TOLOMEO, GNOSTIC. - Representative of the western branch of the Valentinian school.

He probably lived at Rome. Author of an Epistle to a certain Flora, otherwise unknown. The letter has been preserved in Epiphanius (Panar. haer., 33, 3-8: PG 41, 558-68).

The subject is the evaluation of the Law of Moses. T. 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 midway between the good God and the devil. The epistle, although it presupposes Valentinian speculation, does not express the doctrine of the sect in direct form.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: Ptolémée, Lettre à Flora, Texte, traduct. et introduct. de G. Quispel, Paris 1949 (Sources chrétiennes, no. 24), see also: Vigilia christianae, Amsterdam 1948, p. 17 ff.; Ad. Harnack, Der Brief des Ptolemäus an Flora, in Sitzungsberichte der Berlin. Akademie, Berlin 1902, p. 507 ff.

Erik Peterson

@incollection{ec12_tolomeo_gnostico, author = {Peterson, Erik}, title = {Tolomeo, gnostico}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {209--214}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/tolomeo-gnostico} }

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Ptolemy, Gnostic

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