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SPIRITUAL AVATARS
soul could be born in such a pure state that it could do nothing but be
morally upright and responsive and accept Jesus.
The Valentinian who discusses this the most is Heracleon, another brilliant
student of Valentinus (see Thomassen 2010). Like Ptolemy, Heracleon
was operating in Rome immediately after Valentinus’s death. History
has preserved for us portions of one, if not two, of his writings.
The first are extracts of his famous commentary on the fourth Gospel,
quoted at length by the Apostolic Catholic church leader Origen of Alexandria.
The second is a lengthy, untitled, and anonymous writing discovered
among the Nag Hammadi books. We call it the Tripartite Tractate
because it is divided into three main segments or acts. The contents of this
writing have enough bold affinities with Heracleon’s commentary on John
to make his authorship of the Tripartite Tractate probable.
In his commentary on the fourth Gospel, Heracleon understands the
Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:5–42) to be an exemplar of direct
conversion to the Valentinian faith. This tale is quite famous among Gospel
stories, featuring a Samaritan woman who speaks with Jesus at a well.
As they talk, Jesus tells her about living water that is God’s gift to those
who ask for it. She immediately accepts his offer, desiring to put an end
to her constant thirst.
They go on to speak about her serial marriages, her faulty understanding
of God, and her improper manner of worship. All of this changes for
her when she accepts Jesus’ gift of grace, the waters of eternal life. In
John 4:21–24, the Samaritan woman immediately comes to know that
the real Father is a God of the spirit who is not worshipped as a stone or
wood idol or identified with the God of the Jews and his Temple (Origen,
Commentary on John 13.97, 102, 104, 117–118). The true God of worship
is pure and invisible. This God should be worshipped by the human
spirit, rather than through material objects or in specific physical locations
(13.147–148).
It is clear to Heracleon that, at the well, the Samaritan woman became
a pneumatic or spiritual person. By this he is referring to the social category
of the pneumatic, which he defines in his commentary and in the
Tripartite Tractate as the type of person who immediately, without hesitation,
becomes an advanced Gnostic Christian when she hears the voice
of Jesus. She does not become an Apostolic Catholic first (Origen, Commentary
on John 13.57–66; Tripartite Tractate NHC I.5 118.29–35). The