The collection of thirteen codices found in upper Egypt near Nag Hammadi in 1946 is one of the major archaeological discoveries of our time. Perhaps the library of a Gnostic community in late antiquity, the codices are a repository of important spiritual materials from throughout the ancient world. Hence a thorough analysis of this new material is indispensable for any proper understanding of the history of religions in this period. The rich documentation which the codices add to early Coptic text material promises to raise to a new precision the historical analysis of that language.This edition presents collotype reproductions in natural size of all folios of the thirteen codices as well as reproductions of the covers and photographs previously taken of fragments that are now lost.

Preliminary Material /R. McL. Wilson --The Demiurge in the Apocryphon of John /Gilles Quispel --Anapausis in the Epistula Jacobi Apocrypha /Jan Helderman --The Colophon of the Gospel of the Egyptians: Concessus and Macarius of Nag Hammadi /P. Bellet. O.S.B. --Report on the Dialogue of the Savior (CG III, 5) /Elaine Pagels and Helmut Koester --Die Paraphrase als Form gnostischer Verkündigung /Barbara Aland --Un rituel idéal d'intronisation dans trois textes gnostiques de Nag Hammadi /Maddalena Scopello --The Letter of Peter to Philip and the New Testament /G. P. Lutiikhuizen --La Lettre de Pierre à Philippe: sa structure /Jacques É. Ménard --La bibliothèque copte de Nag Hammadi /Jacques-É. Ménard --Koptisch-gnostische Schriften Volumes 2 and 3 /Hans-Martin Schenke --On Investigating the Hermetic Documents contained in Nag Hammadi Codex VI. /Karl-Wolfgang Tröger --Jacob as an Angel in Gnosticism and Manicheism /Alexander Böhlig --Report on the Coptological Work /Alexander Böhlig --Un double symbole de foi gnostique dans le Kephalaion un de Médînet Mâdi /J. Ries --Egyptian Survivals in the Nag Hammadi Library /Pahor Labib --Literarkritische Probleme der Zephanja-Apokalypse /Bernd Jörg Diebner --Index /R. McL. Wilson.

Preliminary Material /J. W. B. Barns , G. M. Browne , and J. C. Shelton --Introduction /John C. Shelton --The Greek Papyri /J. W. B. Barns and John C. Shelton --Codex I /J. W. B. Barns , G. M. Browne , and J. C. Shelton --Codex IV /J. W. B. Barns , G. M. Browne , and J. C. Shelton --Codex V /J. W. B. Barns , G. M. Browne , and J. C. Shelton --Codex VI /J. W. B. Barns , G. M. Browne , and J. C. Shelton --Codex VII /J. W. B. Barns , G. M. Browne , and J. C. Shelton --Codex VIII /J. W. B. Barns , G. M. Browne , and J. C. Shelton --Codex IX /J. W. B. Barns , G. M. Browne , and J. C. Shelton --Codex XI /J. W. B. Barns , G. M. Browne , and J. C. Shelton --Indexes /J. W. B. Barns , G. M. Browne , and J. C. Shelton --The Coptic Papyri /]. W. B. Barns and Gerald M. Browne --Codex I /J. W. B. Barns , G. M. Browne , and J. C. Shelton --Codex VII /J. W. B. Barns , G. M. Browne , and J. C. Shelton --Codex VIII /J. W. B. Barns , G. M. Browne , and J. C. Shelton --Indexes /J. W. B. Barns , G. M. Browne , and J. C. Shelton.

"Hugo Lundhaug and Lance Jenott offer a sustained argument for the monastic provenance of the Nag Hammadi Codices. They examine the arguments for and against a monastic Sitz im Leben and defend the view that the Codices were produced and read by Christian monks, most likely Pachomians, in the fourth- and fifth-century monasteries of Upper Egypt. Eschewing the modern classification of the Nag Hammadi texts as “Gnostic,” the authors approach the codices and their ancient owners from the perspective of the diverse monastic culture of late antique Egypt and situate them in the context of the ongoing controversies over extra-canonical literature and the theological legacy of Origen. Through a combination of sources, including idealized hagiographies, travelogues, monastic rules and exhortations, and the more quotidian details revealed in documentary papyri, manuscript collections, and archaeology, monasticism in the Thebaid is brought to life, and the Nag Hammadi codices situated within it. The cartonnage papyri from the leather covers of the codices, which bear witness to the monastic culture of the region, are closely examined, while scribal and codicological features of the codices are analyzed and compared with contemporary manuscripts from Egypt. Special attention is given to the codices’ scribal notes and colophons which offer direct evidence of their producers and users. The study ultimately reveals the Nag Hammadi Codices as a collection of books completely at home in the monastic manuscript culture of late antique Egypt."--

This volume contains the critical edition of the five tractates in Nag Hammadi Codex VII, with codex introduction (by Frederik Wisse), introductions, Coptic text, and English translations and notes, of The Paraphrase of Shem (Wisse). Second Treatise of the Great Seth (Gregory Riley), Apocalypse of Peter (M. Desjardins and James Brashler), The Teachings of Silvanus (Malcolm Peel and Jan Sandee) and The Three Steles of Seth (James Goehring and James M. Robinson).