HUMA 3457 Gnosticism
Jan. 13: The Nag Hammadi Library
Read for Today: Denzey Lewis ch. 1; Denzey Lewis, “Rethinking the Origins of the Nag
hammadi Codices” (PDF).
Online Resources: English scholar Mark Goodacre has assembled an awardwinning
“meta-site” on New Testament scholarship at http://www.ntgateway.com/. Of particular
interest is the page on non-canonical literature
(http://www.ntgateway.com/noncanon.htm).
1. Sources for Gnosticism: Early Discoveries
 two sources available before turn of the century: the heresiologists and a handful
of apocryphal texts (gospels, acts, letters, and apocalypses)
 eighteenth/nineteenth century discoveries:
o Codex Askewianus: acquired by English physician Dr. Askew in 1772 and
published in 1851; dated to second half of 4th c.; contains Pistis Sophia
and an “Untitled Text”
o Codex Brucianus: purchased by James Bruce in 1769 and published in
1891; dated to 5th century; contains the Two Books of Jeu (aka Book of
the Great Mysterious Word), The Untitled Text, and two short hymns
o Berlin Codex: 1896 C. Schmidt reported this acquisition by the Berlin
museum but not published until 1955; dated to fifth century; contains
Gospel of Mary, Apocryphon of John, Sophia Jesu Christi, and part of
Acts of Peter
o Oxyrhynchus Papyri 1 (Gospel of Thomas 28-33), 654 (1-7) and 655 (3740); published between 1897 and 1904; dated ca. 200
o various Manichean and Mandaean texts
2. The Nag Hammadi Discovery
 Nag Hammadi is a town on the Nile; also named early in the discovery for
Chernoboskia
 discovery of the material made around December 1945
 twelve codices of 52 separate writings; 90% still intact
 contains Christian, Jewish (perhaps), Egyptian (Hermetic), and Greek (Plato) texts
 appears to be a collection from at least 3 smaller libraries (6, 9 and 10 a clearly
separate group)
 finely-written work; in two Coptic dialects but originally all Greek
 dating the library: cartonnage in the covers (receipts bearing dates 333, 341, 346,
348)
 perhaps originates from nearby Pachomian monastery
 perhaps hidden due to influence of the 39th Festal Letter of Athanasius (which
declared such texts illegal) and the repressive pogroms of people like Shenoute,
Abbot of the White Monastery in Panopolis
 texts published thanks to efforts of James M. Robinson; published facsimiles in
1973 and English translations in 1977

grave robbery? “Rethinking the Origins of the Nag Hammadi Codices,” Nicola
Denzey Lewis and Justine Ariel Blount, JBL 133.2 (2014): 399-419 (also: Mark
Goodacre, “How Reliable is the Story of the Nag Hammadi Discovery?” JSNT
35.4 [2013]: 303-22)
3. Origins of Gnosticism
 church fathers: the Devil unleashed sorcerers and deceivers to lead the faithful
astray
 Judaism? apocalypticism includes dualism and notion of mystical redemptive
knowledge and the righteous vs. the unrighteous; distance between God and
humans in series of intermediate worlds occupied by good and evil spirits;
negative assessment of the world; Wisdom traditions (Proverbs and Ecclesiastes)
 Iranian Zoroastrianism? includes dualism, distinction between body and soul
 Hellenism? includes individualism and universalism, vocabulary (“rest”, earthly
realm based on heavenly realm, etc.), downward development of creation from
the primal unity of an unknown higher God down to the lower creator god and our
world
 Hellenistic Judaism? Philo of Alexandria
 Hermeticism? originates in Egypt ca. 1st-2nd c. CE; includes esoteric wisdom
with the aim of salvation and the vision of God, an anti-cosmic tendency
 Greco-Roman mystery religions? particularly Orphism
 economic and social factors: elite live in Hellenic cities and poor natives in
countryside; Gnosticism seems to have taken root in border cities between the
East and West, perhaps among displaced, politically impotent middle educated
class