The Shelves · Philosophy

Homilies, Letters and Psalms (fragments)

Known · Probablein Alexandria?Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placement

I · The entry, in his form

In the table of Philosophy

Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placement

c. 100–160 CE. Educated in Alexandria (Epiphanius says he was born in the Delta), he taught in Rome from about 136. Tertullian, a hostile witness, says he hoped to become a bishop.

Homilies, Letters and Psalms

Opening words not preserved.

Length: not counted

Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.

II · Does it survive? Where to read it

Survives in fragments

About ten fragments in Clement and Hippolytus.

Was it in Alexandria?

Known · Probable

Of the Egyptian milieu. Educated in Alexandria (Epiphanius's report); the surviving fragments may come from his Roman years.

On the ledge: written in Egypt or in a tradition the city shaped; not known in the Library.

Read it today

Clement, Stromata book 2 (Wilson translation, New Advent) · a translation · link checked 31 Oct 2026
Clement, Stromata book 4 (Wilson translation, New Advent) · a translation · link checked 31 Oct 2026

III · In the show

Gnosticism, Material vs Spiritual Reality, episode 23, at 37 minutes 20 secondsTranscriptGnosticism 'not this world-hating thing': Valentinians and Basilideans against the Sethian archons.Known: probable
Gnosticism, Material vs Spiritual Reality, episode 23, at 37 minutes 55 secondsTranscript“you've got the Valentinians and you've got the Baselians who believe that the the demiurge is not, you know, uh intentionally malevolent”Known: probable
Christian Kabbalah and the pentagrammaton, episode 1, at 8 minutes 16 secondsTranscript“according to valentinian sethian and basilidian forms you know martianite forms of gnosticism being the god of the Old Testament”Known: probable
Correction
What was said
Valentinian, Sethian and Basilidean Gnostics made the god of the Old Testament evil.
What the sources say
That identification is Marcionite and broadly Sethian; Ptolemy's Letter to Flora makes the Law's giver an intermediate, "just" god rather than an evil one.
Reference
- Epiphanius, Panarion 33.3–7

+ 10 more

Gnosticism · Irenaeus, Against Heresies I: Thirty aeons and a LimitKnown: probable
Gnosticism · Chronology: Great system-buildersGreat system-builders.Known: probable
Gnosticism · Figures: Valentinus; Ptolemy (the Valentinian); HeracleonKnown: probable
Gnosticism · Source texts: Gospel of Truth, Tripartite Tractate, Letter to FloraKnown: probable
Heresiologists and early Christian doctrine, episode 2, at 43 secondsTranscriptHeresiologists: the early schools known through their opponents.Known: attested
Gnostic readings of the serpent and demiurge, episode 2, at 37 minutes 33 secondsTranscriptGnostic readings of the serpent and the demiurge.Known: attested
Gnostic texts and orthodoxy, episode 11, at 19 minutesTranscriptKnown: attested
Plato’s Demiurge vs. the Gnostic Demiurge, episode 36, at 1 hour 54 minutes 33 secondsTranscriptPlato's demiurge against the Gnostic demiurge.Known: attested
Gnostic texts and orthodoxy, episode 11, at 20 minutes 11 secondsTranscript“The the Coptic schools in Alexandria in and around Alexandria”Known: attested
Correction
What was said
"The Coptic schools in Alexandria".
What the sources say
The Alexandrian teachers wrote in Greek; Coptic belongs to the later translations made in Upper Egypt.
Gnosticism · Traditions: Sethian, Valentinian, BasilideanKnown: attested

IV · Sources and the living entry

Ancient references (4)

Clement, Stromata 2.36; 2.114; 3.59; 4.89-90; 6.52; 7.106
Hippolytus, Refutation 6.37; 6.42
Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.4.3
Epiphanius, Panarion 31.2

Modern scholarship (5)

B. Layton, The Gnostic Scriptures (New York: Doubleday, 1987)
C. Markschies, Valentinus Gnosticus? (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1992)
E. Thomassen, The Spiritual Seed: The Church of the 'Valentinians' (Leiden: Brill, 2006).
M. A. Williams, Rethinking 'Gnosticism': An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996).
D. Brakke, The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010).

Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›

HOMILIES, LETTERS AND PSALMS