PATIENT
The Gnostic gospels and treatises
ERA
2nd–4th century CE
FOUND
Nag Hammadi, Egypt, 1945
BURIED
c. 390 CE
CHIEF COMPLAINT
Why does this world feel like a mistake, and what is the way back?
HISTORY OF PRESENT ILLNESS
Buried in Egypt around 390 CE and rediscovered in 1945, these texts represent a radical form of early Christianity that taught liberation through direct knowledge (gnosis) of one's divine nature. They were suppressed by the emerging orthodox church for nearly 1,700 years. In Gnostic cosmology the material world was not made by the highest God. It was made by a lesser, ignorant or even malevolent being, and the true divine is utterly beyond it. The library covers Pistis Sophia (acquired by the British Museum in 1785), retellings of Genesis, hidden gospels, wisdom poems, Thomasine and Sethian texts, and practical ethics.
REVIEW OF SYSTEMS
THE DEMIURGE
A lesser creator, Yaldabaoth, makes the material world and does not know what is above him. His 'image of God' is his undoing.
ARCHONS AND AEONS
The Archons are the cosmic rulers who bind and deceive souls. The Aeons are the paired divine beings that emanate from the Invisible Spirit.
SOPHIA
Divine Wisdom, who falls through curiosity or pride and must be rescued. In Pistis Sophia she sings thirteen repentance hymns.
GNOSIS
Salvation as return: the divine spark finding its way home through knowledge of itself, not through belief alone.
ETHICS
Know yourself, discipline the passions, pursue wisdom rather than wealth. The practical texts are among the most useful for modern readers.
PHYSICAL EXAM — STYLE & STRUCTURE
- —The Gospel of Thomas is 114 'secret sayings' with no crucifixion or resurrection story. Some overlap with the canonical Gospels, with a more interior meaning.
- —Mary Magdalene is the main questioner in Pistis Sophia and the trusted teacher in the Gospel of Mary.
- —The Gospel of Judas inverts the betrayal story: Judas is the one disciple who truly understands Jesus.
- —Thunder, Perfect Mind is a poem in the voice of a female divine being, built from paradoxes: 'I am the whore and the holy one.'
- —Many texts are partial or damaged. The Gospel of Mary is missing pages 1–6 and 11–14.
ASSESSMENT & PLAN
Start with the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Truth and the Teachings of Silvanus, then the Secret Book of John for the cosmology. Read the dense ritual texts (Pistis Sophia Books III–IV, Zostrianos, Marsanes) last. This is a non-denominational reference guide to what these texts say. It does not argue that one account of early Christianity is right.