The Logos Bible Software Edition
This is the first-ever electronic edition of Brill's Nag
Hammadi Library! It will contain the texts, introductions, front-
and back matter found in the print edition.
All text will be searchable and, as usual, there will be a
hyperlinked table of contents to jump to the desired section. In
addition, a new data type is being created that will allow other Logos
Bible Software titles to link to Nag Hammadi by book | page |
line (for most texts) or by Saying Number (in the case of The Gospel
of Thomas).
About the Print Edition
This revised and expanded edition of The Nag Hammadi Library
is the only complete, one-volume, modern language version of the
reknowned library of fourth-century manuscripts discovered in Egypt in
1945.
First published in 1978, The Nag Hammadi Library launched
modern Gnostic studies and was widely acclaimed by critics and
scholars alike. Although some of the texts had appeared in other
translations, the 1978 edition was the first and only translation of
these ancient and fascinating manuscripts to appear in one volume.
This new edition is the result of ten years of additional research,
and editorial and critical work. Every translation has been changed or
added to; many have been thoroughly revised.
Each text is accompanied by a new and expanded introduction. Also
included are a revised general introduction and an afterword
discussing the modern relevance of Gnosticism, from Voltaire and Blake
through Melville and Yeats to Jack Kerouac and science fiction writer
Philip K. Dick.
The translations and introductions to the Nag Hammadi texts are by
members of the Coptic Gnostic Library Project, which includes such
scholars as Helmut Koester, George McRae, and Elaine Pagels.
Additional Details
- James M. Robinson, General Editor
- Richard Smith, Managing Editor
- Fourth Revised Edition, copyright 1996, 549 pages
- Publisher: E.J. Brill
Significance of Nag Hammadi for Biblical Studies
Unearthed in 1945 near the town of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, the
texts literally begin where the Dead Sea Scrolls end. In fact, you
could say that The Nag Hammadi Library is to early
Christianity what the Dead Sea Scrolls are to Judaism. Their discovery
is seen as equally significant, bringing to light a long-hidden well
of new information, sources, and insights into the roots of
Christianity.
Another reason to read these texts is to gain insight into what the
Early Church
Fathers were refuting in their polemical works. Gnostics were a
common opponent of the patristics as the church battled to define and
defend orthodoxy.
The Anchor Bible Dictionary summarizes the importance of
the texts as part of a lengthy and informative article on the Nag
Hammadi Codices: "As one of the most important manuscript finds of the
century, comparable in that respect to the discovery of the Dead Sea
Scrolls, the Nag Hammadi collection has had an enormous impact on a
number of scholarly fields and disciplines."
