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The Coptic Gnostic Library Today

I. Publication Projects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

James M. Robinson
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Extract

In the autumn of 1947 Togo Mina, Director of the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo, showed to Jean Doresse a Coptic manuscript acquired the previous year, which we today call Codex III. Doresse recognized its gnostic character and its importance, and began inquiries as to whether there were other manuscripts in the same find, a find dated ‘about 1945’. Parts of one other codex—today called Codex I—were located in the possession of a Belgian antiquities dealer Albert Eid. This incomplete codex was subsequently taken out of Egypt and, via America and Benelux, emerged in Zürich, where it was purchased for the Jung Institute by Mr George H. Page and named the Jung Codex. It was presented to Jung as a birthday gift, and is not, as one usually infers from the literature, the possession of the Jung Institute, but rather of the heirs of C. G. Jung. An agreement to return it to Egypt after its publication has been made in principle. The Gospel of Truth (1, 2) has been turned over to the Egyptian Embassy in Berne, and from there wad returned to the Coptic Museum; however, the tractate On the Resurrection (1, 3), though published, ahs not been thus far returned. What is still in Zürich is in the Leu Bank.

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New Testament Studies , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , April 1968 , pp. 356 - 401
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1968

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References

1 Doresse, Jean, The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics: An Introduction to the Gnostic Coptic manuscripts discovered at Chenoboskion (1960)Google Scholar, a slightly revised and considerably augmented translation of Les livres secrets des gnostiques d'Egypte: Introduction aux écrits gnostiques coptes découverts à Khénoboskion (1958). Citation is from the Eng. tr., pp. 116–18. Cf. also Puech, Henri-Charles, ‘Les nouveaux écrits gnostiques découverts en Haute-Egypte (Premier inventaire et essai d'identification)’, Coptic Studies in Honor of Walter Ewing Crum (1950), p. 94Google Scholar. With regard to the date of the discovery, Mina, Togo, ‘Le papyrus gnostique du Musée Copte’, Vigiliae Christianae, ii (1948), 129Google Scholar, said ’about two years ago—one has not been able to establish the exact date’. Puech, Crum Festschrift, p. 93, says 1946, but in his essay ‘Découverte d'une bibliothèque gnostique en Haute-Egypte’, Encyclopédie Française, XIX, 42 (1957), 5, he says ‘about 1945’. Doresse, in his article ‘Sur les traces des papyrus gnostiques: Recherches à Chénoboskion’, Bulletin de I'Académie royale de Belgique, Classe des lettres et des sciences morales et politiques, 5th series, XXXVI (1950), 432–9, which is repeated with minor variations in Secret Books, pp. 128–36, had already shifted the date to ‘about 1945’ (p. 432; Secret Books, p. 128) as the view prior to his visit Jan. 1950; on that trip peasants gave the date as ‘four years ago’ (p. 437; Secret Books, p. 134).

2 Henri-Charles, Puech, Encyclopédie Française, p. 5. The details of the acquisition of the Jung Codex are reported by Gilles Quispel, in the ‘History of the Discovery’, pp. 40–4 of his essay ‘The Jung Codex and its Significance’, pp. 37–78 of The Jung Codex: A Newly Recovered Gnostic Papyrus, three studiesby H.-C. Puech, G. Quispel and W. C. van Unnik, ed. by F. L. Cross (1955).Google Scholar

3 This is correctly reported by Till, Walter C., ‘Die Edition der koptisch-gnostischen Schriften’, Evangelien aus dem Nilsand, by Willem Cornelius van Unnik (1960), p. 152: ‘property of the well-known psychologist Professor C. G. Jung in Zürich’. Puech, Encyclopédie Française, p. 5, refers to it as having been ‘acquired May 10, 1952 by the Jung Institute of Zürich’. The Introduction to Evangelium Veritatis (1, 2), ed. by Michel Malinine, Henri-Charles Puech and Gilles Quispel (1956), p. ix, begins with the comment: ‘Acquired May 10, 1952 for the account of the C. G.Jung Institute of Zürich…’ This volume was ‘published on the authorization of the Curatorium of the Jung Institute’ by C. A. Meier as number IV of the Studien aus dem C. G. Jung-Institut, according to the back of the title-page. The Supplementum to Evangelium Veritatis published in 1961 and De resurrectione (1, 3) published in 1963 lack such a reference.Google Scholar

4 Henri-Charles Puech, Encyclopédie Française, p. 5, relates this arrangement to the work of the first International Committee in 1956: ‘The promise having been made to it that the “Jung Codex” would be returned to the Coptic Museum, wheresome 42 pages missing in the manuscript of Zürich had just been found, it was able to establish the program of a collection that will include the total, thus reconstituted, of the texts discovered, and where each of their volumes will be edited, translated, and annotated in a uniform manner and according to the same principles.’

