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In Gnosticism, kenoma (kenoma, κένωμα) is the concept of emptiness that corresponds to the lower world of phenomena, as opposed to the concept of pleroma, or fullness, which corresponds to the Platonic world of ideal forms. Kenoma was used by the mid-2nd century Gnostic thinker and preacher Valentinius, who was among the early Christians who attempted to align Christianity with Middle Platonism.[1] Employing a third concept of cosmos, what is manifest, Valentinian initiates could explain scripture in light of these three aspects of correlated existence.

In Gnosticism

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The pleroma is the abode of the Æons . . . they are, or they comprise, the eternal ideas or archetypes of the Platonic philosophy. . . . Separated from this celestial region by Horos . . . or Boundary . . . lies the ‘kenoma’ or ‘void’—the kingdom of this world, the region of matter and material things, the land of shadow and darkness. Here is the empire of the Demiurge or Creator, who is not a celestial Æon at all, but was born in this very void over which he reigns. Here reside all those phenomenal, deceptive, transitory things, of which the eternal counterparts are found only in the pleroma. . . . All things are set off one against another in these two regions: just as

The swan on still St Mary’s lake
Floats double, swan and shadow.

Not only have the thirty Æons their terrestrial counterparts; but their subdivisions also are represented in this lower region. The kenoma too has its ogdoad, its decad, its dodecad, like the pleroma. There is one Sophia in the supramundane region, and another in the mundane; there is one Christ who redeems the Æons in the spiritual world, and a second Christ who redeems mankind, or rather a portion of mankind, in the sensible world. There is an Æon Man and another Æon Ecclesia in the celestial kingdom, the ideal counterparts of the Human Race and the Christian Church in the terrestrial. . . . The topographical conception of the pleroma moreover is carried out in the details of the imagery. The second Sophia, called also Achamoth, is the desire, the offspring, of her elder namesake, separated from her mother, cast out of the pleroma, and left ‘stranded’ in the void beyond, being prevented from returning by the inexorable Horos who guards the frontier of the supramundane kingdom.

— Lightfoot, pp. 266–67

The ancient Greek term for emptiness or void (kenoma), as pertaining to Theodotus's exegesis of Gospel of John chapter 1 verse 3, is described in The Excerpta ex Theodoto of Clement of Alexandria.[2]

Hysterema

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Elsewhere, the usual antithesis to Pleroma is not Kenoma, but Hysterema (ὑστέρημα). As the system is reported by Hippolytus (vi. 31, p. 180) this word is used as the complement of the word Pleroma, denoting all that is not included in the meaning of the latter word. Thus the Horos or boundary is described as separating the Hysterema from the Pleroma, itself partaking of the nature of both; but preserving all inside fixed and immovable by permitting nothing from without to enter. We can understand in the same sense the passage in Epiphanius,[3] where the same name is given to the Demiurge; for it appears in the case of the word Hebdomas that the Valentinians gave to the Demiurge the name of the realm over which he ruled, and from which he had his origin. Marcus speaks of the Demiurge as karpos hysterematos [4] Marcus would seem to have used the word Hysterema, in the sense already explained, to denote the region outside the Pleroma,[5] where, in his usual way of finding mysteries in numbers, he regards the former region as symbolised by the numbers up to 99 counted on the left hand, the latter by 100 counted on the right hand. As Marcus uses the word Pleroma in the plural number, so[6] he may have used Hysterema also in the plural number to denote the powers belonging to these regions respectively. But it seems to us likely that the assertion that Marcus counted a second or a third Hysterema is but an inference drawn by Irenaeus himself,[7] from the fact that he found the name karpos hysterematos applied not only to the Demiurge, but to his mother, Sophia Achamoth. Irenaeus ordinarily uses the word, usually rendered labes by the old Latin translator, in no technical sense, but with the general meaning of defect, commonly joining it with the words agnoia and pathos. The word Hysterema is found also in Excerpt. Theod. 2, 22,[8] in the latter passage in a technical sense; but the context does not enable us to fix its meaning. Hysterema is said by Epiphanius[9] to have been used as a technical word by Basilides.

