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A Catechesis against Apocryphal Texts by Shenute and the Gnostic Texts of Nag Hammadi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Tito Orlandi
Tito Orlandi
Affiliation:
Unione Accademica Italiana
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Extract

While the discovery of the Manichaean, and then the Gnostic, MS collections in Coptic has provoked a number of studies on the broad cultural context of these two religious movements, the specific Egyptian environment in which the MSS were transmitted remains largely unknown. Lack of documentation generally accounts for this ignorance. Especially in the case of the Coptic Gnostic library, all sorts of ideas and religious sects have been called forth to comment upon the corpus and to explain, it seems, everything except what was common in the Nile valley in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 75 , Issue 1 , January 1982 , pp. 85 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1982

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References

1 On the Manichaean corpus of Medinet Madi, cf. Schmidt, C. and Polotsky, H. J., “Ein Mani-Fund in Ägypten,” SPAW (1933) 4–90Google Scholar; Böhlig, A., “Die Arbeit an den koptischen Manichaica,” Mysterion und Wahrheit (Leiden, 1968) 177–87Google Scholar (= Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Martin-Luther-Universität 10 [1961] 157–61). Recent assessment of the Nag Hammadi discovery, with bibliography, in BA 42 (1979) 193–256 (the entire fourth number).

2 Scholer, D. M., Nag Hammadi Bibliography, 1948–1969 (Leiden, 1971)Google Scholar, continued in NovT 1971 and following. No such bibliography exists for the Manichaean corpus of Medinet Madi.

3 But cf. Young, D. W., “The Milieu of Nag Hammadi: Some Historical Considerations,” VC 24 (1970) 127–37Google Scholar, where Shenute is taken into consideration. Doresse, J., Des hiéroglyphes à la Croix, Ce qui le passé pharaonique a légué au Christianisme (Istanbul, 1960)Google Scholar is more ideological than historical.

4 Hyvernat, H., “Introduction” [to an article by Porcher, E.], RE 1 (1933) 105–16Google Scholar. Orlandi, T., “Un projet milanais concernant les manuscrits coptes du Monastère Blanc,” Muséon 85 (1972) 403–13.Google Scholar This enterprise is now called Corpus dei manoscritti copti letterari (Roma, Unione Accademica Nazionale) and issues a Bollettino d'Informazione.

5 Leipoldt, J., Schenute von Atripe und die Entstehung des national ägyptischen Christentums (TU 25/1; Leipzig, 1903)Google Scholar; a more judicious judgment is expressed in his Geschichte der koptischen Literatur (Geschichte der christlichen Literaturen des Orients; 2d ed.; Leipzig, 1909; reprinted 1972) 131–84Google Scholar. Th.Lefort, L., “Catéchèse christologique de Chenute,” Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache 80 (1955) 40–45Google Scholar. Weiss, H.-Fr., “Zur Christologie des Schenute von Atripe,” Bulletin de la Société d'Archéologie Copte 20 (1971) 177–210.Google Scholar For an up-to-date bibliography on Shenute, see Frandsen, P. J. and Aerøe, E. Richter, “Shenoute: A Bibliography,” in Studies … H. J. Polotsky (ed. Young, D. W.; East Gloucester, MA, 1981) 147–77.Google Scholar

6 Cf. above, n. 4.

7 As exceptions we can mention the “Sermon on Death and the Last Judgment” in the Turin papyri (ed. Rossi, F., Memorie della Reale Accademia delle Scienze di Torino, ser. 2, vol. 41 [1891] 4–121)Google Scholar and the so-called “On Christian Behavior” in the Hamuli codexes (ed. K. H. Kuhn [Louvain, 1960] 206–7) and in British Library MS Or. 12689.

8 Amélineau, C., Oeuvres de Schenoudi (2 vols.; Paris, 1907–1914)Google Scholar. Leipoldt, J. and Crum, W. E., Sinuthii archimandritae vita et opera omnia (Paris/Louvain, 1906–1913) vols. 3–4Google Scholar (all published).

9 Solid lines Indicate runs of pages ( e. g., IZ to MH). Broken lines Indicate correspondence of parallel codexes ( e. g., Berl 1613,1 is parallel to the content of P 1304121). Fragments already published include: DQ (BM 204.1–2: Shisha-Halevy; cf. n. 10), K 9196–9197, 9240–9242: Wessely, C., Griechische und koptische Texte theologisches Inhalts 9 (Leipzig, 1909) No. 41.Google Scholar

DS, K 9198–9209: Wessely, No. 42.

I am very grateful to Prof. Bentley Layton for revising the translation and English text of this article. I am also indebted to A. Shisha-Halevy's translation of the British Library fragments.

10 Cf. Shisha-Halevy, A., “Unpublished Shenoutiana in the British Library,” Enchoria 5 (1975) 53–108 (at p. 56)Google Scholar; idem, “Commentary on Unpublished Shenoutiana,” Enchoria 6 (1976) 29–61 (at pp. 45–46).Google Scholar

11 We have also a Latin translation by Jerome (Ep. 96) and some Greek fragments (Doctrina Patrum, ed. Diekamp, pp. 180–83). Cf. Crum, W. E., Der Papyruscodex … der Phillippsbibliothek (Strassburg, 1915) pp. XVII–XVIII.Google Scholar

12 Säve-Söderbergh, T., “Holy Scriptures or Apologetic Documentation? The Sitz im Leben of the Nag Hammadi Library,” Les Textes de Nag Hammadi (ed. Ménard, J. E.; Leiden, 1975) 3–14.Google Scholar

13 Wisse, F., “Gnosticism and Early Monasticism in Egypt,” Gnosis: Festschrift für Hans Jonas (Göttingen, 1978) 431–40.Google Scholar

14 Vergote, J., “La valeur des vies grecques et coptes de S. Pachôme,” Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica 8 (1977) 175–86Google Scholar, with bibliography. Hedrick, C. W., “Gnostic Proclivities in the Greek Life of Pachomius and the Sitz im Leben of the Nag Hammadi Library,” NovT 22 (1980) 78–94.Google Scholar

15 Schmidt, C., “Die Urschrift der Pistis Sophia,” ZNW 24 (1925) 218–40 (at pp. 221–27).CrossRefGoogle ScholarHeussi, K., Der Ursprung des Mönchtums (Tübingen, 1936).Google Scholar Coptic sources on the Hierakites: Chaîne, M., “La double recension de l'histoire Lausiaque dans la version copte,” Revue de l'Orient Chrétien 25 (1925) 232–75.Google Scholar

16 Guillaumont, A., Les “Kephalaia Gnostica” d'Evagre le Pontique (Paris, 1962) esp. 51–61.Google Scholar

17 T. Orlandi, “II dossier copto di Agatonlco di Tarso,” Studies … Polotsky, 269–99.

18 Life of Aphou, ed. Rossi, F., Papiri Copti del Museo Egizio di Torino (Turin, 1887–1892) 1/3. 5–22.Google Scholar