Note 451 — Chapter IX · POST-CHRISTIAN GNOSTICS: VALENTINUS

Verse:

a.

Φῶς πατρικὸν ποθέουσα, σύναιμε, σύνευνε, σοφή μου,

λούτροις χρεισαμένη Χ(ρειστο)ῦ μύρον ἄφθιτον, ἁγνὸν,

Αἰώνων ἔσπευσας ἀθρ[ῆ]σαι θεῖα πρόσωπα,

βουλῆς τῆς μεγάλης μέγαν ἄγγελον, υἱὸν ἀληθῆ,

[εἰς ν]υμφῶνα μολοῦσα καὶ εἰς [κόλπ]ους ἀνόρουσα[?]

[Αἰώνων πα]τρικοὺς κ[αὶ]....

b.

Οὐκ ἔσχεν κοινὸν βιότου [τ]έλος ἥδε θανοῦσα·

κάτθανε καὶ ζώει καὶ ὁρᾷ φάος ἄφθιτον ὄντως·

ζώει μὲν ζωοῖσι, θανὲν δὲ θανοῦσιν ἀληθῶς.

γαῖα, τί θαυμάζεις νέκυος γένος; ὴ πεφόβηται;

(Boeckh’s) C. I. G. 9595a, t. I. and p. 594.

“Longing for the light of the Father, partner of my blood, partner of my bed, O my wise one!

Anointed at the font with the incorruptible and pure myrrh of Christ,

Thou hast hastened to behold the divine faces of the Aeons, [and]

The Great Angel of the Great Council, the true Son.

Thou hast gone to the nuptial couch and hast hurried to the fatherly bosoms of the Aeons

And....

Though dying, she has not suffered the common end of life,

She is dead, and yet lives and actually beholds the light incorruptible,

To the living she is alive, and dead only to those really dead.

O Earth, why dost thou wonder at this new kind of shade? or dost thou fear it?”

This was engraved on a cippus of white marble found about three miles from Rome in the Via Latina and is now in the Kircher Museum. Renan’s translation is given in Marc Aurèle, p. 147. That the lady’s name was Flavia seems evident from the acrostic contained in the first verse. She must also have been a pneumatic or spiritual from her husband’s confident expectation that she would be raised to the Heavenly Jerusalem and by his assertion of her deathlessness. Hence it may be inferred that Valentinus’ disciples even when of the highest spiritual rank were allowed to marry. Cf. Clem. Alex. Strom. Bk III. c. 17. The name “Angel of the Great Council” is applied to Christ by Justin Martyr (c. Tryph. c. 126) who says that He is so called by Ezekiel. The passage does not appear in the Canon.