For centuries, scholars depended on heresiologists for their information about Christian Gnostics. But now we can hear their truths from their own lips, thanks to the discovery of about thirty previously unknown writings near the town of Nag Hammadi, Egypt shortly after the Second World War. These writings are enclosed in a set of thirteen books (called codices) copied, it seems, around the mid-fourth century CE.

Apart from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the discovery of the Nag Hammadi literature was the most important archaeological discovery of the twentieth century. The Nag Hammadi library contains about fifty tractates total, many of them Christian, most of them previously unknown. The writings included were composed from the early second to the early fourth century CE. They were originally written in Greek, but translated into the Egyptian language of the time, called Coptic. They were gathered together by later (possibly monastic) readers until they were hidden away in sealed jars.

Most of the writings appear in genres familiar to the New Testament: gospels, epistles, and apocalypses. There are also philosophical texts, maxims, prayers, and poetry. The texts fall into three main categories: Sethian, Valentinian, and Hermetic. Yes, the Nag Hammadi corpus contains three Hermetic tracts, one of which—the Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth—was completely new and unheard of.

The Valentinian tractates include that masterpiece homily perhaps spoken by Valentinus himself, the Gospel of Truth, as well as the Gospel of Philip, and the Treatise on Resurrection. The Nag Hammadi find also includes three copies of that archetypal Sethian Gnostic text, the Secret Book of John. But other Sethian text are also included, such as the Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit, the Apocalypse of Adam, and Trimorphic Protennoia.

There are many borderline Gnostic texts that—even though they are officially uncategorized—they are immensely important for understanding how Christian thought and practice developed. Here we can include philosophical texts like Eugnostus, the Wisdom of Jesus Christ, rewritings of Genesis like the Nature of the Rulers, the Origin of the World, and gospel-like texts such as the Secret Book of James and the Letter of Peter to Philip. And we dare not forget unforgettable texts like Thunder Perfect Mind, the First and Second Apocalypse of James, the Apocalypse of Peter, the Second Discourse of Great Seth, the Prayer of Paul, and the Apocalypse of Paul. These were the books literally excluded from the canon and buried for some 1600 years.

Nag Hammadi codex 2 contains the only surviving complete copy of that spiritual masterpiece, the Gospel of Thomas. Scholars debate whether this text was written in Syria or Egypt, whether it contains authentic sayings of Jesus, whether it was written in the first or second century. But there is no doubt that it is one of the most amazing and though-provoking witnesses of Christian spirituality.

Christianity in the Gospel of Thomas is Christianity without a cross, without an apocalypse, without a final judgment. It is the Christianity in which female disciples like Mary and Salome speak, where “doubting” Thomas is the hero, and the Old Testament is barely in sight. The only miracles you’ll find in the Gospel of Thomas are the miracles that happen within you when you read and meditate on Jesus’ sayings. “Whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death.”

Finally, I’ll say more about that archetypal Sethian text the Secret Book of John. In my view, this is still the best introduction to Gnostic Christian literature. The Secret Book of Johnis a dialogue gospel arguably designed to be a continuation of the Gospel according to John. It sets the conditions for why John is considered the “eagle” of apostolic—and esoteric—learning, the disciple whom Jesus loved more than others. The short answer: he was loved more, because he knew more.

The Secret Book of John has been called the “Gnostic Bible”  the preeminent expression of “Classic Gnostic”/“Sethian” thought. At the same time, the Secret Book is a profoundly Christian text. This remains the case even if one removes the frame story introducing John and Jesus. The Secret Book was written by a Christian theologian in antiquity and used (that we know of) solely by Christians, ending up—in multiple copies—in what seems to have been a monastic book collection.

The Secret Book of John is the gnostic attempt to rewrite the Bible—specifically to reframe and rephrase the first seven chapters of Genesis. It will introduce you to all the main characters of Gnostic Christian lore, including the Father, Barbelo, the Selfborn, the evil creator Yaldabaoth, his angelic minions, as well as human characters like Seth, Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, and Noah. It is a captivating, holy history that inverts everything you’ve been taught about the biblical world.

The Secret Book of John is Christian philosophy performed through narrative. Philosophers like Plutarch also told dialogic narratives to relate their philosophy. Middle Platonic philosophers retold the myth of Plato’s Timaeus. Like the Middle Platonists, the author(s) of the Secret Bookdistinguished a singular, monadic deity from the creator/demiurge. There are certain features of bookthat cannot be explained without knowing some basic concepts from Stoic, Platonic, and Neopythagorean philosophy (e.g. numeric differentiation from Monad to Dyad to Tetrad, Pentad, and Decad, the use of concepts like fateand a material counterfeit spirit).  

For a solid introduction to Gnostic and Nag Hammadi literature, see my Gnostic and Nag Hammadi literature course. It is broken up into two parts: part one covers Nag Hammadi codices 1-5 , and part two covers codices 6-13 . The majority of Nag Hammadi texts are covered and videos are gradually being added to ensure that every Nag Hammadi text is eventually included.