In the Second Century of the Common Era, the notion of “Aeon” underwent a critical transformation within the teachings of a Gnostic Christian heresy called Valentinianism. This movement originated with the Egyptian thinker Valentinus, born in 100 CE and educated in Alexandria. He was involved with the Catholic community in Rome. Though none of his texts survived to the present*. Nonetheless, his ideas, or ideas attributed to him, would develop into a significant Gnostic movement.
Key to the Valentinian ideas is the notion of there being within the Celestial Realm a series of Worlds, or “Aeons,” which exist as immaterial forces. In total, the Valentinians are said to have believed in 30 Aeons, divided into three sets of paired Aeons called “Syzygies,” and were thought to have a sexual polarity. Our knowledge of these comes not from the Valentinians but the Church Father Tertullian.
The First, and therefore most perfect, Aeons are known as the Ogdad. Its pairs of Aeons are:
• Bythos (Profundity) and Ennoia (Idea)
• Nous (Mind) and Aletheia (Truth)
• Logos (Word) and Zoe (Life)
• Anthropos (Man) and Ekklesia (Church)
The Second set of Aeons thought to derive from the interaction of Logos and Zoe and known as the Decad, are:
• Bythios (Deep) and Mixis (Commingling)
• Ageratos (Unaging) and Henosis (Union)
• Autophues (Self-Existent) and Hedone (Pleasure/Bliss)
• Akinetos (Immovable) and Synkrasis (Blending)
• Monogenes (Only-Begotten and Makaria (Happiness)
The Third set of Aeons, derived from Anthropos and Ekklesia and known as the Dodecad, are:
• Parakletos (Helper) and Pistis (Faith)
• Patrikos (Paternal) and Elpis (Hope)
• Metrikos (Maternal) and Agape (Love)
• Ainos (Praise) and Synesis (Intelligence, Understanding)
• Ekklesiastikos (Ecclesiastical) and Makariotes (Happiness)
• Theletos (Willed, Longed for) and Sophia (Wisdom)
Valentinianism would spend over two centuries interacting with the Catholic Church as a rival school of thinking. Surviving sources of this time hold the Valentinians as the most sophisticated of the Gnostic Schools and most intellectually rigorous. Their ideas, which had an Emanationist quality, would face criticism and conflict with Plotinus and the Neo-Platonists. Nevertheless, their Emanationist model of Aeons would continue to influence those trying to understand the Gnostics and the concepts of Late Antiquity.
*It is possible that The Gospel of Truth in the Nag Hammadi collection may be one of his texts as that was a title attributed to him from sources in Late Antiquity.
Setemheb 