1 Martin, Krause, Die drei Versionen des Apokryphon des Johannes im Koptischen Museum zu Alt-Kairo (Abhandlungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Kairo, Koptische Reihe I, 1963), p. 296, reports their arrival in the Coptic Museum, where pp. 17–32 received the inventory number 10589 and pp. 37–42 the inventory number 10590.Google Scholar

2 Doresse, Secret Books, pp. 120–2; quotation from p. 122. Puech, Crum Festschrift, p. 94, says ‘the direction of the Museum, after having made it illegal to export the documents from Egypt, entrusted the responsibility of preparing a concise inventory of the units proposed [for purchase] to a commission composed of several specialists’. Togo, Mina, ‘Nouveaux textes gnostiques coptes découverts en Haute-Egypte: La bibliothèque de Chénoboskion’, Vigiliae Christianae, iii (1949), 130, writing on 1 June 1949, referred to ‘the long report worked out by Doresse and myself several months ago’.Google Scholar

3 Doresse, Secret Books, pp. 123–4.

4 Doresse, Secret Books, p. 117. BG is the abbreviation for (Codex) Berolinensis Gnosticus, and by analogy one cites the Nag Hammadi texts as CG, Cairensis Gnosticus.

1 Doresse, Secret Books, p. 117.

2 Pahor, Labib, Coptic Gnostic Papyri in the Coptic Museum at Old Cairo, vol. i (1956), p. 2, in the preface to his volume of plates dated 7 July 1956. The list in Hans-Martin Schenke, Die Herkunft des sogenannten Evangelium Veritatis (1959), adds ‘probably also Yassah ‘Abd al Masih’, the Librarian of the Coptic Museum, who did indeed participate in the first (and only) publication of that committee, The Gospel according to Thomas (II, 2).Google Scholar

3 Doresse, Secret Books, p. 117.

4 The Gospel According to Thomas, by A. Guillaumont, H.-Ch. Puech, G. Quispel, W. Till and Yassah ‘Abd al Masih (1959), p. vi.

5 Evangelium Veritatis, by M. Malinine, H.-Ch. Puech, G. Quispel.

6 Johannes, Leipoldt, ‘Ein neues Evangelium? Das koptische Thomasevangelium übersetzt und besprochen’, Th.L.Z. lxxxiii (1958), 481–96 (11, 2);Google Scholar Hans-Martin, Schenke, ‘Die fehlenden Seiten des sog. Evangeliums der Wahrheit’, Th.L.Z. lxxxiii (1958), 497–500 (1, 2, pp. 33–6);Google Scholar Schenke, , ‘Das Wesen der Archonten. Eine gnostische Originalschrift aus dem Funde von Nag-Hamadi’, Th.L.Z. lxxxiii (1958), 661–70(11, 4);Google Scholar Schenke, , ‘Das Evangelium nach Philippus: Ein Evangelium der Valentinianer aus dem Funde von Nag-Hamadi’, Th.L.Z.L lxxxiv (1959), 1–26 (II, 3); ‘Vom Ursprung der Welt. Eine titellose gnostische Abhandlung aus dem Funde von Nag-Hamadi’, Th.L.Z. LXXXIV (1959), 243–56 (II, 5, pp. 97–110 only). Since the two plates in Labib's first volume from the tractate On the Resurrection (1, 3) were edited in 1963 with the rest of that tractate in the Jung Codex, there remained untranslated from Labib's first volume only the scattered plates from the so-called Tractate on the Three Natures (1, 4).Google Scholar

1 In his 1958 volume Les livres secrets des gnostiques d'Egypte, facing the title-page, three volumes were announced as forthcoming. One was to contain The Gospel of the Egyptians (III, 2), The Letter of Eugnostos the Blessed (III, 3), and The Sophia of Jesus Christ (III, 4); the second was to include The Hypostasis of the Archons (II, 4) and The Apocryphon of John (II, I; III, I); the third was to include The Gospel of Philip (II, 3) and The Gospel of Thomas (II, 2). In 1959 he published, with the title Les livres secrets des gnostiques d'Egypte now used something like a series title, a second volume entitled L'Evangile selon Thomas ou Les paroles secrètes de Jésus. Facing the title-page was an announcement of the same three additional volumes as before, with the order of the first two reversed and the third volume to contain only The Gospel according to Philip. These three additional volumes have not appeared. In Secret Books, p. 125, Doresse refers to his edition of Codex III that has been ready for publication for some years and awaits only authorization.

