List of Gnostic texts

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Gnostic sects and founders List of Gnostic sects Proto-Gnosticism Maghāriya Thomasines Judean / Israelite Adam Mandaeism Elksai Elkasaites Samaritan Baptist Dositheos Simon Magus (Simonians) Menander Quqites Christian Gnosticism Apelles Cerinthus Justin Marcion Marcionism Nicolaism Perates Saturninus Syrian-Egyptian Ophites Sethianism Alexandrian Basilides Basilideans Roman Valentinus Valentinianism Marcus Marcosians Florinus Persian Gnosticism Mani Manichaeism Chinese Gnosticism Chinese Manichaeism Islamic Gnosticism Druze Nusayrism Modern Modern schools
Scriptures List of Gnostic texts Texts Nag Hammadi library Pseudo-Abdias Clementine literature Gnosticism and the New Testament Mandaean scriptures Codices Codex Tchacos Cologne Mani-Codex Askew Codex Bruce Codex Berlin Codex Codex Nasaraeus
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Influence on Carl Jung Esoteric Christianity Christian theosophy Gnosticism in modern times Neoplatonism and Gnosticism Perennial philosophy Thelema Theosophy (Blavatskian) Western esotericism Rene Guenon Rudolf Steiner
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Gnosticism used a number of religious texts that are preserved, in part or whole, in ancient manuscripts, or lost but mentioned critically in Patristic writings.

There is significant scholarly debate around what Gnosticism is, and therefore what qualifies as a "Gnostic text."^[1]

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 (Especially Hymn of the Pearl or The Hymn of the Robe of Glory)
  • The Acts of John (Especially The Hymn of Jesus)
• The Bruce Codex (purchased in 1769 by James Bruce):
  • Books of Jeu, also known as The Gnosis of the Invisible God
  • The Untitled Text
• The Askew Codex (British Museum, bought in 1784):
  • Pistis Sophia: Books of the Savior
• The Berlin Codex or The Akhmim Codex (found in Akhmim, Egypt; bought in 1896 by Carl Reinhardt):
  • 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 (also known as The
  Jung Codex
  ):
  • The Prayer of the Apostle Paul
  • The Apocryphon of James (also known as the Secret Book 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
    The Hymn of the Pearl
    )
  • 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 (with a hand-written note) – 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 (A and B) and On the Eucharist (A and B)
  • Allogenes
  • Hypsiphrone
• Codex XII
  • The Sentences of Sextus
  • The Gospel of Truth
  • Fragments
• Codex XIII:
  • Trimorphic Protennoia
  • On the
    Origin of the World
  • Fragments

• Gospel of Basilides mentioned by Origen, Jerome, Ambrose, Philip of Side, and Bede.
• Refutatio Omnium Haeresium VII, ixv and X, x) and Clement of Alexandria (Stromata
  IV, xii and IV, xxiv–xxvi)
• Epiphanes
  ' On Righteousness, mentioned in Clement of Alexandria (Str. III, ii).
• Heracleon, Fragments from his Commentary on the Gospel of John, mentioned in Origen (Commentary on the Gospel of John)
• Naassene Fragment mentioned in Hippolytus (Ref. 5.7.2–9).
• Ophite Diagrams mentioned in Celsus and Origen
• Ptolemy's Commentary on the Gospel of John Prologue, mentioned in Irenaeus.^[2]
• Ptolemy's Letter to Flora, mentioned in Epiphanius.^[3]
• Theodotus: Excerpta Ex Theodoto mentioned in Clement of Alexandria.

Manuscripts

• Askew Codex contains Pistis Sophia and some other unknown texts.
• 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 (for a complete list see the listing)
• 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.

See also

Notes