Grace
Theological Journal 8.2 (1987) 195-212
Copyright © 1987 by Grace
Theological Seminary. Cited with permission.
NAG HAMMADI, GNOSTICISM
AND NEW TESTAMENT
INTERPRETATION
WILLIAM W. COMBS
The Gnostic heresy alluded to in the
NT and widely repudiated
by Christian writers in the second century and
after has been in-
creasingly studied in the last
forty years. The discovery in upper
formed a poorly known movement in early Christianity
into a well
documented heresy of diverse beliefs and practices.
The relationship of Gnosticism and
the NT is an issue that has
not been resolved by the new documents. Attempts to
explain the
theology of the NT as dependent on Gnostic
teachings rest on ques-
tionable hypotheses. The Gnostic
redeemer-myth cannot be docu-
mented before the second
century: Thus, though the Gnostic writings
provide helpful insight into the heresies
growing out of Christianity, it
cannot be assumed that the NT grew out of Gnostic
teachings.
* * *
INTRODUCTION
STUDENTS
of the NT have generally been interested in the subject
of Gnosticism because of its consistent appearance
in discussions
of the "Colossian heresy" and the
interpretation of John's first epistle.
It
is felt that Gnosticism supplies the background against which these
and other issues should be understood. However,
some who use the
terms "Gnostic" and "Gnosticism"
lack a clear understanding of the
movement itself. In fact, our knowledge of
Gnosticism has suffered
considerably from a lack of primary
sources. Now, however, with the
discovery of the Nag Hammadi
(hereafter, NH) codices, this void is
being filled.
The NH codices were discovered in
1945, a year before the
comparatively little attention from
conservative scholars. Unfortu-
nately, political problems and
personal rivalries have caused numerous
196
GRACE THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
delays in the publication of the NH texts. Thanks
mainly to the
efforts of Professor James Robinson, English
translations of all thir-
teen codices have at last been published in a single
volume.1 Photo-
graphic reproductions of the papyus
pages and leather covers are
now also available.2 A complete
eleven-volume critical edition of the
codices entitled The Coptic Gnostic Library
began to appear in 1975.
The
amount of literature on NH is already quite large and growing at
a rapid pace.3
The manuscripts from NH have
importance for a number of
scholarly disciplines, including Coptic itself,
since the entire library is
in that language. Also, because the vast majority
of the library is
composed of Christian Gnostic writings, it is now
possible to study
this movement from primary sources, rather than
having to rely upon
the secondhand accounts given by the early Church
Fathers or
"Heresiologists." Most important for
Biblical studies, of course, is the
relationship between NH and the NT.
CONTENTS OF
THE LIBRARY
According to the best evidence, the
discovery of the NH codices
took place in December 1945.4 Three brothers, Abu
al-Majd,
Muhammad,
and Khalifah Ali of the al-Samman
clan, were digging
at the base of a cliff for soil rich in nitrates
to use as fertilizer. The
cliff, Jabal al Tarif, is about ten kilometers northeast of Nag Ham-
madi, the largest town in
the area. Abu al-Majd actually unearthed
the jar; but his older brother, Muhammad, quickly
took control of it,
broke it open, and discovered the codices. Having
wrapped the books
in his tunic, he returned to his home in the
village of al-Qasr, the site
of the ancient city Chenoboskion5 where
Saint Pachomius was con-
verted to Christianity in the
fourth century and where one of his
1 James M. Robinson, ed.,
The Nag Hammadi
Library in English (
Harper and Row, 1977).
2 James M. Robinson, ed.,
The Facsimile Edition of the Nag Hammadi Codices
(Leiden: Brill,
1972-84).
For a complete list, see B. A. Pearson and J. E. Goehring,
eds., The
Roots of Egyptian Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986) xiii.
3 David M. Scholer's bibliography runs to nearly 2,500 items (Nag Hammadi
Bibliography 1948-1969 [
Testamentum (1971-).
Over 3,000 additional items have been listed by Scholer
since
1971.
4 The most up-to-date and
thorough account of the discovery is by James M.
Robinson, "The Discovery of the Nag Hammadi Codices," BA 42 (1979) 206-24. This
should be supplemented by his "The Discovering
and Marketing of Coptic Manu-
scripts: The Nag Hammadi
Codices and the Bodmer Papyri," in Egyptian Christianity,
2-25.
5 Robinson believes the
name should be spelled Chenoboskia.
