Fragmentary Letters.

        Gnostic teachers also wrote “open letters” to their disciples, and Clement of Alexandria has preserved three fragments from letters of Valentinus in his Miscellanies. In addition, we possess a whole letter of the Valentinian Ptolemaeus to a certain Flora; in it he explains the nature of the true law of God.[1] Other letters have been discovered among the Gnostic writings found at Nag Hammadi in Egypt: these include two versions of a letter of Eugnostus, a letter of Peter and Philip, and a letter concerning the Father of the Universe and Adam, the First Man.

        Beyond “open letters” such as these, there were naturally many private letters written by Christians-and, just as naturally, almost none of them survive. We should, however, mention what is probably the earliest extant letter of this kind, written by a young Christian named Besas to his mother Mary perhaps about the year 200.[2]

        To my most honorable mother Mary, from Besas, many greetings in God. Above all, I pray to God the Father of truth and to the Paraclete Spirit that they may preserve you in soul and body and spirit: for the body, health; for the spirit, gladness; and for the soul, eternal life. And please do not hesitate, if you find anyone coming to me, to write me about your health so that when I hear I may rejoice. Do not neglect to send me the coat for the Paschal festival, and send my brother to me. I greet my father and my brothers. I pray that you may long be well.

        Scholars have sometimes supposed that this letter reflects Gnostic thought, but it does not. The language is actually characteristic of the early Egyptian liturgy, the origins of which we can therefore place within the second century.”[3]