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T H E N A G H A M M A D I C O D IC E S E D I T I N G P R O . J E C T : A FINAL REPORT

by Stephen Emmel Institute for Antiquity and Christianity Graduate School Claremont

T h e N a g H a n ma d i C o d i c es E di ti ng P roj ect of the A neri can R esearch C ent er in E g y p t h a s ma rk e d a c ru c i al chapter i n E he hi story of a remarkabl e collection of ancient manuscripts.I These twelve papyrus codices and part of a rh ir t eent h, a p p a re n tl y d i s c o v e re d by a farmer i n the vi ci ni ty of the U pper E g yptian city of Nag Haurmadi near the end of Lg452 and now kept at the Copric Museum i n old Cair o, d a te ro u g h l y to th e l atter hal f of the fourth century C E .3 They a r e am ong t he o l d e s t w e l l -p re s e rv e d exarnpl es of the papyrus codex to have sur vi v ed t he c en tu ri e s , s p e c i m e n s fro m the very heart of the epoch-maki ng transi ti on f r om t he s c ro l l to th e c o d e x as the standard form for a book.{ They contain Copti.c translations of fifty-one Greek textsrs thirty-six of which rere

* Please note that the bibliographical details for works referred author and date appear at Ehe end of this report.

to below by

i- A fu1l and authorlcative account of thls rather coqlicated history ls belng prepared by Jernes M. Roblnson for publication Ln The Faestile Edition of the Ndg Hawnadt Codices: Inttpdtrction (Leiden: Brlll, scheduled to appear ln L979). See also Doresse (1958-1959) and the revtsed an expanded English translatioa of this rrork, Doreaae (1960), Bobinson (1967/68), (L97Zb) and (1977a). A more popular accormt Ls glven by Dart (L976). 2 Fot the most recent son (1976). 3 See especlally l-nfornatlon on the site and the discovery see Robin-

Barns (1975, 12),

4 For the historLcal context to rdhlch the developnent of the codex forn is relevant see the stlrrulating study by Roberls (1954) and the artlcle by Skeat (1959). 5 At least tno further text6 may be represented, The largest unplaced fraglrents of codex xrr (see The Faesiftile Edttion of the Nag Hantmdt. codieee: co&Leee n' fiI dld XIII f9731 pt. t0t/102, lletden: Bri]-l, fragnenra I and 2) have nor yet been ldentlfied with elther of the two knorrn texts in that. codex and nay therefore represent a fl-fty-second Falnt traces of ink beneath the decoratext. tive line narking che preauned end. of The Tripant4te Iractate Ln codex I (p. f3g) may be the beglnning of a fifty-third text, which could have extended ae far as p. 142 of the codex (see EmeL lIgTTal). That at least the l@diate sourcea of the Coptlc texts nere in Greek is not serlously dlsputed by scholars. That

-t i-

pr ev ious ly different ous parts

a sel ecti on u n k n o r^ m i n a n y fo rm, nd represent tines across the first three or four cenEuries (See fig. of the Hellenistic world. L-2,)

of w orks coryosed at of our era and in vari-

i n C opti c is tl h y a n d b y w h o m th e se E exts \^rere col l ected together far from clear. For although they display an overall in the esoteric interest as pec t of th e re l i g i o u s fe me n t that w ashed across the R oman E mpi re i n the ear ly centuries of this era, no one doctrinal position unifies content and no their p r e s e n t a t i o n . 6 single R a t h e r , there clearly underlies their they cast a diffuse and welc or n l i g h t spec ulai n to s e v e ra l of the darker corners of the rel i gi ous ( S ee Appenp o t e n t tion out of which Christianity f o r c e . emerged as a cultural I : Table of Texts in the Nag Hammadi Codices.) dix It is to the difficult investigation of gnosticisrn that the Nag Prerriously Hamnadi codices make their known ahoost enlargest contribution. f r o m w h o s o ught to refute tirely the reports of early Christian theologians I g n o s ti c s w orl d v i e w s o n Ehe creaE i on of the and on the nature a nd t hem , t he des t iny of n a n c a n n o w b e s tu d i ed at fi rst hand i n most of the texts frour Nag Hannadi. of i deas that is T h e te x ts d i s p l a y di versi ty th e rather bew i l deri ng itself characteristic of gnosticism and several different types of gnostic g n o s t i c , polemi-cizes both thought are represented. One text, though clearly g n o s t i c g r o u p s as well! This against catholic Christianity and againsE other questi ons about the or igin new wealt h o f p ri m a ry s o u rc e s has reopened i mportant interacand nature of gnosticisrn and, more importantly, about its evolutionary T tion with early Christianity. A few reflect But not all of the Nag Haurmadi texts are gnostic. m or e or le s s o rth o d o x e a rl y C h r i sti an S ome deri ve from the H erneti c vi ew s. from PlaEors RepubLie. tradition. as a short section One has been identified

espeSeEl-tlc sources 1ay behind sone of those Greek cexts remains a possibllity' ln the case of Thz Goepel AcardLng to Tl@mas. (See' for exaryle, Gulllaucially nont [1958]. Nagel [1969a] atteqls to illuro:inate sone obscure passages Ln fhonazs by supposing that it lras t.ranslated directly fron Aramai-c lnto Coprlc.) 5 The apparent lack of uniLy among Ehe texts has led souE scholars to There question the general acceptance of the coces as a group or "library." is, as yet, no firrn evidence to prove thaE they were ever considered as such in (See further Appendix II: The Scribes Who Copied the Nag Hannadi antiquity. of content exists not only aDng the Codices.) Neverthelesg, this diversity codex. Varlous atteqts codlces but even anong the texts wi.thin an individual to account for thls have been nade by Sve-Sderbergh (1967, esp. PP. 552-553 aad 559-560) and (1975) and by Frederik i{isse (1971' esp. pp. 2L9-222) arrd ItGnostlcisn and Early Monastlclsn in Egypt" to aPpear Lo, Gnoei.s: Fests ehrift press). l{isse (G*ingen in und RuPrecht Aow Jonas zrlch: Vandenhoek and ' fut ascetlc tendency. argues that the text6 are unlfied by a strlct of studles on gnosticisn in general and on 7 A comprehensive bibliography The has been Prepared by Scholer (197f). the Nag llarnnadl texts in partlcular of Noon Iestamentwn is suppleDented annually io the auturm issue blbliography introduclion to gnostic For a stirnulating beginning rrith vol. 13 (1971). ( 1 9 5 3 ) . thought see Jonas

-L2-

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Fig. 1. The Gebel el-Tarif i s a s e c t i o n o f the eastern w al l of the N i l e V alley across t.he river from the modern city of Nag Hanmadi in Upper Egypt. All the evidence concerning the discovery of the Nag Ilammadi codices indicates that they I^r er e f ound h i d d e n i n a c e ra mi c j a r somew here a t t h e b a s e o f t h i s i n p o s i n g c 1 i f f ,

$.

''' i :,

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f* Fig. 2. iulo s t o f th e N a g H a mma d i codi ces arri ved at the Coptic Cairo still bor:nd into their leather covers. N o member of the d ic es E dit ing Pro j e c t e v e r s a r^ / th eur thus. lluseum in Old Nag Hamnadi Co-

-L2 -

of E he eastern w al l of the N i l e V a lley i s a secti on F ig. 1. T h e G e b e l e l -T a ri f All the from Lhe modern city of Nag Hannadi in Upper Egypt. across the river indicates that they of the Nag Hammadi codices evidence the discovery coneerning \^Iere found hidden in a ceramic j ar somewhere at the base of thi s i mposi ng clif f .

ffi
Fig . 2 . Most of the Nag llammadi co diees arrived at the Coptic Museum in 01d bor:nd into their leather eovers. No member of the Nag Ha:nnadi CoCairo still dices Bditing Project ever sa/ them thus.