2 The Gospel according to Thomas, by A. Guillaumont, H.-Ch. Puech, G. Quispel, W. Till and Yassah ‘Abd al Masih (1959). Quotations are from p. v. The complete edition is now envisaged as two volumes, with the first, containing what is more or less ready, due to be published by Brill in Leiden relatively soon.

3 The Cairo version is to the effect that Labib was shown proofs of the book with his name as President of the International Committee on a page preceding the title-page, and that this page was omitted from the published book. The Paris version is to the effect that, upon the death of Yassah ‘Abd al Masih, Labib thought his name should represent Egypt on the title-page, but, since he had not participated in the research, whereas Yassah ‘Abd al Masih had, the latter's name was retained.

4 De resurrectione, ed. by Michel Malinine, Henri-Charles Puech, Gilles Quispel, and Walter C. Till, aided by R. McL. Wilson and Jan Zandee (1963). (Incidentally, the ‘aid’ provided the ‘editors’ involves a share in responsibility for one of the translations, plus the submission of comments, suggestions, references, etc., for use in the introduction and commentary.) The first four had in 1961 published their Supplementum to Evangelium Veritatis.

5 ‘Die Edition der koptisch-gnostischen Schriften’, pp. 151–60 in Willem Cornelis van Unnik's book Evangelien aus dem Nilsand (1959).

6 Krause, ‘Der Stand der Veröffentlichung der Nag Hammadi Texte’, International Colloquium on the Origins of Gnosticism, Messina, Italy, April 1966, published in Le origini dello Gnosticismo, Studies in the History of Religions XII (Supplements to Numen), Brill, Leiden, 1967, p. 63.

1 Krause, , Die drei Versionen des Apokryphon des Johannes im Koptischen Museum zu Alt-Kairo (Abhandlungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Abteilung Kairo, Koptische Reihe I) (1963), pp. 14, 19.Google Scholar

2 Till, Walter C., Die gnostischen Schriften des koptischen Papyrus Berolinensis 8502 (TU 60) (1955), in his preface expresses appreciation both to Labib and to Doresse for photographs each had made available to him for his collation of CG III, 2–3.Google Scholar

3 Krause, Apokryphon des Johannes, p. 295.

4 Krause, ‘Der Stand…’, Le origini…, p.63. Cf. also his Apokryphon des Johannes, p. 295.

5 Krause, Die drei Versionen des Apokryphon des Johannes im Koptischen Museum zu Alt-Kairo (Abhand-lungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Abteilung Kairo, Koptische Reihe I), distributed by Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, Germany. The title-page gives the date 1962. But Rodolphe Kasser, ‘Le “Livre secret de Jean” dans ses différentes formes textuelles coptes‘, Le Muslén, LXXVII (1964), 5, says it ‘did not really leave the press until 1963’, and Kurt Rudolph, ‘Stand und Aufgaben in der Erforschung des Gnostizismus’, in his paper at the Tagung für allgemeine Religionsgeschichte 1963, published in a Sonderheft of the Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, p. 90, lists it as appearing ‘simultaneously’ with Böhlig's volume (see next note), which he lists as ‘first’ to appear officially from Codex II.

6 Die koptisch-gnostische Schrift ohne Titel aus Codex II von Nag Hammadi im Koptischen Museum zu Alt-Kairo, ed. by Alexander Böhlig and Pahor Labib (Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Institut für Orientforschung 58) (1962). Rudolph, ‘Stand und Aufgaben…’, p. 90, inaccurately gives 1963.

7 Koptisch-gnostische Apokalypsen aus Codex V von Nag Hammadi im Koptischen Museum zu Alt-Kairo, ed. by Alexander Böhlig and Pahor Labib (Sonderband of the Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, 1963).

8 Doresse, , ‘Les reliures des manuscrits gnostiques coptes découverts à Khénoboskion’, Revue d'Egyptologie, xiii (1961), 27–49;Google Scholar Krause, , ‘Zum koptischen Handschriftenfund bei Nag Hammadi’, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Abteilung Kairo, xix (1963), 106–13.Google Scholar

1 The invitation stated that the government of the United Arab Republic will create by decree an international committee to which the task of translation and publication of the manuscripts will be entrusted. It envisaged that this committee was scheduled to meet for the first time in the following months at Cairo, under the patronage of the Minister of Culture and National Guidance of the United Arab Republic. It was envisaged that in the course of this meeting the Committee of publication would have the tasks of establishing a work-plan of translation, choosing collaborators, electing a Secretary-General and, finally, drawing up an estimate of the necessary expenditure.

