     |
               |                 +-------------------+
               |                 |                   |
   PROTO-ORTHODOX LINE           |            THE GNOSIS LINE
   ===================           |            ===============
               |                 |                   |
     CLEMENT OF ROME             |                THEUDAS
     1 Clement, c. 96            |         (Clement of Alexandria,
               |                 |           Stromata 7.17.106)
     IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH         |                   |
     letters, c. 110             |               VALENTINUS
               |                 |         (c. 100 - c. 160/175)
     POLYCARP OF SMYRNA          |        Alexandria -> Rome,
     martyred c. 155-160         |         teaching c. 136-160
               |                 |                   |
     IRENAEUS OF LYON     <------+         +---------+---------+
     Against Heresies     (both lines      |                   |
     c. 180                claim Paul)  EASTERN            ITALIAN
               |                        SCHOOL             SCHOOL
               |                        ---------          ---------
     "orthodoxy"                        THEODOTUS          PTOLEMY
     -> Nicaea 325                      (Excerpts          (Letter to
     -> imperial                        by Clement)        Flora,
        Church 380                      MARCUS             Panarion 33)
               |                        (Irenaeus          HERACLEON
               v                        AH 1.13-21)        (on John,
     ROME / CONSTANTINOPLE                                 in Origen)
                                             \               /
                                       GOSPEL OF TRUTH, GOSPEL OF
                                       PHILIP, TRIPARTITE TRACTATE
                                       ... buried; found 1945

Read the tree honestly. Both lines grow from Paul. Both claim his letters. One line wrote the other out of history -- and then told you the history had only ever had one line.

THE SCHOOL OF VALENTINUS, BY NAME #

   NAME          SCHOOL     WHAT SURVIVES                     WHERE
   ------------  ---------  --------------------------------  --------------
   Valentinus    founder    fragments; Gospel of Truth        Clement,
                            (attributed)                      Hippolytus;
                                                              NHC I,3
   Ptolemy       Italian    Letter to Flora; system           Panarion 33;
                            summarized by Irenaeus            AH 1.1-8
   Heracleon     Italian    ~48 fragments on John             Origen, Comm.
                                                              on John
   Theodotus     Eastern    excerpts of his teaching          Clement,
                                                              Exc. Theod.
   Marcus        Eastern    liturgy, number mysticism         Irenaeus
                            (hostile report)                  AH 1.13-21
   Flora         --         a Christian woman to whom         Panarion 33
                            Ptolemy writes as a teacher

Notice the last line. A woman, addressed by a Christian teacher as a serious student of scripture, in the second century. Irenaeus complains bitterly that women flocked to the Valentinian Marcus and that he let them prophesy and offer the eucharistic prayer (Against Heresies 1.13.2-3). He meant it as an insult. Read it again as a compliment.