Deification and Defecation: Valentinus Fragment 3 and the Physiology of Jesus’s Digestion
The aim of this article is to shed light on the physiological (digestive) background of Valentinus fragment 3 (Layton frag. E). When Valentinus claimed that Jesus did not excrete waste, he assumed that the regular process of human digestion included a stage in which food was putrefied in the gut. Fo...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Johns Hopkins Univ. Press
2023
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| In: |
Journal of early Christian studies
Year: 2023, Volume: 31, Issue: 1, Pages: 1-18 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Valentinus, Gnosticus, Fragmenta 3
/ Jesus Christus
/ Bodiliness
/ Digestion
/ Defecation
/ Abstinence
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| RelBib Classification: | BF Gnosticism KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity NBF Christology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The aim of this article is to shed light on the physiological (digestive) background of Valentinus fragment 3 (Layton frag. E). When Valentinus claimed that Jesus did not excrete waste, he assumed that the regular process of human digestion included a stage in which food was putrefied in the gut. For Valentinus (and later Epiphanius of Salamis), it was unholy—and thus wrong—for Jesus to contain putrefaction (i.e., corruption). Instead, "Jesus produced divinity." This means that Jesus produced his own immortal body (including intestines). Valentinus’s comment did not undermine Jesus’s humanity; it creatively worked out what divine humanity meant in a physiological sense. According to Valentinus, Jesus’s body was both the same as and different from (fallen) human bodies. Jesus had all the digestive organs that present humans have, but they did not work in the same way because Jesus’s self-control had changed the nature of his body, immortalizing and deifying it. |
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| ISSN: | 1086-3184 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of early Christian studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/earl.2023.0000 |