2 Krause, ‘Der Stand…’, Le origini…, p. 64.

3 These specifications were in a document signed 4 November 1961 by the three members of the preliminary committee. It also proposed that ‘23 [later corrected to read 22] treatises are to be distributed and published by the Committee which will have its first meeting in November: in Codex III, Tractates 2–5; in Codex IV, 2; V, I; VII, 3–5; all the treatises in Codex VIII–XII and the first treatise in Codex XIII’. The well-preserved tractates to be published first are listed as III, 2–5; V, I; VII, 3–5; VIII, 2; XIII, I.

4 Assignments of II, 3 to Kendrick Grobel and of II, 4 to J. Martin Plumley were not carried out as envisaged. Grobel did not seem to realize that he had been assigned the Gospel of Philip (II, 3), for when R. McL. Wilson inquired of him if this was the case some months before Grobel's death early in 1965, Grobel replied this was the first he had heard of it. Krause assumes Grobel did not recognize a remark to this effect by Labib to be an assignment. The plan for Grobel to edit II, 3 and for Plumley to edit II, 4 had been published by Alexander Böhlig in the Deutsche Literaturzeitung, lxxxiv (1963), 303. The Hypostasis of the Archons (II, 4) is being published by Grobel's pupil, Roger A. Bullard. Apparently the Jung Codex (Codex I) was not included in the plans proposed in Cairo.

5 Krause, ‘Der Stand…’, Le origini…, p. 64.Google Scholar

1 III, 2 and IV, 2 to Alexander Böhlig; III 3–5 and V, I to Krause; VII, 3 and 5 to Victor Girgis, of the staff of the Coptic Museum. These assignments are listed by Krause, ‘Der Stand’, Le origini…, p. 65, notes 4–6, where theprevious assignments are also listed. He also (Ibid. note 8) expresses the hope that J. Zandee will be commissioned to edit vii, 4.

2 This is the number given by Krause, , ‘Der koptische Handschriftenfund bei Nag Hammadi, Umfang und Inhalt’, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Abteilung Kairo, xviii (1962), 121–32, esp. p. 131. There are in addition fragments, most of which have not been assembled or put in correct sequence, steps which should take place prior to the definitive photographing of this part of the material. See Krause, ‘Der Stand…’, Le Origini…, p. 64, note 3. Legal papers used to strengthen the binding of Codex VII also need to be carefully disengaged and photographed. Kasser's new inventory of the Jung Codex raises the number of pages of which at least parts have survived from 136 to 144 or more.Google Scholar

3 For preliminary published reports cf. George MacRae, S. J.,‘Biblical News: Gnosis in Messina’, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, xxviii (1966), 322–33;Google Scholar Ugo, Bianchi, ‘Le Colloque international sur les origines du gnosticisme (Messina, avril 1966)’, Numen, xiii (1966), 151–60. The acts of the meeting have been published in full by Ugo Bianchi, Le origini dello Gnosticismo, Studies in the History of Religions XII (Supplements to Numen), Brill, Leiden, 1967.Google Scholar

1 The text of the appeal is as follows:

(1) The Nag Hammadi codices are of quite fundamental significance for the study of Gnosticism, whichis itself of considerable importance for understanding the context of ideas out of which our modern world emerged.

(2) We wish to express our satisfaction over the adoption, by the General Conference of UNESCO, of the project of producing facsimile photographs of the pages of these codices. We are also pleased with the amount of work that has been accomplished thus far. We are furthermore grateful for the interest and co-operation of the United Arab Republic in this project. (One recalls in the case of the comparable Manichaean documents discovered a generation ago that the failure to take such measures led to the irretrievable loss of many of them as a result of the troubled political circumstances of ourtimes.)

(3) The work that has thus far been done in preparation for a facsimile edition is not yet accessible to the scholarly world, pending the completion of the photography and the publication of the plates. It is hence important that this project be carried through to completion and that the work thus far done should not be lost.

(4) Transcriptions that have been published of a part of the codices do not replace photographs.For in many cases a repeated study of photographs of the original text, after it has been translated and interpreted, produces corrections of the readings of the transcription made at the beginning of the process. Lacunae and fragmentary pages can be restored reliably only when one can study photographs of the original, to detect vestiges of letters in broken areas and to calculate exactly how manyletters were originally in part of a page that is now lost.

(5) In some cases the papyri need to be prepared prior to definitive photography. For some of the plexiglass sheets into which the pages have been placed contain fragments that do not belong together.The final photography of such pages would best be subsequent to an ordering of the fragments that puts them in their original relationship to each other. And some fragments are stuck to the cover of one codex, from which they must be disengaged by an expert prior to photographing. It is hoped that UNESCO can provide assistance to make possible this aspect of the photographing project.