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Kenoma

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In , particularly within the Valentinian school, kenoma (from Greek kenōma, meaning "emptiness" or "void") denotes the deficient, material realm of phenomena and separation from the divine, standing in stark opposition to the , the realm of spiritual fullness and divine unity. This concept portrays the kenoma as a shadowy, imperfect domain born from the fall of the lower Sophia (Achamoth), who is cast out from the pleroma into a state of passion and longing, leading to the formation of the under the . The kenoma embodies Gnostic dualism, representing the kingdom of evil, darkness, and —entities antagonistic to the transcendent —where divine sparks are trapped and require (knowledge) for redemption back to the . In this framework, the material world is not a direct creation of the true but a flawed , often described as a "shadow" or vacuum, critiqued by early like for its philosophical borrowings from and . Key texts, such as those preserved in the and summarized in patristic refutations, illustrate how the kenoma's emptiness underscores the soul's journey from ignorance to enlightenment, influencing later esoteric and philosophical traditions.

Etymology and Terminology

Linguistic Origins

The term kenoma originates from the noun κένωμα (kenōma), denoting "emptiness," "void," or "that which has been emptied," derived directly from the verb κενόω (kenóō), meaning "to empty" or "to make void." This root reflects a conceptual emphasis on absence or evacuation, as seen in its classical applications to physical or metaphorical vacuums, such as empty spaces or non-existence. In classical , including philosophical texts, κένωμα conveyed a lack of substance or form, appearing in works by historians and philosophers like , who used it to describe spatial voids in military contexts, and , who applied it to medicinal evacuations and abstract deficiencies. Although not prominently featured in Plato's surviving corpus, the term's implications of formlessness aligned with broader Platonic ideas of as receptive and insubstantial, influencing later Hellenistic thought. The word adapted into Hellenistic Judaism through the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures completed in the 3rd–2nd centuries BCE, where σχοινίον κενῆς (measuring line of emptiness), with κενῆς from κενός meaning empty or void, translates Hebrew terms for desolation in Isaiah 34:11, portraying a barren, emptied landscape as divine judgment. This usage bridged Jewish scriptural imagery of void-like ruin with Greek philosophical notions of emptiness, paving the way for its appearance in early Christian writings influenced by both traditions. The verb κενόω appears in the New Testament, particularly in Philippians 2:7, where it describes Christ's self-emptying (kenosis), further illustrating the term's resonance in early Christian theology. Its earliest documented integration into Gnostic vocabulary occurs in 2nd-century CE texts linked to Valentinius and his disciples, who employed kenoma to signify the deficient, material realm in contrast to divine fullness. , the antonym denoting "fullness," emerged alongside it in this tradition. The concept of kenoma, denoting or deficiency in the material realm, draws significantly from Platonic dualism as articulated in Plato's Timaeus, where the sensible is portrayed as an imperfect copy of the eternal, ideal forms in the intelligible realm, characterized by becoming rather than true being. In this framework, the physical cosmos emerges as a generated image modeled after unchanging paradigms, inherently limited and subject to flux, prefiguring later notions of a deficient lower . Stoic philosophy contributed to the intellectual milieu through its conception of the kenon (void), an incorporeal infinite expanse surrounding the cosmos that serves as the substrate enabling the movement and arrangement of material bodies. Unlike the plenum of the cosmos filled with pneuma-infused matter, the kenon represents unoccupied potentiality, essential for cosmic cycles of conflagration and regeneration, thus linking emptiness to the conditions of material existence. Middle Platonism further developed these ideas, emphasizing the sensible world's lack of true ontological status, a theme echoed in Plotinus' Enneads despite his post-Gnostic context, where matter is depicted as a privation of form and the source of deficiency, reflecting earlier Platonic traditions of a shadowy realm subordinate to the intelligible. This portrayal of the material as ouk on (non-being) or emptiness in essence influenced the philosophical vocabulary available to emerging Gnostic systems. Jewish , particularly the Enochic texts, reinforced views of the material world as deficient and corrupted, depicting it as a realm tainted by rebellious celestial beings and awaiting , thereby contributing a of cosmic imperfection to the broader Hellenistic-Jewish synthesis. These pre-Christian sources collectively shaped the conceptual foundations of kenoma, which Valentinian thinkers later adapted to articulate Gnostic distinctions between divine fullness and worldly void.

