With the availability of primary sources, such as the those in Nag Hammadi library, the identity of Abrasax remains unclear.

As far back as the early 2nd century, there is evidence that the codex — usually of papyrus — was the preferred format among Christians: in the library of the Villa of the Papyri, Herculaneum ( buried in AD 79 ), all the texts ( Greek literature ) are scrolls ( see Herculaneum papyri ); in the Nag Hammadi " library ", secreted about AD 390, all the texts ( Gnostic Christian ) are codices.

John D. Turner, professor of religious studies at the University of Nebraska and famed translator and editor of the Nag Hammadi library, stated that the text Plotinus and his students read was Sethian gnosticism which predates Christianity.

The discussion of gnosticism changed radically with the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library, and led to revision of older assumptions.

Though his sources on Gnosticism were secondary, since the texts in the Nag Hammadi library were not yet widely available, Eric Voegelin ( 1901 – 1985 ), partially building on the concept of gnosis as used by Plato and the followers of Gnosticism, along with how it was defined by Hans Jonas, defined the gnosis of the followers of Gnosticism as religious philosophical teachings that are the foundations of cults.

Until the discovery of the Library of Nag Hammadi in 1945, Against Heresies was the best-surviving description of Gnosticism.

According to some biblical scholars, the findings at Nag Hammadi have shown Irenaeus ' description of Gnosticism to be largely inaccurate and polemic in nature.

However, at least one scholar, Rodney Stark, claims that it is the same Nag Hammadi library that proves Ireneaus right.

# REDIRECT Nag Hammadi library

The oldest written manuscripts have been preserved by the perfect dryness of their Middle Eastern resting places, whether placed within sarcophagi in Egyptian tombs, or reused as mummy-wrappings, discarded in the middens of Oxyrhynchus or secreted for safe-keeping in jars and buried ( Nag Hammadi library ) or stored in dry caves ( Dead Sea scrolls ).

Gospel of Philip, dating from the 2nd or 3rd century, survives in part among the texts found in Nag Hammadi in 1945.

Gospel of Thomas, usually dated to the late 1st or early 2nd century, was also among the finds in the Nag Hammadi library in 1945.

Nag Hammadi (, ), is a city in Upper Egypt.

Nag Hammadi was known as Chenoboskion () in classical antiquity, meaning " geese grazing grounds ".

Sugar and aluminium are produced in Nag Hammadi.

The town of Nag Hammadi was established by Mahmoud Pasha Hammadi, who was a member of the Hammadi family in Sohag, Egypt.

Mahmoud Pasha Hammadi created Nag Hammadi for the indigenous people from Sohag who were forced to abandon their homeland by the British occupation.

Nag Hammadi is best known for being the site where local farmers found a sealed earthenware jar containing thirteen leather-bound papyrus codices, together with pages torn from another book, in December 1945.

The city was the site of the Nag Hammadi massacre in January 2010, wherein eight Coptic Christians were shot dead by three men.

ca: Nag Hammadi

da: Nag Hammadi

The Sophia of Jesus Christ is one of many Gnostic tractates from the Nag Hammadi codices, discovered in Egypt in 1945.

The text has strong similarities to the Epistle of Eugnostos, which is also found in the Nag Hammadi codices, but with a Christian framing added, and expanding it somewhat.

All the Gnostic codices found in Nag Hammadi used the Coptic alphabet.

In his " Introduction " to The Nag Hammadi Library in English, James Robinson suggests that these codices may have belonged to a nearby Pachomian monastery, and were buried after Bishop Athanasius condemned the use of non-canonical books in his Festal Letter of 367 AD.

The best-known of these works is probably the Gospel of Thomas, of which the Nag Hammadi codices contain the only complete text.

The Nag Hammadi codices are housed in the Coptic Museum in Cairo, Egypt.

At this conference, intended to allow scholars to arrive at a group consensus concerning the definition of gnosticism, James M. Robinson, an expert on religion, assembled a group of editors and translators whose express task was to publish a bilingual edition of the Nag Hammadi codices in English, in collaboration with the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity at the Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California.

* Robinson, James M., 1979 " The discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices ," in Biblical Archaeology vol.

Until the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library in 1945, the Askew Codex was one of three codices that contained almost all of the gnostic writings that had survived the suppression of such literature both in East and West, the other two codices being the Bruce Codex and the Berlin Codex.

