This is more of an inquiry than anything else. The character Silvanus has largely gone unnoticed in modern times yet he seems to have been a notable man in the formative years of Xtianity. 1 Thess and 2 Thess both open with the identical words, claiming the letters were from Paul, Silvanus and Timothy. 1 Cor 1:19 likewise goes out of it's way to use the formula. Few modern scholars feel that 2 Thess is pauline but 1 thess has also rightly been questioned. The phrase at 1 Cor seems to easily be an interpolation. Then we find our friend Silvanus being the secrtary of "Peter" at 1 Peter 5:12 calling him a "faithful brother". Textual critics have recognized again that these epistles of "peter" are psuedonymous late works, and generally antignostic. Acts 15,16,17 make use of the character (using Aramaic form of name Silas) as a leading man in Jerusalem who helps bridge the rift between Paulinist and Jewish Xtianity.
Then there's the Nag Hammadi text ' 'Teachings of Silvanus'. (dated by trdaitional Xtian scholars to 150 CE about the same time as 2 Peter but by Radical Critics earlier). This work can only be called a protoGnostic work using language from wisdom literature, and resembling GJohn in many ways.
Obviously this fella was someone that everyone wanted to call a partner. It is possible that the Nag Ham. text best reflects his actual religious views, tho reasonably it was redacted as usual. There is even a line in the work that refers to Paul:
"But the man who does nothing is unworthy of (being called) rational man. The rational man is he who fears God. He who fears God does nothing insolent. And he who guards himself against doing anything insolent is one who keeps his guiding principle. Although he is a man who exists on earth, he makes himself like God. But he who makes himself like God is one who does nothing unworthy of God, according to the statement of Paul, who has become like Christ."
Just how he felt Paul had become like Christ, I don't know. This type of statement seems more fitting for a later time but I don't know.
Anyone have comments or input to try to flesh out this Silvanus?