Core Concept in Gnosticism

Definition and Meaning

In , particularly within Valentinian traditions, kenoma denotes the metaphysical or deficiency that defines the and phenomenal , a suffused with , , and profound separation from the divine of fullness. This encapsulates the inherent lack in created existence, where spiritual authenticity is absent, and reality appears as a deceptive over true being. The kenoma is portrayed as the lower cosmos, a shadowy domain of imperfect imitations and copies that possess no genuine spiritual essence, rendering all phenomena transient and insubstantial. In this framework, the visible world emerges from a primordial void associated with the fall of divine wisdom, perpetuating a cycle of passion and limitation. Theologically, the kenoma serves as an imprisoning structure for the divine spark (pneuma) embedded in human souls, ensnaring them in perpetual ignorance and subjection to fate, from which liberation requires awakening to higher knowledge. Gnostic texts emphasize this entrapment as a core human condition, where the soul's innate divinity is obscured by material constraints. The term itself is derived from the Greek kenōma (κένωμα), meaning "emptiness" or "void."

Contrast with Pleroma

In Gnostic cosmology, particularly within the Valentinian tradition, the represents the upper realm of divine fullness, a transcendent spiritual domain inhabited by eternal emanations known as Aeons. These Aeons, organized in syzygies or paired male-female entities, include primordial figures such as Bythos (Depth) and its counterpart Sige (Silence), followed by Nous (Mind) and (Truth), forming the foundational structure of this perfect, harmonious totality. The embodies complete unity and immutability, where all divine powers emanate effortlessly from the unknowable Father without disruption or deficiency. In stark contrast, the Kenoma serves as an inverted mirror of the , characterized as a of void and deficiency arising from a cosmic error or fall, specifically the passion of the lower Sophia (Achamoth). This event, wherein the lower Sophia sought to comprehend the ineffable independently, resulted in her expulsion from the and the formation of an amorphous passion that solidified into the material substrate outside the divine fullness. The Kenoma thus emerges as a shadowed, incomplete domain, where the aborted emanation of Sophia's desire precipitates the conditions for temporal creation, devoid of the Pleroma's inherent perfection. This underscores the core dualism of Gnostic thought, positioning the as eternal and spiritual—immune to change and filled with —against the Kenoma's psychic and temporal nature, marked by ignorance, fragmentation, and subjection to fate. in this framework entails the ascent of the spiritual seed from the Kenoma back to the , facilitated by revelatory knowledge that restores the to its origin. The two realms are demarcated by the Horos, or Limit, which prevents further incursion of deficiency into the fullness. Symbolically, the Kenoma contains imperfect echoes or "" counterparts to the Pleroma's Aeons and syzygies, such as terrestrial manifestations of pairs like Christ and Sophia, which serve as prototypes and images rather than the authentic divine realities. These representations highlight the Kenoma's role as a flawed , where spiritual truths appear veiled in forms to guide the elect toward redemption.

Role in Gnostic Cosmology

Association with the Demiurge

In Gnostic cosmology, the , often identified as or Saklas, emerges as the ignorant artisan god responsible for fashioning the kenoma from chaotic matter following the fall of Sophia, the lowest aeon in the . This entity, born from Sophia's erroneous attempt to emanate without her divine counterpart, possesses only a distorted reflection of divine power and lacks awareness of the transcendent . As a result, the Demiurge's creative act is portrayed as an unwitting imitation of the higher spiritual realm, transforming primordial chaos into a deficient material domain. The kenoma serves as the Demiurge's flawed domain, a of and governed by archons—subordinate demonic rulers who enforce rigid laws and the inexorable fate known as . These archons, emanated from the Demiurge's own substance, act as cosmic overseers, binding souls to the material world and perpetuating cycles of ignorance and suffering. The Demiurge's rule over this domain underscores its role as a for divine sparks trapped within humanity, preventing ascent to true . During the creation process, the populates the kenoma with seven planetary spheres ruled by the archons and the elemental substances of the earthly realm, structuring it as a hierarchical of the pleromatic order yet perverting its through inherent imperfection and multiplicity. This cosmic , drawn from the 's limited vision, establishes barriers that souls must transcend to achieve , reflecting a deliberate theological inversion of Platonic ideals into a of . The theological critique of the centers on its profound blindness to the higher, unknowable , which renders the kenoma inherently defective and antagonistic toward —the salvific knowledge of divine origins. This ignorance manifests in the 's arrogant proclamations of sole , such as "I am , and there is no other," while unwittingly confining fragments of the within its creation. Gnostic texts thus portray the kenoma not as a neutral but as a hostile engineered by a flawed craftsman, compelling the pursuit of enlightenment to escape its dominion.

