Introduction Nag Hammadi

In December of 1945 some Egyptian peasants found over 1100 pages of ancient papyrus manuscripts buried by the east bluff of the upper Nile valley. The texts were translations from Greek originals into Coptic°, the Hellenistic stage of the ancient language of the Pharaohs- evolving after the invasion of Alexander the Great in 332 BC and subsequently replaced by Arabic following the Muslim conquest of 640 AD.

The site of this discovery, across the river from the modern town of Nag Hammadi, was already famous as the location called in antiquity CHNOBOSKEION ('Goose-Pasture'), where in 320 AD Saint Pachomius founded the earliest Christian monastery. Less than a half-century later in 367 AD (and thus 30 years prior to the canonization of the NT at the Third Council of Carthage), the local monks copied some 45 diverse religious writings-including the Gospels of Thomas, Philip and Valentine-into 13 leather-bound codices. This entire library was carefully sealed in an urn and hidden nearby among the rocks, where it remained undetected for almost 1600 years. These papyri are now preserved in the library of the Coptic Museum at Old Cairo.

The author of the Thomas Gospel is recorded as Thomas the Apostle, one of the Twelve. The text is a collection of 117 sayings and dialogues of the Savior, without any connecting narrative. A few Christian authors quoted it in antiquity-for example #2, by Clement of Alexandria (±150-211 AD) in his Stromata (Patches)-but without explicit attribution to Thomas. Then 100 years ago at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt, there were discovered a few fragments of what we now know to be a prior Greek version of Thomas, dated by paleography to 200-250 AD (one page of which is on display in the British Museum in London; see Bibliography #8). The more recent discovery of the Coptic version of Thomas has finally made this Gospel available in its entirety. As indicated in the press release below, almost all biblical scholars who have been studying this document since its first publication have now concluded that Thomas must be accounted an authentic fifth Gospel, alongside the canonical quartet of John and the synoptics.

The Gospel of Philip-as can be inferred from its entries 51, 82, 98 & 101-was completed after 70 AD by Philip called the Evangelist, who appears in the Book of Acts at 6:1-6, 8:4-40 & 21:8 ff. There is no known previous citation of this text, which is an elaborate and elegant series of reflections on Israel and the Messiah.

The Gospel of Truth was composed in about 150 AD by Valentine, the famous Saint of Alexandria (born 100± AD). A continuous interwoven meditation on the Logos, it was widely known in antiquity-but until the Nag Hammadi discovery no copy of this noble document was known to be extant.

The translations themselves are both as literal and as lyrical as I could make them. Plausible textual reconstructions are in [brackets], while editorial additions are in (parentheses). '[...]' indicates that it is not possible to interpolate the deterioration of the papyrus manuscript. The Greek Oxyrhynchus variants to Thomas are within "frames". 'Thou' and its cognates represent the singular, 'you' and its cognates are plural. Notes at the end of each text are marked with a circle°, hyperlinks are underlined but not color-coded. Only less-obvious but significant scriptural cross-references are given; thus numerous parallels to familiar passages in the synoptics have not been listed, to spare the reader looking up what is already well-known. Also, it is virtually impossible to capitalize consistently in texts such as these (in antiquity, of course, there were no lower-case letters); I ask the reader's indulgence in this regard.

In place of the Greek form, Jesus (IHSOUS), the original Aramaic has been used: Yeshúa' (), meaning 'Yahweh-Savior' (Ph 20a). 'I•Am' represents the divine self-naming: Hebrew (ahyh), Greek EGW EIMI, Coptic (Th 13).

Lastly, I have appended three commentaries: (1) 'The Female Spirit', on the gender in the Semitic languages of  [ruakh ha-qodesh, Spirit the-Holy]; (2) 'Angel and Image', regarding these two primary concepts as found in the texts; and (3) 'The Paul Paradox', a philosophical analysis of the apparent discrepancies between the Gospels and the theology of Saul of Tarsus.

In searching out the sense of these new writings, I have had the benefit of extended conversations across the years with many friends and colleagues, especially Robert Michael Schapiro and Christina Maria Wesson. My long-term thanks are also due to Prof. William E. Kennick of Amherst College, for his example of the highest standards in philosophical theology. Much of the present edition was prepared while I was a guest in numerous Latin American seminaries, both Catholic and Protestant; for their fraternal hospitality I am profoundly grateful.

These new Gospels are surely the most extraordinary discovery of our times-like a drink of light direct from the source: ICQUS EUCARISTW SOI!

-Paterson Brown, BA (Amherst), PhD (London) || Athens, Rosh Hashanah 1998 ||

Bibliography

1. Photographic editions of the complete papyrus manuscripts have been published by UNESCO in conjunction with the Egyptian Government: The Facsimile Edition of the Nag Hammadi Codices (Codex I & Codex II), Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1977 & 1974 (The Gospel of Truth is in Codex I, Thomas and Philip in Codex II).

