The Valentians' Use of The New Testament
It is not clear how many of the sects treated by Irenaeus in On the Detection and Overthrow of Knowledge Falsely So Called he actually considers to be gnostikos, but Valentinus is specifically named as gnostikos. Irenaeus describes how the Valentinians read in Ephesians evidence for their characteristic belief in the existence of the Æons as supernatural beings:
Paul also, they affirm, very clearly and frequently names these Æons, and even goes so far as to preserve their order, when he says, “To all the generations of the Æons of the Æon.” (Ephesians 3:21) Nay, we ourselves, when at the giving of thanks we pronounce the words, “To Æons of Æons” (for ever and ever), do set forth these Æons. And, in fine, wherever the words Æon or Æons occur, they at once refer them to these beings.
— On the Detection and Overthrow of Knowledge Falsely So Called Book 1. Ch.3
Read more about this topic: Gnosticism And The New Testament
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“Yet the New Testament treats of man and man’s so-called spiritual affairs too exclusively, and is too constantly moral and personal, to alone content me, who am not interested solely in man’s religious or moral nature, or in man even.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)