Valentinus et Nomina: Saussure, Plato, and Signification

Abstract

The mythology of Valentinus, Christian Gnostic, is replete with fascinating suggestion that names have salvific power. In The Gospel of Truth, he says that God uses names to call beings into existence, and that the name of Father is Son. This notion of nomina sacra has proven challenging to understand. The author of article argues this is partly due to our post-Saussurean framework; we find it difficult to make such claims consistent with Saussure's principle of arbitrariness of signs. Valentinus, in complete contradiction to this principle, presupposes an essential connection between names and beings. Insofar as it relies on such essentialism, it is profoundly difficult to give a straightforward, consistent post-Saussurean interpretation of mysticism of name in Valentinus' salus per nomina. Nevertheless many commentators have attempted such interpretations, avoiding tension by trying to make it a part of their reading. Such attempts often end up obscure and desperate, clarifying little. The author of article critiques part of this interpretive tradition and tries to overcome larger difficulties by offering a reconstruction of salus per nomina based on Platonic nomenclaturism, thus developing a viable alternative interpretation in an essentialist vein. I. Introduction The first two centuries of Christianity were a time of change and explosive growth in which doctrine, ritual practice, and group identification were not everywhere firmly set in orthodox patterns, regulated by ecclesiastical authority. We learn of apocalyptic groups, Essenes, and Gnostics, all of them relatively small, intense, and (in case of later Gnostics) intellectually elite groups of worshipers practicing new religion sometimes openly, sometimes in secret, in ways that troubled emerging orthodoxy. Groups of worshipers from this period of Christian history, and especially Gnostics, have received continuing and even increased attention in last thirty years, as scholars have begun to cope with fertile and sometimes startling written material found in Egypt at Nag Hammadi in 1945. Among these materials are texts by famous Gnostic preacher and theologian Valentinus. Active in Rome in middle of second century, Alexandria-trained Valentinus was an innovative, charismatic and politically prominent man, whose nearly successful election as bishop of Rome would, had it been successful, have certainly altered course of Christianity. Valentinus' neoplatonic and mystical inclinations strongly influenced his published writings, later carefully collected and stored at Nag Hammadi. As scholars dig through these texts, working to recover and to interpret ancient forms of worship they reveal, they have found perhaps their greatest interpretive challenges in Valentinus' many tantalizing remarks on salvation and theology. In particular, Valentinus' works are replete with fascinating and enigmatic claims about salvific power of names. In document that scholars call The Gospel of Truth (henceforth 'the Gospel'), we find many such puzzling remarks about names: for example, Valentinus says that names are instrumental in salvation somehow; (1) that God uses names to call beings into existence; (2) and, perhaps his most obscure and celebrated remark, that the name of Father is Son. (3) Valentinus left us little context for understanding his views on names and their power. Of course we do find in intellectual and religious life of ancient and medieval people idea that names can have great power, for example nomina sacra of early Christianity and Judaism, which had such power that they could not be pronounced and/or written fully. (4) Nor is phenomenon confined to elite and literate; there is a common idea that invoking name of God can offer protection from harm. However, there is a sense in which nomina sacra of literate classes are even difficult to understand, especially for modem people. …