COMBS:
NAG HAMMADI AND NT INTERPRETATION 197
monasteries was located. Muhammad Ali dumped the
codices on top
of some straw that was lying by the oven to be
burned. His mother
thought they were worthless and burned some of
the pages in the
oven (probably Codex XII of which only a few
fragmentary leaves
remain6).
The books were eventually sold for a
few piasters or given away
until their value was later realized. Most of them
went through the
hands of a series of middlemen and were sold on the
black market
through antiquities dealers. Having arrived by
various means in
the majority of the library was either purchased by
the Coptic
Museum
or confiscated by the Egyptian Department of Antiquities
when attempts were made to smuggle some codices out
of the country.
Most
of Codex I was taken out of
dealer. It was unsuccessfully offered for sale in
Arbor in 1949. Finally, in May 1952 it
was purchased by the Jung
Institute
of
had found its way to the
to publish the entire codex (six volumes from 1956
to 1975), the
Coptic
Museum.7 Today the entire NH library is in the Museum.
The first scholar to examine the
codices was a young Frenchman,
Jean
Doresse, who had come to
monasteries.8 Because his wife had
been a student in
Mina,
the Director of the
see the codices and in January of 1948 announced
their discovery to
the world. The death of Mina and subsequent
political upheavals in
ancient place name of Chenoboskion
to the discovery, but it never
caught on. Later scholars have called the discovery
NH, probably
because this location has served as a base camp
for all who have
come to investigate the origin of the library.9
In 1956 the new Director of the
made plans for a facsimile edition of the library,
but only one volume
appeared. An English translation of The Gospel of
Thomas was
published in 1959. Because Labib
allowed relatively few scholars to
have access to the library, only a few parts of it
were published until
1972.
In 1961 under the auspices of UNESCO, an agreement was
6 Robinson, The Nag Hammadi
Library in English, 23.
7 For details about the
intrigues of the Jung Codex, see J. M. Robinson, "The Jung
Codex:
The Rise and Fall of a Monopoly," RelSRev 3 (1977)
17-30; Egyptian Chris-
tianity, 2-25.
8 Doresse
has written an account of his experiences in The Secret Books of the
Egyptian Gnostics, trans. P. Mairet (New York: Viking, 1960) 116-36.
9 James
M. Robinson, "Introduction," BA
42 (1979) 201.
198
GRACE THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
worked out with the Egyptian government to publish a
facsimile
edition of the entire library. The project was
delayed until 1970 when
an International Committee for the NH Codices was
formed under
the leadership of James Robinson. By 1977 the
entire library was in
the public domain.
Description
A list of the tractates in the NH
library can be found in Table 1.
Listings
of the library refer to thirteen codices; however, the eight
leaves of Codex XIII form a separate essay or tractate
that was
tucked inside the cover of Codex VI in antiquity.10
Much of Codex
XII
is missing, probably lost or destroyed since the discovery of the
library. The library contains a total of
fifty-two tractates of which six
are duplicates. Of the forty-six remaining
tractates, six are texts of
which a complete copy existed elsewhere, so there are
forty tractates
that are extant only in the NH library. Fragments of
three of these
were already extant, but these fragments were too
small to identify
their contents until NH provided the full text.11
About ten of the
tractates are.in poor
enough condition so as often to obscure the train
of thought. In terms of pages of text, Robinson
estimates that out of
1,239
inscribed pages that were buried, 1,156 have survived at least in
part.12
Each codex was originally bound in
leather; the covers of Codices
I-XI
have survived. These were lined with papyrus pasted into thick
cardboards (called cartonnage)
in order to produce a hardback effect.
Study
of this used papyrus, which consists mostly of letters and
business documents, has produced names of persons
and places as
well as dates that help to date the collection of
the library to the mid-
dle of the fourth century.
Of course, this does not determine the date
of the origin of the individual tractates except
in respect to the
terminus ad quem. Some are known to have
been written as early as
the second century.13
The language of the codices is
Coptic, which simply means
"Egyptian"
(the consonants CPT in "Coptic" are a variant of those in
10 James M. Robinson,
"Inside the Cover of Codex VI," in Essays on the Nag
Hammadi Texts in Honour of Alexander Bohling, ed. Martin Krause (
1972)
74-87.
11 James M. Robinson, The Nag Hammadi
Codices (2nd ed.;
Institute
for Antiquity and Christianity, 1977) 3-4. Greek papyri fragments discovered
at Oxyrhynchus in 1897
and 1904, called the "Logia" by B.P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt,
turn out to be the Greek text of the Coptic Gospel
of Thomas. See J. A. Fitzmyer,
Essays on the Semitic
Background of the New Testament (Missoula: Scholars, 1974)
355-433.
