114 LITERATURE OF GNOSTIC WISDOM
are brought forth to deal with the disturbance. Christ helps restore Sophia to
the pleroma, but her desire is expelled outside the pleroma, and it becomes
another Sophia, a lower wisdom called Achamoth (a name that resembles
Hokhmah, the Hebrew word for "wisdom"—see the Gospel of Philip). Jesus
the savior in turn is brought forth to heal Achamoth through knowledge, but
her passions are also set aside, destined to be elements used for the creation
of the cosmos. In Valentinian thought the mythic drama thus takes place at
two levels, above and below, and the integrity of the divine fullness itself
is protected by means of a limit or boundary (hows)—hence the need for
Sophia above and Achamoth below, and Christ above and Jesus below. A
mythic drama that takes place above and below also may be observed in the
Secret Book of John and other Sethian texts, with forethought above and
afterthought below, Geradamas above and Adam below, and heavenly Seth
above and earthly Seth, and the Sethian gnostics, below. From these experi-
ences of wisdom in Valentinian thought come three sorts of elemental stuff
that characterize life, including human life, in the world: the material, the
psychical, and the spiritual. Human beings, then, are divided into three
groups in Valentinian thought: hylics—material people of flesh and blood
who are unbelievers; psychics—psychical people, people with soul, who are
ordinary Christians; and pneumatics—truly spiritual people, people with di-
vine spirit, who are gnostics. These last are the Valentinians themselves.
All in all, Valentinian thought shows a complexity in its gnostic scheme that
builds upon previous gnostic reflections, especially Sethian reflections, and in-
corporates Greek philosophical observations, especially platonic observations.
There is variety in Valentinian expression—for example, scholars sometimes
distinguish between a Western or Italic branch and an eastern branch—and
there is subtlety and insight in the theological and exegetical formulations of
Valentinian teachers.
While most of the texts included here are unquestionably Valentinian, the
Secret Book of James and the Round Dance of the Cross are much less cer-
tainly so, as explained in the introductions to those texts.^11
- Other Valentinian texts and fragments of texts are also known, including fragments and dis-
cussions in the heresiologists, Excerpts of Theodotus, the Tripartite Tractate (Nag Hammadi
Codex 1,5), the Interpretation of Knowledge (XI,i), and a Valentinian Exposition (XI,2). The
Testimony of Truth (IXj) also has echoes as well as criticism of Valentinian thought and prac-
tice. Birger Pearson suggests the possibility that Julius Cassianus may have been the author of
this text.