2. The entire collection of some 45 titles (including a wide diversity of period religious writings) is available in a popularized edition: The Nag Hammadi Library in English (edited with introduction by James M. Robinson), San Francisco: Harper & Row, 3^rd revised edition 1988.

3. For the grammatical structure of the Coptic language, I have used: Introductory Coptic Grammar, (by J. Martin Plumley), London: Home & Van Thal, 1948-this rare mimeographed sourcebook of the Sahidic dialect is available in photocopy from the Mt. Scopus Library of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem; see also #18, below.

4. The indispensable standard lexicon is: A Coptic Dictionary (by Walter Ewing Crum), Oxford: The University Press, 1939. Note that this monumental work is alphabetized by consonants only. Also, Coptic is an agglutinative language, utilizing a complex system of morphological and syntactical prefixes and suffixes which must be subtracted in order to identify the root term (e.g., ® ['we-shall-come-forth']-thus on p.220b of Crum).

5. The Coptic text of Thomas together with line-by-line English, French, German and Dutch translations were first published in: The Gospel according to Thomas (edited by Antoine Guillaumont, Henri-Charles Puech, Gilles Quispel, Walter Till & Yassah 'Abd al-Masih), Leiden: E.J. Brill; New York: Harper & Brothers; London: Collins, 1959.

6. The Gospel of Thomas WebPage is maintained by Stevan Davies.

7. The current standard popular edition of Thomas, with Coptic text, English translation and notes: The Gospel of Thomas (edited and translated by Marvin Meyer), San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1992.

8. The prior Greek fragments of Thomas, which vary significantly from the Coptic version: New Sayings of Jesus and Fragment of a Lost Gospel from Oxyrhynchus (edited by Bernard Grenfell, Lucy Drexel & Arthur Hunt), Oxford University Press, London: Henry Frowde, 1904.

9. A well-illustrated and most informative historical account and analysis: 'The Gospel of Thomas: Does It Contain Authentic Sayings of Jesus?' (by Helmut Koester & Stephen Patterson), Bible Review (tel. 800-221-4644, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ), April 1990.

10. The standard scholarly edition of Thomas and Philip, with ancillary materials, critical Coptic text, English translation and fully indexed Coptic and Greek glossaries: Nag Hammadi Codex II (volume I, edited by Bentley Layton), Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1989.

11. The primary Spanish edition of Thomas and Philip, translated directly from the Coptic with introductory material, extensive bibliographies and annotations: Los Evangelios Apócrifos (edited and translated by Aurelio de Santos Otero), Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 7ª edición 1991.

12. I based my initial translation of Philip on the amply annotated interlinear Coptic/German text, with fully indexed glossaries: Das Evangelium nach Philippos (edited and translated by Walter Till), Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 1963.

13. A superlative English edition of the Gospel of Truth, extensively annotated with an expansive introductory essay: The Gospel of Truth, A Valentinian Meditation on the Gospel (edited and translated by Kendrick Grobel), New York: Abingdon Press; London: Black, 1960.

14. The standard scholarly edition of the Gospel of Truth, with introduction, Coptic text, English translation, copious notes and fully-indexed glossaries: Nag Hammadi Codex I (two volumes, edited by Harold W. Attridge), Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1985.

15. The best Greek/English interlinear and lexicon of the New Testament canon, with super-linear textual variants and sub-linear ultraliteral translation: Concordant Greek Text and The Greek Elements (edited by Adolph Ernst Knoch), Santa Clarita CA 91350 USA: Concordant Publishing Concern (tel. 805-252-2112), 4^th edition 1975 [a wonderful edition and textual analysis, hightly recommended].

16. A work of extraordinary breadth and insight regarding the basic parameters of Biblical metaphysics, as contrasted with Greek and Western: Claude Tresmontant, A Study of Hebrew Thought, New York, Tournai, Paris, Rome: Desclee Company, 1960; see 'Angel and Image', below.

17. The parallel Spanish translation is at: http://www.metalog.org.

18. Coptic 'True-Type' fonts, a history of the Coptic language and a basic grammar of the Boharic dialect (similar to the Sahidic of our texts) online: http://www.stshenouda.com.

19. Various editions of the Bible: http://bible.gospelcom.net.

20. The magisterial Liddell-Scott-Jones Greek Lexicon is now available on-line: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/resolveform.

'FIFTH GOSPEL' THROWS LIGHT ON SAYINGS OF JESUS

Darrell Turner, Religious News Service, New York, December 27, 1991 (#15709)

(RNS) An ancient document composed of sayings of Jesus has generated a recent spate of scholarly articles, along with strongly held opinions that the document, known as the Gospel of Thomas, deserves a much wider audience. According to scholars, the 114 quotations in the Gospel of Thomas are as valuable as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John for gaining understanding of the man Christians worship as Messiah.

