Transgressing Boundaries: Plotinus and the Gnostics
In: Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic StudiesSearch for other papers by John D. Turner in
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An examination of instances of Plotinus’s critique in the first ten chapters of Enneades ii.9, commonly called “Against the Gnostics,” regarding doctrines reflected in the Sethian Platonizing treatises and the Valentinian Tripartite Tractate insofar they may be appropriately considered as transgressions of Platonic metaphysics and of traditional principles of philosophical hermeneutics and etiquette that may or may not merit the designation “countercultural.”
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Abramowski Luise “Marius Victorinus, Porphyrius und die römischen Gnostiker” Zeitschrift fur dir Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 1983 74 1-2 108 128
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Armstrong A. H. Plotinus. Text with an English Translation 1966–1988 7 vols. Cambridge Harvard University Press lcl
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Buell Denise Kimber Why This New Race: Ethnic Reasoning in Early Christianity 2005 New York Columbia University Press
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Burns Dylan Apocalypse of the Alien God: Platonism ad the Exile of Sethian Gnosticism 2014 Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press
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Casey Robert P. The Exerpta Ex Theodoto of Clement of Alexandria 1934 Studies and Documents 1 London Christophers
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Corrigan Kevin “The Anonymous Turin Commentary on the Parmenides and the Distinction between Essence and Existence in Middle Platonism, Plotinus’s Circle, and Sethian Gnostic Texts” 1996 Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature 24 November New Orleans, LA
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Corrigan Kevin Turner John D. & Majercik Ruth Positive and Negative Matter in Later Platonism: The Uncovering of Plotinus’s Dialogue with the Gnostics Gnosticism & Later Platonism: Themes, Figures, and Texts 2001a Atlanta The Society of Biblical Literature 19 56 sbl Symposium Series 12
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Corrigan Kevin Turner John D. & Majercik Ruth Platonism and Gnosticism. The Anonymous Commentary on the Parmenides: Middle or Neoplatonic? Pages 141–177 Gnosticism & Later Platonism: Themes, Figures, and Texts 2001b Atlanta The Society of Biblical Literature sbl Symposium Series 12
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DeConick April D. Corrigan Kevin & Rasimus Tuomas “Crafting Gnosis: Gnostic Spirituality in the Ancient New Age” Gnosticism, Platonism and the Late Ancient World. Essays in Honour of John D. Turner 2013a Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 82 Leiden/Boston Brill 285 305
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DeConick April D. Iricinschi Eduard, Jenott Lance, Lewis Nicola Denzey & Townsend Philippa “Gnostic Spirituality at the Crossroads of Christianity: Transgressing Boundaries and Creating Orthodoxy” Beyond the Gnostic Gospels. Studies Building on the Work of Elaine Pagels 2013b Tübingen Mohr Siebeck
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des Places Édouard Numénius Fragments 1973 Paris Société d’Éditions “Les Belles Lettres” 148 184
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Dottin Georges Les argonautiques d’Orphée 1930 Paris Société d’Éditions “Les Belles Lettres”
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Dunning Benjamin H. Aliens and Sojourners. Self as Other in Early Christianity, Divinations: Rereading Late Antique Religion 2009 Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press
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Edwards Marc J. “Aidôs in Plotinus: Enneads II.9.10.” Classical Quarterly 1989 39 1 228 232
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Hadot Pierre Dodds E. R. et al. “Être, Vie, Pensée chez Plotin et avant Plotin” Les sources de Plotin, Entretiens sur l’Antiquité classique 5 1960a Vandoeuvres – Genéve Fondation Hardt 107 141
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Hadot Pierre Marius Victorinus: Traitées théologiques sur la Trinité: texte établi par Paul Henry, introduction, traduction et notes par Pierre Hadot Sources chrétiennes 68–69 1960b 2 vols. Paris Cerf.
