The Discovery: A Chance Find in Upper Egypt (December 1945)

• In December 1945, near the town of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt (about 80 km northwest of Luxor), an astonishing archaeological discovery was made at the base of the Jabal al-Tarif cliff, a mountain honeycombed with over 150 caves. These caves were originally quarried for graves during the Sixth Dynasty (c. 2345–2181 BC, approximately 4,300 years ago) and later used by early Christian monks.
• Two Egyption peasants from the al-Samman clan, Muhammad 'Ali al- Samman and his brother Khalifah 'Ali, along with other brothers and possibly additional camel drivers (accounts vary, but up to seven people were reportedly present), had saddled their camels and ridden out to the cliff to dig for (sabakh), a nitrogen-rich soft soil used as fertilizer for crops.
• While digging around a massive boulder, they unearthed a buried red earthenware jar, about 60 cm high and 30 cm in diameter at its widest point. The jar was sealed, and had a bowl fitted as a lid into its mouth to protect the
• Muhammad 'Ali initially hesitated to break the jar open, fearing it might contain a jinni (a supernatural spirit in Arab folklore) that could harm However, the possibility that it held gold or treasure outweighed his superstition.
• He raised his mattock (a digging tool similar to a pickaxe) and smashed the jar. Instead of gold, a cloud of ancient papyrus particles floated out. Inside were thirteen papyrus codices (books) bound in tooled leather covers, remarkably well-preserved despite their age.
• The books were initially divided among the seven camel drivers present at the site. However, the others, ignorant of their potential value and fearing

they might be associated with sorcery or bad luck, refused their shares, so Muhammad 'Ali collected them all.

• Muhammad 'Ali wrapped the codices in his tunic and carried them on his camel back to his home in the nearby hamlet of al-Qasr , where he dumped them onto a pile of straw beside the oven.
• Muhammad's mother, 'Umm-Ahmad, later confessed to using some of the loose papyrus sheets (likely including the covers and fragments from Codices X and XII, as well as other detached leaves) as kindling to start the fire in the oven, believing the books were worthless or potentially "unlucky." This resulted in the irreversible loss of an unknown amount of material.

II.  The Context of Violence: A Blood Feud

• The discovery happened amid a longstanding blood feud in the al-Samman clan, shortly before Muhammad 'Ali and his brothers sought revenge for their father's murder. Such feuds were common in rural Egyptian villages, involving cycles of retaliatory killings.
• Their father, 'Ali al-Samman, a night watchman, had been murdered six months earlier (in May 1945) by a rival clansman, Ahmed Isma'il, who shot him while he slept after a dispute over irrigation water rights.
• Weeks after the discovery, the brothers learned that Ahmed Isma'il was sleeping nearby in a house in the village. Heeding their mother's earlier advice to keep their mattocks sharp "just in case," they ambushed him, hacked off his limbs with their tools, ripped out his heart, and divided and devoured it raw among themselves as the ultimate act of blood revenge, fulfilling local customs of vendetta.

• The murder drew immediate police attention, leading to interrogations and house searches in al-Qasr. Muhammad 'Ali was briefly arrested but released due to lack of evidence.
• Fearing that the police, while investigating the murder, might search his home and confiscate or destroy the mysterious books (mistaking them for evidence or illicit items), Muhammad 'Ali entrusted them to a trusted local Coptic priest named al-Qummus Basiliyus 'Abd al-Masih for safekeeping.

III.  The Journey to the Scholars

• While Muhammad 'Ali was under police interrogation for the murder, the priest's brother-in-law, a local history teacher named Raghib Andrawus, visited and examined one of the codices. Recognizing its ancient Coptic script and suspecting its antiquity and value, he took it to Cairo to show to
• The codices quickly entered Egypt's antiquities black market. Illiterate neighbors and middlemen bartered or sold them for trivial sums—such as oranges, tea, cigarettes, or small amounts of cash (one codex reportedly fetched just 12 Egyptian pounds, enough for a grain merchant to open a shop in Cairo). Smugglers and dealers fragmented some volumes to maximize profits.
• Officials from the Egyptian Department of Antiquities learned of the manuscripts through informants and black market rumors. In a series of dramatic events involving raids and negotiations, they purchased one codex outright and confiscated ten and a half more (including fragments), depositing them in the Coptic Museum in Cairo by 1952 for safekeeping and study.

• A significant portion of the thirteenth codex (later known as Codex I or the Jung Codex) was smuggled out of Egypt by a Belgian antiquities dealer named Albert Eid and offered for sale on the international black market, first in New York and then in Europe.
• News of the smuggled codex reached Gilles Quispel, a Dutch professor of early Christian history at Utrecht University. He persuaded the C.G. Jung Foundation in Zurich to purchase it in 1952 for about $10,000, with the condition that it be returned to Egypt after study.
• Upon examining the acquired codex, Quispel found several pages missing. In May 1955, he traveled to Cairo, visited the Coptic Museum, and photographed the remaining texts. By comparing and transcribing, he pieced together the full content, including the famous opening of the Gospel of Truth.
• International teams of scholars, including those from UNESCO and the Coptic Museum, worked on The complete English edition, The Nag Hammadi Library, was published in 1977 under James M. Robinson's direction, making the texts widely accessible.

IV.  The Nature of the Texts

• The "Living Jesus": first line from one text read: "These are the secret words which the living Jesus spoke, and which the twin, Judas Thomas, wrote down," introducing a mystical, non-canonical view of Jesus'
• The Gospel of Thomas: This key text is a collection of 114 sayings (logia) attributed to Jesus, many paralleling the New Testament but others presenting him as a spiritual guide using cryptic, koan-like parables (e.g., "If

you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you"). It lacks narratives of miracles or crucifixion, focusing on inner enlightenment.