In a recent telephone interview, Helmut Koester of Harvard Divinity School, the new president of the Society of Biblical Literature, said nearly all biblical scholars in the United States agree that Thomas is as authentic as the New Testament Gospels [my emphasis]. In an article that appeared in Bible Review in April 1990, Koester and his co-author Stephen J. Patterson wrote, 'the Gospel of Thomas must be given equal weight with the canonical Gospels' in any effort to reconstruct the beginnings of Christianity.

Yet, despite excitement over the work for several decades, 'nobody's heard of it except the academic scholars,' says Paterson Brown. 'If the general public knew that there was a book around called Thomas-which I think 95 percent of the public doesn't know exists-there would be a volcanic eruption,' said Brown, a former professor of the philosophy of religion who has written on Thomas for the journal Novum Testamentum.

Thomas was discovered in 1945 in Egypt along with more than 50 other ancient Christian, Jewish and pagan works that make up a collection known as the Nag Hammadi Library. The documents, which date from the 4^th century BC to the 4^th century AD, were written in Coptic, the language of early Egyptian Christians. The library, including Thomas, has been translated into English and published in several scholarly editions. But many scholars feel that Thomas should be made available in a separate volume. 'I think it's urgent that Thomas be published alone in a paperback edition,' said Brown.

Unlike the other Nag Hammadi volumes, Thomas contains teachings of Jesus, which scholars believe would be particularly valuable for Christian readers. Many students of the Gospel of Thomas believe that its material is potentially of more interest to the general public than the much-ballyhooed Dead Sea Scrolls-except that it is not as well known.

Many quotations recorded in Thomas are similar to those in the Gospels that make up what is known as the New Testament canon-the writings of the early church that eventually came to be accepted as authentic and authoritative texts for all Christians. For example, Saying 90 in Thomas, 'Come unto me, for my yoke is easy and my lordship is mild, and you will find repose for yourselves,' bears strong resemblance to a familiar passage in Matthew 11:28-30.

Recent Scholarly Comments

Joachim Jeremias, The Parables of Jesus (1963 edition, II.3): Embellishment: In many cases parables [in the synoptics] have undergone elaboration, and ... the simpler version [of Thomas] represents the original.

Helmut Koester, Introduction to 'The Gospel of Thomas', in James M. Robinson (ed.), The Nag Hammadi Library in English (Bibliography #2, above): If one considers the form and wording of the individual sayings in comparison with the form in which they are preserved in the New Testament, The Gospel of Thomas almost always appears to have preserved a more original form of the traditional saying. In its literary genre, The Gospel of Thomas is more akin to one of the sources of the canonical gospels, namely the so-called Synoptic Sayings Source (often called 'Q' from the German Quelle, 'source'), which was used by both Matthew and Luke.... In its most original form, [Thomas] may well date from the first century.

------, Ancient Christian Gospels (London: SCM Press; Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1990): What is put to the test is the 'early Catholic' or 'orthodox' tradition, which asserts the monopoly of the canonical gospel tradition.... Only dogmatic prejudice can assert that the canonical writings have an exclusive claim to apostolic origin and thus to historical priority.... The parables of the Gospel of Thomas are to be read as stories in their own right, not as artificial expressions of some hidden Gnostic truth.

James M. Robinson (General Editor for the Nag Hammadi Codices), Introduction to The Nag Hammadi Library in English (Bibliography #2, above): The focus of this library has much in common with primitive Christianity, with eastern religion and with 'holy men' (and women) of all times, as well as with the more secular equivalents of today, such as the counter-culture movements coming from the 1960s. Disinterest in the goods of a consumer society, withdrawal into communes of the like-minded away from the bustle and clutter of big-city distraction, non-involvement in the compromises of political process, sharing an in-group's knowledge both of the disaster-course of the culture and of an ideal, radical alternative not commonly known-all this in modern garb is the real challenge rooted in such materials as the Nag Hammadi library.... Primitive Christianity was itself a radical movement. Jesus called for a full reversal of values, advocating the end of the world as we have known it and its replacement by a quite new, utopian kind of life in which the ideal world would be real. He took a stand quite independent of the authorities of his day ··· and did not last very long before they eliminated him. Yet his followers reaffirmed his stand-for them he came to personify the ultimate goal.... Just as the Dead Sea Scrolls [at Qumran] were put in jars for safekeeping and hidden at the time of the approach of the Roman Tenth Legion, the burial [three centuries later] of the Nag Hammadi library in a jar may have been precipitated by the approach of Roman authorities, who had by then become Christian.

Site Note:

  Most material on the Nag Hammadi was obtained from http://www.metalog.org. The Ecumenical Coptic Project is non-profit and non-sectarian, publishing on the Internet the necessary resources for a thorough study of the three Nag Hammadi Gospels.

  We also encourage you to visit THE GNOSTIC SOCIETY LIBRARY, The Nag Hammadi Library at http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html. Established in America in 1928, The Gnostic Society is dedicated to advancing the study, understanding, and individual experience of Gnosis. "He who has ears, let him hear!"