Focus on Creation: Gnostics

Tertullian. Opera. Basel, N. Episcopius, 1539

In his Adversus Valentinianos, Tertullian derides the system of the Valentinians when explaining the Valentinian gnostic world picture, which is here captured in a beautiful woodcut. In the 'Pleroma Valentini', there is a separate place for 'Soter, sive Iesus ex omnium aeonum flosculis compactur' (the saviour, or Jesus who is composed of all the flowers of the aeons), which is based on the following passage, in which Irenaeus notes the variety of Gnostic ideas on Jesus:

'Regarding the Lord Jesus himself, how great is the diversity (on that score)! Some build him up out of little flowers of all the Aeons, others claim he is composed only of ten, which have brought forth the Word and Life [...] Others (claim) that he was established out of Christ and the Holy Spirit.'

39, 1-2