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Jowett Benjamin The Dialogues of Plato: Translated into English with Analyses and Introduction 2010 4 vols. Cambridge Cambridge University Press
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Kern Otto Orphicorum fragmenta, collegit Otto Kern 1922 Berlin Weidemann
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Lamberz Erich Porphyrii sententiae ad intelligibilia ducentes 1975 Leipzig Teubner
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MacDermot Violet Schmidt Carl The Books of Jeu and the Untitled Text in the Bruce Codex 1978 Nag Hammadi Studies 23 Leiden Brill
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MacRae George W. & Parrott Douglas M. Robinson James M. Apocalypse of Adam The Nag Hammadi Library in English 1996 4th Revised Edition Leiden Brill 260 268
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Majercik Ruth “The Existence—Life—Intellect Triad in Gnosticism and Neoplatonism” Classical Quarterly 1992 42 2 475 488
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Majercik Ruth “Porphyry and Gnosticism” Classical Quarterly 2005 55 1 277 292
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Marcovich Miroslav Hoppolytus Refutatio Omnium Haeresium 1986 Patristische Texte Und Studien 25 Berlin De Gruyter
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Mazur Zeke Finamore John & Berchman Robert “Plotinus’ Philosophical Opposition to Gnosticism and the Axiom of Continuous Hierarchy” History of Platonism: Plato Redivivus 2005a New Orleans University Press of the South 95 112
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Mazur Zeke “Primordial Self-Reversion and the Gnostic Background of Plotinian Procession” 2005b Unpublished paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies June 2005 New Orleans, LA
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Mazur Zeke Narbonne Jean-Marc, Marsola Mauricio Pagotto, Ferroni Lorenzo, Corrigan Kevin & Turner John D. “Notes pour Plotin, Traité 33 (ii 9) Contre les Gnostiques. Draft 1” Forthcoming in Plotin: Oeuvres complètes 2016 Tome 7 Paris Les Belles Lettres Collection des Universités de France-Association Gillaume Budé
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Narbonne Jean-Marc Plotinus in Dialogue with the Gnostics 2011 Leiden Brill
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Nock Arthur D. & Festugière André-Jean Nock Arthur D. Festugière André-Jean Corpus hermeticum 1946 Tomo 1 Paris les Belles Lettres Pimander. Trattati ii–xii
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Parrott Douglas M. Robinson James M. Eugnostos the Blessed The Nag Hammadi Library in English 1996 4th Revised Edition Leiden Brill 220 243
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Preisendanz Karl & Henrichs Albert Papyri Graecae Magicae. Die griechischen Zauberpapyri 1973–72 2 vols. 2nd ed. Stuttgart Teubner (1: 1973; 2: 1974)
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Puech Henri-Charles Dodds E.R. et al. “Plotin et les Gnostiques” Les Sources de Plotin: dix exposés et discussions 1960 Geneva Fondation Hardt 161 174 Entretiens sur l‘Antiquité classique
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Quandt Wilhelm Orphei hymni 1973 3rd ed. Berlin Weidmann
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Rasimus Tuomas Turner John D. & Corrigan Kevin “Porphyry and the Gnostics: Reassessing Pierre Hadot’s Thesis in Light of the Second- and Third-Century Sethian Treatises” Plato’s Parmenides and its Heritage 2010 Vol. 2: Its reception in Neoplatonic, Jewish, and Christian Texts Atlanta The Society of Biblical Literature 81 110
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Rasimus Tuomas Corrigan Kevin & Rasimus Tuomas “Johannine Background of the Being-Life-Mind Triad” Gnosticism, Platonism and the Late Ancient World. Essays in Honour of John D. Turner 2013 Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 82 Leiden Brill 369 401
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Schmidt Carl & MacDermot Violet The Books of Jeu and the Untitled Text in the Bruce Codex 1978 Nag Hammadi Studies 13 Leiden Brill
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Tardieu Michel “Plotin citateur du Zostrien” 2005 Unpublished paper for the “Colloquium on Thèmes et problèmes du traité 33 de Plotin contre les Gnostiques” 7 June Collège de France, Paris
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Thomassen Einar Corrigan Kevin & Rasimus Tuomas “Sethian Names in Magical Texts: Protophanes and Meirotheos” Gnosticism, Platonism and the Late Ancient World. Essays in Honour of John D. Turner 2013 Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 82 Leiden Brill 63 78
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Turner John D. Meyer Marvin Allogenes the Stranger in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The International Edition 2009 New York Harper Collins Publishers
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Turner John D. Meyer Marvin Zostrianos The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The International Edition 2009 New York Harper Collins Publishers 537 584
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Turner John D. “Plotinus and the Gnostics: The Tripartite Tractate?” 2013 Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature 17 November 2013 Baltimore, MD
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Turner John D. Finamore John & Wear Sarah “Self-Reflexive Ontogenesis in the Tripartite Tractate and Plotinus” Forthcoming in Defining Platonism: Essays on Plato, Middle and Neoplatonism, and Modern Platonism 2016 New York Cambridge University Press
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Turner John D. & Corrigan Kevin Marsilio Mauricio “Plotinus and the Gnostics: the Peculiar Impact of the Tripartite Tractate and Later Works” Estratégias anti-gnósticas nos escritos de Plotino. Atas do colóquio internacional realizado em São Paulo em 18–19 de março 2012 2015 São Paulo Rosari et Paulus Serie Classica
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Willis Jacob Ambrosii Theodosii Macrobii Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis 1970 Leipzig Teubner
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1
DeConick 2013a and 2013b.