(6) The publication of the photographic plates in a series of volumes of facsimiles should begin as soon as possible, so as to make the documents available to scholars. (In the case of the Gospel of Thomas, in which case the plates were published a decade ago, one can observe the number of translations, scholarly monographs and discussions that follow upon such publication.)

(7) In view of the factors stated above, the 66 experts assembled from eleven countries in April 1966 at Messina for an ‘International Colloquium on the Origins of Gnosticism’, arranged bythe University of Messina and the International Association for the History of Religions, wish to express unanimously their fervent wish that this project can be carried through to its completion withthe support of UNESCO without delay.

1 Cf. in the series of guide books Les guides bleus the volume Egypte of 1956 with a supplement bringing it up to 1965, pp. 289f., 305. The map at pp. 256–7 is not sufficiently large to be very useful. Otto Meinardus' Atlas of Christian Sites in Egypt, one of the Publications de la Société d'archéologie copte(1962), contains an up-to-date set of maps, but map III with the area in question is also small in scale, making it necessary to place north of the pocket in the Nile the two monasteries that are in fact in it. Doresse's map, Les livres secrets des gnostiques d'Egypte, pp. 152 f., omitted from the English edition, is on a larger scale and with more detail, as is the similar map in Willem Cornelis van Unnik, Evangelien aus dem Nilsand (1959), p. 15. An older but still more detailed map of the region is available at the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo and the Chicago House in Luxor.

1 Crum Festschrift (1950), p. 93.

2 Doresse, Secret Books, p. 128.

3 Cf Montet, Pierre, ‘Les tombeaux dits de Kasr-el-Sayad’, Kemi, vi (1936), 81–129.Google Scholar

4 Doresse, Secret Books, p. 132. Paul Bucher's publication of the Coptic inscription, ‘Les commencements des Psaumes LI à XCIII; inscription d'une tombe de Kasr es Saijad’, Kemi, iv (1931, actually 1933), 157–60, though based on photographs supplied to him by Montet, includes some transcriptional errors; but in the generation since his essay much of the centre of the inscription has been broken off and lost.

1 Secret Books, omitted at p. 133; quotation is from Fr. ed. p. 151.

2 Bulletin de I'Académie royale de Belgique (1950), p. 436.

3 Secret Books, p. 133. Andrew K. Helmbold, The Nag Hammadi Gnostic Texts and the Bible, 1967, p. II, misunderstands Doresse in locating the find by peasants ‘digging in an old cave for bird manure’, in the ‘lower’ part of the ‘face’ of the cliff ‘in one of the cave-tombs’.

4 Facing p. 137 of Les livres secrets des gnostiques d'Egypte.

5 ‘Is Chenoboskion Worth Visiting?’, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, XXI (1959), 494. The description in the French edition, which North uses, is not on p. 158, as he says, but rather p. 151 (p. 133 of the Eng. ed.). He says Doresse ‘seems unable or unwilling to indicate with Baedeker-precision exactly where the finds were made’. But Doresse refers to ‘the southern part of the cemetery’, and explains: ‘As to the exact location of the find, opinion differed by some few dozen yards; but everyone was sure that it was just about here.’ Of course North's following comment is a pleasantry: ‘possibly to prevent amateurs from browsing around and picking up a few more gospels for the college museum back home’. He says the taxi goes ‘as far as Kasr Sayyad’ (mine took me on dirt roads all the way to the cemetery). He refers there to ‘a solicitous and friendly individual who turns out to be a police-man safeguarding him’. In 1966 the guard of the pharaonic tombs lived at el Kasr es Sayyad, was clearly identifiable by his double-barrelled shotgun, which functioned as a badge of authority, and was the only hostile personality I met. He has since been replaced. The police station at Nag Hammadi, to which I went first from the train station, was very co-operative in securing for me taxi, interpreter, and lodging.

1 Other spellings are Naga Hamadi, Nag‘ Hammadi, Nag‘ Hammādi, Nag Hamadi. Nag Hammadi seems to be the accepted English spelling, employed in the sign at the local railway station.

2 This designation occurs in the title of the article of Schmidt, K. A., ‘Die gnostische Bibliothek von Gebel et-Tarif’, Neues Abendland, v (1950), 381–3.Google Scholar

3 Doresse spells Hamra Doum (French edition) or Hamra Dum (English edition), but the detailed map referred to above as well as the local pronunciation seem to favour Hamra Dom (long 0).

