Gnostic texts
used a number of religious texts that are preserved, in part or whole, in ancient manuscripts, or lost but mentioned critically in Patristic writings.
Gnostic texts
Gnostic texts preserved before 1945
Prior to the discovery at Nag Hammadi, only the following texts were available to students of Gnosticism. Reconstructions were attempted from the records of the heresiologists, but these were necessarily coloured by the motivation behind the source accounts.- Works preserved by the Church:
- * Acts of Thomas
- * The Acts of John
- The Bruce Codex :
- *The Gnosis of the Invisible God or The Books of Jeu
- *The Gnosis of the Light or The Untitled Apocalypse
- The Askew Codex :
- * Pistis Sophia: Books of the Savior
- The Berlin Codex or The Akhmim Codex :
- * The Gospel of Mary
- * Apocryphon of John
- * an epitome of the Acts of Peter
- * The Wisdom of Jesus Christ
- Unknown origin:
- * The Secret Gospel of Mark
- * The Hermetica
Complete list of codices found in Nag Hammadi
- Codex I :
- * The Prayer of the Apostle Paul
- * The Apocryphon of James
- * The Gospel of Truth
- * The Treatise on the Resurrection
- * The Tripartite Tractate
- Codex II:
- * The Apocryphon of John
- * The Gospel of Thomas a sayings gospel
- * The Gospel of Philip
- * The Hypostasis of the Archons
- * On the Origin of the World
- * The Exegesis on the Soul
- * The Book of Thomas the Contender
- Codex III:
- * The Apocryphon of John
- * The Gospel of the Egyptians
- * Eugnostos the Blessed
- * The Sophia of Jesus Christ
- * The Dialogue of the Savior
- Codex IV:
- * The Apocryphon of John
- * The Gospel of the Egyptians
- Codex V:
- * Eugnostos the Blessed
- * The Apocalypse of Paul
- * The First Apocalypse of James
- * The Second Apocalypse of James
- * The Apocalypse of Adam
- Codex VI:
- * The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles
- * The Thunder, Perfect Mind
- * Authoritative Teaching
- * The Concept of Our Great Power
- * Republic by Plato - The original is not Gnostic, but the Nag Hammadi library version is heavily modified with then-current 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
- * A Valentinian Exposition, On the Anointing, On Baptism and On the Eucharist
- * Allogenes
- * Hypsiphrone
- Codex XII
- * The Sentences of Sextus
- * The Gospel of Truth
- * Fragments
- Codex XIII:
- * Trimorphic Protennoia
- * On the Origin of the World
Other
- The Hymn of Jesus
- Acts of Peter
- Coptic Apocalypse of Peter
- Dialogue of the Saviour
- Odes of Solomon
- Gospel of Judas
- Gospel of the Saviour
Quoted or alluded
- Gospel of Basilides mentioned by Origen, Jerome, Ambrose, Philip of Side, and Bede.
- Basilides' Exegetica mentioned in Hippolytus of Rome and Clement of Alexandria
- Epiphanes' On Righteousness, mentioned in Clement of Alexandria.
- Heracleon, Fragments from his Commentary on the Gospel of John, mentioned in Origen
- Naassene Fragment mentioned in Hippolytus.
- Ophite Diagrams mentioned in Celsus and Origen
- Ptolemy's Commentary on the Gospel of John Prologue, mentioned in Irenaeus.
- Ptolemy's Letter to Flora, mentioned in Epiphanius.
- Theodotus: Excerpta Ex Theodoto mentioned in Clement of Alexandria.
Manuscripts
- Askew Codex contains Pistis Sophia and some other unknown texts.
- Berlin Codex, 5th century, contains a fragmentary Gospel of Mary, out of nineteen pages, pages 1–6 and 11-14 are missing entirely, the Apocryphon of John, The Sophia of Jesus Christ, and an epitome of the Act of Peter.
- Bruce Codex contains the first and second Books of Jeu and three fragments - an untitled text, an untitled hymn, and the text "On the Passage of the Soul Through the Archons of the Midst".
- Codex Tchacos, 4th century, contains the Gospel of Judas, the First Apocalypse of James, the Letter of Peter to Philip, and a fragment of Allogenes.
- Nag Hammadi library contains a large number of texts
- Three Oxyrhynchus papyri contain portions of the Gospel of Thomas:
- *Oxyrhyncus 1: this is half a leaf of papyrus which contains fragments of logion 26 through 33.
- *Oxyrhyncus 654: this contains fragments of the beginning through logion 7, logion 24 and logion 36 on the flip side of a papyrus containing surveying data.
- *Oxyrhyncus 655: this contains fragments of logion 36 through logion 39 and is actually 8 fragments named a through h, whereof f and h have since been lost.