In December 1945, three Arab peasants made an astonishing archaeological discovery in Upper Egypt. Muhammad Ali and his two brothers were riding their camels to the Jabal al-Tarif in order to gather sabakh, a soft soil used to fertilize their crops. They unexpectedly hit a red earthenware jar, almost a metre high. Muhammad hesitated to break the jar, fearing the jar might contain a jinn, or a spirit, but he recalled stories of buried treasures, and his love of gold overcame his fear of jinn. He smashed the jar with his mattock, but when he peered excitedly inside all he could see was a collection of old books – thirteen papyrus books bound in leather. These would become known as the codices of the Nag Hammadi Library, a collection of early Christian and Gnostic texts.
So why were these texts buried? The Nag Hammadi texts, and others like them, were denounced as heresy by orthodox Christians in the middle of the second century. Possession of such books was made a criminal offence and copies of such books were burned and destroyed. It is thought the Nag Hammadi texts were buried by monks from a nearby monastery in the 4th century.
These diverse texts range from secret gospels, poems and descriptions of the origin of the universe, to myths, magic and instructions for mystical practice.
I stumbled across these gnostic texts whilst writing Apostle to Mary Magdalene and felt inspired to write two books, Mary Magdalene’s Legacy and Mary Magdalene’s Final Legacy. I can recommend Marvin Meyer’s book or they are available to read for free on www.gnosis.org
CODEX I (also known as the Jung Codex)
The Prayer of the Apostle Paul
The Secret Book of James
The Gospel of Truth
The Treatise on the Resurrection
The Tripartite Tractate
CODEX II
The Secret Book of John
The Gospel of Thomas
The Gospel of Philip
The Hypostasis of the Archons
On the Origin of the World
The Exegesis of the Soul
The Book of Thomas the Contender
CODEX III
The Secret Book of John
Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit (The Gospel of the Egyptians)
Eugnostos the Blessed
The Sophia of Jesus Christ
The Dialogue of the Saviour
CODEX IV
The Secret Book of John
Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit (The Gospel of the Egyptians)
CODEX V
Eugnostos the Blessed
The Revelation of Paul
The First Revelation of James
The Second Revelation of James
The Gospel of Judas
CODEX VI
The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles
The Thunder, Perfect Mind
Authoritative Teaching
The Concept of our Great Power
Republic Plato (heavily modified with gnostic concepts)
The Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth – a Hermetic treatise
The Prayer of Thanksgiving – a Hermetic prayer
Asclepius 21-29 – another Hermetic treatise
CODEX VII
The Paraphrase of Shem
The Second Treatise of the Great Seth
Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter
The Teachings of Silvanus
The Three Steles of Seth
CODEX VIII
Zostrianos
The Letter of Peter to Philip
CODEX IX
Melchizedek
The Thought of Norea
The Testimony of Truth
CODEX X
Marsanes
CODEX XI
The Interpretation of Knowledge
An Exposition
Hypsiphrone
CODEX XII
The Sentences of Sextus
The Gospel of Truth
Fragments
CODEX XIII
Trimorphic Protennoia
On the Origin of the World
Although the gnostic gospels are assigned to the apostles, scholars cannot agree who wrote them.
The Nag Hammadi Library extends to a mighty 800 pages and I am often asked which gospel one should read first. I always say the Gospel of Mary as it is short, but more importantly, portrays Mary Magdalene as a strong spiritual leader privy to Yeshua’s inner teachings.
I would like to share the highlighted tractates with you on my blog as reading the texts will communicate with your soul and change you on a cellular level – this has been my experience anyway! Their power and beauty is unbelievable.
I have already discussed the Secret Book of John (see blog dated 22 March 2021) so my next blog will be on the Gospel of Thomas.
#egypt #jesus #divinefeminine #sophia #marymagdalene #gnostic #naghammadi