12
Robinson, Nag Hammadi
Codices, 4.
13 Edwin M. Yamauchi, Pre-Christian Gnosticism (2nd ed.;
Eerdmans,
1983) 101-2.
COMBS:
NAG HAMMADI AND NT INTERPRETATION 199
TABLE 1
Tractates in the NH
Library
Codex
Tractate Title
I I The
Prayer of the Apostle Paul (+ colophon)
I 2
The
Apocryphon of James
I 3
The
Gospel of Truth
I 4
The
Treatise on Resurrection
I 5
The
Tripartite Tractate
II 1
The
Apocryphon of John
II 2
The
Gospel of Thomas
II 3
The
Gospel of Philip
II 4
The
Hypostasis of the Archons
II 5
On
the Origin of the World
II 6
The
Exegesis of the Soul
II 7 The
Book of Thomas the Contender (+ colophon)
III 1
The
Apocryphon of John
III 2
The
Gospel of the Egyptians
III 3
Eugnostos
the Blessed
III 4
The
Sophia of Jesus Christ
III 5
The
Dialogue of the Savior
IV 1
The
Apocryphon of John
IV 2
The
Gospel of the Egyptians
V 1
Eugnostos
the Blessed
V 2
The
Apocalypse of Paul
V 3
The
First Apocalypse of James
V 4
The
Second Apocalypse of James
V 5
The
Apocalypse of Adam
VI 1
The
Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles
VI 2
The
Thunder. Perfect Mind
VI 3
Authoritative
Teaching
VI 4
The
Concept of Our Great Power
VI 5
Plato, Republic
588B-589B
VI 6
The
Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth
VI 7 The Prayer of Thanksgiving (+ scribal
note)
VI 8
Asclepius
21-29
VII 1
The
Paraphrase of Shem
VII 2
The
Second Treatise of the Great Seth
VII 3
Apocalypse of Peter
VII 4 The Teaching of Silval1us (+ colophon)
VII 5 The Three Steles of Seth (+ colophon)
VIII 1
Zostrianos
VIII 2
The
Letter of Peter to Philip
IX 1
Melchizedek
IX 2
The
Thought of Norea
IX 3
The
Testimony of Truth
X 1
Marsanes
XI 1
The
Interpretation of Knowledge
XI 2
A Valentinian
Exposition
XI 2a
On
the Anointing
XI 2b
On
Baptism A
XI 2c
On
Baptism B
XI 2d
On the Eucharist A
200
GRACE THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
TABLE I (continued)
Codex
Tractate Title
XI 2e
On
the Eucharist B
XI 3
Allogenes
XI 4
Hypsiphrone
XII 1
The
Sentences of Sextus
XII 2
The
Gospel of Truth
XII 3
Fragments
XIII 1 Trimorphic Protennoia
XIII 2
On
the Origin of the World
"Egyptian,"
GPT). However, two dialects are used, Sahidic for
most
of the library and Subachmimic
for Codices I, X, and part of XI.14
Although
written in Coptic, it is almost the universal opinion of
scholars that the library is a translation of
Greek originals. Almost
nothing is known about those who translated the
tractates into
Coptic,
those who produced the extant copies, or those who buried
them. Robinson has attempted to connect the library
with the
Pachomian monastery that was located at Chenoboskion, but this
link is now questioned.15
In listings of the codices the Berlin Codex
8502, which dates
from the fifth century, is sometimes included. Its
four tractates are
similar to those found at NH; in fact, two are
duplicates. Although
discovered in 1896, it was not published until
1955.16
Subject Matter
The tractates represent a diverse background
that includes non-
Gnostic,
non-Christian Gnostic(?), and Christian Gnostic works.
The
question of which, if any, of the tractates fall
into the non-Christian
Gnostic
category is widely debated (see below).
14 IDBSup, S.v.
"Nag Hammadi,"by George W. MacRae, 613.
15 The
Nag Hammadi Library in English, 13-21; The Nag Hammadi
Codices, 1-2.
Robinson's
view that the NH library came from a Pachomian
monastery was based on
the preliminary study of the cartonnage
by the late John W. B. Barns, "Greek and
Coptic
Papyri from the Covers of the Nag Hammadi
Codices," in Essays on the Nag
Hammadi Library, ed. M. Krause (Leiden: Brill,
1975) 9-18. Further study has cast
serious doubts about whether the monks mentioned
in the cartonnage are Pachomian.
