Rethinking Valentinianism: Some Remarks on the Tripartite Tractate, with Special Reference to Plotinus’ Enneads II, 9

This paper analyses an important Valentinian source, the Tractatus Tripartitus, the last work in the so-called Codex Jung. The main aim of the article is to provide a reading of the text as a whole, high- lighting how the Tractatus Tripartitus might be understood as an attempt to remove the apocalyptic matrix of Valentinian theology. Finally, several essential features of the work are compared with the well-known charges brought against the Gnostics by Plotinus, investi- gating the possibility of an actual historical relationship between the Tripartite Tractate and the ninth essay of the second Ennead.