Letter to Eugnostus

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The Letter to Eugnostus is part of the collection of Gnostic texts known as the Nag Hammadi Scriptures . There it has been handed down twice. On the one hand, it appears as the third text of the 3rd Code (NHC III, 3; p. 70.1–90.13, pages 79/80 are missing), and on the other hand, it appears as the first text of the 5th Code (NHC V, 1; p . 1-17). In Codex V the letter has survived in its entirety, but the condition of the papyrus is poor (a few lines of the upper and lower halves of the sheet are missing from all sides). Therefore, text editions and translations are based on the text of Code III with the addition of the missing pages from Code V.

The full title is "Blessed Eugnostus to His Own". The aforementioned Eugnostus is not otherwise specified, it may be a spiritual name ( Eu , beautiful + Gnosis , knowledge).

Content and classification

The text is in the form of a teaching letter. The first section contains a brief rejection of the views of Hellenistic philosophy regarding the root and nature of the world. These are contrasted and developed with a detailed description of the becoming of the divine, which takes place through various gradations and emanations , ultimately formed in the male-female, one part of which is the Son of Man and the other part Sophia (wisdom).

The importance of the text in its time is not only proven by the fact that the Nag Hammadi corpus contains two versions, there is also a Christian remodeling of the text, called Sophia Jesu Christi, both as part of the Nag Hammadi writings and from it has been handed down independently as Codex Berolinensis Gnosticus 8502 .

expenditure

  • Original texts and translations were published in the Nag Hammadi Studies (NHS) series:
Douglas M. Parrott (Ed.): Nag Hammadi Codices III, 3-4 and V, 1. Papyrus Berolinensis 8502.3 and Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 1081. Eugnostos and the Sophia of Jesus Christ (= Nag Hammadi Studies. Vol. 27). Brill, Leiden 1991, ISBN 90-04-08366-9 .
  • An English translation:
Douglas M. Parrott: Eugnostos the Blessed (III, 3 and V, l) and the Sophia of Jesus Christ (III, 4 and BG 8502, 3). In: James M. Robinson (Ed.): The Nag Hammadi Library in English. Harper & Row, New York NY et al. 1977, ISBN 0-06-066929-2 , pp. 206-228.
  • A German translation appeared in:
Gerd Lüdemann , Martina Janßen: Bible of the heretics. The Gnostic Scriptures from Nag Hammadi. Radius-Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-87173-128-5 , pp. 247-255, and in:
Martin Krause, Kurt Rudolph : The Gnosis. Volume 2: Coptic and Mandaean Sources. Artemis-Verlag, Zurich et al. 1971, pp. 32–45.

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