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Nag Hammadi

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Nag Hammâdi is a village in the middle of Egypt, in classical antiquity called Chenoboskion, about 225 kilometers nort-west of Aswan with some 30.000 citizens. It is mostly a peasant area where goods like sugar and aluminium is produced.

The Nag Hammadi Library

Nag Hammadi is mostly known for being the site where thirteen buried codices, containing mostly Gnostic works, but including a copy of Plato's Republic, were found. The codices are believed to be a library, hidden by monks from a monastery in the area when these writings were banned by the Orthodox Church.

The contents of the codices were written in Coptic, though the works were mostly (all?) translations from Greek. Most famous of these works must be the Gospel of Thomas, of which the Nag Hammadi codices contain the only complete copy. Incomplete versions were recognized in the 19th century from fragmentary manuscript finds and quotation in other sources.

The date of the lost Greek originals behind the Coptic translations is controverted, but the manuscripts themselves are from the 3rd and 4th centuries.

List of Codices Found in Nag Hammadi

  • Codex I (also known as The Jung Codex):
    • The Prayer of the Apostle Paul
    • The Apocryphon of James
    • The Gospel of Truth
    • The Treatise on the Resurrection
    • The Tripartite Tractate
  • Codex II:
    • The Apocryphon of John
    • The Gospel of Thomas -- not regarded as Gnostic by all scholars, some believe this is actually as reliable as the other Gospels
    • The Gospel of Philip
    • The Hypostatis of the Archons
    • On the Origin of the World
    • The Exegesis on the Soul
    • The Book of Thomas the Contender
  • Codex III:
  • Codex IV:
    • The Apocryphon of John
    • The Gospel of the Egyptians
  • Codex V:
    • Eugnostos the Blessed
    • The Apocalypse of Paul
    • The (first) Apocalypse of James
    • The (second) Apocalypse of James
    • The Apocalypse of Adam
  • Codex VI:
    • The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles
    • The Thunder, Perfect Mind
    • Authoriative Teaching
    • The Concept of Our Great Power
    • Republic by Plato - definitely not Gnostic
    • The Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth
    • The Prayer of Thanksgiving (with a hand-written note)
    • Asclepius 21-29
  • Codex VII:
    • The Paraphrase of Shem
    • The Second Treatise of the Great Seth
    • Apocalypse of Peter
    • The Teachings of Silvanus
    • The Three Steles of Seth
  • Codex VIII:
    • Zostrianos
    • The Letter of Peter to Philip
  • Codex IX:
    • Melchizedek
    • The Thought of Norea
    • The Testimony of Truth
  • Codex X:
    • Marsanes
  • Codex XI:
    • The Interpretation of Knowledge
    • A Valentinian Exposition, On the Anointing, On Baptism (A and B) and On the Eucharist (A and B)
    • Allogenes
    • Hypsiphrone
  • Codex XII
    • The Sentences of Sextus
    • The Gospel of Truth
    • Fragments
  • Codex XIII:
    • Trimorphic Protennoia
    • On the Origin of the World


See also: The Sophia of Jesus Christ

  • Robinson, James M., ed. The Nag Hammadi Library in English ISBN 0060669357
  • Layton, Bentley., ed. The Gnostic Scriptures ISBN 0385478437
  • http://www.gnosis.org - Contains some of the Nag Hammadi scriptures on site.
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