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By Stephen Emmel Institute for Antiquity and Christianity Claremont Graduate School -10- THE NAG HAMMADI CODICES EDI TING PRO.JECT: A FINAL REPORT by Stephen Emmel Institute for Antiquity and Christianity Claremont Graduate School The Nag Hanmadi Codices Editing Project of the Anerican Research Center in Egypt has marked a crucial chapter in Ehe history of a remarkable col- lection of ancient manuscripts.I These twelve papyrus codices and part of a rhirteenth, apparently discovered by a farmer in the vicinity of the Upper Egyp- tian city of Nag Haurmadi near the end of Lg452 and now kept at the Copric Museum in old Cairo, date roughly to the latter half of the fourth century CE.3 They are among the oldest well-preserved exarnples of the papyrus codex to have sur- vived the centuries, specimens from the very heart of the epoch-making transi- tion from the scroll to the codex as the standard form for a book.{ They con- tain Copti.c translations of fifty-one Greek textsrs thirty-six of which rere * Please note that the bibliographical details for works referred to below by author and date appear at Ehe end of this report. i- A fu1l and authorlcative account of thls rather coqlicated history ls belng prepared by Jernes M. Roblnson for publication Ln The Faesütile 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 trans- latioa 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 l-nfornatlon on the site and the discovery see Robin- son (1976). 3 See especlally 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 frag- lrents of codex xrr (see The Faesiftile Edttion of the Nag Hantmdt. codieee: co&Leee n' fiI dld XIII lletden: Bri]-l, f9731 pt. t0t/102, 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 text. Falnt traces of ink beneath the decora- 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- previously unknor^m in any form, änd represent a selection of works coryosed at different tines across the first three or four cenEuries of our era and in vari- ous parts of the Hellenistic world. (See fig. L-2,) tlhy and by whom these Eexts \^rere collected together in Coptic is far from clear. For although they display an overall interest in the esoteric aspect of the religious fement that washed across the Roman Empire in the early centuries of this era, no one doctrinal position unifies their content and no single there clearly underlies their presentation.6 Rather, they cast a diffuse and welcorn light into several of the darker corners of the religious specula- tion out of which Christianity emerged as a potent cultural force. (See Appen- dix I: Table of Texts in the Nag Hammadi Codices.) It is to the difficult investigation of gnosticisrn that the Nag Hamnadi codices make their largest contribution. Prerriously known ahoost en- tirely from the reports of early Christian theologians who sought to refute I them, the gnostics views on Ehe creaEion of the world and on the nature and destiny of nan can now be studied at first hand in most of the texts frour Nag Hannadi. The texts display the rather bewildering diversity of ideas that is itself characteristic of gnosticism and several different types of gnostic thought are represented. One text, though clearly gnostic, polemi-cizes both against catholic Christianity and againsE other gnostic groups as well! This new wealth of primary sources has reopened important questions about the origin and nature of gnosticisrn and, more importantly, about its evolutionary interac- T tion with early Christianity. But not all of the Nag Haurmadi texts are gnostic. A few reflect more or less orthodox early Christian views. Some derive from the Hernetic tradition. One has been identified as a short section from PlaEors RepubLie. SeEl-tlc sources 1ay behind sone of those Greek cexts remains a possibllity' espe- cially ln the case of Thz Goepel AcardLng to Tl@mas. (See' for exaryle, Gulllau- nont [1958]. Nagel [1969a] atteqls to illuro:inate sone obscure passages Ln fho- nazs 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 question the general acceptance of the coöces as a group or "library." There is, as yet, no firrn evidence to prove thaE they were ever considered as such in antiquity. (See further Appendix II: The Scribes Who Copied the Nag Hannadi Codices.) Neverthelesg, this diversity of content exists not only aDng the codlces but even anong the texts wi.thin an individual codex. Varlous atteqts to account for thls have been nade by Säve-Söderbergh (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 ehri- ft fut Aow Jonas (Gä*ingen and zürlch: Vandenhoek und RuPrecht ' in press). l{isse argues that the text6 are unlfied by a strlct ascetlc tendency. 7 A comprehensive bibliography of studles on gnosticisn in general and on the Nag llarnnadl texts in partlcular has been Prepared by Scholer (197f). The blbliography is suppleDented annually io the auturm issue of Nooün Iestamentwn beginning rrith vol. 13 (1971). For a stirnulating introduclion to gnostic thought see Jonas (1953). -L2- \', t'fis. se\+ $\Y :*' -ra$.! Fig. 1. The Gebel el-Tarif is a section of the eastern wall of the Nile Valley 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^rere found hidden in a ceramic jar somewhere at the base of this inposing c1iff, r $. ''' i :, *-t f* Fig. 2. iulost of the Nag Hammadi codices arrived at the Coptic lluseum in Old Cairo still bor:nd into their leather covers. No member of the Nag Hamnadi Co- dices Editing Project ever sar^/ theur thus. -L2 - Fig. 1. The Gebel el-Tarif is a section of Ehe eastern wall of the Nile Valley across the river from Lhe modern city of Nag Hannadi in Upper Egypt. All the evidence coneerning the discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices indicates that they \^Iere found hidden in a ceramic j ar somewhere at the base of this imposing cliff. ffi Fig . 2 . Most of the Nag llammadi co diees arrived at the Coptic Museum in 01d Cairo still bor:nd into their leather eovers. No memberof the Nag Ha:nnadi Co- dices Bditing Project ever saü/ them thus. -1J- As source material for the early history of Christian thought and literature the Nag Haumadi codices are clearly invaluable. The goal of the Nag Hamrnadi Codices Editing Project, funded by the Snithsonian Institution from July L974 through January L975 and again in July and August 197518 has been to further the study of the manuscripts in three re- spects: physical reconstruction of Ehe f ragrnented papyrus leaves, conservation of the entire collection for safe storage and dispLay, and publication. 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 efforts of numerous scholars. Reeonstruction TLre reconstruction of the papyri began, for the most part, in the very late nineteen-fifties with the work of Pahor Labib and Martin Krause. A1- though codex III, the first of the codices to be acquired by the Coptic Museum, had been conserved in glass frames as early as L947, the rest remained in the harrds of antiquities dealers until Lg49.s At that tiure a French scholar work- 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 then sealed and kept in the custody of the Departnent of Antiquities pending the procurement of funds for purchasing its contents. Tlrat there hTas already soure disorder among the papyrus leaves and fragnents is indicated by photographs of the codices taken prior to their storage in the suitcase, and some damage ap- parently occurred between this time and the time when the suitcase r^ras again I 0 opened, b rie f ly in Lg52 and f inally in 1956 . Ac cordingly, when the German Archeological Institute donated panes of plexiglass to the Coptic Museum in 1959, Labib, Krause and Victor Girgis conserved the papyri in the order in which they l l found themr thus preserving the fragments in the sequence and condition in ^' which they had cone into the possession of the museum. 8 I am personally indebted to the Smithsonian Institution and the ARCE for also providing funds for my return to the United States at Ehe close of the project in the auturnnof L977.
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