PTOLEMY, GNOSTIC. Representative of the western branch of the Valentinian school.
He probably lived in Rome. Author of an Epistle to a certain Flora, otherwise unknown. The letter is preserved in Epiphanius (Panar. haer., 33, 3-8: PG 41, 558-68).
Ptolemy, Claudius - End of the 1st c. and beginning of the 2nd c. of the Latin version of the Cosmographia, Rome, Pietro de Turre, 4 Nov. 1490, f. 450 - Rome, copy from the National Library.
The subject is the evaluation of the Law of Moses. P. seeks a middle way between the position of the Church and that of Marcion. The law comes partly from God, partly from Moses, and partly from the traditions of the elders of the people. The Law of Moses is the work of the Demiurge, who stands between the good God and the devil. The epistle, although presupposing Valentinian speculation, does not directly express the doctrine of the sect.