Description
Hidden for 16 centuries, the Nag Hammadi library, the most prodigious collection of sacred gnostic texts, were discovered in the late 1940s in Chenoboskion, a remote hamlet in upper Egypt. Among them was the Gospel according to Thomas, which aroused international publicity and alerted the world to the significance of this archeological find, believed by many scholars to surpass the Dead Sea Scrolls in importance.
Here is the original survey of the contents of these documents and their significance. Jean Doresse’s narrative allows readers direct contact with an ancient form of Christianity through the philosophical wealth of the texts—ranging from gnostic revelations and Christian apocrypha to Hermetic literature.
Included is the original English translation of the Gospel of Thomas published in 1960. 40,000 copies sold of earlier editions. Sheds new light on the vanished world in which Christianity was born. The author was in the party that discovered these ancient Coptic documents.
Softcover, 384 pages, #786, 12 B&W illustrations
