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The Gnostic Library of Nag Hammadi
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
Extract
From the time of their first discovery the Dead Sea Scrolls have aroused keen interest in the world of scholarship, while the publication of certain sensational theories regarding the relation of these documents to the origins of Christianity has brought them to the notice of the general public also. The result has been a consistent flow of books and articles, ranging from detailed scholarly analyses based on minute study of the texts to more or less popular presentations. The whole area in which the Scrolls were found has been thoroughly explored, and yet more documents discovered. The texts themselves have been subjected to the closest scrutiny by workers in many fields of learning. Answers have been found for some old problems, and new questions have been raised for investigation; and still the study continues. It has been reckoned that the number of publications relating to the Scrolls is now in excess of three thousand, and still the end is not in sight, for not all the texts have yet been published.
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- Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1959
References
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page 163 note 1 Some points in this paragraph are more fully discussed in Wilson, , The Gnostic Problem (London, 1958).Google Scholar
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page 167 note 2 Puech, in Coptic Studies in Honor of W. E. Crum (Boston, 1950), 91ffGoogle Scholar, Doresse, op. cit., 165ff. Some of the MSS are numbered differently in these two lists, but the inventories have been collated by van Unnik (see next note), 14ff.
page 167 note 3 Openbaringen uit Egyptisch Zand (den Haag, 1958). References to the earlier literature will be found in the books and articles listed in these notes, but special mention may be made of two articles by Puech and Quispel: ‘Les ecrits gnostiques du Codex Jung’, Vig. Chr., viii (1954), 1–51, and ‘Le quatrieme écrit du Codex Jung’, ibid., ix (1955), 65–102.
page 167 note 4 op. cit., 16gff. It may be noted that the inventories show only one apocryphal book of Acts (of Peter), a point which may be of some significance.
page 167 note 5 The Jung Codex, 20.
page 168 note 1 See p. 165, m., above.
page 168 note 2 Openbaringen, 66.
page 168 note 3 op. cit., 21.
page 168 note 4 The Jung Codex, 95.
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page 169 note 2 Openbaringen, 78f.
page 169 note 3 Vig. Chr., xi (1957), 189ffGoogle Scholar. This article discusses the possibility that these Agrapha were derived from a Jewish-Christian Gospel originally written in Aramaic. Our knowledge of the Gospel according to the Hebrews is however insufficient to admit of far-reaching conclusions.
page 169 note 4 Openbaringen, 79.