4 Secret Books, p. 131.

5 Montet, Pierre, Kemi, vi (1936), 81, spells χηνοβοσκ׀ον.Google Scholar

6 The name means ‘trees (Coptic shen) of Seth’, Montet, Ibid., or ‘acacias (Coptic shoute) of (the God) Seth’, Doresse, Secret Books, p. 129. On p. 251 Doresse concedes this name of the Egyptian deity in the place-name would only be a coincidence with the biblical Seth venerated by the Sethians.

1 Secret Books, pp. 133–5.

2 Doresse, Secret Books, p. 133.

3 Petrie, W. M. Flinders, Diospolis Parva: The Cemeteries of Abadiyeh and Hu, 1898–9, published 1901Google Scholar. The cemeteries he dug were on the left bank, i.e. different from that of the Coptic gnostic library.

4 Doresse, Secret Books, pp. 298–300, would like to identify Qumran and Gomorrah, a philologically difficult view that has not been generally followed.

5 Attention was called to this place-name by Martin Krause, ‘Der Stand’, Le origini…, p. 78. He also supplied the quotation cited in the text.

6 Quoted by Doresse, Secret Books, p. 143. Krause, ‘Der Stand…’, Le origini…, p. 81, retranslates it and gives the reference.

7 Koptisch-gnostische Schriften, I, ed. by Carl Schmidt, 3rd ed. by Walter Till (GCS 45) (1959), p. xxvi.

1 Bulletin de I'Académie royale de Belgique (1950), p. 438.

2 Both quotations from Vigiliae Christianae, III (1949), 138f.

3 Both quotations Ibid. p. 131. Alexander Böhlig and Pahor Labib, Die koptisch-gnostische Schrift ohne Titel aus Codex II uon Nag Hammadi im Koptischen Museum zu Alt-Kairo, Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Institut für Orientforschung, Nr.58 (1962), pp. 13–17, give a detailed list of scribal traits in this tractate from Codex II; but Böhlig does not hazard a date.

4 Vigiliae Christianae, III (1949), 132.

5 Bala'izah, I (1954), 235, 263.

1 Cf. Secret Books, p. 141, for the approximate date of hand 6; p. 144 for the classification of this codex (number I in Doresse, Vigiliae Christianae, III, 131, 133f.; number X in Doresse, Secret Books; number II in Krause) as written by hand 6. In vol. II of Les livres secrets (1959), p. 22, Doresse says he ‘has proposed to date it in the middle of the Fourth Century’.

2 Secret Books, p. 248.

3 Les livres secrets, II, 24: after A.D. 391, at least as the date for the binding, in case the mark on it is the ankh sign of life (which Krause takes it to be, MDAIK, XIX, 1963, 112).

4 Guillaumont, A., Puech, H.-Ch., Quispel, G., Till, W. and Yassah, ‘Abd al Masih, The Gospel According to Thomas(1959), p. vi: ‘The Codex must probably be dated either in the second half of the fourth century A.D. or in the beginning of the fifth century A.D.’ Till, Evangelien aus dem Nilsand, p. 156, reports that some have dated it as late as around A.D. 500.Google Scholar

5 Secret Books, p. 138.

6 Secret Books, pp. 140–5.

7 Secret Books, p. 138.

8 Krause, Martin, Mdaik, xix (1963), 112.Google Scholar

9 Evangelien aus dem Nilsand, pp. 156f.

10 Evangelien aus dem Nilsand, p. 151.

11 Cf. Secret Books, p. 138 for the dating of XI, I; pp. 144f. for this‘writing 9’ in codices XIII and I (by Krause's numeration; IX and XIII in Doresse's numeration); p. 141 for the dating of the first hand in Codex I. Cf. Krause, MDAIK, XIX (1963), III.

12 MDAIK, XIX (1963), 110–13.

1 Secret Books, p. 145.

2 MDAIK, XIX (1963), 110 n. 19.

3 ‘Der Stand…’, Le origini…, p. 80.

4 Apocryphon Johannis. The Coptic Text of the Apocryphon Johannis in the Nag Hammadi Codex II with Translation, Introduction and Commentary (Acta Theologica Danica, 5) (1963), pp. 34–40.

5 In his review of Maria Cramer, Koptische Paläographie, in Bibliotheca Orientalis, XXIII (1966), 286–93, esp. p. 286.

6 Cf. e.g. such a procedure with regard to the Gnostic redeemer myth in the Assumption of Moses by Heinrich Schlier, Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zu den Ignatiusbriefen, Beiheft 8 to Z.N.W. (1929), pp. 8–12. He is uncertain, p. 10–11, whether a Christian vestige (11, 20) remains in this narration of the myth, but in any case infers the myth itself to benon-Christian. Cf. further Günther Bornkamm, Mythos und Legende in den apokryphen Thomas-Akten (FRLANT 49) (1933), with regard to the Hymn of the Pearl, pp. 111 ff.