-1J-

As source material for the early history of Christian t he Nag Ha u ma d i c o d i c e s a re c l e arl y i nval uabl e.

thought

and literature

The goal of the Nag Hamrnadi Codices Editing Project, funded by the S nit hs onian In s ti tu ti o n fro m J u l y L974 through January L975 and agai n i n J uly and August 197518 has been to further the study of the manuscripts in three respects: physical reconstruction of Ehe f ragrnented papyrus leaves, conservation of the entire for safe storage and dispLay, and publication. collection The completion of the project has seen major success in all three of these closely interrelated endeavors and brings to a close a long chapter of research authored by Ehe diligent of numerous scholars. efforts Reeonstruction TLre reconstruction of the papyri began, for the most part, in the v er y lat e n i n e te e n -fi fti e s w i th the w ork of P ahor Labi b and Marti n K rause. A1t hough c od e x III, th e fi rs t o f the codi ces to be acqui red by the C opti c Museum , had been co n s e rv e d i n g l a s s fra mes as earl y as L947, the rest remai ned i n t he har r ds of a n ti q u i ti e s d e a l e rs u n ti l A t that ti ure a French schol ar wor kLg49.s ing in Cairo, Jean Doresse, completed a hurried inventory of the collection for Egyptian officials and packed the codices into a suitcase. The suitcase was t hen s ealed a n d k e p t i n th e c u s t ody of the D epartnent pendi n g t he of A nti qui ti es pr oc ur em ent o f fu n d s fo r p u rc h a si ng i ts contents. Tl rat there hTas al ready sour e dis or der a mo n g th e p a p y ru s l e a v e s and fragnents i s i ndi cated by photographs of t he c odic es ta k e n p ri o r and some damage apstorage i n the sui tcase, to th e i r parently occurred between this time and the time when the suitcase r^ras again I0 opened, b rie f ly in Lg52 and f inally when the German in 1956 . Ac cordingly, Archeological Institute donated panes of plexiglass to the Coptic Museum in 1959, Labib, K r au s e a n d Vi c to r Gi rg i s conserved the papyri i n the order i n w hi ch t hey f ound t hemr l l th u s p re s e rv i n g in th e fragments i n the sequence and condi ti on whic h t hey h a d c o n e i n to th e p o ssessi on of the museum. ^'

and the ARCE 8 I am personally indebted to the Smithsonian Institution for also providing funds for my return to the United States at Ehe close of the project in the auturnnof L977. 9 During this period most of codex I r^/asexported from Egypt and offered for sale in Europe and the United States. I t r ^ r a sp u r c h a s e d f o r t h e C . G . Jung Institute in Zrich, SwitzerLartd. in L952 and later presented to the erniIn return for publication rights to nent psyctrologist as a birthday present. part the of the codex that remained in Cairo, Jungts heirs have returned their possession to Egypt. The last of these leaves and fragments were registered at dealer had initialthe Coptic Museumin October L975. The Egyptian antiquities Tlrese r^tere removed when the ly conserved this part of codex I in glass frames. a second conservation, binding and papyrus leaves r^rere exported, necessitating when the leaves r^rere acquired for the Jung Institute. this time in plexiglass, 0nce back in Cairo this part of codex I \^ras reconserved in conformity with the rest of Ehe collection. 10 See Krause (L962, L22-L23) . lt Krause-Labib (L962, 2L) . I^iith regard to the smaller f ragments,

L2 Krause-Labib (L962, 5 n. 6).

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In the case of the well-preserved manuacrlpts this nethod of conservatlon for the nost part sisrp ly retaLned the correct sequence of the page8. Thus the initial reconstructlon of codices I, II, III , V, \,:t, WI and XIIIIT posed few problerls. But codices IV, V[II, IX, X, XI and XII consisted of about two thousand fragnents, only a small number of which could be readily placed in (See fig. 3.) correct page sequence. Krause and Labib succeeded in reconstructlng most of codex IV on the basis of other coples of the two texts lt contains, though thLs reconstruction could not be carrled through on-the papyrus itself r.rlthout disturbing the official lnvento ry of the fragrents, r" Whlle Krause waa also able to draw sore conclusions about the original nake-up of the other fLve fragmentary codices, the exact reconstruction of these renained quLte problenatlc. " By thls tine, ho\rever, plans were undertay for the Unlted Nations Educational, (IJNESCO) Sclentific and Cultural organlzatlon to supervise the publication of a photographlc facsircile editlon of the collection, a continuatlon of work begun by Pahor Lablb.16 with this project in vlew, nearly all of the leaves and fragrents were photographed betneen 1962 and 1966, thus pern:mently recording the evldence that the inttlal conservation had sought to preserve," In 1968 Janes M. Roblngon was asked by the UNESCO to examlne these photographs and to report on Ehe work that would be required to prepale thero for plU.cation. the Institute (Clareoont., Callfornla) for AntiquLty and ChrLstlanity the reupon laltiated the Coptlc cnostlc Library Project, directed by Roblnson, to prepare English translatlons of the entire collection. In the course of their work, the scholars engaged in thls project also prepared hypothetlcal reconstructions of the very fragnentary codlces and contlnued the difflcult task of identlfying the proper places of the many snall fragrents remalni.ng frorn all the codlces. But in the absence of direct access to the papyrl ln Cairo their work had to reEaln unconfirroed. This clrcunstance changed ln Decenber 1970 when the UNESCO Internatlonal CoEnittee for the Nag liamadl Codices held its first plenary neetlng in Cairo, 0n December 15 the couoit tee was granted per:nlsalon to open the plexiglass f rares and a techD.lcal sub-corunl-ttee of four nenbers (Sdren Giversen, Rodolphe Kasser, however, this nethod was apparently not. rigorously applied. Instead these r.rere often conserved in clusters in a few plexigldss frames, from which only a very general idea of their original location can sometimes be gained. Many other small fragnents r^tere left lying in Ehe leather bindings or in the boxes in which the bindings had been stored, T h e s e r ^ r e r en o t c o n s e w e d i n p l e x i g l a s s u n t i l 1 9 7 0 . 13 I^ILratis called codex XIII did not survive into modern tiues as a complete codex. Rather it consists of S leaves that were removed from the niddle of a codex and placed inside the binding of codex VI in antiquity. See Robinson (L972a). L4 Krause-Labib (L962, 40). 15 See Krause (L962, L27-L29). 16 Labib (1956). L7 Tlris photographic record has proved the value of Labib and Krausers conservation procedure by providing significant order of clues to the original many of the fragmengs.

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for carrylng out the PhysiKrause and Robinson) was charged wlth responslbll-lty photography for the facslnpapyrL guLding further of the and cal reconstructlon sessiona 1970 and 1973 the In the course of flve brl-ef betleen ile edition. ProGnostLc Llbrary assisted by mernbers of the Coptic technicaL sub-comittee, ject, reconstructions that had been tested and lnproved various hypothetical proposed, rearranged those fragnents accordingly, and and contlnued to identify place further fragnents, Project contlnued this work intensiveThe Nag Ilannadi Codlces Edltlng of Jarnes M. Roblnson, ly froo Jul-y 1974 through August 1975. Under the direction Ptlnclpal Aneri-can InvestLgator for the project, Charles 1'I. Iledrick and I de-

Fig. 3 (at left). This photograph, taken in the mid-sixties, shows 22 papyrus fragments conserved with Nag Hammadi codex VIII. Ten of these f ragne.nts have been pl aced i n that codex, one i n codex I V, and Three of the remaining one in codex XI. fragrnents, though as yet unpl aeed, have been assi gned to other codi .ces beca use on them is clearly not the handwriting the same as that in codex VIII.

C h a rl e s I^ I. Hedri ck F ig. 4 ( at ri g h t). the papyrus at r^rork on reconst^ructing from which Nag Hammadi codex IV rolls This procedure can r^/as manufactured. cri tes om et im es p ro v i d e th e d e c i s i v e sethe original ria for establishing quenc e of p a g e s i n a p a p y ru s c o d ex. I t m us t be u s e d i n a n y c a s e i n order by a s e q u e n c e e s ta b l i s h e d t o c onf im ot her ur ean s .

-15-

for carrylng out ttre physiKrauee and Robinson) was char:ged rdith reeponsibillty photography for the facslnpapyri guiding further of the and cal reconatructlon and sessions betreea 1970 1973 the In the course of five brief lle edltion. ProGnostlc Llbrary assLsted by xnenbers of the Coptic technlcaL sub-comlttee, jecr, teconstructlons that had been tested and inproved varloua hypothetical proposed, rearranged those fragments accordingly, and contLnued to ldentlfy and pLace further fragments. continued thLs nork lotenslveThe Nag Hamadi Codices Ed1.tlng Project of Jares M. Roblnson, ly fron July 1974 through August 1975.. Under the dlrectlon Prlnclpal AnerLcan Investigalor for the project, Charles 11. Iledrlck and I de-

Fig. 3 (at left). This photograph, taken shows 22 papyrus fragin the rnid-sixties, ment,s conserved with Nag }larnnadi codex VIII. Ten of these f ragre,nts have been placed in that codex, one in codex IV' and Ttrree of the remaining one in codex XI. fragments, though as yet unplaced, have been assigned to other codices because the handwriting on them is clearly not the same as that in codex VIII.

Fig. 4 (at right) . Charles I'I. Iledrick at r,Iork on reconst ructing the papyrus from which Nag ilammadi codex IV rolls This procedure ean was manufactured. sometimes provide the decisive critethe original seria for establishing quence of Pages in a Papyrus codex. It must be used in any case in order to confirm a sequence established by other reans.

