NAG HAMMADI LIBRARY

Other Gospels is proud to present the following library of ancient books found at Nag Hammadi, Egypt. Explore our original, scholarly translations these esoteric scriptures as we journey through early Christianity from a Gnostic perspective.


CODEX I

painting of praying hands Paul’s Prayer painting of James Secret James portrait of Jesus Gospel of Truth papyrus scroll Resurrection papyrus scroll Tripartite Tractate

CODEX II

painting of John Secret Book of John painting of Thomas Gospel of Thomas painting of Philip Gospel of Philip papyrus scroll Rulers papyrus scroll Origin painting of the soul being carried Soul papyrus scroll Contender

CODEX III

painting of John Secret Book of John papyrus scroll Eugnostos papyrus scroll Sophia painting of the sermon on the mount Dialogue

CODEX IV

painting of John Secret Book of John

CODEX V

papyrus scroll Eugnostos the Apostle Paul writing Paul painting of the expulsion of Adam and Eve Adam

CODEX VI

Peter and an angelActs of Peter picture of a thunder bolt Thunder the Flammarion engraving Discourse painting of a bowl of fruit Thanksgiving

CODEX VII

papyrus scroll Shem papyrus scroll 2 Seth painting of Peter 2 Peter’s Apocalypse papyrus scroll 3 Seth

CODEX VIII

papyrus scroll Zostrianos

CODEX IX

painting of Abraham meeting Melchizedek 2 Melchizedek painting of a Dryad in a tree Norea

CODEX X


CODEX XI

drawing of the highest heavens Hypsiphrone

CODEX XII

portrait of Jesus Gospel of Truth

CODEX XIII

a theosophy painting about the forms of thought First Thought papyrus scroll Origin

Is this all of the books?

Sadly, no. Many were burned, decayed, stolen, or were otherwise lost to history. In fact, the original finder's mother used several of the books as firewood. As heartbreaking as this may be, Gnostic texts continue to be found, the rest of which we've published in our Gnosticism Library.

How old are they?

The physical manuscripts themselves were produced some time in the 300’s. However, these are copies of the original works, most of which are likely much older and were written in New Testament Greek. Assigning specific dates to texts is the work of academics, and we won't attempt to do that here.

How are they ordered?

The codecies are assigned numbers in order of discovery. This likely differs from how ancient gnostics would have read them. The texts within each codex are ordered left to right, just as they are in the original Coptic. Note that because some books are missing pages, there may be lost works in between some of them.


NAG HAMMADI INITIATIVE

For hundreds of years, scholars were worried that the Gnostic holy books had been lost to history — many of which were burnt at the hands of their orthodox critics. Everything changed, however, when this collection of ancient texts was found near Nag Hammadi. Preserved in the dry sands of Egypt and hidden from the persecution of the day, these essential Gnostic scriptures were rediscovered, ushering in a new era of Biblical scholarship and Christian thought.

Unfortunately, only a few of these works have been made available to the public, most being restricted by copyright law and academic paywalls. Until today! Other Gospels has commissioned Samuel Zinner and Mark Mattison to translate all of Nag Hammadi for the public domain. For the first time ever, the Nag Hammadi Codices are available to humanity with no strings attached.


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