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Gnosticism and Christianity

The Nag‐Hammadi Discoveries1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2024

Joseph Bourke O.P.
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Extract

It was in 1945 or 1946 that a group of Egyptian peasants, digging on the site of an early Christian cemetery near the village of Nag-Hammadi, unearthed an urn containing thirteen manuscripts. The contents of this urn have subsequently proved to be of epoch-making importance for the study of the New Testament and of early Church history.

In those early stages a few leaves of the papyrus were unfortunately burned. But the collection as we have it today comprises between eight hundred and one thousand papyrus leaves, most of them in remarkably good condition. On examination these have proved to constitute a library of forty-nine treatises written in Coptic about the fourth century a.d., and in several different dialects. It is clear that so fine a library must be attributed to the work of many different copyists, whose work extends over a period of more than a century. This in turn suggests that a religious community flourished at Nag-Hammadi some time in the course of the fourth century, and from the contents of the manuscripts it is obvious that its members must have been adherents of the dangerous and widespread heresy which extends, in manifold terms, from the second to the eighth centuries a.d., and which is nowadays known as Gnosticism.

The manuscripts found their way to Cairo in three separate lots. One of them, now entitled the ‘Jung Codex’, was illegally smuggled out of Egypt by a Belgian antiquarian, bought in America, and given to Dr Jung as an eightieth birthday present.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Blackfriars , Volume 42 , Issue 488 , January 1961, pp. 4 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © 1961 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

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References

1 The text of a paper read at the Aquinas Centre, London, on November 10, 1960. This article is offered pot as an original contribution on the subject, which the author is not qualified to make, but as a synthesis of the conclusions drawn in certain of the more important recent publications. Notable among these is The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics (Hollis and Garter, 1960; 42s.), by J. Doresse. This is the most complete and authoritative account so far available in English of the discoveries and their significance by the scholar who was the first to recognize that significance, and who has since shown himself to be a world authority on the nature, origins, history and influence of Gnostic literature in general, and of the Nag‐Hammadi manuscripts in particular. Newly Discovered Gnostic Writings (S.C.M. Press, 1960; 7s. 6d.), by W. C. van Unnik, is in many ways the ideal short introduction for the uninitiated. It gives a clear account of the discovery, of the nature and significance of Gnosticism, and a brief description of four of the most important treatises, and it provides a useful bibliography. In Gnosticism and Early Christianity (Columbia University Press, 1959; 31s. 6d.) R. M. Grant tackles with courage and authority the vexed question of the relationship between Gnosticism and early Christianity. The signal merit of his approach is that he takes due cognizance of the various forms of Jewish apocalyptic as possible alternatives to Gnosticism proper, in assessing pre‐Christian influences on certain areas of New Testament thought. Perhaps he slightly underestimates the importance of the idealization of wisdom in pre‐Gnostic Judaism, as a common influence on both Gnosticism and the New Testament.

2 cf. The Jung Codex, 1955, London. F. L. Cross, ed. and tr.

3 C. Schmidt and W. Till: Die gnostischen Schriften des koptisohen Papyrus Berolinensis 8502, Berlin, 1955.

4 cf. R. M. Grant, op. cit., p. 4.

5 E. S. Drower: The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran, Oxford, 1937, Water into Wine. Oxford, 1956, The Canonical Prayer Book of the Mandaeans, Leiden, 1959.

6 cf. R. Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament. Eng. tr., pp. 15, 41–50.

7 H. Jonas: Gnosis und Spätantiker Geist I‐II, Göttingen, 1934, 1954.

8 cf. Doresse, op. cit., p. 351.

9 In his Studies in the Gospel of Thomas (Mowbray, 21s.) Dr R. McL. Wilson reduces the possibilities of interdependence to three: ‘Direct borrowing from our (Synoptic) Gospels’, independent access to oral tradition, or the use of a document similar to but distinct from our Gospels, in other words an apocryphal Gospel even older than Thomas itself (p. 144). He is inclined to favour the second and third of these possibilities for the earliest stage in the writing of ‘Thomas’, while the direct influence of our Synoptic Gospels (especially Luke) upon it has to be reckoned with at a slightly later stage in its growth. As a balanced survey of the contemporary discussion this book is to be recommended. Dr Wilson appears to allow for less Johannine influence than do Drs R. M. Grant and D. N. Freeman in their excellent and penetrating study, The Secret Sayings of Jesus according to the Gospel of Thomas (Fontana Books, Collins, 2s. 6d.), and this is one factor which leads him to postulate a greater influence of extra‐canonical tradition on the earliest stages of ‘Thomas’.

10 cf. Grant, op. cit., p. 9.

11 cf. Puech, H. C.: ‘La Gnose et le Temps’, Eranos Jahrbuch xx, 1952, pp. 110–111.Google Scholar

12 cf. Grant, R. M.: ‘Notes on Gnosis’, Vigiliae Christianae, xi, 1957, pp. 145–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 Doresse, op. cit., p. ix.

14 Summarized by van Unnik, op. cit., p. 22.

15 This appears to be approximately the view of Wilson, R. M. McL.: ‘Some Recent Studies in Gnosticism’, New Testament Studies, 6/1, 1959, pp. 34–35.Google Scholar

16 cf. Wetter, G.: ‘Eine gnostische Formel im 4. Evangelium’, Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, xvii, 1917, pp. 49–63.Google Scholar

17 cf. F.‐M. Braun o.p.: Jean le Thěologien et son Evangile dans l'Eglise Ancienne, Paris, 1959, p. 245.

18 Der Brief an die Epheser, Düsseldorf, 1958, p. 19.