Primary source · Koine Greek

The Letter to Flora

Name: The Letter to Flora
Author: Ptolemy the Valentinian

Ptolemy the Valentinian · c. AD 160

Epiphanius, Panarion 33 (carrier) — manuscript witness to The Letter to Flora — Epiphanius, Panarion 33 (carrier) — c. 375 (medieval copies)Eastern Orthodox St. Fathers and other notable Christian writers · Public domain · Commons

What this text is

The most lucid surviving Gnostic document: a Valentinian teacher explains to a Roman Christian woman how to grade the Mosaic law — preserved whole inside Epiphanius's heresy-catalogue.

Profile of Ptolemy the Valentinian →

Public-domain translations

Via Epiphanius, Panarion 33 (literal gloss)

The Law, dear sister Flora, has not been understood by many… it was not ordained by the perfect God the Father, nor by the devil — but the whole is divided into three: the legislation of Moses, of the elders, and of God himself. (Opening argument, condensed.)

Manuscript witnesses

Epiphanius, Panarion 33 (carrier)

c. 375 (medieval copies)

The letter survives whole only because the heresiologist transcribed it to refute it.

SOLE CARRIER

Provenance

Rome, c. AD 155–170 — the Valentinian teacher to a catholic lady

Editions & scholarship

Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.

Ptolémée: Lettre à Flora (SC 24 bis)
Gilles Quispel, 1966
Critical edition with French translation.
The Gnostic Scriptures
Bentley Layton, 2nd ed. 2021
Standard scholarly translation with introduction.