Thesis (M.A.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 1997. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-105).

The thesis intends to provide a better understanding of the text and the background of the Valentinian treatise, Nag Hammadi Codex, I,5. The Introduction studies the manuscript (date and provenance, purpose, scribal signs, quality), the text (an anonymous and untitled treatise, originally written in Greek, representing the Oriental branch of Valentinianism, date most likely second half of the 3rd. cent. A.D.), the language (a form of Subachmimic, with numerous orthographic and grammatical peculiar ities). A brief survey of the system is also provided, where it is regarded from three different angles. The Translation is primarily meant as an attempt to elucidate the difficult, and inadequately understood, Coptic text, and as an index to the following Commentary. The Commentary discusses the translation and relates each passage to the treatise as a whole, and to the system it contains. Valentinian themes and technical terms are pointed out and analysed systematically. The broader religious and philosophical background for the ideas contained in the treatise have also been explored. A special effort has been made to relate the system of the treatise not only to Gnostic documents, Christian literature and Late Jewish material, but also to Philosophy, and in particular to the emanationist physics of Neopythagoreanism and Neoplatonism.

Thesis (M.A.E.T.)--Covenant Theological Seminary, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-78).

Thesis (M.A.E.T.)--Covenant Theological Seminary, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-78).

Irenaeus has a relationship with two different traditions: the tradition of Valentinian Gnosticism and others such as Marcion, a tradition which he opposed vehemently, and the ecclesiastical tradition which he was intent on defending. In his attack on the one and defence of the other Irenaeus expresses his own theological view-point, a dominant characteristic of which is the concept of Christocentrio salvation history. The present work is a study of the relationship between these three, the two traditions and the Christocentric salvation history. Part one is concerned mainly with methodology. Chapter one is a survey of recent studies of Irenaeus with particular reference to the problems of source materials in Irenaeus, the effect of his polemical task on his thought and writings, and the significance for him of salvation history. In chapter two the two traditions are examined and a sharp division of them into orthodoxy and heresy is rejected. The concept of salvation history is also examined in some detail. Part two is devoted to a study of the ecclesiastical tradition before Irenaeus, in order to see how his predecessors thought of history and of the role of Christ in it. Chapter three is concerned with the Apostolic Fathers, chapter four with some apocryphal writings, and chapter five with the Greek Apologists. While numerous elements of the tradition that are taken up by Irenaeus are to be found in the ecclesiastical tradition, and indeed some outlines of salvation history can also be discerned, the fully integrated concept of a Christocentric salvation history is not present there. Part three is a study of the salvation drama in Valentinian Gnosticism. Chapter six is concerned with the sources, chapter seven with an analysis of the drama, and chapter eight exposes the threat the drama posed to the ecclesiastical tradition, which may be described as the threat of a complete and coherent drama that gives to the believer the security of knowing whence he has come, whither he is going, and where he now is. The task of any opponent is to replace this false knowledge with the true knowledge. In part four we turn to Irenaeus. In chapter nine the Christocentric salvation history of Irenaeus is examined in detail. As a result of this examination we reach the conclusion in chapter ten that in the materials gathered from his own tradition, developed from a number of different sources, and woven together into a coherent and comprehensive historical drama of which Christ is the centre, Irenaeus finds an adequate reply to the coherent and comprehensive drama of Valentinian Gnosticism, and therefore, by his Christocentric salvation history, makes a significant contribution to the polarisation of the ecclesiastieal and Gnostic traditions.