The First Apocalypse of James, part of the New Testament apocrypha also called the Revelation of Jacob, was first discovered amongst 52 other Gnostic Christian texts spread over 13 codices by an Arab peasant, Mohammad Ali al-Samman, in the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi late in December 1945.

Three of these were found in the Nag Hammadi codices in 1945, while the fourth was found independently 50 years earlier from another site in Egypt.

Little more was known of this text until 1945, when a cache of thirteen papyrus codices ( bound books ) that had been hidden away in the 4th century, was fortuitously discovered at Nag Hammadi in Egypt ( CG II ).

It should also be noted that in the three Nag Hammadi codices where the Apocryphon of John appears, the text in each case is the first text of the collection.

Two versions of the formerly lost Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit, also inappropriately called the Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians ( which is quite distinct from the Greek Gospel of the Egyptians ), were among the codices in the Nag Hammadi library, discovered in 1945.

The Nag Hammadi codices contain two full copies of this tractate.

The text survives in a single, damaged manuscript as the second section of the Jung Codex, first of the thirteen codices in the Nag Hammadi library.

The Gospel of Truth is one of the Gnostic texts from the New Testament apocrypha found in the Nag Hammadi codices (" NHC ").

Two of the versions are very similar and represent one manuscript tradition ; they incorporate a lengthy excerpt from a certain Book of Zoroaster appended to the Apocryphon ( as chapters 15: 29 – 19: 8f ) A shorter version of the Apocryphon found at Nag Hammadi does not contain the interpolation and represents another manuscript tradition.

As a result, what came to be known as the Nag Hammadi library ( owing to the proximity of the find to Nag Hammadi, the nearest major settlement ) appeared only gradually, and its significance went unacknowledged until some time after its initial uncovering.

As an example, Bart Ehrman states that gnostic writings of the Gospel of Thomas ( part of the Nag Hammadi library ) have very little value in historical Jesus research, because the author of that gospel placed no importance on the physical experiences of Jesus ( e. g. his crucifixion ) or the physical existence of believers, and was only interested in the secret teachings of Jesus rather than any physical events.

Many of the writings of these Gnostics, and a large number of excerpts from the writings of Valentinus, existed only in quotes displayed by their orthodox detractors, until 1945, when the cache of writings at Nag Hammadi revealed a Coptic version of the Gospel of Truth, which is the title of a text that, according to Irenaeus, was the same as the Gospel of Valentinus mentioned by Tertullian in his Against All Heresies.

Many legends are narrated such as: Guru Padmasambahava preached to sixty-four yoginis here ; it is the residing place of the Goddess Tara Jetsun Dolma and the Khecheopalri Lake is her footprint ; the lake represents the Goddess Chho Pema ; footprints of Macha Zemu Rinpoche are on a stone near the chorten ( stupa ) near the lake ; Hindu god Lord Shiva meditated in Dupukney Cave that is situated above the lake and hence worshipped on " Nag Panchami " day at the lake ; a Lepcha girl named Nenjo Asha Lham was blessed by the lake goddess and was gifted with a precious gem which was lost, and it is the belief of the local people that the gem is hidden in the lake ; the lake water has curative properties and hence permitted to be used only for performing rites and rituals ; and with all these legends, the lake is called a " wish fulfilling lake ".

In the aforesaid Hymn, only the Son is mentioned beside the Father ; but a tetrad occurs among the Ophites of Irenaeus and the Naassenes ; an entire decad among the Gnostici Barbelo ; while the Nag Hammadi writings disclose a countless host of higher beings.

The only surviving copy comes from the Nag Hammadi library ( Codex XIII ).

Some surnames are specific only to Ghotis and Edeshis, like Adak, Adhikary, Bagui, Bhaduri, Daffadar, Dandapat, Dolui, Gorai, Guin, Hazra, Hela, Jana, Karak, Karmakar, Kundu, Laha, Mahapatra, Maity, Middye, Modak, Nag, Nandi, Naskar, Nayak, Neogi, Paik, Pain, Pal, Panja, Patra, Sadhu, Sadhukhan, Samanta, Sardar, Sapui, Sasmal, She-al, Sinha, Tarafder, Topdar, Mihiracharyaa etc.

As to dating, Anne McGuire writes: " Thunder, Perfect Mind exists only in the Coptic version found at Nag Hammadi ( NHC VI, 2: 13, 1-21, 32 ).

The original language of the poem was Greek, though only a Coptic version survives in the Nag Hammadi library ; the manuscript resides in the Cairo Coptic museum.