snowymountains Posted February 25 I was wondering, what is the historical origin of the concept of aeons. Aeons are a core component of valentinian and sethian cosmology, both of which we term as gnostic today, though they did not entirely share a uniform view between them.  In terms of (theological) cosmology, aeons come in male/female pairs and tend to be lower manifestations of an ultimate divine being, in some cases they're even unaware of the ultimate divine being. When the creator god is seen as a separate entity from the "highest" god in early Christianities, the creator god is often thought (or experientally discovered via divination) to be an aeon.  John does not mention aeons explicitly, though "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" perhaps served an inspiration for the concepts of aeons in early Christianities. I didn't find any explicit mention of aeons in the bible either so I gather Catholics/Protestants/Orthodox do not endorse the concept. Aeons in the Bible refer to time periods, not divine beings, so in the Bible/Canon the word is used in a different context.  Does the concept of aeons predate Valentinians and Sethians? Or even predate Christianity? What are the historical origins of the concept of aeons in Abrahamic cosmologies? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