• The Collection: The library comprises twelve complete codices plus eight loose leaves from a thirteenth, totaling fifty-two treatises (some duplicated across codices, resulting in 45 unique texts). They were bound in leather with papyrus cartonnage (recycled scraps) that included dated receipts from around 348 CE, helping date the burial.
• Diverse Genres: The texts span various forms, including:
  • Secret Gospels: Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Philip (discussing sacraments like the "bridal chamber" and Jesus' intimate relationship with Mary Magdalene), Gospel of Truth (a poetic meditation on salvation through knowledge).
  • Apocalypses: Apocalypse of Paul (a visionary ascent through heavens), First and Second Apocalypses of James, Apocalypse of Peter (critiquing orthodox views of crucifixion), Apocalypse of Adam (a non-Christian Gnostic creation myth).
  • Theological Tractates: The Apocryphon (Secret Book) of John (a retelling of Genesis with Gnostic cosmology), Hypostasis of the Archons, The Tripartite Tractate (a Valentinian exposition on the divine pleroma or fullness), Gospel of the Egyptians.
  • Mystical Poetry and Dialogues: The Thunder: Perfect Mind (a hymn in a female divine voice proclaiming paradoxes like "I am the first and the last"), Dialogue of the Savior, Book of Thomas the Contender.

• Other Works: Hermetic texts like the Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth, Platonic excerpts from The Republic, and Sethian works like

Language and Origin

• The Language: These books were written in Coptic (an Egyptian language that uses Greek letters). Specifically, they use the Sahidic and Subakhmimic
• Translation Dates: The books found in the jar were written between 350 and 400 AD.
• Original Dates: However, they are The original texts were written in Greek much earlier, around 120 to 180 AD.

V.  Gnosticism: The "Way of Knowing"

• Definition: The word "Gnosis" is Greek for "knowledge." In this case, it does not mean book It refers to a deep, personal feeling or insight about God. It is different from "pistis" (faith) or regular logical knowledge.
• Self-Knowledge: A main rule is that if you truly know yourself, you will know God. The Gospel of Thomas says, "He who knows himself knows the All." They believed that finding your deep inner self shows that you are one with God.
• The Divine Spark: Gnostics believed humans have a piece of God inside them. They called this an "uncreated self," "seed," "spark," or "pearl." This spark means we are secretly divine and can be free from the fake physical

• The "Demiurge" (The Lesser God): The texts say there are two different gods:

• The True God: The invisible, perfect Father (or Pleroma) who is hard to know.
• The Creator God: A lesser, arrogant god named Yaldabaoth, Saklas ("the fool"), or Samael ("the blind god").
• This lesser god is often connected to Yahweh from the Old He wrongly claims, "I am God, and there is no other," because he doesn't know about the True God above him. He traps souls in this physical world.
  • God as a Pair (Dyad): The True God is often described as both Male (Father) and Female (Mother). The Mother is often called the Holy Spirit or Sophia (Wisdom). Some prayers were spoken to "Thee, O Father, and through Thee, O Mother," showing that men and women were equal in spiritual rituals.
  • Mary Magdalene: In books like the Gospel of Philip and Gospel of Mary, she is Jesus' best friend and partner ("consort").
• Jesus loved her more than the other
• He used to kiss her often (which was a symbol for passing on secret knowledge).
• The other disciples were jealous of

• She represents female wisdom and shows that women had power in Gnostic groups.

VI.  The Struggle with Orthodoxy

• Heresy: Starting in the second century, "Orthodox" (mainstream) Christian leaders called Gnostic ideas "heresy." This word comes from the Greek hairesis, meaning "choice" or "false teaching." They felt these ideas threatened the authority of the Church.
• Irenaeus Attacks: A Bishop named Irenaeus of Lyons (lived 130–202 AD) wrote five books called Against Heresies.
  • He said Gnostics were telling "fables" (fairy tales).

• He argued that there should only be four specific Gospels and one rule for all Christians.

• Persecution: Things got worse after Emperor Constantine became a Christian (312 AD). By the late 300s (under Emperor Theodosius I), it was a crime to own Gnostic books. Many of these books were burned.
• The Burial: Around 367 AD, St Athanasius sent a letter banning these books. To save them, monks from the nearby Pachomian monastery likely took the books and hid them in the They buried them in a cave to keep them safe from being destroyed.

VII.  Significance of the Discovery

• Rewriting History: The discovery at Nag Hammadi changed how scholars see early Christianity. We now know the early church was not one single group. It was diverse, with many intense debates about who Jesus was and how to find salvation.
• Voice of the "Heretics": Before 1945, we only knew about Gnostics because their enemies (like Irenaeus) wrote bad things about them. Now, the

Gnostics "speak for themselves." We can read their actual words and understand their mystical view of the world.

• Modern Relevance: These ancient ideas fit well with modern thinking:
  • Looking for God inside
  • Questioning strict religious
  • Supporting women (gender inclusivity).
  • Seeing Jesus as a spiritual guide rather than just a

• These ideas influence psychology (like Carl Jung) and pop culture (like The Da Vinci Code).

• Broader Impact: This find is as important as the Dead Sea Scrolls (found in 1947). While people still debate the exact details of how the jar was found, the books themselves are definitely real. All of them are now reunited and kept in the Coptic Museum in Cairo.