-16-

while throughout the grant voted xrost of our time to lhe ldork of reconstructlon, periods loany other scholars came from both the Unlled States and EuroPe to work and as their schedul"es Pernitted. on the manuscripts accoraling to their interests had sone no larger than a fingetnail, By the end of L974 huldreds of fragrents, been placed through the uae of advanced papyrological technlques that rely Prlmarlly on the unique pattelns of the papyrus flbers rather than on the nuch lees of how the A detailed invesEigatlon certain crlteria offered by the text. " for establishing the codices were ori-ginally nanufactured has provided crlteria and withsequence of pages in a papyrus codex with a high degree of certainty which in flumy cases is not extant, or out heavy reliance on scribal paginatlon, codltextgal continuity, which can hardly be hoped for in the no re fragrentary (See fig. 4.) At present the page sequence and original lengEh of each ces.'u codex i-s clear with but three exceptions: (1) The extremely fragrentary conditlon of codex X' further corrylicated by a lack of pagination after page 5, has nade it ltrpossible Lo dete rxoine the orlginal length of the codex. Fragnents of 54 lnscrlbed pages survive, but there of these f ragr0en ts indicates that origlnally the codlcological relationship nust have been at least 68 inscribed pages and qulte probably there lte re nore. The sequence of the fragrnents now identlfied as pages L3-22 arld 55-58 also rernalns somewhat hypothetical.2 I (2) Codex XII represenls the largest loss wirhin the collection. At present it conslsts of only 8leaves and several smaller fragDents. A1sequence though the leaves lack page nr:mbers they can be put lnto relative ln through conparison with other copies of the two knohrn texts the iodex and' papyrus sone fiber Ttlls reconslructo continulty, extent, also on the basis of pag"s.22 tion Lndicates that the codex originally inscrlbed contained at least 7l

l8

18 The visiting neuibers of the project rtere G.M. BrortDe, Anton Fackelu,ann, Bentley Layton, Dj,eter Muellert, Birger Pearson, I.Iillian C. Robinson Jr., John Sj.eber, Frederik Wisse, and Jan Zandee. other scholars who visited the project (Dennark), Rodolphe Kasser (Switzerduring the grant periods were Sdren Glversen land), Klaus Koschorke (Federal Pepublic of Gerrnany), Martin Krause (Federal Republic of Germany), Jean-Plerre llah6 (France), Manfredo Manfredl (Italy), Jacques-d. l,t6nard (France), Peter Nagel (Gerroan Denocratic Republic), Tito Orlandl (Italy)' Torgny Sve-Sderbergh (Sweden), and Hans-Martin Schenke (German Denocratic Republic). 19 See itedrlck (1976) and the literature clted there (p. 148 n. 4).

20 See WLsse (1975) and Janes M. Robinson (1975a), (1975b) and "Ihe Future volume, on ltre Future of Coptoof Papyrus Codicology," forthconing ln the first (Leiden). 1ogy, ed. R.McL. Wilson, of a new series of Coptlc Studies fron 8rlll and demanding task of laying Turner (L977) has recently undert aken the inportant the foundatLons for a codlcological typology. 21 A detatled discuaslon of the consideratlons reconstruction Edition can be foturd in nhe Faesiftile CodLces IX and X (Leiden: Brtll, 1977) xix-:o<ili. that led to the Present of the Nag Eonnadt Col:Lces:

to the rest of the Nag ltamadi 22 The fact that codex XII, in dlstlnction rnakes it lPoscodices, has facing pages wlth the s ame papyrus fiber dlrection

-r7 -

well-preserved, Since che few exlant leaves are thenselves relatively nltoesslng preservation to a state of nith so great an overall loas, that is inconsistent it i.s likely that this loss, whl ch presumably includes a leather blndlag, took place only after the discovery in 1945. It is thus to be hoped that the btnding and the remainder of the leaves nay yet cone into scholarly hands, thouglr there is now good re:uion to believe that at least some of this lost portlon of the codex was burnt shortly af ter the di-scovery.2 3 (3) As has been noted, codex XIII did not survlve into mode rn tlres s a coqlete codex.2a It is virtually certain that the 8 extant leaves origlnally lay at the ve ry center of a quire, thus clarifying thelr relaEive sequence even though page numbers can only be assLgned to theD hypothetically. Slnce the last extant leaf ends h'ith the openlng lines of a text preserved conpletely in codex II, a nlnlnal length for the codex can be estiEated at 80 pages. Neverthelesa, the 16 survlving pages are presumably all that were interred with codex
trT vr arrt ^- !.1 -...r 4rL!9srLJ !., t

Appendix III gives the present inventory of pages and fragments of About 932 of the 1240 inseribed pages that originally the Nag ltamadl codices. (If one dtsnade up the collection are represented by at least a fragnent. counts the najor loss in codex XII alone this figure rises to 972.) 0f the fragrents 714 lnscribed that remain unpJ-aced less than a hrurdred preserve .my nore than a ferd letters of inscription. There is littIe doubt that o:my of the renalning fragmnts placed, can still but now the Line and effort requlred be great compared to the amunt of lnfo rnawould probably be dLsprop ortl.onately tion so galned. Co n s e " u a t i o n of the nanuscripts - the Editlng ConcurrentJ.y with the reconstruction Project rmdeltook to conserve the collection for the Coptic Museun." Peggy S. Iledrick and Anita l{. Robinson, conservators for the project., faced a najor problen from the outset. Ihe antiquitles dealers fron whom the papyrl were obtained had used transparent cellulose adhesive tape, generously and none Eoo judiciously, In the to hold sone of the fragrents together, often lncorrect.ly.

sible to deterrnlne the center of the quire in its present state of preservation. In any case codex XII may It may even have consisted of more than one quire. well have contained f ar more than 7L pages. See f urther lTte FaesiwLLe E&Ltion of the Nag Hunrn&L Co&Lees: CodLees XI, XII Ld XIII (Leiden: Brill, L973) xiiiXV.

the discovery of the codices 23 TLre story reported by Doresse that after tea" (Doresse [fg0O, f18]) "the peasants had burnt some of them to brew their inte rviewed in the Nag Hannadi has been conf irme d and clarif ied by an eye-rrritness region by James I'1. Robinson. 24 See note 13 above.

i ndebted \de are especi al l y to 25 F o r a d v i c e o n th e w o rk o f conservati on Messrs. Baines-Cope (London), Stanley Baker (London), John Barnst (0xford) , w ho al so j oi ned the Pr ol, I alt er Coc kl e (L o n d o n ), a n d A n to n Fackel mann (V i enna), ject in Cairo briefly in L974.

- 18-

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!.i.l"i::'n " 'T:fi,;l;;;;;::' ; }f l':i::r; "''

', .\ L ! f,, f i q . : 1: l i l , f i y r ; 1 , r , ,

..irI * -

Fig. 6-7 . NHC I 8l before and after removal o f ol d cel l ul ose Note that the removal of the uppermost strip o f t ape permi tted a fragment at 8 1 , 5 - 7 .

adhesi ve tape. of the addi ti on

-18-

Fig. 5. AniLa It. Robinson removing the old carefully adhesive tape cellulose used by antiquities dealers to hold fragnents of papyrus together. Once this delicate and difficult task r^/as accomplished the fragments r,ere rejoined with tiny pieces of paper tape (cf. fig. 8).
'l '' '\'?.* ' {'.:'r"'":u{;'" t "*"tiqf,,tAV* ^, .* ... z't:'.,|":' ltU.t;g';,{ {{ F}itrg * r"t . -f'Lslrv):'a"err':' {r} . 'i'r .t' t :*r'i"il' u i" .\l 4s {:.tt! ;if \r F*{: (:;'**\:': ; "t.'(':.' f; ; i-g : J\r,*a.-l-116' "' je ii;.'\,'rr-: a e ; f . L : ! ; e iJl' lr si; 'i r-t3 fr Frrr *tr"o'i;" v r** rd?'{g-,...:'I

i,,i,

,+iFi * -. ,f *{3l3Y ?ft ty'an* -1 6ffi ;-a?: . i.-i'* *flC te : \4;tr:'t:'a."f tr "fyt.1 ,..,,r "{:r{3qF'i|-n-4, c'.}i - '4rb\]",#sl a*r4 t$ls|rc e'T. r,* -c* o-;,. Lt-t.j:)-:*i-\ tEef *^ ?4,p''^'4,,c f *c*r*. F*F*f ,*-..-\.

s:
{':

1-4}* FF&Gr*:*t*+ o:-r rrc f4t?trl r

? "'

96rt{Fld-

: *:.ir*d*3Yru cr "r6ffi. "j ;*'}*srt

xe'e+
gs

l:
;3 ,_,

-:tif iar':Qggry *"r $f ,,"-F,# "Ti rult o,.ifg#i *ir C T):,rr|ce"ffi.r"r-mqr

< ..,,-i..rr s if#{rf:}h6f

.rii {l tr.;"g, :^-gfrl*.J

$ t-nJ Zsr:nrre.'.*rof

", .": 6 rr ii r"t'r**,:u'ar"f , * , ' ' ;1'X16 i*rr"rcryt. * .*"i"r:

r;vtr: k tt;l: r,f:T$ry' ag ..i,*f:r;y

"&Fry.q

eron*r-iainqr6C

&w*a.ryw;' 1 Tl;':'; {; "Yry: fr 5,1 :jio.l;,,Y:,WW*,, .; 't : ri} ?-lt{ rrfryrfiruy

Yj . :'*,' i :.rli ^
c 'Kr [J e {: fr*.Hf Ynt,trt

Ci',"$i*"*.#sv

..*_,,. *{6* rryrrXeg'-*Fth"ll -_u .:1 r' *i*'rin?e_r1,+rx-Y: ji:

-iriri.!

