Valentinus Et Nomina: Saussure, Plato, And Signification (Critical Essay‪)‬

The mythology of Valentinus, the Christian Gnostic, is replete with the fascinating suggestion that names have salvific power. In The Gospel of Truth, he says that God uses names to call beings into existence, and that "the name of the Father is the Son." This notion of nomina sacra has proven challenging to understand. The author of the article argues this is partly due to our post-Saussurean framework; we find it difficult to make such claims consistent with Saussure's principle of the arbitrariness of signs. Valentinus, in complete contradiction to this principle, presupposes an essential connection between names and beings. Insofar as it relies on such essentialism, it is profoundly difficult to give a straightforward, consistent post-Saussurean interpretation of the mysticism of the name in Valentinus' salus per nomina. Nevertheless many commentators have attempted such interpretations, avoiding the tension by trying to make it a part of their reading. Such attempts often end up obscure and desperate, clarifying little. The author of the article critiques part of this interpretive tradition and tries to overcome the larger difficulties by offering a reconstruction of salus per nomina based on Platonic nomenclaturism, thus developing a viable alternative interpretation in an essentialist vein. I. Introduction