Structure of the Kenoma

In Gnostic cosmology, the Kenoma exhibits a hierarchical and spatial organization that imperfectly imitates the , comprising the Hebdomad of ruled by the and archons, an intermediate ogdoadic realm associated with Achamoth overseeing elements, and descending to the material cosmos, all characterized by deficiency and separation from divine fullness. This structure forms a descending order from higher intermediaries to the material world, reflecting a shadowed of the Pleroma's emanative . At the base of this lies the terrestrial realm, the most deficient level of the Kenoma, where the four classical elements—, , air, and —intermingle in chaotic disharmony, giving rise to and human bodies as microcosms of inherent lack and mortality. Human existence here embodies the Kenoma's essential emptiness, with bodies serving as prisons for the trapped within, perpetuating cycles of birth, , and . Integral to the Kenoma's framework are "shadow" Aeons or psychic counterparts that echo the Pleroma's divine entities but exist in distorted, lower forms; a prime example is Achamoth, the fallen counterpart of Sophia, who dwells in an intermediate region outside the , her unresolved passions birthing the psychic substance that populates the Kenoma's realms. These shadow figures, including archons and lesser powers, maintain the illusion of completeness while reinforcing separation from true . The Kenoma's endurance relies on a cyclical dynamic fueled by passions—such as , desire, and —and the prevailing of its inhabitants, which bind to repetitive and contrast sharply with the Pleroma's static, harmonious unity. This self-sustaining mechanism ensures the persistence of deficiency until redemption through disrupts the cycle. The , positioned within the Hebdomad of , provides limited oversight to this structure, blind to the higher realities.

Usage in Specific Gnostic Traditions

Valentinian Gnosticism

In Valentinian Gnosticism, the concept of kenoma served as a critical framework for integrating Platonic philosophy with , portraying the material world as a realm of deficiency and emptiness in contrast to the divine . Valentinus (c. 100–160 CE), the founder of this tradition, adapted Platonic notions of the sensible world as an imperfect shadow of the ideal forms to explain the Christian , where the kenoma represents the void arising from the lower Sophia's (Achamoth's) fall and passion outside the . As described by the early Church Father , this exile of Achamoth into the kenoma—a place of darkness, formlessness, and vacuity—generated the passions of grief, fear, and perplexity, which coalesced into the substance of matter from which the fashioned the created order. Within this cosmology, the kenoma is specifically the domain of the "psychic" class of humans, who possess souls capable of partial redemption through and moral effort, facilitated by Christ's and of . Unlike the fully spiritual , who originate from Achamoth's pneumatic seed sown in the kenoma and are destined to return to the via complete knowledge of the divine, the psychics inhabit the kenoma as creations of the and can achieve an intermediate state of . The , composed purely of material elements formed in the kenoma, remain eternally trapped in its deficiency, perishing with the dissolution of the . This tripartite underscores the kenoma's role in : Christ's descent from the pleroma into the kenoma imparts partial to psychics, enabling their psychic repose in a bridal chamber-like intermediary realm, while fully liberating . A seminal Valentinian text illustrating the kenoma as the domain of error overcome by the Savior is the Gospel of Truth, likely composed in the mid-second century and attributed to Valentinus or his circle. Here, error emerges from ignorance and forgetfulness of the , manifesting as a "dense fog" of emptiness and agitation that "labored at her matter in emptiness" to model the material forms of the kenoma. The Savior's descent reveals the truth, constraining error and rendering it powerless through , as "he became a course to those who had strayed... and he became the fruit of the 's acquaintance." This portrayal aligns with broader Gnostic cosmology by emphasizing the kenoma's illusory nature, dispelled by the incarnate Christ's light penetrating the void.