F ig. 6- 7. N H C I 8 l b e fo re a n d after removal Note that the removal of the uppermost strip a fragment at 81,5-7.

of o1d cel l ul ose o f t ape per"uitted

adhesi ve tape. of the addition

-t-9-

course of mre than twenty years this tape discolored and began to stain the papyrus, obscuring portions of the text, In a few cases lhe adhesive had also begun to ooze out fron beneath the cellulose backing, sticking the papyrus to the insides of the plexlglass. ln order to open these the conservators had porous, to brush acetone on the outsides of the plexiglass, which is sughtly so that the fules would penet.rate and dissolve the adhesive on lhe insides. To rercve the adhesive tape itself two other chesricals were used, first tri chlore thylene as a solvent and then )<ylene to neutralize the reuraining adhesive substance. When necessary, industrial fiEthylated spirlts was used to wash out the other chenicals.26 outcor0e of this The eninently satisfactory troublesome task has left free of unnatural vltlating the papyri altrrogt entirely forces and has iryroved their aesthetic appearance. (See flg. 5-7.) In addition, the removal of the tape not only enabled us to realign many frag@nts to a number of srnall fragnents that had ProPerly but also drew our attention been pulled out of their correct positi-ons by !?pe on a facing page, thus perx01tling us to put them back where they belong." To hold fragoents together in their proper relationships we used the b rotrn paper packlng tape wi-th a water-solub le gl-ue that has been in use at the British Museum since the early years of papyrology. Thts tape, cut very sna1l (on the order of Eillineters) wlth a flne and applied under Eagnification brush, can be practically invisible If necessary ir can against the papyrus. (See fig. 8. ) I,Ihen two f ragrents do be respved easily with a bit of rrater. not physically connect, this tape can be used to bridge the gap or to rtrake a firn island !o which the fragrents can be attached. Thus the fragrents of even proper positions the most deteriorated secured in relative leaf can be cheLr (See wilhout recourse to atEaching then permanently to any kind of backing. fie.9.) For the final conservation we preferred co place the papyri between panes of g1ass. The plexiglass in which they hre re conserved in che early sixtles had becone very scratched r.rith long use and were not of a uniforrn size. Furtherroore, durlng the fj.rst conservation each papyrus sheet, whlch fo rms two leaves (four pages) of a codex when folded at the xdddle, had been cut in half at the splne, Lf they were not already broken there, and the leaves were conserved lndividually. We decided to reunite such conj ugate leaves and to conserve the coi n p laee 26 In a fe w p l a c e s ta p e w as cl eaned around the edges but l eft renoval. Tape bec aus e th e p a p y ru s i t. c o v e rs i s too fragi l e to perrn:i t successful did had t o r e m a i n i n a fe w o th e r pl aces as w el l because the adhesi ve i nvol ved not r eac t e ffe c ti v e l y A l though there i s some di sagreernnt to th e c hemi cal s. am ong c on s e r:v a to rs a s to th e b est chemi cal s to use i n thi s ki nd of w ork ( and it m ay depe n d o n th e k i n d o f a d h esi ve co be di ssol ved) none of E hose used b y us p a p y r u s . are considered harmful to 27 Al th o u g h i t \{ a s i n e v i t abl e that removi ng the E ape at ti mes al so Eant papyrus and ink, r^ras outrrteighed by the removing some surface this consideration Passages that were danmore deleterious of leaving the tape in place. effects of exclui n my col l ati on aged in th e p ro c e s s o f re m o v i n g the tape are i ncl uded p h o to g ra p h i c s iv ely w hi ch has begun to apP ear r^lit h e v i d e n c e for the texts, Enmel (L97 7b).

-20 -

' , ' '" I-' I t-ftTl

fit

efibEtefi alfffi;Ir .i'rrrlfiFr ,*i$'nrr t ioY-

xrq

Lfi.E ,}
3 t

s _

joo-'r-fr>tl. t'zttoorTF
^ +

irerr-ar.elr-f
g

., f,'tt

N6

fg;lJ,tr|L

:.tt*-f *.pl |,,l-trftt't.qf -nz\Zrzro*t1-ra1Tre paF ig. 8. l\ lo fra g u e n ts o f i n s c ri b e d p y r us ar e jo i n e d a t N IIC V I 1 0 ,3 b y tw o m inut e piec es o f p a p e r ta p e , T tre actual size of the area shown is only one cm. square. Note the clear continuity o f t he papy ru s fi b e rs a c ro s s th e break.

? itzc,fr'tt**), 5TffYv,ffit p.b-tllafr rx**lc 4gTrez".tzaY.*.'6l.rd. -d

*w
xt FectrZ-iirrr.

H###**e4*

Fig. 9 . MIC XI L2 has been re const ructed f rom three l arge , trro small , and one uer A s m all f ra g n e n ts (o., the rector p. 11) and horL zono n th e b a s i s of verti cal tal papy r us fi b e r a s wel l as on the basi s of the contours of dete r ioc o n ti n u i ty r at ion of pr e c e d i n g Ttre sti f f paper i sl ands serve to a n d s u c c e e d i n g l eaves. posi ti ons h old t he f r ag me n ts i n th e i r w i thout rel ati ve necessi tati ng c o rre ct their attachment to any sort of backing.

dic es s heet b y s h e e t. Si n c e a l l of the N ag l l aurnadi codi ces except codex I conq u i re th i s me th o d of conservati on preserves s is t of a s in g l e the aspect of t he c odex and is th e re fo re w ork on pl aci ng o f c o n s i d e r abl e advantage to further fr agr nent s an d to c o d i c o l o g i c a l s tudy.28 The Egyptian Antiquities Orgatization approved our proposed cons er v at ion f o rma t b u t re q u e s te d th at pl exi gl ass A cbe used i nstead of gl ass. \^ te i m p o rte d a s u f fi c i e n t c or dingly , quanti ty panes (37x32 cm. and of pl exi gl ass 3 f f i. t hic k ) f ro m S w i tz e rl a n d , G reat B ri tai n and the U ni ted S tates and transfer r ed p a p y ru s t he r e c o n s tru c te d l eaves to them,2e E ach sheet i s posi ti oned

28 Since codex I is more like three single-quire codices bor:nd into a single cover than it is like the usual multi-quired codices, conserving it in the sane format as the rest of the collection of its is not overly disruptive original structure. 29 Very special thanks must be given to Carol Crochet who volunteered her careful and conscientious assistance in this work in January and June-

-20-

\:.'rr t t-.5lt*t1 -Zr4;.-,paotil

' -..;

?rrLAa.^;e$ i -?(r-r.\diTr 11 LL
", tt:-t t t'2 ! ,-?i J|'r'*d:-' ,}}*tf tu 3t"'

r^;by o.c-77fi7i!.
*.i!ra
M 6 *i

r.

or..4-F
t$!Jaf{.
I

#;i-F-+t,

p.,,-tr.Iafr rXJflc f fiirepTzfr-,C1lo:. ,r'-?TT Ft't .'rf:q a|ffal* Artoy7Er^trfi76g11Ttc-

?f,vwafiWe" t]t-6;F ^Yc\'rtelr-

?rrd;;F?fr{'rj
&f)toYlJ*r

paFig. 8. finro fragments of inscribed p yr us ar e join e d a t N H C V I l 0 r3 b y tw o minut e piec es o f p a p e r ta p e . T tre actual size of the area shown is only one cm. square. Note the clear continuity o f t he papy r u s fi b e rs a c ro s s th e break.

frXfi-rrla r&ffiI*#.*p""I.
xt Kec^ rZlir*a i
I ifrf, n*ft

gTS4Rrrp<.;v ;-i\: aei-41 ryi "Tr&rlf-

&#'b"vni v-fti*7 F-2;'#j

Kr;a.ar l,"rII'

Fig. 9. from three l arger NHC XI L Z h a s b e e n re c o n structed and on e tw o smal l , (on the rector p. 11) and hori zonu er A s m all f ra g me n ts o n th e b a s i s of verti cal ta l papy r us fi b e r c o n ti n u i ty a s w el l as on the basi s of the contours of deteriopaper i sl ands ra t ion of pr e c e d i n g a n d s u c c e e d i n g l eaves. The sti ff serve to posi t,i ons w i thout h old t he f r ag m e n ts i n th e i r rel ati ve c o rre c t necessi tati ng their at t ac hme n t to a n y s o rt o f b acki ng.