This thesis seeks to demonstrate the Apocalypse of Paul's position within the broader Valentinian literary corpus from the Nag Hammadi codices. Previous scholars, notably William Murdock and Michael Kaler, have gestured in this direction, but no attempt has been made to systematically situate the Apocalypse of Paul in relation to other Valentinian sources. Quite possibly this desideratum exists because although the Apocalypse of Paul's debt to Jewish apocalypticism is self-evident, scholars of Valentinianism have generally neglected those ideas in Valentinian literature which are derived ultimately from Judaism, often received via Paul or other New Testament writers. These would include the notion of the Name of God as a saving power, even a soteriological agent, and the image of a surrogate heavenly temple through which favoured adepts may ascend in the present. These come to be combined in Valentinian thought through a high-priestly Christology in which it is by virtue of bearing the Divine Name that one may enter this ideal temple in the fashion of the old Jewish high priest, and now Christ. On the other hand, Valentinians downgrade the biblical creator-God to the level of an imperfect demiurge, placing him in an inferior heavenly temple while supplanting the Pleroma atop him as the true spiritual temple housing the Father of Christ. The development of this constellation of ideas is traced principally from Valentinus himself, through the Gospel of Truth and the Excerpts from Theodotus, to the Gospel of Philip, where it receives its most extensive explication. It is argued that the Apocalypse of Paul consciously builds on this intellectual current using the apostle's image in order to construct an ideal authoritative account of how such ascent ought to appear among Valentinian initiates and thereby contribute to the rhetorical and psychological construction of future experiences among the elect community.

Background: This thesis aims to show that the narratives of the Nag Hammadi Apocalypse of Pauland First Apocalypse of James are written for a Valentinian audience. The purpose is to broaden the field of research on Valentinianism by showing how the authors and their implied readers composed and perceived the texts in question. Method: Comparing the mythological language of the two narratives and their description of a hero’s journey in a transcendent reality it is possible to disentangle the Valentinian material from the imaginative world of the reader, a world consisted of ancient Egyptian and Greek mythology as well as Jewish apocalypticism and early Christian legends and traditions. The texts are also compared with new research in the field, other related Valentinian scriptures, the New Testament, and Christian Apocrypha. Results: The texts are pseudepigraphic and written within a Jewish apocalyptic genre sometime during the late second or early third century. The symbolism and the diverse metaphors of the narratives indicate that the texts incorporate a specific soteriological message through embedded Valentinian mythology. The implied reader is to understand that the material world is an illusion and that the purpose of the initiate is to awaken the mind and acquire knowledge about the truth. By doing so the redemption of the believer’s spirit from its human body and soul leads to the spirits reunion with God. Conclusion: The analysis of the texts points toward the fact that the narratives could very well have been used for catechetical or other educational purposes within a Valentinian community. The language and form of the two narratives fit to serve this purpose. In many ways, the reader has to be initiated within a Valentinian context in order to grasp the intended message. / <p>Godkännande datum 2019-06-10</p>

This dissertation sets out to determine the social function of paraenesis ("moral exhortation") within Valentinian Christianity. In order to explicate this social function, this study places the discussion within the context of ancient rhetorical practices of ethical admonition; i.e., how did paraenetic discursive practices act as rhetorical devices for affecting social formation? In order to establish the function of paraenesis, it is necessary to engage both literary and social aspects of the paraenetic genre. The latter is most challenging, given the methodological difficulties inherent in moving from textual context to socio-historical reconstruction of the situation behind a text. To address this problem, a method is adapted from sociology (interactionism) and social psychology (positioning theory) in order to critically gauge the social idealization of the sources. Special attention is given to the paraenetic contours of the Gospel of Truth (NHC I,3) and the Interpretation of Knowledge (NHC XI,1). / This dissertation is structured into five chapters. The first chapter will frame the discussion within current developments in the study of Gnosticism, where there has been a growing appreciation for social and ethical aspects of the Nag Hammadi tractates. A delimitation of the source base for this study will also be offered. Chapter 2 will offer a comprehensive overview of scholarly discussions of paraenesis over the past century. A functional definition, with an attendant typology of paraenetic material will be offered in closing. Chapter 3 directly engages the literary aspects of paraenesis within Valentinianism, placing the discussion within the context of moral exhortation in the Greco-Roman world, and, more specifically, early Christianity. This chapter will establish the presence of paraenesis within the Valentinian sources. Chapter 4 will then address the social function of paraenesis in two examples of Valentinian paraenesis, highlighting the rhetorical and discursive voice of each text. The final chapter will summarize the findings of the dissertation and raise implications of this study for the field of early Christian studies.

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