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1. Discovery and General Features Nag Hammadi (Arab. Najʿ Ḥammādı̄, near the site of the ancient town of Chenoboskion) is a town in Upper Egypt about 80 km. (50 mi.) northwest of Luxor and the Valley of the Kings. In 1945 some Coptic MSS were discovered nearby, at the base of a boulder near the foot of a mountain called the Jabal al-Tarif. The corpus contains 12 codices, plus leaves from a 13th, with 52 tractates in all (including six doublets).…

1. Term The term “Mandaean” is used for a Gnostic-type baptismal fellowship (Baptism) that existed on the eastern borders of Syria and Palestine in the first century a.d. and that is the only one of such representatives of the syncretism of antiquity to survive to this day. Modern Mandaeans, some 15,000 in number in the late 1970s, live in the marshy delta region of the Tigris and Euphrates, in the Iranian province of Khūzestān, and in the Iraqi cities of Baghdad and Basra. Since the Iran-Iraq War of 1980–88 we have not had reliable statistics about their numbers. Within East Aramaic the Mandaeans developed their own l…

1. Religious Type and Features Manichaeanism, named after its founder, the Persian Mani (a.d. 216–76/77), is a Gnostic-type dualistic religion of redemption, though by its origin and in its manifestations it differs in many respects from Syrian and Egyptian Gnosis. It is (1) a religion founded by a historical personage, (2) a universal religion with a world mission, and (3) a book religion with a canon of sacred writings. Structurally, it involves a hierarchically ordered church, which it views as a means o…

1. Term, History, and Definition The Gk. noun gnōsis originally meant knowledge of things and objects that the knower could apprehend ¶ by understanding (nous) and reason (logos)—that is, rationally (Epistemology). Along with the basic epistemological sense a qualitatively new meaning developed from the first century b.c. that separated the object and act of knowledge from rational experience and transferred it to the religious level. “Gnosis” now came to mean knowledge of divine mysteries, this knowledge being reserved for a select circle and disclosed only to those who were identical with the…

[English Version] (NHC I,5; TractTrip), titelloser gnost. Lehrtraktat valentinianischer Herkunft (Valentinianismus), der im Text in drei thematische Komplexe von der transzendenten Welt über die Schöpfung bis zur Erlösung oder Verdammnis des Menschen gegliedert ist. Charakteristisch ist die zentrale Rolle des Logos sowohl bei der Schöpfung (hier funktional anstelle der Sophia) als auch der Erlösung. Die Anthropologie ist dreistufig ausgeprägt.…

[English Version] . Die 20 Th. bilden die letzte Gruppe des kopt.-manichäischen Psalmenbuches (Manichäismus). Metrum und Strophenbau weisen auf ein ostaram. Original mit auffälliger Affinität zu mandäischen Hymnen (Mandäismus) hin. Die Th. sind größtenteils noch während Manis Wirksamkeit (240–276) entstanden. Im Unterschied zum Hauptteil der manichäischen Psalmen sind Hinweise auf Jesus überaus gering (Pss 12 und 16). Als Autor gilt herkömmlich Manis Jünger Thomas. Die Form der Über…

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[German Version] Tripartite Tractate, The (NHC I,5; TractTri), untitled Gnostic didactic treatise of Valentinian origin (Valentinianism). The text is divided into three thematic complexes: from the transcendent world through creation to human redemption or perdition…

[German Version] (451, Upper Mesopotamia – 521, Batna/Sarug), prolific Syrian church author. Having become an ascetic at a young age, he officiated as episcopal visitor in Haura and was appointed bishop of Batna/Sarug in 518. He was initially a follower, though later an opponent of the School of Antioch (Antiochene theology) and professed a Christology situated between the positions of …

[German Version] (Apr 2, 1861, Breslau – Mar 23, 1931, Göttingen), classical philologist and historian of religion who became a Privatdozent in Breslau in 1888 and, from 1889 onward, professor in Rostock, Giessen, Strasbourg, Freiburg im Breisgau, and, from 1914, in Göttingen. As a representative of the history-of-religions school, Reitzenstein published pioneering but methodologically insecure studies of ancient syncretism, Gnosticism (Gnosis), and Manichaeism. Reitzenstein was largely responsible for the “oriental” ¶ derivation model of Gnosticism; this culminate…

[German Version] The 20 Psalms of Thomas constitute the last group of the Coptic Mani­chaean Psalm-book (Manichaeism). Their meter and strophic structure point to an East Aramaic original with a striking similarity to Mandaean hymns (Mandaeism). Most of the psalms were produced during the period of Mani’s ministry (240–276). Unlike the majority of the Manichaean psalms, these contain very few references to Jesus (Pss 12 and 16). Mani’s disciple Thomas is traditionally considered their author. The form of the superscription …

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Part of 2 Pentateuch - 2.5 Secondary Translations 2.5.2.1 BackgroundThe Coptic translations of the Pentateuch have lxx (2.4.1) as their base text and can be dated back to the early fourth century c.e. Together with the translation of the texts, the titles of each of the books were transcribed: ⲧ-ⲅⲉⲛⲉⲥⲓⲥ “Genesis,” ⲧ-ⲉⲝⲟⲇⲟⲥ “Exodus,” ⲡ-ⲗⲉⲩⲉⲓⲧⲓⲕⲟⲛ “Leviticus,” ⲛ-ⲁⲣⲓⲑⲙⲟⲥ “[The book of] Numbers,” ⲡ-ⲇⲉⲩⲧⲉⲣⲟⲛⲟⲙⲓⲟⲛ “Deuteronomy” often with the addition “of Moses (the prophet).” The collective term Pentateuch was unknown among the Copts. Complete translations of the Pentateuch existed only in the two main dialects of Coptic, i.e., Sahidic and Bohairic. In Akhmimic, only a partial translation of Exodus (Exod 1:1–7:4; chapter 3 is missing)1 and some fragments of the same book2 are preserved. The Old Testament texts in Akhmimic appear not to be independent translations from Greek, but daughter versions of Sahidic.3 Only scarce fragments survive in the Middle Egyptian (Mesokemic) dialect…

Part of 10 Psalms - 10.4 Secondary Translations 10.4.2.1 Background and Text TransmissionThe Coptic Psalter is a translation of the Greek Septuagint Psalter (10.3.1) and not of mt-Ps (10.2.2). The numbering of the Coptic Psalms follows lxx.…