dices sheet by sheet. Since all of the Nag llauunadi codices except codex I consist of a single quire this method of conservation preserves the aspect of the codex and is therefore of eonsiderable advantage to further work on piacing fraginents and Lo codicological study.28 TLreEgyptian Antiquities Organization approved our proposed conservation fornaL but requested that plexiglass be used instead of glass. Accordingly, we imported a sufficient quantity of plexiglass panes (37x32 cm. and 3 nnr. thick) from Switzerland, Great Britain and the United States and transferred the reconstructed. papyrus leaves to them.2e Each sheet is positioned 28 Since codex I is more like three single-quire codices bor:nd into a single cover than it is like the usual nulti-quired codices, conserving it in the same format as the rest of the collection is not overly disruptive of its original structure. 29 Very special thanks must be given to Carol Crochet who volunteered her careful and conscientious assistance in this work in January and June-

-l

t-

s uc h t . ha t w h e n th e fra n e s c o n tai ni ng a codex are st.acked neatl y on top of eachot her t h e re l a ti v e a l i g n n e ,n t of the sheets recreates the qui re as i f i t wer e opened a t th e c e n te r.3 0 S i n c e the brow n t.ape used on the papyrus does n ot adher e t o p l e x i g l a s s th e s h e e ts are attached to one pane of each frarne w i th a m ininal n u m b e r o f s m a l 1 p i e c e s of fi Lmopl cst P , a transl ucent adhesi ve paper developed for repairing specifically old books, particularly of paper and parchment.st The edges of the plexiglass frames are also sealed with this tape and eac h f r ame i s l a b e l l e d w i th the rel evant codexr page and C opti c Museum invent or y num ber s . T h e l e a th e r i n w hi ch the codi ces w ere encased are sim ib i n d i ngs lar ly c o n s e rv e c i i n s h a l l o w p l exi gl ass boxes. The unpl aced fragments are cons er v ed w i th th e c o d i c e s to w hi ch they have been assi gned. TLre scraps of G r eek (cartonnage) and Coptic papyri removed from the leather bindings of codices IV' V, VI, VII , VIII , IX and XI are conserved and stored as a unit, together wit h t he m i s c e l l a n e o u s fra g m e n;s, rather than w i th the codi ces from w hi c h t hey lt er e r emo v e d . The binding i s kept at t he I no f codex I, w i th i ts cartonnge, stitute for Antiquity p u r c h a s e d w ith the approval and Christianity, which it, of t he E g y p ti a n An ti q u i ti e s f Organi zati on, The w her erom a E uropean ol rtner. about s o f w h a te v e r c a rto n n a g e may have been removed from the bi ndi ngs of codices II, III and X is not known. A t th e e n d o f L 9 7 4 \^re desi gned tw o storage cabi nets for the papyr i. The Cabj-nets l^rere constructed by Design Center Cairo (14 Adli Street, Cairo). E ac h c ab i n e t wooden tw o c u pboards, each desi gned to hol d three portabl e c o n ta i n s

August 1975 and again in January 1976. We r,re re also asslsted briefly by Katri-nka Sieber, Juin Foresnan, Anne Jackson, Ted Worth, Connie Mallard, R. Scott Birdsall, Michael Bryan Fiske, Janes coehring, and Marvin W. Meyer. With regard to one of the najor objections for the cooservation of papyrus 1t to the use of plexiglass should be noted that a static charge can be removed easily with readily available anti-static fluids. between plexithe question of possible chemical interaction glass and papyrus cannot be answered decisively; perhaps only titrE r,till tell. Suffice iE to report that the Nag Hannadi papyri have been in plexiglass franes for nearly thro decades now r{ithout noticeable ort that account, alteration on which see oote 13 above, the le aves are 30 Io the case of codex XIII, of leaf 49/50 natch those of aligned such that the contours of deterioration codex VI Leaf LlZ. 31 This naterLal, rnanufactured by Hans Neschen (D-4967 Bckeburg, POB 1340, Federal Republic of Germany), is advertised as "absolutely neutral: non acldic, non conductive, no wood-alirent, free of plasticlzer, non yellorting, ( 1 9 6 6 ) report on f o r a s c i e n t i f i c t e s t no discolorlng." See Burl-age and, longevity nade in the Danish Nuclear Center \^rith do cunents fron the Copenhagen State Archive, Skall (L974), who reports that the adhesive used for fiT,tnoplast P (p. 38). Ilowever, ls a polyacrylate EilnapLast P fared well in these tests. lt is used provide support unless P is too thln to much structural filnoplat ktlth inscriPtion ln large pleces. Since it is most desireable not Eo cover papyrus h'hen there only any adheslve naterial, ne used fiLmopLast P to mend the few ink. In caseg was no alternative these to placlng lhe tape over a bit of we still pieces possible. used the snallest

-22-

I ns ide e a c h b o x a re tw o ro v/s of seven shel ves on w hi ch the pl exi gl ass b o x es . frnmes are stored, Each frame is kept in a strong plastic three per shelf. bag for protection Ttre contents of each box correspond to against scratching. in one volume of the ARE-I]NESCO facsiurile and the shelves are labelled edition page. Mounted on each scorage detail access to any particular to facilitate AE present the cabinets are kept in Ehe cabinet is a glass-topped display area. ma nus c r ipt wi n g o f th e C o p ti c M u s eum l i brary i n the care of Mrs. S anl i ha A bd El(See fig. Shaheed, Ehe Curator of Manuscripts. 10.) Pub Li eatt on. anC b eu ond P roj ect i s bei ng T h e m a i n J o rt o f th e Nag H anmadi C odi ces E di ti ng p u blis hed in tw o s e ri e s o f v o l u me s . vol ume of l Tte Faesi mi Le E & Ltt-on The fi rst of the Nag Hanna&L CodLees3z appeared in L972. TLre twelf th and f inal vo lume will of the collection be pri-nted in L979. edition This complete photographic doer:ments the reconstruction of the manuscripts as of the beginning of 1978.33 Tlre rapidity \,riEh which these volumes have continued to appear sinee L974 is due i n lar ge par t to th e s u p p o rt o f th e S mi thsoni an Insti cuti on and the A meri can Rese ar c h Cent er i n E g y p t. P roj ect T L re Ed i ti n g has al so provi ded members of the Coptic Gnostic Library Projeet wirh repeated opportunities to check their editi ons agains t th e ma n u s c ri p ts The r:nchal l enged val ue of autopti c th e msel ves. e x am inat ion o f a n c i e n t te x E s h a s b een enhanced i n the case of the N ag H amnnadi codices by the discovery that deteriorated passages often become quite legible when v iewed r :n d e r u l tra v i o l e t f i rst vol ume of the C opti c Gnosti c TLre l i g h t, Library Projectts appeared in 1975,34 and English translations critical editions a s ec ond v ol. me i s p re s e n tl y press, i t i s i n th e and expected that the rem:i ning vo lum es will has b een a p p e a r s o o n n o w th a t the reconstructi on of the manuscri pts completed. First, The project has also given birth to two important offspring. several forays by members of the project to Ehe reputed site of the discovery o f t he m anus c ri p ts n e a r N a g H a rn m a di has l ed to three seasons of archeol ogi cal for A nsur v ey and ex c a v a ti o n i n th e a re a r:nder the auspi ces of the Insti tute tiquity and Christianity.3s Second., the continued presence in Egypt of members of the Editing International Project made possible Conthe highty successful gress of Coptology, sponsored jointly b y t h e I I N E S C Oa n d t h e E g y p t i a n A n t i q u i t i e s Orgarrization in Cairo, December 9-L7, L976, which led in turn to the founng

of the 32 Published under the auspices of the Department of Antiquities Arab Republic of Egypt in conjunction with the United Nations Educacional, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Leiden: Brill , L972 and following). 33 Users of lTte FaesinrLLe E&Ltion should not overlook the additions corrections that will appear in Ehe introductory volume in L979. and

wtd IIrr2: 34 Alexander Antig and Frederik t^Iisse, Nag HanrnadLCodLees flfr2 1975). All T'l,teGospel of the EgyptLans (Nag llammadi Studies 4) (Leiden: Brill, of these editions are scheduled to appear in Brillrs series Nag I{ortrwdL Studi.es. An advance pubtication of translations of all of the texts is no\^Iavailable in Ja:nes M. Robinson, ed. , lTte Nag Humnail:L Library in EngLish (San Francisco: Harper and Row; Leiden: Brill, 1977).
35 See note 2 above and Van Elderen-Robinson (L977).