1 Gilles, Quispel, Gnosis als Weltreligion (1951), p. 5.Google Scholar

2 ‘Recent Discoveries in Palestine and the Gospel of St John', The Background of the New Testament and its Eschatology (Dodd Festschrift) (1956), pp. 153–71, esp. p. 163.

3 ‘Gnosticism’, Harvard Theological Review, LVII (1964), 276. This essay was being completed at the time of Nock's death, II January 1963. Cf. his Introduction to the Torch-book edition, dated 23 September 1962, of Early Gentile Christianity and its Hellenistic Background (1964), p. xiv, for his view of ‘a “Gnostic” state of mind’ ‘but no specific myth’ in Paul's time, and p. xvii for a statement of theinference to be drawn from what was available to him from Nag Hammadi, similar to that quoted in thetext above.

4 Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel according to John I–XII, p. lv.

5 Doresse, Secret Books, p. 146, defined his four classes as follows: ‘First, that of the greatest, purely gnostic revelations, with some commentaries expounding themyths that they contain; next, some revelations that are no less important but rather artificially veiled under Christian allusions; then, the authentically Christian apocrypha infiltrated by gnostic speculations; and, lastly, some half-dozen treatises of which some belong properly to Hermetic literature while others exhibit a curious transition between Hermetism and Gnosticism.’ Cf. the section titles for the four classes: ‘Revelations of the Prophets of Gnosticism from Seth to Zoroaster’, pp. 146–97; ‘Gnostics Disguised as Christians’, pp. 197–218; ‘The Gospels of Christianized Gnosticism’, pp. 218–41; ‘Hermes Trismegistus as an Ally of Gnosticism’, pp. 241–8. The fact that Doresse does not understand his first groupas wholly non-Christian is indicated by his recognition (p. 159) that II, 4, The Hypostasis of the Archons, begins with a quotation from Ephesians.

1 Cf. already Vigiliae Christianae, II (1948), 150–4.

2 Crum Festschrift, p. 102.

3 Gnosis als Weltreligion (1951), p. 5.

4 Die gnostischen Schriften des koptischen Papyrus Berolinensis 8502 (TU, 60) (1955), p. 54.

5 ‘Nag-Hamadi Studien II: Das System der Sophia Jesu Christi’, Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte, XIV (1962), 263–78. He had access only to BG 8502, 3 and Till's critical apparatus containing CG III, 4 and those parts of CG III, 3 that parallel BG 8502, 3.

6 ‘Das literarische Verhältnis des Eugnostosbriefes zur Sophia Jesu Christi. Zur Auseinander-setzung der Gnosis mit dem Christentum’, Mullus: Festschrift Theodor Klauser (JAC, Ergänzungsband I, 1964), pp. 215–23.

7 Cf. Doresse, Secret Books, p. 127 n. 17.

8 Gnosis als Weltreligion (1951), p. 5.

9 Z.R.G.G. XIV (1962), 265.

10 Mullus, p. 216; cf. also pp. 218, 222. An instance of what Schenke derives from Christianity and Krause from Judaism may be the term Ekklesia. For CG III, 3 refers to the ‘Ekklesia of the three Aeons’, the ‘Ekklesia that reaches beyond the heavens’, the ‘Ekklesia in the Ogdoad’, at places parallel to BG 8502, 110, 10–11; 111, 3–7.

1 Mullus, p. 218. Cf. the similarly structured argument in favour of the priority of the shorter version of the Apocryphon of John by Hans, Jonas, ‘The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics’, The Journal of Religion, xlii (1962), 265.Google Scholar

2 Mullus, p. 218. It is this material that is not available in Till's edition of BG 8502.

3 Mullus, p. 220.

4 Mullus, pp. 220f.

5 In a sense the heightening of the role of the Saviour begins already in the version of the Letter of Eugnostos the Blessed (III, 3) that Krause regards as based on a less original Greek Vorlage, since the three aeons are merged into two. Cf. Mullus, pp. 221, 216. There would be a further problem if one followed Doresse (as Krause apparently does, Mullus, p. 216, note 16) in identifying (Vigiliae Christianas, II, 1948, 154–9; Secret Books, pp. 196f., 300) the ‘Eugnostos the Beloved’ named in the colophon at III, 59, 10f. as ‘writing’ the Gospel of the Egyptians (III, 2), who then would be a Christian gnostic, with the author of the Letter of Eugnostos the Blessed (III, 3), which is classified as non-Christian. Doresse regarded Eugnostos as the ‘redactor’ rather than either the author or simply a later scribe of the Egyptian Gospel, which in the body of the work (III, 68, 10f.) is attributed to the ‘Great Seth’. Doresse, however, does not explain what ‘redaction’was involved. He merely distinguished the colophon by the ‘redactor’ from the clearly Christian fish cryptogram near its end (III, 69, 14f.), which he attributes (Vigiliae Christianae, II, 1948, 156 n. 20) to a later ‘copyist’. This does not however eliminate the Christian element from the document, which e.g. refers in 64, I to ‘Jesus the Living One’.