Basilides and Marcus

Basilides, active in around 117–138 CE, integrated the concept of kenoma into his cosmological system as a realm of formlessness and deficiency, distinct from the transcendent unbegotten Father. In his teachings, the kenoma encompasses the lower regions below the Hebdomad, where the third Sonship resides in an aborted, impure state, requiring purification through intellectual ascent to rejoin the divine realm. This kenoma is structured as 365 heavens, each governed by successive emerging from a cosmic seed, culminating in the Great Archon Abrasax, whose rule embodies the radical otherness of the created order from the non-existent, impassible Father. These heavens, likened to aborted fetus-like entities in their , represent a hierarchical deficiency born from the unfolding of the seed's germs, emphasizing the kenoma's separation from true divine fullness. Marcus, operating in Gaul circa 150 CE, employed kenoma in a more technical manner within his aeonic , portraying it as the void exterior to the arising from Sophia's deficiency. According to Marcus, Sophia, as the youngest aeon in the initial syzygy of 28 aeons, attempted to comprehend the Father's unknowable essence, resulting in a formless "abortion" or passion that was expelled into the kenoma by the boundary Horos, thereby preventing of the . This deficiency links to prophetic fulfillments through numerical interpretations, such as the 30 aeons (comprising an Ogdoad, Decad, and Dodecad) symbolizing the complete divine name, with the kenoma's material world redeemed via sacramental rites that restore the fragmented elements to unity. Unlike ' emphasis on layered heavens, Marcus' kenoma serves as a pivot for Sophia's error, integrated into Pythagorean-style to decode scriptural prophecies. Both Basilides and Marcus viewed the kenoma as a lingering hysteresis of divine error— a residual imperfection stemming from emanative processes—but diverged in application: Basilides stressed gnostic knowledge for intellectual ascent through the 365-tiered deficiency, while Marcus focused on redemptive sacraments to heal Sophia's passion and fulfill aeonic numerology, marking variations from the more pleroma-centric Valentinian framework.

Hysterema

In Gnostic thought, particularly within Valentinian traditions, hysterema derives from the Greek word ὑστέρημα, signifying "deficiency" or "that which is lacking," and stands as the direct to the pleroma, the realm of divine fullness and perfection. This term encapsulates the inherent incompleteness and absence inherent in the lower cosmic order, contrasting sharply with the overflowing completeness of the divine . As described in early patristic accounts of Valentinian doctrine, the hysterema represents the void of imperfection born from disruption within the higher aeonic structure. Cosmologically, the hysterema functions as the chaotic, formless space lying beyond the , into which the passions of the aeon Sophia—often identified as Achamoth in Valentinian systems—fall and manifest. These , including , , and , precipitate the deficiency that provides the raw, shadowy substance from which the , an ignorant craftsman, shapes the material world. This realm of lack thus becomes the foundational womb for the emergence of , embodying and separation from the divine source, while remaining separated from the pleroma by the boundary known as Horos. In some Valentinian texts, hysterema and kenoma are employed interchangeably to refer to the same deficient realm. The concept appears prominently in patristic critiques of Gnostic systems, such as Ptolemy's Letter to , where the Mosaic Law is portrayed as arising from a deficient intermediary power (the ), reflecting the imperfection in creation. Similarly, Epiphanius in his depicts the realm of deficiency as a chaotic precursor to the ordered , emphasizing its role in the Valentinian where Sophia's aborted passion generates the flawed domain of the . These texts underscore the hysterema's portrayal as an unstable void pregnant with illusion, awaiting redemption through . Hysterema and kenoma are closely related concepts, both denoting the realm of deficiency and emptiness outside the , often used interchangeably in Valentinian texts to describe the lower cosmic order shaped by the .

Horos as Boundary

In Valentinian Gnostic cosmology, Horos (ὅρος), meaning "limit" or "boundary," serves as a divine emanation that intervenes during the disruptive passion of Sophia, halting her descent and preventing the complete dissolution of her essence into the realm of deficiency. This power, described as a supportive and separating force, restrains Sophia's uncontrolled desire to comprehend the ineffable Father, thereby containing the chaotic consequences of her error and expelling her shapeless passion (enthymesis) beyond the divine enclosure. The primary function of Horos is to establish a metaphysical boundary that safeguards the integrity of the higher divine , ensuring that the disorder arising from Sophia's fall does not infiltrate or undermine its stability. Personified in some accounts as a corrective , Horos divides the uncreated from the created, fencing off the deficient emanations and restoring order by guiding the affected back toward equilibrium through purification and limitation. Without this boundary, the overflow of divine potential would risk merging with the void, leading to an uncontainable expansion of imperfection. In the cosmological framework, the realm of deficiency lies below Horos, separated such that access to the higher integrity requires salvific knowledge () to transcend the limit. This division underscores Horos's role in maintaining cosmic , where the boundary not only contains but also enables eventual restoration for elements trapped in deficiency. For instance, in the Tripartite Tractate, following the Logos's (equated with Sophia) fall into doubt and passion, the Father establishes the limit to draw away the totalities, thereby containing the resulting disorderly expansions and facilitating the conversion and reintegration of the fallen through and remembrance.
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