Herakleon (Gnostic)

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Herakleon (middle of the 2nd century) was a Christian Gnostic teacher and, along with Ptolemy, is considered the most important representative of the western direction of Valentinianism . While u. a. Theodotus of Byzantium represented the Eastern School. He is considered to be the creator of the oldest known commentary on a New Testament script.

Life

Little is known about his life. Irenaeus of Lyons and Origen call him a pupil of Valentinus . After Clement of Alexandria , he was the most famous exponent of Valentinianism. After Hippolytus he was the leader of the Valentians in Italy. According to Origen there were disciples of Herakleon in Alexandria , but the Real Theological Encyclopedia does not see any evidence of an actual activity in Alexandria.

Works

Herakleon's commentary on the Gospel of John is handed down in about 48 fragments in Origen, two more can be found in Clemens of Alexandria and one in Photius . They refer to the first two, fourth, and fifth chapters. While another Valentinian Ptolemy had previously commented on the prologue of John's Gospel.

Clement of Alexandria also quotes from a commentary on Luke Lk 12.8  EU .

In his commentaries, he quotes from the Old Testament , the Gospels , the Epistles of Paul and the Epistle to the Hebrews .

theology

The exegesis of Herakleon, like that of Origen, is allegorical . In Johannes Joh 4  EU the Samaritan woman at the well is compared with the redemption of Sophia . The water of Jacob's well is Judaism . Her husband is the spiritual bridegroom of the pleroma , and her former husbands are the hyle or the realm of the devil . The royal official in Capernaum is the demiurge , who is not hostile but shortsighted and ignorant, but ready to ask the Savior's help for his subjects. The official's son represents the psychics who are healed and redeemed when their ignorance is removed.

All Valentians have in common that they describe a 'heavenly world', the pleroma , which would consist of thirty aeons , worlds. These eons are arranged in pairs and are not used as abstractions, but represent hypostases or personifications of individual properties of the divinity on which they are based. The creation of the world would proceed from the last of these eons, Sophia . The origin of matter and the world is judged to be the result of error, not of evil and sin .

A clear doctrinal difference from the apostolic church is that he distinguishes between a god of truth and a subordinate demiurge , whom he equates with the god of the apostolic church and the Old Testament.

swell

  • Philip Schaff : § 126. The School of Valentinus. Heracleon, Ptolemy, Marcos, Bardesanes, Harmonius. In History of the Christian Church.
  • Philip Schaff: Valentinus and his School. In: New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge.
  • Caroline Bammel: Herakleon. In: Theological Real Encyclopedia .

literature

References and comments

  1. ↑ Markus Vinzent : The resurrection of Christ in early Christianity. Herder Verlag, Freiburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-451-31212-0 , p. 159.
  2. ↑ Markus Vinzent: The resurrection of Christ in early Christianity. Herder Verlag, Freiburg 2014, pp. 138–139, pp. 142–143
personal data
SURNAME Herakleon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Christian-Gnostic theologian
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century
DATE OF DEATH 2nd century