1 In Mullus, p. 223, the title of Krause's then uncompleted work was given as Literal- und religions-geschichtliche Untersuchung des Apokryphon des Johannes. In ‘Der Stand…’, Le origini…, p. 75 n. 4, it is given as Literarkritische Untersuchung des Apokryphon des Johannes. There it is identified as a Habilitationsschrift, and the date of the typescript is given as 1965. It is to appear in the series Patristische Texte und Studien.

2 ‘Der Stand…’, Le origini…, p. 75.Google Scholar

3 Ibid. p. 75.

4 Ibid. pp. 75 f.

5 Mullus, p. 223.

1 Koptisch-gnostische Apokalypsen aus Codex V von Nag Hammadi im Koptischen Museum zu Alt-Kairo, ed. by Alexander Böhlig and Pahor Labib, Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg (1963), Sonderband.

2 Koptisch-gnostische Apokalypsen, Foreword.

3 ‘Die Adamsapokalypse aus Codex V von Nag Hammadi als Zeugnis jüdisch-iranischer Gnosis’, Oriens Christianus, XLVIII (1964), 44–95, where the formulations are similar, p. 95: ‘ I. The document comes from pre-Christian gnosis. 2. It can be explained from the circle of Syrian Palestinian baptismal sects, but can also represent a development beyond that.’

4 Die Mandäer. I. Prolegomena: Das Mandäerproblem (1960); II. Der Kult (1961). Cf. also his address ‘Stand und Aufgaben in der Erforschung des Gnostizismus’, Tagung für allgemeine Religionsgeschichte (1963), Sonderheft of the Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, pp. 89–102.

5 Th.L.Z. XC (1965), 359–62, esp. 361–2 on the Apocalypse of Adam; the quotation is from 361.

6 George, W., MacRae, S.J., ‘The Coptic Gnostic Apocalypse of Adam’, The Heythrop Journal, vi (1965), 27–35, esP. 34. Böhlig's most specific chronological statement is a reference to ‘Judaism that precisely in the time around the birth of Christ had developed strong baptismal currents’, Koptisch-gnostische Apokalypsen, p. 93.Google Scholar

7 Gregorianum, XLVI (1965), 169–72.

8 ‘Judéo-Christianisme et gnose’, Aspects du Judéo-Christianisme, extract from the Travaux du Centre d'études supérieures spécialisé d'histoire des religions de Strasbourg (1965), pp. 139–64, esp. pp. 147 f.

9 Jean, Daniélou, ‘Bulletin d'histoire des origines chrétiennes’, Recherches de science religieuse, liv (1966), 291–3, esp. 292.Google Scholar

1 ‘Textes gnostiques: Remarques à propos des éditions récentes du Livre secret de Jean et des Apocalypses de Paul, Jacques et Adam’, Le Muséon, LXXXVIII (1965), 71–98, esp. 91–3. His position is restated in his essay ‘Bibliothèque gnostique v: Apocalypse d'Adam’, Revue de Théologie et de Philosophie, XVI (1967), 316–33, esp. 316–18.

2 Orientalische Literaturzeitung, LXI (1966), 23–34, esp. 32.

3 Secret Books, p. 149.

4 Secret Books, pp. 150, 154 f.

1 J. H. Frickel, ‘Die Apophasis Megale, eine Grundschrift der Gnosis?’, Le origini…, pp. 197–202, argues that Hippolytus quoted his sources faithfully and in extenso, which tends to argue against his use of the Paraphrase of Shem, since it hardly shares more than stock phrases with his report on the Sethians.

2 Secret Books, p. 154.

3 Secret Books, p. 149.

1 ‘Die Bedeutung der neuerschlossenen mandäischen und manichäischen Quellen für das Verständnis des Johannesevangeliums’, Z.N.W. XXIV (1925), 143.

2 ‘Aramaic Studies and the Study of the New Testament’, J.B.R. XXVI (1958), 305. Reference is to Joseph Thomas, Le Mouvement baptiste en Palestine et Syrie(150 av. J.-C.–300 ap. J.-C.)(1935).