Bronte (NHC)

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The text known under the title Bronte (Greek "thunder") or Perfect Mind is part of the Nag Hammadi writings , a collection of mainly Gnostic texts found in 1945 in Egypt . There it appears as the second font of Codex VI (NHC VI, 2).

Content and classification

The hymn text contains the self-revelation of a female divine being that describes herself in opposites and riddles:

'Cause I'm the first and the last
I am the honored and the despised.
I am the whore and the honor.
I am the woman and the virgin.
I am the mother and the daughter.

Classifying the text seems difficult. Attention was drawn to the similarity of some formulations with the aretalogies of Isis , for example the inscription found in Kyme . Unlike Isis, however, the speaker is not an all-divinity, but describes herself right from the start as the emissary of an unspecified power. Other passages recall the description of the state of the fallen Sophia in Gnostic texts:

... when I am thrown among the damned and in the lowest places, do not look at me and do not mock me!

and

I am the Sophia of the Greeks and the Gnosis of the barbarians.

The text appears as an artistic merging of several figures and elements. Whether and to what extent it can be called Gnostic is therefore debatable.

The language of the traditional text is Sahid , a dialect of Coptic . It is unclear whether the text is written in this language or - like many other texts in the Nag Hammadi library - was translated from Greek. The high literary quality makes an original Coptic text seem possible.

The passage from the title (“I am the [perfect] understanding and the calm of [thunder].”) Appears on page 18. The reading of the passage is unclear.

literature

Text output

  • George W. McRae: The Thunder. Perfect Mind. In: Douglas M. Parrott (ed.): Nag Hammadi Codices V, 2-5 and VI with Papyrus Berolinensis 8502 , 1 and 4. NHS XI. Brill, Leiden 1979. pp. 231-255
  • Paul-Hubert Poirier (Ed.): Le Tonnerre, Intellect parfait (NH VI, 2). BCNH 22. Presses de l'Université Laval (Québec) 1995, ISBN 2-7637-7419-9

translation

  • Uwe-Karsten Plisch: The Brontê - Perfect Mind (NHC VI, 2). In: Hans-Martin Schenke u. a. (Ed.): Nag Hammadi German. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001/2003. Vol. 2. pp. 455-466.
  • Gerd Lüdemann, Martina Janßen: The Bible of the heretics. Radius, Stuttgart 1997. pp. 325-335

Secondary literature

  • Hans-Gerhard Bethge: "Nebront". The second script from Nag Hammadi Codex VI. In: Theologische Literaturzeitung 98. pp. 97-104
  • Bentley Layton: The Riddle of the Thunder (NHC VI, 2): The Function of the Paradox in a Gnostic Text from Nag Hammadi. In: Charles W. Hedrick, Robert Hodgson Jr. (Eds.): Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism and Early Christianity. Hendrickson, Peabody, Mass. 1986, ISBN 0-913573-16-7 . Pp. 37-54

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ page 13. Translation after Nag Hammadi German. Vol. 2. Berlin 2003, p. 459.
  2. ↑ Lüdemann, Janßen: Bible of the Heretics 1997, p. 326 f.
  3. ↑ page 15. Nag Hammadi German. Vol. 2. Berlin 2003, p. 460.
  4. ↑ page 16. Nag Hammadi German. Vol. 2. Berlin 2003, p. 461.
  5. ^ Nag Hammadi German. Vol. 2. Berlin 2003, p. 456 f.