“... Yet the context and parallels suggest that the statement is a symbolic one: it refers to the pneumatics, who are to join themselves with the psychics as husbands to their wives. The author of Philip contrasts the ‘marriage of uncleanness” (which involves sarkic desire) with the “true mystery” of marriage, which involves the pure will. '° Since the sexual terms, taken allegorically, may denote modes of relationship. the Valentinians, like Philo, can describe the same person as either male or female in the context of different relationships. In relation to the divine, the pneumatic is receptive, and therefore female; the bride, the woman receiving her divine husband “trom above."’ Yet in relation to the psychic, apparently, the pneumatic takes the active role: in terms of this relationship, the pneumatic is male (the man, the husband) and the receptive psychic, in turn, is female.'®? Theodotus describes how the pneumatic “males” and the psychic “females,” originally part of the same being, have become separated from one another, as Eve separated from Adam.'* So, according to the Gospel of Philip, If the woman had not separated from the man, she would not die with the man. His separation became the beginning of death. Because of this Christ came, in order that he might remove the separation, and again unite the two. . . . But the soman is united to her husband in the bridal chamber. Those who have been united in the bridal chamber will no longer be separated!”’ The marriage symbolism of 1 Cor 7:2-3, then, could be interpreted pneumatically on two different levels. First, the elect are delivered from spiritual “fornication” by joining with their divine syzygies; second, the psychics, in turn, are delivered from actual fornication by joining with the elect. The Valentinians teach that the pneumatic, therefore, must join with his psychic partner in order to protect and to strengthen the psychic against bodily temptations (7:4-5). ...”