See
J. C. Shelton, "Introduction," in Nag Hammadi Codices: Greek and Coptic Papyri
from the Cartonnage of the Covers, ed. J. W. Barnes, G.
M. Browne, and J. C. Shelton
(Leiden: Brill, 1981) 11. Though the Pachomian origin of the NH library has also been
supported by F. C. Wisse,
C. Hedrick, and J. E. Goehring, authorities on Pachomius
question it. See A. Veilleux,
"Monasticism and Gnosis in
anity, 278-83 and P. Rosseau, Pachomius (Berkeley: University of California, 1985) 27.
16 "Nag Hammadi,"by George W. MacRae,
615.
COMBS:
NAG HAMMADI AND NT INTERPRETATION 201
Since
it is not feasible to discuss the contents of each tractate, it
may be helpful to present at least a preliminary
classification of the
library according to the various genres
represented therein.
Literary
Genres
The
library contains a wide variety of literary genres. Some of
these are typical of Gnostic literature, while others
are imitative of the
genres in Christian and other literature. Some of the
tractates are
representative of more than one genre.
The following classifications
are taken from MacRae.17
Gospels. Of the four tractates that bear the title
"gospel," The
Gospel
of Truth, The Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Philip,
and
The
Gospel of the Egyptians, none actually correspond to the gospel
genre of the NT. The most important of these, The
Gospel of Thomas,
is a collection of 114 logia or sayings attributed
to Jesus. The Greek
original was probably composed in
Apocalypses. A number of tractates are titled
"apocalypses":
The
Apocalypse of Paul, The First Apocalypse of James, The
Second
Apocalypse
of James, The Apocalypse of Adam, and Apocalypse of
Peter.
Also in this category would be Asclepius 21-29, The
Hypostasis
of the Archons, and The Paraphrase of Shem. In one
of the most
important of these, The Apocalypse of Adam, the
future course of
Gnostic
history is received by Adam in a revelation and transmitted
to his son Seth. This tractate is claimed to
display a non-Christian
Gnosticism.19
Acts. One tractate in the Nag Hammadi
library uses the name
"acts"in its title, The Acts
of Peter and the Twelve Apostles. Actually,
another work, The Letter of Peter to Philip has
closer parallels to the
NT book of Acts.
Letters. Some of the tractates, such as The Treatise on Resur-
rection and Eugnostos
the Blessed, have occasionally been referred to
as epistles because they are addressed to pupils
from their teacher.
However,
they fall more into the category of treatises. None of the
tractates are imitative of the Pauline letter
form.
Dialogues. MacRae notes
that "one of the most characteristic
genres of Gnostic literature is the dialogue between
the risen Jesus
17 "Nag Hammadi," by George W. MacRae,
616-17.
18 ISBE, 1979 ed., s. v. "Apocryphal Gospels," by Edwin M.
Yamauchi, 186.
19 IDBSup, S.v.
"Adam, Apocalypse of," by George W. MacRae,
9-l0.
202
GRACE THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
and his disciples in which Gnostic teaching is
revealed.”20 The Sophia
of Jesus Christ and The Dialogue of the Savior are
excellent examples
of this genre in the NH library. Parts of several
other tractates also
fall within this category.
Secret Books. The word "apocryphon"
is used in the titles of two
works, The Apocryphon of
James and The Apocryphon of John.
Strictly
speaking, this category is not a separate genre since these two
works fall into the apocalyptic and revelational discourse classifications.
Speculative treatises. The most important of
these is On the
Origin of the World. In addition, Eugnostos the Blessed and a few
other tractates have affinities with this genre.
Wisdom Literature. The two examples of this genre in the NH
library, The Teachings of Silvanus
and The Sentences of Sextus, are
both non-Gnostic writings. The latter tractate is a
Coptic translation
of a well-known ancient work which is extant in
Greek, Latin, and
several other languages.21
Revelational
discourses.
A number of works come under this
heading in which a revealer speaks in the first
person. Sometimes, as
in the case of The Thunder, Perfect Mind, and Trimorphic Pro-
tennoia, the revealer is a
female.
Prayers. There are examples of Christian and non-Christian
prayers in the library. Three of these are The
Prayer of the Apostle
Paul,
The Prayer of Thanksgiving, and The Three Steles of
Seth.
