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The original Greek term for "sin" derives from archery and literally means "missing the mark." According to Valentinian theologians, sin was a natural consequence of ignorance of God.
According to the Gospel of Philip, "Lack of acquaintance (i.e. ignorance) is the mother of all evils. Lack of acquaintance will lead to death" (Gospel of Philip 83:30-32) The Gospel of Truth refers to those "those who have committed sin in their error" (Gospel of Truth 32:24-27). Sin is part of ignorance and entails being controlled by passions and evil (Tripartite Tractate 116:34-117:17).
According to Herakleon, without the Savior, human beings exist in a sickened state in "ignorance and sins", living under the "law which kills through sins" (Herakleon Fragment 40). He poses the rhetorical question, "How can they come to be in a state of imperishability when they are in ignorance, unbelief and sin?" (Herakleon Fragment 41).
The cause of evil and sin is internal, not external. A number of metaphors derived from the New Testament are used by Valentinians to describe this inner ignorance or "dust". It is a "tare" (Matthew 13:22) and a "seed of the Devil" (Matthew 13:28 cf. Excerpts of Theodotus 53:1).
It is "the law which wars against the law of my mind" (Romans 7:23, cf. Excerpts of Theodotus 52:1). Ignorance is described as a demonic element within the person (Hippolytus, Refutation 32:5, 34:1).