The Nag Hammadi Library in English, James M. Robinson, Director

The Nag Hammadi Library in English translated by members of the coptic gnostic library project of the institute for antiquity and christianity, James M. Robinson, Director 

In December, 1945, two peasants were digging for fertilizer in a cemetery near the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi. Coming upon a jar at the base of a boulder, they broke it open to examine its contents. Out of the jar swirled golden bits of parchment, disappearing in the sky. The peasants had uncovered one of our time's most significant archaeological discoveries: the Nag Hammadi library.

The Nag Hammadi Library in English, awaited with growing excitement over three decades, is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of civilization, of ideas, of religion. It contains the sacred scriptures of the Gnostic movement that emerged and rapidly grew in the cradle of civilization at the time of Jesus and early Christianity. Its codices are a priceless periscope into the tumultuous world of ideas brewing during one of civilization's great turning points.

The world depicted by the writings is strange, unfamiliar, even hypnotic to modern sensibilities. It is a world botched by a blind, malevolent god. A world in which Simon of Cyrene is mistakenly crucified as Jesus laughs above the cross. A world in which Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed not because of their wickedness but because of the wisdom of their inhabitants, in which the Bible as we know it is turned upside down.

For students of that Bible, The Nag Hammadi Library in English includes a general introduction telling the story of the Library's discovery, the scribes who copied the texts and circumstances of its burial, and its strange subsequent history. Each translation is marked by page and line reference to the original codex. Every document is preceded by a brief introduction summarizing the research behind the translation. In addition to the Nag Hammadi find, this volume contains two tractates of a similar codex.

Just as the 1950s and 1960s were the decades of the Dead Sea Scrolls, so the 1970s and 1980s Will be the decades of the Nag Hammadi codices. The Nag Hammadi Library in English unlocks this "Zen of the Western world" both to New Testament scholar and to the lay reader interested in the progression of civilization itself.

James M. Robinson is Director of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity at Claremont Graduate School in California and of its Nag Hammadi Research Project. A recognized authority on the Nag Hammadi codices, Dr. Robinson is Permanent Secretary of the UNESCO committee preparing a twelve-volume photographic edition of the find, published under the auspices of the Arab Republic of Egypt. Marvin W. Meyer, Managing Editor, is Research Associate in the Coptic Project.

Details

• Hardcover with dust-jacket (Dust-jacket is protected with plastic, has wear and tear on the top and bottom of the spine, which is also slightly discolored)
• Condition: Good, has a bookshop sticker on the first page (see photo), no notes/stamps.
• ISBN: 0060669292
• Publishing House: Harper & Row, Publishers