Types of Gnosticism
The NH library has made available a wealth of
primary Gnostic
material; however, it has probably generated more
questions than it
has answered. Doresse's
preliminary investigations led him to con-
clude that the library was
primarily a Sethian Gnostic collection.22
A
study by Wisse has now
demonstrated that Doresse was premature in
his assessment of the library and, in fact,
virtually none of the
tractates corroborates in detail the accounts of Sethian Gnosticism
given by the Church Fathers.23 Some
scholars now question the
reliability of patristic testimony regarding
Gnosticism. Evans has I
20 "Nag Hammadi," by George W. MacRae,
616.
On the genre of dialogues, see
Pheme Perkins, The Gnostic Dialogue
(New York: Paulist, 1980).
21
IHammadi
Library in English, ed. James M. Robinson, 454.
22 Doresse, The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics,
249-51. I
23 Frederick Wisse,
"The Sethians and the Nag Hammadi
Library," in Society of
Biblical
Literature 1972 Proceedings, vol. 2, ed. Lane C. McGaughy
(n.p.: Society of
Biblical
Literature, 1972), 60 1-7.
COMBS:
NAG HAMMADI AND NT INTERPRETATION 203
observed that "liberal scholars treat the
Fathers with reserve while
conservative scholars tend to see
the new source material providing
some confirmation of the Fathers.”24
However, the inability to correlate every facet
of Gnosticism
found in the library with the patristic testimony
should not be viewed
as unusual. There was great variety in Gnostic
systems. For example,
Irenaeus (ca. A.D. 180) noted that the Valentinians "differ among
themselves in their treatment of the same points,
and in regard to the
things they describe and the names they employ, are at
variance with
one another.”25 Also, it appears that
the Heresiologists, rather than
intentionally distorting Gnostic
thought, seemed to have sometimes
misunderstood it.
Although it is true that some of the NH
materials cannot be
identified with the well-known Gnostic systems of
the second and
third centuries, a number of the tractates do show
clear correspon-
dences.26 MacRae
would classify all of Codex I, The Gospel of Philip,
and The Apocalypse of James as representative of
the Valentinian
sect.27 The Apocryphon
of John is in general agreement with the
teachings of the Barbelo-Gnostics
as reported by Irenaeus.28 Other
tractates have been identified with the Sethians and other Gnostic
sects, but most of these suggestions are only
tentative at this early
stage in the study of the library.
Non-Gnostic Material
One of the greatest surprises in the library was
the presence of
non-Gnostic tractates such as Plato's Republic and The Sentences of
Sextus, a series of ethical
maxims attributed to the philosopher
Sextus. Three tractates from
Codex VI, The Discourse on the Eighth
and Ninth, The Prayer of Thanksgiving, and Asclepius 21-29, are
clear-cut examples of Hermetic literature.29
The Hermetica are tradi-
tions from
Trismegistos, the
Egyptian god of wisdom.
Since most of the library is composed of
Christian Gnostic
works, the question arises as to why non-Christian
and even non-
Gnostic
documents, such as a portion of Plato's Republic, would be
included in the library.
24 C. A. Evans, "Current Issues in
Coptic Gnosticism for New Testament Study,"
Studia Biblica et
Theologica 9 (1979) 97.
25 Against Heresies,I.II.I.
26 For information on the
various Gnostic systems, see Hans Jonas, The Gnostic
Religion (Boston: Beacon, 1958).
27 "Nag Hammadi," by George W. MacRae,
617.
28 Wemer Foerster,
Gnosis: A Selection of Gnostic Texts,
vol. 1: Patristic Evidence,
ed.
R. McL.
29 IDBSup, s.v,
"Hermetic Literature," by Edwin M. Yamauchi, 408.
204
GRACE THEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
The answer is found in understanding the gnostic approach to inter-
pretation. For them, truth lies
at two levels. At the literal and obvious
level truth is accessible to
all, but at the deeper level one finds truth
which only the Gnostic can
discern. Such an approach is assumed by
the Gospel of Thomas (II,
2): "Whoever finds the interpretation of
these sayings will not
experience death." Therefore, documents which
represent a variety of traditions
(Plato, Hermetica, Sextus, Silvanus)
may be interpreted at a
deeper (i.e., gnostic) level.30
ISSUES IN NT
INTERPRETATION
The NH library was discovered forty years ago,
but because most
of the tractates have only been published in
recent years, the inter-
pretation of the library is just
beginning. Already, however, some
major issues of interpretation in relation to the NT
have arisen.
Pre-Christian Gnosticism
Probably most of the discussion about the
contents of the library
ha