Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 02:2 (Spring 1959)
Article: The Coptic Gnostic Texts From Nag Hammadi
Author: Andrew Helmbold

BETS 2:2 (Spring 1959) p. 15

The Coptic Gnostic Texts From Nag Hammadi

Andrew Helmbold

Read at the Nyack, N.Y. meeting, Dec. 30, 1958

From the second until the fourth century the Christian church was engaged in a life and death struggle with a hydra-headed heresy known as Gnosticism. Out of this struggle came at least three important results: (1) The canon of the New Testament, (2) The creeds of the early church, (3) catholic Christendom. Until recently our resources for the study of early Christendom’s great rival were exceedingly meager. They consisted of fragments of Gnostic works found in the church fathers, the statements of the fathers themselves, and three Gnostic codices: (1) Codex Brucianus of the 5-6th century, containing the two Books of Jeu and an untitled work, (2) Codex Askewianus, of the 4th century, containing the Pistis Sophia, and (3) Codex Berolinensis 8502 of the 5th century containing The Gospel of Mary, The Apocryphon of John and The Wisdom of Jesus.1 From these sources scholars have endeavored to reconstruct the origins, the theology or mythology, and the praxis of Gnosticism, and to evaluate its relationship to orthodox Christianity and other religions.

New light has been thrown on these subjects, as well as on many related topics, by the discovery in 1945, of a complete Gnostic library at Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt.2 This discovery has been hailed by some as the greatest manuscript find of the century, while others a little more cautious say it is at least as important as the Dead Sea Scrolls.3 Because most of the texts are still unpublished, the importance of the find has not yet reached the general public, or even most of the scholarly world. Especially in the field of New Testament studies, they should cause a drastic revision of many theories now current.

The discovery consisted of thirteen codices dating from the 3rd and 4th centuries. Eleven still retain their soft leather bindings; Ten are almost complete, one has considerable lacunae, two are fragmentary. Out of an original total of about 1000 pages, 794 are still intact, while additional pages are partially preserved. One codex fell into the hands of a dealer in antiquities and was purchased in 1952 by the Jung Institute of Zurich. One other was purchased in 1946 by the Coptic Museum at Cairo. The eleven other codices were eventually transferred to the Coptic Museum, in 1952. Now a group of international scholars is at work editing and publishing the texts.

The thirteen codices contain 48 or 49 writings, of which only four are duplicates or triplicates.You must have a subscription and be logged in to read the entire article.
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