-23 -

-ildl*

-:

**b*os;"--%*.y:

?. ** -

Fig. 10. M r s . S a n i h a A b d E l - S h a h e e d , Curator of lulanuscripts for the Coptic Museum, r,ith t.he Nag Harunadi codices in the manuscript wing o f t h e l i h r s r y . of an International Association for Coptic Studies.36

O f c o u rs e n o n e o f i t w oul d have been possi bl e w i thout the gener ous For their hospitality cooperation of our Egyptian hosts. and assistance of ev er y s or t \^ re a re e s p e c i a l l y i n debted to D r. Gamal Mokhtar, P resi dent E mer it us of the Egyptian Antiquities Organization, Dr. Pahor Labib, Director Emeritus of the Coptic L1useum, Dr. Victor Girgis, General of Egyptian Museums, Director Dr . M ounir B a s ta , D i re c to r o f the C opti e Museum, and Mrs. S a.ui ha A bd E l -S haheed and t he ot h e r m e m b e rs o f th e s taff at the C opti c Museum,

Congress of C o p t o l o g y , " 36 See James M. Robinson, ttThe First International scheduled to appear in Ehe BulLetin de 7n. SoeL7t dtAneh1oLogi.e Copte 2 3 ( 1 9 7 6 L977), and the Na'tslettev, of the International Association for Coptic S tudies I ( 1 9 7 7 ) . I n q u i r i e s s h o u l d b e a d d r e s s e d t o P r o f . T i t o 0 r l a n d i l v . F . C i vi nini, 24-00L97 Rome, Italy.

-23 -

Fig. 10. Mrs. Samiha Abd El-Shaheed, Curator of l{anuscripts f o r t h e C o p t i c Museum, with the Nag Hammadi codices in the manuscript wing o f Lhe lib;:ary. of ErrlInternational Association for Coptic Studies.36

Of course none of it would have been possible without the generous For their hospitality cooperation of our Egyptian hosts. and assist,ance of every sort we are especially indebted to Dr. Gamal Mokhtar, President Emeritus of the Egyptian Antiquities Organization, Dr. Pahor Labib, Director Emeritus of the Coptic Museum, Dr. Victor Girgis, Director General of Egyptian Museums, Dr, Mounir Basta, Director of the Coptic Museum, and Mrs. Sanj-ha Abd El-Shaheed and the other members of the staff at the Coptic Museum. Congress o f C o p t o l o g y , " 36 See James l,I. Robinson, ttThe First International scheduled to appear in tir.e BulLetin de 7n, SocLt dtAz,eh1oLogie Copte 2 3 ( 1 9 7 6 L977), and the Na'tsLettev, of the International Association for Coptic S tudies I ( 1 9 7 7 ) . I n q u i r i e s s h o u l d b e a d d r e s s e d t o P r o f . T i t o O r l a n d i , v . F . C i vi nini, 24-A0L97 Rome, Italy.

-24-

APPENDI X I
Table o f Texts

in the

N ag H ammadi C odi ces

codex, text, page and line numbers

tit le

other

versions2

I 7t A,36 up-8,1 up 2: 1, l-16,30 3 : L 6, 3 L - 4 3 , 2 4 4:, 43,25-50,18 5: 51,1-l38,extant 26

Prayer of the ApostLe PauL The Apocryphon of James The Gospel of Truth Tne Treatise The Tripartite orl the Resurrection Tractate
N H C X II 2

Titles I Titles in ltalic type are preserved as such in the EanuscriPts, in regular type are oodern designations. lhese have been drawn either fron lhe content of the text (NEC I 2, I 5, II 5, qt 6, IX 2, lX 3, XI 2) or frorn the opening words of the text (NI{c I 3) or from the title given to another version of the texr (Nl{Cl-v, , V L, VI 5, VI 7, VI 8, XII I, XII 2, XlLl 2). 2 Abbreviacions: Asc. = Asclepius; see A.D, Nock and A.-J. Festugire, Hembs T?isneg'i8te: Cotpu Hetmeticun 2t TrcLtOs YIILXWII, Asel?pita, 2nd ed. (Parls: soci6t6 c'tdit i o n " I - e s B e l l e s L e t t r e s , " 1 9 6 0 ) 2 5 7 - 4 0 L , e s p . p p , 3 2 L - 3 3 7 ( = N H Cv I E ) , 353-355 (= NHc VI 7; cf. J.-P. Mah6, "La prire dractions de grces Cu codex VI de Nag-Hanadi eE le discours parfalt" La kitschrt ft !t Pqyrolo 3ia nJ" Epigrcphik f3 [f974] 40-60); Latin, Greek. These, rogerher wirh rhe Cc'pric versions, will appear in convenlent synopsis in Douglas M. Parrott, ed., Nag Hqrna&L Codicee V,2-5 and VI i.th P@Arus Bez.olinensie 8502,1 and 1 (Nag Ilamadi Studies 11) (Lelden: Bri1l, in press). B M = B r i t i s h M u s e u r n( n o w t h e B r i t i s h L i b r a r y ) ; for 0r, 4926(L) see Christian oeyen, "Fragnente einer sub achrnimischen Version der gnostischen 'Schrift ohne Titel"' in Krause, ed. (1975, L25-L44); for Or, 6003 see Wolf-Peter Funk, "Ei.n doppelt berllefertes Stck sptgyptischer Weisheit" ln ZeitsehrL ft ff)t' dLe ggptdsche Spnache f03 (1976) 8-21; Coptlc and Arabic (and a late LaEin vergion of Ehe latter), BP = Berlin Papyrus i for 8502 see l.lalter C. Till, DLe gnostischen Schrt iten des koptischen Pqyz,us Bev,ollnensis 8502 (Texte und Untersuchungen 60), 2nd ed. revised by llans-Martln Schenke (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1972); coptic. Chad. = Ilenry Chadwick, The Sentenees af Sertus: A Contributi,on tc the Histo?g of EarLy Christiot E thics (Texts and studies 5) (Canbridge, Englandl The Universiry Press, 1"959), whlch provides information on the other versions of this texti Greek, Latin, Syriac, Armenian. NHC = Nag Hanmadi codex. P.oxy. = Oxyrhynchus Papyrusi for 1,654 and 655 see Joseph A' Fi-tzrryer, "The Oxyrhynchus Logoi of Jesus and Ebe Coptic Gospel According to Thornas" in his Essays on the SemLtic Bockgnow.ci of the Neu festnent (Sources for

-25-

II

7: 1,1-32,9

The Secz,et Book AccorCLnq to John

NHC III 1 NHC IV 1 BP 8502 2 P . O x y. 6 5 4 P.Oxy. 655 P.Oxy. 1

2 z 3 2 , 1 0 - 5L , 2 8

I'Lte GospeL Aeeording

to TLtomas

3: 51,29-86,19 4z 86 120-97 ,23 5 : 9 7 , 2 4 - L 2 7, L 7 6: L27,18-137 ,27 7: 138,1-145,23 III 7z 1,I.-40,11

T'LteGcspel AeeordLng to PltiLip The Reality o f ihe RuLers of the l,tlorld Coneerming NHC XIII 2 BMOr. 4926(L)

On the Origin

Ihe Exposito rg Treafi,se the SouL

Ihe Book of I'l'nmas (the eontender wrLting to the perfect ones) I'he Secret Book o f Jottrt NHC II 1 NHC IV 1 BP 8502 2 NHC IV 2

2 z 40 ,L2-69,20

T'l,teHoLy Book o f the Gv,eat InuisibLe Spir"t t (less properly called TLte Gospei. of the EgAptians) Eugnostos the Blessed The Wisd.on of Jesus Ihe DLaLogue of the Sauiot' The Seeret Book Aeeording to John

<. a).

7 0, 1 - 9 0 , 1 3 9 0 , 1 4 - 1 1 9 ,1 8

NHCVl BP 8502 3 P.Oxy. I081

4.

U a

(. L20 ,1-147,1 up

IV Lz I,1-49 ,28

NHC II 1. NHC III 1 BP 8502 2 N H CI I I NHCIII 2 3

2:50r1-81,2 V 7z lrl-lTrextant l-8

The Gospel of the Egyptians Eugnostos the Blessed Ihe ReueLatLon of PauL Tlte (first) ReueLation of Jones

2 : 17,extant L9-24,9 3 t 2 4, L 0 - 4 4 , e x t a n t 7 4'. 44,extant 5 : 6 4, L - 8 5 , 3 2 V I 7 : I , 1 - L 2, 2 2 8-63,32

I'Lte (second) ReueLation of Jones The Reuelation of AC"an

the Aets o f Peten ura the llseLue Apostles

Study 5) (I(issoula: Scholars' Press , L974) 355-433, a revised verBiblical sion of his article in ThzeoLogieal Satdies 20 (1959) 505of the sarre title 560, and LI. Marcovich, "Textual Criticism on the GospeL of Thomas" Ln JournaL of I'heologieaL StudLes o.s. 20 (f969) 53-74; for l08f see Harold l.l. AtLrt Enchovia 5 (1975) tridge, "P. Oxy. l08I and the Sophia Jesu Christi" l-8; Greek.