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2
Puech 1960, 182–3.
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4
Narbonne 2011, 115–16. As early as 2001, Corrigan (2001a, 42) stated: “I propose that we should be alive to the real possibility that all of the treatises after the Großschrift, especially those with cognate interests such as vi.7[38] and vi.8[39], will bear similar traces of such a dialogue. In which case, and in the sense we have specified, Plotinus is certainly influenced by the Gnostics, for some of his most mature thought is shaped by an implicit conversation with them.”
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6
According to Puech 1960, 182–3, the friends would be fellow partisans of Plato’s “mysteries”: Plotinus, Enn.ii.9.10.3–11: “We feel a certain regard for some of our friends who happened upon this way of thinking before they became our friends, and, though I do not know how they manage it, continue in it. . . . But we have addressed what we have said so far to our own acquaintances, not to them [i.e. the Gnostics] (for we could make no further progress towards convincing them), so that they might not be troubled by these latter, who do not bring forward proofs—how could they?—but make arbitrary, arrogant assertions.” See Edwards 1989, 228–232, who suggests that Plotinus here attacks the Gnostic Platonism of his former colleagues in Ammonius Saccas’s school or another study-group in Alexandria, who joined him in Rome around the same time as Porphyry; but unlike Plotinus continued to espouse it rather than rejecting it.
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7
Mazur 2016, 229.
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8
Mazur 2005a.
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21
Hadot 1960a, 130–132. Justified by Plato, Sophist 248e–249b (Jowett 2010): “Are we really to be so easily persuaded that change, life, soul and intelligence have no place in the perfectly real (παντελῶς ὄν), that is has neither life (ζωή) nor intelligence (νοῦς), but stands aloof devoid of intelligence (φρόνησις)?” and Tim. 39e (Jowett 2010): “the Nous beholds (καθορᾷ) the ideas resident in the veritable living being (ὅ ἐστι ζῷον); such and so many as exist therein he planned (διενοήθη) that the universe should contain.” Intellect is not a lifeless being, but an act (Plotinus, Enn. v.3[49].5.33–44; cf. ii.4[25].3.36; ii.9[33].6.14–19; v.5[32].2.9–13; vi.9[9].9.17). The restriction of the triad to Intellect perhaps owes to his aversion to Middle Platonic and Gnostic theologies that multiply the number of transcendental hypostases beyond three.
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31
Mazur 2016, 74–76. The main parties to this debate: the case for a post-Plotinian (Porphyrian) origin of the triad have been made by Abramowski 1983, followed by Majercik 1992 and 2005. The case for a pre-Plotinian origin of the triad is made in Corrigan 2001b, while the case for a specifically Sethian origin was made most recently by Rasimus 2010.
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39
Macrobius, Somn. Scip. 2.6.23 (Willis 1970): “fons . . . qui ita principium est aquae, ut cum de se fluvios et lacus procreet, a nullo nasci ipse dicatur”. Cf. Corp. herm. 4.10 (Nock and Festugière 1972): ἡ γὰρ µονάς, οὖσα πάντων ἀρχὴ καὶ ῥίζα, ἐν πᾶσίν ἐστιν ὡς ἂν ῥίζα καὶ ἀρχή.
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44
Corrigan 1996, 54, raised the possibility of an echo of the Sethian figures Kalyptos, Protophanes, and Autogenes in Plotinus’s treatment of the veiling, “first appearing” and “self-appearing” of intellect in Enn.v.5[32].7.31–5 (Armstrong 1966–88): “Thus indeed Intellect, veiled (καλύψας) itself from all the outer, withdrawing to the inmost, seeing nothing, beholds—not some other light in some other thing but the light within itself alone, pure, suddenly apparent (φανέν), so that it wonders whence it appeared (ἐφάνη), from within or without, and when it has gone forth, to say ‘It was within; yet no, it was without.’”
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61
Plotinus, Enn. 4.14–15 and 5.5–7 and later in 12.9–16. In Enn. 12.6–12, Plotinus writes, “but this image (of Sophia, i.e., the demiurge), even if dimly—as they say—still manages to form a conception (ἐνθυµηθῆναι, cf. Ap. John nhc iii,1 14.10–12; Irenaeus, Haer. 1.4.1) of the intelligible realities when it has just come into being, whether itself or even its mother, a material image, and not only to conceive them and form an idea of a world and of that world, but to learn the elements from which it could come into being? What could have been the reason why it made fire first?” To such a claim that “there was within her (i.e. Sophia) no pure, original image” (Zost. nhc viii,1 9.10–11), Plotinus elsewhere objects that “there is in the Nature-Principle itself an ideal archetype of the beauty that is found in material forms” (Enn.v.8[31].3.1–3).
