ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on a contribution presented in September 2010 at a conference entitled 'Individuality in Late Antiquity' in Oxford. A version may be found in C. Markschies, 'Individuality in Some Gnostic Authors: With a few remarks on the interpretation of Ptolemaeus, Epistula ad Floram', Zeitschrift für antikes Christentum. In the light of current events, with a few remarks on the interpretation of the above-mentioned Epistula ad Floram, the letter to the Roman matron Flora written by the urban Roman Christian teacher Ptolemy and recorded by the Late Antique heresiologist Epiphanius. The chapter mainly questions whether this specific Gnostic movement, at its stage of development in the 70s of the second century possessed a concept of individuality in their protological myth. Like the fragments of his probable teacher Valentinus, Ptolemy's Epistula ad Floram belongs to a development history of Valentinian Gnosticism which is yet to be written, especially after the challenges posed by Einar Thomassen's attempt.