Ptolemy (Gnostic)

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Ptolemy (also in the spelling Ptolemy ) (possibly from the second half of the 2nd century to the beginning of the 3rd century) was a student of the Christian Gnostic teacher Valentinus and with Herakleon the main representative of the Italian or Western school of Valentine Gnosis . While u. a. Theodotus of Byzantium represented the Eastern School.

Irenaeus of Lyons states that he had much of his knowledge of the Gnostics from disciples of Ptolemy.

Life

Very little is known of Ptolemy's life. After Irenäus he was a pupil of Valentinus and at the time Adversus haereses was written (around 180) still alive. He worked in Rome , Italy and the south of France .

Adolf von Harnack identified the Gnostic Ptolemy with a martyr of the same name mentioned by Justin the Martyr . This martyr Ptolemy died in Rome around 152.

Works

The only surviving work by Ptolemy is a letter to his otherwise unknown student Flora, in which Ptolemy deals with the origin of the law of the Old Testament . It is passed down from Epiphanius of Salamis ( Adversus haereses 33,3-7).

Teaching

Irenaeus of Lyons provides information on Ptolemy's teaching.

In Ptolemy's opinion, the Decalogue can not be traced back to either the supreme god or the devil ; the laws do not come from a single god. Part of it, however, is the work of a deeper God. Another part comes from Moses and a third from the elders of the Jewish people. Ptolemy divides the Decalogue into three parts: the fulfillment by the Savior, the mixture of right with evil and the area that points to the higher world. In his system of the origin of the world, Ptolemy describes an extensive system of aeons that started from a spiritual force. Thirty of these eons make up the higher world, the pleroma .

All Valentians have in common that they describe a 'heavenly world', the pleroma, which would consist of thirty aeons , worlds. These eons are arranged in pairs and are not used as abstractions, but represent hypostases or personifications of individual properties of the divinity on which they are based. The creation of the world would proceed from the last of these eons, Sophia . The origin of matter and the world is judged to be the result of error, not of evil and sin .

Ptolemy commented on the prologue of the Gospel of John. This system becomes the basis of a biblical exegesis which is discovered in the prologue of the Gospel of John during the first eight aeons.

literature

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ Markus Vinzent : The resurrection of Christ in early Christianity. Herder Verlag, Freiburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-451-31212-0 , p. 159.
  2. ↑ Christoph Markschies : Valentinus Gnosticus? Scientific studies on the New Testament, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1992, ISBN 978-3-1614-5993-1 , pp. 392-402 ( [1] on books.google.de)
  3. ↑ Markus Vinzent: The resurrection of Christ in early Christianity. Herder Verlag, Freiburg 2014, p. 146
personal data
SURNAME Ptolemy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Gnostic teacher
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century
DATE OF DEATH after 180