The Nag Hammadi Scriptures

Marvin W. Meyer, James M. Robinson

• Publisher: HarperOne
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780062046369
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The Nag Hammadi Scriptures, edited by Marvin Meyer, is the most complete, up-to-date, one-volume, English-language edition of the renowned library of Gnostic manuscripts discovered in Egypt in 1945, which rivaled the Dead Sea Scrolls find in significance. It includes the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, and the recently discovered Gospel of Judas, as well as other Gnostic gospels and sacred texts. This volume also includes introductory essays, notes, tables, glossary, index, etc. to help the reader understand the context and contemporary significance of these texts which have shed new light on early Christianity and ancient thought. The compilation of ancient manuscripts that constitute The Nag Hammadi Scriptures is a discovery that challenges everything we thought we knew about the early Christian church, ancient Judaism, and Greco-Roman religions.

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1. In this Introduction, Marvin Meyer is chiefly responsible for “The Nag Hammadi Scriptures” and “Reading the Nag Hammadi Scriptures,” Elaine H. Pagels for “What Are the Nag Hammadi Scriptures?”

2. On the story of the discovery of the Berlin Gnostic Codex, see Karen L. King, The Gospel of Mary of Magdala, 7–12; Marvin Meyer, The Gnostic Discoveries, 19–20; Michael Waldstein and Frederik Wisse, The Apocryphon of John, 2–3.

3. Jean Doresse, The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics, 133.

4. Doresse, Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics, 136.

5. On this story of the discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices, see Meyer, The Gnostic Discoveries, 15–19; James M. Robinson, “From the Cliff to Cairo”; “Nag Hammadi: The First Fifty Years.”

6. Robinson, “Nag Hammadi: The First Fifty Years,” 80.

7. Herbert Krosney, The Lost Gospel, 10.

8. See Rodolphe Kasser, Marvin Meyer, and Gregor Wurst, eds., The Gospel of Judas. On the full story of the discovery of Codex Tchacos, see Herbert Krosney, The Lost Gospel; James M. Robinson, The Secrets of Judas.

9. Against Heresies 1.29.

10. Refutation of All Heresies 5.7.20. The renowned Egyptian teacher Origen, writing about a generation later, also mentions the Gospel of Thomas, along with the Gospel of Matthias and “many others” (Homilies on Luke 1).

11. Against Heresies 3.11.9.

12. Against Heresies 1.31.1.

13. Kasser, Meyer, and Wurst, eds., The Gospel of Judas.

14. Against Heresies 3.11.9.

15. Festal Letter 39.

16. Against Heresies 3.11.8.

17. Antoine Guillaumont, Henri-Charles Puech, Gilles Quispel, Walter Till, and Yassah ‘Abd al-Masih, The Gospel According to Thomas.

18. See the influential book by Hans Jonas, The Gnostic Religion, an abridged translation of his 1934 monograph published in Germany under the title Gnosis und spätantiker Geist.

19. See, e.g., Karen L. King, “Which Early Christianity?”

20. John Dominic Crossan, Four Other Gospels: Shadows on the Contours of the Canon.

21. Cf. Helmut Koester, “The Gospel of Thomas,” in James. M. Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library in English, 125: “In its most original form, it may well date from the first century (the middle of the first century is usually considered the best date for the composition of ‘Q’).”

22. See King, “Which Early Christianity?”

23. These volumes will be referred to numerous times in the notes to the translations published here. For full bibliographical information about these volumes, see the Bibliography to the present volume.

24. The Greek term epinoia can be translated variously, e.g., “insight,” “reflection,” “imagination,” “creativity,” “afterthought.” See the notes to the Secret Book of John.

25. Cf. the Greek expression to pan, ...