The Nag Hammadi Scriptures

“The Gnostic speculation was the foremost other philosophical religion in the West. At its peak during nearly 1500 active years, the diverse schools of Gnostic dualism extended, like the Byzantine Empire, from Eastern Asia through Europe and North Africa. After decades of detective-book episodes following the1945 discovery of the Nag Hammadi Scriptures in the Egyptian Fayuum, here at last we have a beautifully accessible and complete edition of Gnosticism’s earliest classical scriptures. In one definitive volume, in lucid English conversion, all is there: the immaculate texts each preceded by essential introductions, and an epilogue with major essays on four schools of Gnostic thought. The keenest minds in Gnosticism have given us their life of learning and expression to make this gift possible. With its publication we have reached the clear Everest summit of early Gnosticism. The Coptic scholar Marvin Meyer has directed the joint ascent to the peak. I urge all to indulge in the deep pleasure of expanding our understanding of spirit, soul, body and the cosmic forces behind our temporal condition. We have this triumph of scholarship and literary elegance to inform and guide us.” — Willis Barnstone, author of The Gnostic Bible (with Marvin Meyer), The Other Bible and The Poetics of Translation.

Marvin Meyer is one of the foremost scholars on early Christianity and texts about Jesus outside the New Testament. He is Griset Professor of Bible and Christian Studies at Chapman University in Orange, California. Among his recent books are The Gospel of Judas, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus, The Gospels of Mary, The Gospel of Thomas, and The Nag Hammadi Scriptures.

James M. Robinson is the founding director emeritus of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, and professor emeritus at Claremont Graduate University. He is the author of Trajectories through Early Christianity and A New Quest of the Historical Jesus.