-26-

2 z 13, 1-21, 1 up 3 t 22 ,3L up- 35 , 24 4 : 36 ,I-4 8 , 15 5z 48,16-51,1 up 6: 52,L-63,32 7: 6 3 , 3 3-65 ,7

The Thwtder, Perfect

I[inC

Authoz-Ltatiue Teaehing i4entaL Pereeption, the Coneept c f Cuz, Great Pouer Republic IX 588b-589b The Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth This Is the Frager TVtnySpoke (a1so called The Prayer of Thanksgiving) Asclepius 2L-293 The Faraphrase of Sem lreatise The ^Secona
-\atL

Plato, RepubLie 5 88b-5 89b

Asc. 4L

8: 65,15-78,1 up WI L: I,I-49,9 2t 49,10-70,L2 3 z 7 0 , 1 3 - 8 4, L 4 4 z 84 , 15-l 18 , 7 5: 1l8rLA-L27,L up VIII 1 z 1 , l - 1 3 2, 6 2':, L32,10-140 , 26 IX 7 z L,L-27 ,10 2z 27,LL-29,5 3z 29,6-74rL up X Lz lrextant l-68,18

Asc. 2L-29

o! tlze Great

T L t eR e u e l a t i o n o f F e t e r lTte Teachings o f Si.L;;uuts The three -Qtelae of Seth ZpstrLanos Tne Letter of Pe*,er, l"{hieh He Sent tc Philip l,lelcltizedek T L r eT h o u g h t o f N o r e a The Testimony of Truth !,larsqtes The InterpretatLon oi lnouLedge Bl'10r. 600 3

XI 7z L,27 up-21,1 up 2z 22,extant L-44rL up 3: 45,33 up-69,extant 4z 69 ,extant XII 6

A Valentinian Exposition ALlogenes (or Trrc Stranger) L7 tlypsiphrcne (or She of High llini) T L r eS e n t e n c e s o f S e x t u s The Gospel of Truth TrLmorphie Prirnal 3 paz.ts ) Thought ( i,n N H CI I 5 0r . 4926(L) BI"1 Chad. N H CI 3

7-7z,extant

7 z 1 5 , 1 - 3 4, 1 u p 2z 53,11 up-60,1 up

XIII

7 z 35 , 1-50 , 11 up 2z 50,10 up-50,1 up

On the Origin of the l^lorld

headed (L 9 6 2 , 2 6 ) s u g g ested that thi s text r^ras ori gi nal l y 3 K r aus e- L a b i b s c r i b a l aE n o t e t h e by a title a n d r e p l a c e d b y but thaE this had been erased l i g hc. r : n d e r u l t r a v i o l e t 65r8-14. e v e n h o w e v e r , No such erasure is detectable,

-27 -

APPENDIX The Scribes ltlho Copied

I I

the Nag Hammadi Codices

;:T:":"1:': ofa..xll"si :H:::.:ffilulni"3li::"::':ilr::.:"t;:l"J:: copy

A s many as fourteen c om pilat i o n o f l a te r scri bes may have copies. di fferent been employed in making these copies. They are listed here in the order of ap p e a ra n c e w i th th e C o pti c di al ect i n w hi ch they w orked gi ven i n p ar ent heir theses.'

l. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. L4.

I 1-3 (Subachnirnic), 5 (crypto-Satridic?) I 4, XI L-2 (Subachmimic) II II 7, 2 (except 47,1-8), 3-7 (Sahidic)

2, 47,1-8 (Sahidic) III L--5 (Satridic) 2 IV 1-2 (Satridic) V L-5 (Satridic) VI 1-8 (Satridic) VII 1-5, XI 3-4 (Sahidic) VIII 1-2 (Sahidic)

IX 1-3 (Satridic) X I (Subachurin'ic)

XII 1-2 (Sahidic) XIII L-2 (Satridic)

Note that several of the fourteen scribes can be judged more or less certainly to have been closely related i-n time and space in that their work overlaps in several codices: scribes 1, 2 and 9; scribes 3 and 4. But fourteen scribes may well be too conservative a figurei there may have been as few as with scribe L4. In codex XIII he eight. Scribe 3 is probably to be identified (Compare also the still more cursive superused a quicker, more cursj.ve hand.

I F o r a s u u m a t:y s ta te n e nt concerni ng our present know l edge of the ( seven) t'SaBy and large the najor Coptic dialects see Layton (1976b, esp. 5 Z.a.i.). by nati -ve speaker s hidic t ' t e x ts fro m N a g H a n u ra d i appear to have been transl ated f e a t u r e s o f o t h e r l l o s t a S a h i d i c . d i s p l a y of dialect than ""tTpto-Subachmirnic" (the term has been introduced by Layton 1L977, 661) , while a few display in(See further Nagel [f969b, sP. isoglosses with Bohairic teresting and Fayyumic. pp. !67-469), lL972J, and Layron 1L974,374-3831.) 2 Scribe 5 has left two fingerprints and the other at L20123-24. Both are only lighr. for posterity' visible clearly 68'11-12 one at NHC III under ultraviolet

-28-

fhe hand of scribe 4 is remarkably in codex II at 12118.)3 insertion linear w ork of the for:rrer i s too l i tt le s inilar 1 3 , b u t the survi vi ng t o t h a t o f s c ri b e (only eight lines of text) identification. Scribes 6, 7, to per:nit a certain as a si ngle h a nds and have often been i denti fi ed 8 , 10 and 11 a l l h a v e s i n i l a r q of a may be due rather sc r ibe. E o the i nfl uence Ho w e v e r, Eh e s i mi l a ri ti e s single scribal school. According to the report of Robinson (1975b, 18), Manfredo judged only (Florence, I'lanfredi of the G. Vitelli Italy) Papyrological Institute in this group, scribes sinilar 8, 10 and to a lesser extent 6 to be really scribes 7 and 11 being clearly d,istinct.5 F o r fu rth e r beari ng on the uni ty of the N ag H amm adi c o n s i d e ra ti ons antiquity see Robinson (1975b, 16-19), (L977b, 14-15).

codj.ces in

nas first 3 This idenclflcatlon made by Krause-Labib (L962, 297 addition to (Krause [1963, 11] n. p. 13). Although Krause later retracted the ldentlfication 2l), it has recently won strong eadorsenent fron Layton (I976a, 84). I concur judgeneot and should add that a eomparison of the use and shapes in this latter of the articulation merk in codex II (on whteh see Layton [f973, 190-199], notlng, however, that his renarks refer only to the fourth tractate in codex II) and codex XIII further confirns the i dent.l fl cation. Aroong the Nag l{anrnadl codices, II (See further the brief and XIII are unique in this respec!. corlpnts of Frederik Wisse in The Jourmal of the Americot )rtentaL SoaLefu 92 tL9721 189, who bases them on an examinatlon of all of codex II as well as the renainder of the codices.) Janssens (L974, 34L-342) uses this identlficatlon as a basl.s for sore interestlng It speculation concerning the original contents of codex XIII. should be pointed out, however, that her contentlon that codex II and codex XIII are also siroilar in that they, in distinction to the rest of the codlces, do not contain nurnbered pages ls unfounded. Whlle the pages of codex II were certainly left by the scribe without nunbers, the top arargins of the pages rernaining fron codex XIII are too deceriorated for us Eo determioe whether they ever held page numbers or not. was first 4 this ldentificatlon was accepted by Krause (1963, llo-lfl). made by Doresse (f95f, 30 and 34-39) and

of scribe l wlth scrtbe 12 (Doresse [1961, 5 Ttre further identification 31 and 45-451, followed by Krause [1963, f11]) is not generally aecepted.

-29-

A P P E I . I DX I I I I Inventory of Pages and Fragnents of the

l.lag Hamrnadi Codices

c odex I

C o p ti c l l u s e u m i n v e n to ry number

original number of inscribed p.g"" I

extant identified prg""' inscribed

unp laced ins cri bed f r agr ent s

1 0 5 5 4 , 1 0 58 9 , 10590, 1l5g 7, 1 16 4 0 1 0 54 4 4851

140 145

140 L45 135 8t 84 78 L27 L32 72 54 72 20 l6

68 I I 110 80 L7

II

III IV V VI

r47
81 84 7E L27 t36 75 68 72 77

2 1055 105 48 10549 10546

10550 1 0 5 53 1055 1 L0547

vrr
VIII IX X XI

119 86

r03 38
.8 4 75

xrr
XIII

10555
T0545 fragments 3

r6
L240

miscellaneous Eotals

1156

7L!'
and conservaEive. i s counte d.

