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Nag Hammadi
Excerpt from the Lexham Bible Dictionary, the most advanced Bible dictionary.
A collection of leather-bound codex manuscripts discovered in 1945 in rural Egypt. The collection includes 52 texts (or tractates); with duplicates taken into consideration, there are 45 unique titles. All of the texts are written in Coptic. There are 12 surviving codices, plus eight unbound leaves titled as the 13th codex. They are held in the Coptic Museum in Cairo.The Nag Hammadi Codices include many writings that had been lost or unavailable for many centuries. Of the 45 unique titles, 37 were not extant in any form prior to the Nag Hammadi discovery, and three additional ones existed only in unidentified fragments. The net result is that the Nag Hammadi discovery adds to the ancient document collection available to the world 30 relatively complete texts and ten more fragmentary texts, as well as five additional copies of previously known works.These Nag Hammadi texts bear witness to a range of religious beliefs, many (but not all) of which emerged in the centuries following the advent of Christianity. None of the 45 Nag Hammadi titles were ever included in a canonical list or ancient Christian Bible, and they were never widely authoritative in the early church period; many were even directly named as heretical by early church fathers.
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The Lexham Bible Dictionary
Nag Hammadi Codices
Nag Hammadi Codices A collection of leather-bound codex manuscripts discovered in 1945 in rural Egypt. The collection includes 52 texts (or tractates); with duplicates taken into consideration, there are 45 unique titles. All of the texts are written in Coptic. There are 12 surviving codices, plus eight
The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary
Nag Hammadi
NAG HAMMADI (26°03´N; 32°15´E). A site near the Egyptian village of al-Qaṣr (ancient Chenoboskion) where, in late 1945, thirteen leather-bound books (codices) written in Coptic were found buried in a storage jar beneath a large boulder. The codices date to the 4th century and reflect a combination of
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised
Nag Hammadi
Nag Hammadi näg hə-mäʹdē LITERATURE. A collection of documents found in the area of Nag Hammadi, Egypt. I. Discovery II. Publication of Texts and Translations III. Contents of the Thirteen Codices IV. Literary and Religious Relationships V. Evaluation
Tyndale Bible Dictionary
Nag Hammadi Manuscripts
NAG HAMMADI MANUSCRIPTS* A collection of 12 Coptic codices containing 52 tractates, or Gnostic documents.In 1947 the area of Jabal al-Tariff (near Chenoboskion and Nag Hammadi in Egypt) yielded a magnificent collection of 12 Coptic codices containing 52 tractates, or documents, 6 of which are duplicates.
The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary (Revised and Updated)
Nag Hammadi
Nag Hammadi (nahg´ huh-mah´dee), a town in Upper Egypt near ancient Chenoboskion. In 1945 peasants discovered nearby a collection of texts that have shed important light on the religious history of the first Christian centuries. The find consists of thirteen papyrus volumes or codices, which are bound
Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible
Nag Hammadi
Nag HammadiA modern city in Upper Egypt, 556 km. (345 mi.) S of Cairo and 118 km. (74 mi.) N of Luxor on the west bank of the Nile River. The name of the city has been applied to a collection of papyrus manuscripts that shed light on religious and philosophical issues during the early Christian period.
Eerdmans Bible Dictionary
Nag Hammadi
Nag Hammadi [näg həm mäˊdē].† A site at the foot of the Jebel et-Tarif, across the Nile from the modern town of Nag Hammadi, in Upper Egypt where in 1946 was found a corpus of Christian and non-Christian Gnostic documents in the Coptic language. Discovery of these texts has increased significantly
Harper’s Bible Dictionary
Nag Hammadi
Nag HammadiNag Hammadi (nahg hahm-mah«dee), a town in Upper Egypt near ancient Chenoboskion, near which was discovered in December 1945 a collection of texts that have shed important light on the religious history of the first Christian centuries. The find consists of thirteen papyrus volumes or codices,
Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics
Nag Hammadi Gospels
Nag Hammadi Gospels. Some radical critics of the New Testament (see Bible Criticism) claim that the Gnostic gospels are equal to those in the New Testament, and that they do not support the resurrection of Christ (see Miracle; Resurrection, Evidence for). The Jesus Seminar places The Gospel of Thomas
Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
Nag Hammadi
NAG HAMMADI [nag ham MAH dih] — a town in Upper Egypt where an astonishing archaeological discovery of Coptic translations of ancient Gnostic writings was found in 1945. The find included such works as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of the Egyptians, the Apocryphon [“secret book”] of John, the Secret
Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary
Nag Hammadi
NAG HAMMADI (Nȧg Hăm maʹ dē) Modern Egyptian village 300 miles south of Cairo and about 60 miles north of Luxor or ancient Thebes. Because of the close proximity of Nag Hammadi to the site of an important discovery of ancient documents relating to Gnosticism, the collection of documents is usually
The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible, Volume 4, M–P
Nag Hammadi Library
Nag Hammadi Library nahg’huh-mah’dee. In 1945, a dozen Coptic mss (plus part of a thirteenth) were accidentally discovered near the modern Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi. These leather codices apparently were found by the village of Faw Qibli (near al-Qaṣr, ancient Chenoboskion); they had been hidden