[459]. The chapter on Marcion and his doctrines should perhaps in strict chronological order follow on here, as Marcion’s teaching was either contemporary with, or at most, but a few years later than, that of Valentinus. Cf. Salmon in Dict. Christian Biog. s.v. Marcion, Valentinus. But the earliest documents in the Pistis Sophia are, as will be seen, possibly by Valentinus himself, and, as all of them are closely connected with his doctrine, it seemed a pity to postpone their consideration.
[460]. W. E. Crum, Catalogue of the Coptic MS. in the Brit. Mus., 1905, p. 173, n. 2, says that it was bought at the sale of Askew’s effects for £10. 10s. 0d., and that Askew himself bought it from a bookseller.
[461]. H. Hyvernat, Album de Paléographie Copte, Paris, 1888.
[462]. Matter, Hist. du Gnost. t. II. pp. 39-43, 347-348, and t. III. pp. 368-371.
[463]. See the present writer’s article “Some Heretic Gospels” in the Scottish Review for July, 1893, where the MSS. treated of in this chapter and their divisions are described in detail. Schmidt, Koptisch-gnostische Schriften, Bd I. p. 14, speaks of this “Codex Askewianus” as “eine Miszellenhandschrift.”
[464]. Except where otherwise specified, subsequent references here to Pistis Sophia (in Italics) are to the first 253 pages of the Coptic MS. only.
[465]. Cf. the ἐσώτερον τοῦ καταπετάσματος “within the veil” of Heb. vi. 19. For other instances of its use in this sense see Crum, Cat. of the Coptic MSS. in the Brit. Mus. p. 255, n. 1; and Clem. Alex. Strom. Bk V. c. 6. For the dove, Mr F. C. Conybeare, in a paper on the subject read before the Society of Historical Theology in Dec. 1892 (see Academy of 3rd Dec. 1892), said that the dove was “the recognised symbol of the Holy Spirit or Logos in the allegorizing theology of the Alexandrine Jews at the beginning of the 1st century A.D.,” and quoted several passages from Philo in support. Cf. Origen, cont. Cels. Bk I. c. 31. But it was also the emblem, perhaps the totem-animal, of the great Asiatic goddess who, under the name of Astarte or Aphrodite, was worshipped as the Mater viventium or “Mother of all Living,” with whose worship the serpent was also connected. It was doubtless to this that the text “Be ye wise as serpents, harmless as doves” refers. Both serpents and doves figure largely in the Mycenaean and Cretan worship of the goddess. See Ronald Burrows, Discoveries in Crete, 1907, pp. 137, 138, and Index for references. In later Greek symbolism the dove was sacred to the infernal Aphrodite or Persephone whose name of Φερρεφάττα or Φερσεφάττα has been rendered “she who bears the dove.” See de Chanot, “Statues Iconiques de Chypre” in Gazette Archéologique, 1878, p. 109.
[466]. Pistis Sophia, p. 152, Copt. This metaphor is first met with in Philo, Quaest. in Genesim, Bk I. c. 53, who declares that the “coats of skin” of Gen. iii, 21 are the natural bodies with which the souls of the protoplasts were clothed. It was a favourite figure of speech with the Alexandrian Jewish writers. So in the Ascensio Isaiae, c. IV. 16, 17: “But the saints will come with the Lord with their garments which are now stored up on high in the seventh heaven: with the Lord will they come, whose spirits are clothed.... And afterwards they will turn themselves upward in their garments, and their body will be left in this world.” Cf. Charles, Ascension of Isaiah, pp. 34, 35, and Eschatology (Jowett Lectures), pp. 399 sqq., where he says that this was also the teaching of St Paul.
[467]. The word Σωτήρ, which here as elsewhere in the book appears without any Coptic equivalent, evidently had a peculiar signification to the Valentinian Gnostics. Irenaeus, Bk I. c. 1, § 1, p. 12, Harvey, says that it was the name they gave to Jesus oὐδὲ γὰρ κύριον ὀνομάζειν αὐτὸν θέλουσι “for they do not choose to call Him Lord.” In the later part of the book, the document called Mέρoς τευχῶν Σωτῆρος (p. 253, Copt.) says that “he is saviour and ὰχώρητος (i.e. not to be confined in space), who finds the words of the mysteries and the words of the Third Receptacle which is within (i.e. the inmost of the three) and excelleth them all.” From which it would appear that the chief qualification of a saviour in the eyes of the later Valentinians was that he was not restricted to his special place in the universe, but could visit at will the worlds below him. We seem therefore to be already getting near the Manichaean idea of Burkhans (messengers or Buddhas) who are sent into the world for its salvation. Cf. [Chapter XIII] infra.
[468]. So that Judas Iscariot received a super-excellent soul as well as the other eleven, unless we are to suppose that his successor and substitute Matthias was one of those chosen from the beginning. It is curious that neither in this nor in any other Valentinian document is there any allusion to the treason of Judas. The phrase “Archons of the aeons” means, as will be seen later, the rulers of the twelve signs of the Zodiac.