Christian History Home > Issue 51 > Heresy in the Early Church: A Gallery of Malcontents for Christ
Heresy in the Early Church: A Gallery of Malcontents for Christ
The mixed motives and odd teachings of four notorious heretics
Stephen Miller is a free-lance writer and former editor of Illustrated Bible Life. He is a member of CHRISTIAN HISTORY's editorial advisory board. | posted 7/01/1996 12:00AM
Valentinus
(2nd century A.D.)
From papal candidate to leading Gnostic
A brilliant theologian who taught in Alexandria, Egypt (the Oxford of his day), Valentinus moved to Rome in about A.D. 136 and quickly became a candidate for pope, then known as bishop of Rome. Not only was he not elected, he was excommunicated when he later emerged as leader of a heresy known as Gnosticism, which taught that only a select few receive gnosis (“knowledge” in Greek) from God about how to find salvation.
With this conviction, Valentinus proceeded to reinterpret the Bible—misinterpret, charged critics such as Irenaeus and Tertullian. For Valentinus, the most important lessons of Scripture came not from the obvious meaning but from the symbolism beneath the words. This method of biblical interpretation, called allegory, allowed Valentinus to create elaborate stories and teachings that blurred the lines between Christianity, mysticism, philosophy, and Judaism.
To the Genesis sketch of Creation, for example, Valentinus ...
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