O nly

involve estimation they are rninimal l When these figures t ha t p a rt o f c o d e x X III buri ed w i th codex V I i n anti qui ty

2 S i -n c e r:n p l a c e d fra g u e nts I and 2 of codex X II do not bel ong to any of p a g e s o f th a t codex they are counted here as i denti fi ed, even t he iden ti fl e d In some cases i n the codex cannot be detern' i ned. t hough th e i r e x a c t p o s i ti o n t ext smal l fragment. The anount of rdssi ng a leaf j -s re p re s e n te d b y a s ingl e i n d j c a t e . is thus greater m i s s i n g l e a v e s c a n o f encirely than the number conserved w i th 3 T L re s e a re fra g rn e n ts t hat \^/ere not at fi rst be assi gned to one on the basi s of c odex a n d w h i c h c a n n o t re a d i l y hands. a part icular the scr ibal

-i0-

R EF ER E N C ES

F. and R. Stiehl Altheim, Dte Az'aber in det aLten WeLt V.ii 1969 eds. G r u y t e r . de B a r n s , J o h n W .B . L975 "Greek and Coptic Papyri In Krause, ed. (1975, 9-18). Burlage, Johann 1966 " t f ilmoplast P I heilt

(D*s ehrLstliehe

Aksiln). Berlin:

from che Covers of the Nag HauunadiCodices."

innere Buchkrankheiten. " Grqhisehe

Woelte 23, l.

Dart, John L976 lTte Laughing Sauiot', New York: Harper and Row. Doresse, Jean 1958-1959 Les Liurcs seerets des gnostLques Ct0gypte. Paris : Librarie 1950

Plon.

the Seez.et Books of the Eggptian Cmosties. New York: Viking. 196I t'Les reliures des manuscrits gnostiques coptes ddcouvertes tchdnoboskion. " Reuue d'EgApfuLogie 13 , 27-49 . E m m eI , S t e p h e n L977a "Announcement.r' lTte BuLLetin of 14, 56-57. the AmerLeaztSoeiety of PqaroLcgi.sts

L977b "Unique Photographic Evidence for Nag Hammadi Texts: CG II 2-7 , III 5 arrd XIII 2*." ITte BuLLetLn of the AmerLeqt Soet)ety of PapyroLogists 14, r09-

LzL. Guillaumont, Antoine 1958 "S6ur-itisuns dans les logia de J6sus retrouv6s uag Handi. " Jouz'rteL asiatLqtrc 246, 113-123. Hedrick, Charles W. L976 "Some Techniques in the Placement of Papyrus Fragrents. " TLteBuLkttn of the AmerLean Soeiety of PcpUrologists 13, 143-155. Janssens, Yvonne L97 4 "Le codex XIII , " Le Muson 87, 341-413 . de Nag Haurradi

Jonas, Hans 1963 The Gnostie Religion, 2nd ed. Boston: Beacon. Krause, Martin L962 "Der koptische Handschriftenfund bei Nag Hamndi: Unfang und InhalE." Abteilung Katrc 18, Iulitteilltngen des Deutsehen ArefuioLogisehen Instituts, L2L-L32. 1963 "Zum koptischen Handschrif tenfund bei Nag Hanrrnadi. " MitteiLtmgen des Abtei,L,.mg Kqiro 19, 106-1t3 . Instituts, Deutsehen ArehoLogiseLten

-31-

ed. 1975 EssaAs on the Nag Hawrn&t Tests i'n Hotour of Polor Labtb (Nag Itannadl Studies 6). Leiden: Brill. Krause, I{artin and Pahor Labib 1962 DLe dret) Vevsl:onen des Apokryplton d.es Jottonnes (ADAIK, Koptische Reihe 1). Wiesbaden:Ilarrassonitz. Labib, Pahor 1956 CoptLc GnoatLe PqyrL t. Press. l-. Cairo: Governnen

Layton, Bentley 1973 "Ihe Text and orthography of the coptLc HVpostasi.s of the Archons." Zeitschr[ft fr Pqgz,ologie wtd Epig"aphik LL, 173-200. 1974 f'The Ilyposrasis of the Archons." Haruard TheoLogieaLRevieu 67, 35I-425. I976a " Ttre l{ypostasis of the Archons (Conclusion)." Haruaz,dTheologLeaLRetLeu 69, 3r-r0l, 1976b "coptic Language. " La The rnterpretev's Dieti.ornry o! the BibLe, SupplementarV Vol*ne, L75-L77. Nahville: Ablngdon. 1977 "Edltorlal Notes on the rExposicory Treatise Concerning the Soul' (Tractate II 6 fron Nag Harunadi)." The BuLLetLn of th-e Anerieqt Society of PqyrcLogists L4 , 65-73. M6nard, Jacques-f. ed. 1975 I'es tectes dz Nag Hanrc&L (Nag lianmadi Studies 7). Leiden: Brill. Nage1, Peter I969a "Ensgungenzun Thomas-Evange lium. " In Altheim-Stiehl, 368-392). I969b "Grarnrnatische Untersuchungen zu Nag llanuradi Codex II." srlehl, eds. (1969, 393-469). eds. (1969, In Altheln-

L972 "Dle Bedeutung der Nag Hannadl Texte fr die koptische Dialektges chichte . " In Peter Nagel, ed., Von Nog HanwdL bt)s Zypetn (Berliner Byzantinls tis che Arbeiten 43), L6-27. Berlln: Akadenle Verlag. Roberts, c.H. 1954 " Ttre Codex." Procee&Lngsof the BrLti'sh Aeadenry40, L69-204. Robinson, James M. L967/68 'rThe Coptlc Gnoet.lc Library Today." Neu Testanent Studtee 14, 356-401. 1972a "Inside lhe Front Cover of codex VI." In Martin Krause, ed'., Eeeays on the Nag HonrndL Teete in Honow of Aleaandex Bhlig (Nae Haornadi Studies 3), 74-87. Leiden:81111. 1972b "Introductlon to the Facslmile Edltion of the Nag Ilamadl Codiceg." Included as a loose lnsert in The Facei.mLle Edi'ti,on of tlw Nag Hannadt Codtces: Codec VI. Leiden: Brill. 1975a "The constructlon of the Nag HanmadiCodlces." In Krause, ed. (1975' u0-190).

-32-

1 9 7 5 b " o n t h e C o d i c o l o g y o f t h e N a g H a m m a d iC o d . i c e s . " r n M 6 n a r d , e d . ( 1 9 7 5 , 15-31). L976 t'The First Season of the Nag HamrnadiExcavation. tt AmerLemr Researeh Centez. in Egypt, Newsletter 96, L8-24 (= Gottingen MiszeLlen ZZ, 7L-7g). I977a "The Jung Codex: The RLse and Fal1 of a Monopoly. " Religious Reuieu 3, f 7-30. Sadies in

L977b "IntroducLiont' in James 1"1.Robinson, ed. , lTte Nag Homwdi Library English, r-25. san Francisco: Harper and Row; Leiden: Brill.

Sve-Sderbergh, Torgny L967 t'Gnostic and Canonical Gospel Traditions," In Ugo Bianchi, d., Le )rLgini delLo Cmostieismo (Supplenuents to Numen L2) , i5Z-562 . Leiden : Brill . L975 "Holy Scriptures or Apologetic Documentations? TLre tSj-tz im Leben' of t h e N a g H a m m a d iL i b r a r y . " r n l { 6 n a r d , e d . ( 1 9 7 5 , 3 - 1 4 ) .

Scholer, ]97f Br i l l .

David Nag Hortna&L BibLiographA 1g48-1969 (Nag Hamrnadi Srudies f)

Le iden :

Skall, ngi I L974 "A1terungstests. " Mi-tteiLtmgen d.er Intewtationale Arbeitsgemeinsehaft C'er Arehiu-, BibLLotheks- tmC Grqhikresteur.afuren 4, 37-46. Skeat, T. C. 1 9 5 9 " E a r l y C h r i s t i a n B o o k - P r o d u c t i o n : P a p y r i a n d ,M a n u s c r i p t s . " I n T h e CunbrLdge Htstory oi the Bible 2 , 54-79. Cambridge England: The University , P ress . Turner, L977 E . G. The TApoLogA of

the Early

Cod.er. Pennsylvania:

TLre Universiry

press.

Van Elderen, Bastiaan and James M. Robinson 1977 "The Second Season of the Nag Hammad.i Excavation. " AmerLeut Reseayeh Center in EgApt, Neusletter 99/LOO, 36-54 (= Cttingen MiszeLlen 24, 57-13). lrlisse, Frederik L97L "T'he Nag HaurmadiLibrary 25, 205-223. L 9 7 5 " N " g H a m m a d iC o d e x I I I : ( 1 9 7 5, 2 2 5 - 2 3 2 ) . and the Heresiologists.r? Codicological

[,t giliae

Christianae

Introductj-on."

In Krause, d.

PHOTOGRAPHIC CREDITS Fig. 1: James M. Robinson. Fig. 2z Jean Doresse. tion in Cairo. Fig. 4z Peggy S, Hedrick. Fig. 5: Basile Psiroukis. Fig. 7: Basile Psiroukis. Fig. Basile Psiroukis. Fig. l0: Dougras Kuylenstierna. Fig. 3: Center of DocumentaStephen Emmel. Fig, 6: 8: Stephen Emme1. Fig. 9: