Nag Hammadi texts

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Where on Earth is Nag Hammadi?

The Nag Hammadi texts (commonly called the Nag Hammadi Library) are a collection of Coptic[1] Christian and philosophical writings discovered in 1945 near Nag Hammadi, Egypt. The papyrus itself is generally dated to the 3rd or 4th century at the time of burial, though each individual codex has different dates of original composition.

The Christianity-based texts are mostly Gnostic in nature, and were likely buried at a time when the Catholic Church (specifically Egyptian Bishop Athanasius) made his decree that non-canonical texts be outlawed. Of the religious writing, the single most critical find was a near-complete copy of the Gospel of Thomas, a set of sayings attributed to Jesus written near the beginning of the Christ-churches (non-Pauline churches) that arose in the 1st century.

The texts also contain several non-Christian texts that would have informed Gnostic beliefs, including Plato's Republic and the Greek Hermetica.

Contents

[edit] Importance

Besides the simple archaeological thrill of "oooh, something really old," the texts have a profound impact on historical understandings of various branches of Christianity that would be destroyed by the singular Roman Empire's version, the Catholic Church. The texts, along with the inclusion of the Greek works, show how important and fully-developed Gnostic ideas were in early Christianity. The texts show a developing scheme of "high philosophy" about the world around, emphasis on the individual, and a new tradition of questioning everything — something unacceptable to the Pauline tradition that depended upon dogma and and unquestioning acceptance of authoritative interpretations. A literal take of the texts suggests that Jesus himself was philosophically far closer to the Greeks and the developing Jewish Gnosticism than to the Jewish authoritarianism of Paul.

[edit] Reception by modern Christians

Given the gnostic nature of the texts, which suggest that Jesus was fully human and not necessarily the Son of God in a way other than how every human is, that it is the connection to God and not a single book, pope, or church that will get you to heaven, and the very, very heretical idea that one should actually think and question things, some modern Christians have been quick to dismiss the books as "heresy."[citation needed] Even when it comes to the Gospel of Thomas, a work that most scholars suggest is as authentic about Jesus' words as Mark (the earliest of the Synoptic Gospels), they[Who?] will say is just heresy and should not be read by anyone easily turned from the Truth.

Few, if any, American Christians are even aware of the texts, or confuse them with the Dead Sea scrolls.[2] However, an interesting turn in the world of creationists has now seen the Dead Sea and Nag Hammadi texts references as some kind of "proof" of Jesus, in response to skeptics question "what evidence is there that is not Biblical." Yet at the same time, they will say they are not in any way the authentic words of Jesus. It must be so nice to have your cake and eat it too.

[edit] Partial list of codices

  • Codex I (also known as The Jung Foundation Codex):
    • The Prayer of the Apostle Paul
    • The Apocryphon of James (also known as the Secret Book of James)
    • The Gospel of Truth
    • The Treatise on the Resurrection
    • The Tripartite Tractate
  • Codex II:
    • The Apocryphon of John
    • The Gospel of Thomas
    • The Gospel of Philip
    • The Hypostasis of the Archons
    • On the Origin of the World
    • The Exegesis on the Soul
    • The Book of Thomas the Contender
  • Codex III:
    • The Apocryphon of John
    • The Gospel of the Egyptians
    • Eugnostos the Blessed
    • The Sophia of Jesus Christ
    • The Dialogue of the Saviour
  • 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
    • Authoritative Teaching
    • The Concept of Our Great Power
    • Plato's Republic - The original is not gnostic, but the Nag Hammadi library version is heavily modified with then-current gnostic concepts.
    • The Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth - a Hermetic treatise
    • The Prayer of Thanksgiving (with a hand-written note) - a Hermetic prayer
    • Asclepius 21-29 - another Hermetic treatise
  • Codex VII:
    • The Paraphrase of Shem
    • The Second Treatise of the Great Seth
    • Gnostic 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

There'd be more, but the boy who found them came from an illiterate family - his mum burned some of the papers to make tea.

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. Coptic is the last stage of Egyptian, written with Greek letters instead of hieroglyphs or demotic glyphs.
  2. One RationalWikian's own work in and around churches, teaching this material to students and Sunday School classes.
Guide to the Jewish and Christian Scriptures
Torah: Genesis - Exodus - Leviticus - Numbers - Deuteronomy Old Testament History: Book of Joshua - Book of Judges - Ruth - Samuel (1 & 2) - Kings (1 and 2 Kings) - Chronicles - Ezra and Nehemiah - Book of Esther Old Testament Wisdom: Book of Job - Psalms - Book of Proverbs - Ecclesiastes - Song of Solomon Major Prophets: Isaiah - Book of Jeremiah - Lamentations - Book of Ezekiel - Book of Daniel Minor Prophets: Minor Prophets

Deuterocanon (Catholic and Orthodox): - Tobit - Judith - 1 Maccabees - 2 Maccabees - Book of Wisdom - Sirach - Baruch - Letter of Jeremiah Deuterocanon (Orthodox): 1 Esdras - 3 Maccabees - Prayer of Manasseh - Psalm 151 Deuterocanon (Georgian Orthodox): 4 Maccabees - 2 Esdras Ethiopian Orthodox ("narrow" canon): Jubilees - Enoch - Rest of the Words of Baruch - 1-3 Meqabyan Syriac Peshitta: 2 Baruch Psalms 152-155


The Gospels: Gospel of Matthew - Gospel of Mark - Gospel of Luke - Gospel of John Acts: Acts of the Apostles Pauline Epistles: Romans - 1 & 2 Corinthians - Galatians - Ephesians - Philippians - Colossians - First Thessalonians - Second Thessalonians - First Timothy - Second Timothy - Titus - Epistle to Philemon General Epistles: Epistle to the Hebrews - Epistle of James - First Peter - Second Peter - 1 John - 2 John - 3 John - Epistle of Jude Revelation: Book of Revelation


Selected pseudepigrapha: Gospel of Judas - Infancy Gospel of James - Gospel of Mary - Gospel of Philip - Gospel of Thomas - Nag Hammadi texts


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