Ptolemy the Gnostic (not the same person as the astronomer and geographer, nor the Egyptian ruler) was a disciple of the Gnostic Valentinius, known to us for writing a letter to a wealthy non-Gnostic lady named Flora. Gnosticism is a blanket term for various mystical initiatory religions and sects, which were most prominent in the first few centuries CE. It is also applied to modern revivals of these sects and, sometimes, by analogy to all religious movements based on secret knowledge gnosis, thus leading to confusion. ... Valentinius, more usually called Valentinus (c. ...

He was probably still living about 180 CE. No other certain details are known of his life; Harnack's suggestion that he was identical with the Ptolemy spoken of by St. Justin is as yet unproved (Text. u. Untersuch. New. Ser. XIII, Anal. z. ält. Gesch. d. Chr.). He was, with Heracleon, the principal writer of the Italian or Western school of Valentinian Gnosticism. His works have reached us in an incomplete form as follows: Heracleon, a Gnostic who flourished about AD 125, probably in the south of Italy or in Sicily, and is generally classed by the early heresiologists with the Valentinian school of heresy. ...

(1) a fragment of an exegetical writing preserved by Irenæus (Adv. Hær., I, viii, 5); (2) a letter to Flora, a Christian lady, not otherwise known to us.

This letter is found in the works of Epiphanius (Hær. XXXIII, 3-7). It was written in response to Flora's inquiry concerning the origin of the Law of the Old Testament. This law, Ptolemy states, cannot be attributed to the Supreme God, nor to the devil; nor does it proceed from one law-giver. A part of it is the work of an inferior god; the second part is due to Moses, and the third to the elders of the Jewish people. Three different sections are to be distinguished even in the part ascribed to the inferior god: Epiphanius (clearly manifested) was the name of several early Christian scholars and ecclesiastics: Epiphanius of Salamis, bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, died 410, author of Panarion Epiphanius of Constantinople, died 535, Patriarch of Constantinople 520—535 Epiphanius Scholasticus, known only as the assistant of Cassiodorus who compiled the Historiae Ecclesiasticae... The Old Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures (also called the Hebrew Bible) constitutes the first major part of the Bible according to Christianity. ... The Devil is the name given to a supernatural entity who, in most Western religions, is the central embodiment of evil. ... Moses or Móshe (מֹשֶׁה, Standard Hebrew Móše, Tiberian Hebrew Mōšeh, Arabic موسى Musa), son of Amram and his wife, Jochebed, a Levite. ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ...

References

Pagels, Elaine. The Johannine Gospel in Gnostic Exegesis, ed. J. Ross (Atlanta, 1989)