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65
Mazur 2016, 208.
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66
Plotinus, Enn. 6.1–7. Plotinus lists these terms in the plural, παροικήσεις, µετάνοιαι, and ἀντίτυποι, perhaps because according to Zost. nhc viii,1 11.2–12.22, these realms exist on two levels, the truly existing Self-generated Aeons, Repentance, and Sojourn as well as their copies (antitypes); thus souls, apparently in the process of reincarnation work their way from the the level of the copies to the level of their exemplars, in order to enter the Self-generated Aeons, where the reincarnational cycle ends; cf. Turner 2001, 109–11, 558–70, and Untitled bc 3 263.11–264.6. He also rejects the sort of magical incantations and sounds found in the Platonizing Sethian treatises generally (Enn.ii.9[33].14.2–9; cf. Zost. nhc viii,1 52; 85–88; 118; 127.1–6; Allogenes xi,3 53.32–55.11; 126.1–17; Marsanes nhc x 25.17–32.5). Yet this criticism is offset by his own quasi-incantational etymologies in Enn.v.5[32].5.21–27 (Armstrong 1966–88): “Thus that which came to exist, substance and being, has an image of the One since it flows from its power; and the [soul] which sees it and is moved to speech by the sight, imaging what it saw, cried out “ὤν” and “εἶναι,” and “ οὐσία” and “ἑστία” For these sounds intend to signify the real nature of that produced by the birth pangs of the utterer, imitating, as far as they are able, the generation of real being.” and even by the appeal to nondiscursive Egyptian hieroglyphs in Enn.v.8 [31].6.1–9.
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73
Burns 2014, 102–104, referring to Dunning 2009, 25–40.
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74
Burns 2014, 88: “When we recall that for the Neoplatonists, ethnicity was defined chiefly by one’s mastery of the Greek classics. More strikingly, the Sethian texts describe their in-group and its teaching not simply as superior to other races or nations, but as ‘elect,’ ‘saved,’ in contrast to souls that will be destroyed. Surely members of the Sethian elect were educated in the Hellenic schools, but there is no sign in the texts that they continued to identify as Hellenes, and many signs that they regarded themselves as something much more—‘the living, the Seed of the holy Seth’!”
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77
According to Proclus, In Plat. Tim. comm. 2.16.1–7. Porphyry claimed that the “Egyptians”–– whoever this means—consider the Moon to be an “aetherial Earth” (γῆ αἰθερία) into which the demiurge sows souls who gestate there for a certain period of time prior to their descent into bodies. In In Tim. 2.48.15–21, Proclus attributes to the “Pythagoreans” a similar doctrine in the form of an ostensibly Orphic fragment (Frag. 91; Kern 1922, 161) to the effect that the Moon is an “aetherial Earth” with innumerable mountains, cities and mansions. Cf. also Macrobius, Somn. Scip. 1.11.7.
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81
Mazur 2016, 58–61.
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83
Burns 2014, 42–47, esp. 46: “Plotinus says they are stupid and that they speak like bumpkins, that is, not like Hellenes, who speak in an educated and cultured manner, despite their claim that gnosis is philosophical. What Plotinus means is not that they are incapable of engaging in technical metaphysics . . . rather that they eschew the contemporary culture of philosophy, a way of life that goes back to ancients [Greeks] like Pythagoras, and that encourages civic activity and respect for traditional cultic practices. The situation was exacerbated by the pseudepigraphical appeal to the authority of Judaeo-Christian antediluvian sages in their apocalypses.”
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Transgressing Boundaries: Plotinus and the Gnostics
In: Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic StudiesSearch for other papers by John D. Turner in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
An examination of instances of Plotinus’s critique in the first ten chapters of Enneades ii.9, commonly called “Against the Gnostics,” regarding doctrines reflected in the Sethian Platonizing treatises and the Valentinian Tripartite Tractate insofar they may be appropriately considered as transgressions of Platonic metaphysics and of traditional principles of philosophical hermeneutics and etiquette that may or may not merit the designation “countercultural.”
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 594 | 45 | 6 |
| Full Text Views | 207 | 4 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 106 | 14 | 0 |