Nag Hammadi Library

At a glance

History, context & interpretation

The text and its story

Thirteen leather-bound codices with 52 texts found in 1945, including the Gospel of Truth, the Apocryphon of John and the Gospel of Philip. They transformed what we know about early Christian diversity.

Traditional attribution

Secret writings of Gnostic Christian groups.

Historical scholarship

Coptic translations of earlier Greek texts by many hands, buried in a jar in Upper Egypt.

Context and curiosity

Some pages are said to have been burned as kindling before scholars got them.

Chronology and transmission

This text belongs to Christianity (Roman Egypt). The catalogue gives its approximate dating as texts c. 2nd–3rd century; codices c. 350–400 CE and original language or script as Coptic. The dated manuscript witnesses and traditional claims may not refer to the same historical event.

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Sources and further reading

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nag_Hammadi_library

Historical descriptions are educational summaries. Religious traditions, scholarly interpretations and unverified claims are distinguished where possible; imagery may be illustrative rather than an artifact photograph.