Nag Hammadi Codex VII.

• Author: Denzey, Nicola
• Position: Review

Edited by BIRGER A. PEARSON. The Coptic Gnostic Library; Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies, vol. 30. Leiden: E. J. BRILL, 1996. Pp. xxvi + 479. HF1 198, $127.75.

The year 1995 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of the thirteen codices which comprise the Nag Hammadi library. The fifty-two tractates they contain have dramatically altered our understanding of early Christian heterodox communities. In the past five decades, an international team of scholars has endeavored to make this discovery fully accessible to all, a movement spearheaded by James Robinson at Claremont, the driving force behind the Coptic Gnostic Library project.

The Coptic Gnostic Library includes not only the Nag Hammadi tractates, but also the contents of three additional codices, the Papyrus Berolinensis 8502, the Askew codex, and the Bruce codex, all known prior to 1945. The series in which the Library is published, Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies, now boasts thirty-six volumes of studies, editions and conference proceedings. The series, with contributions from American, German, and Dutch scholars, parallels that produced by scholars at the Universite Laval: the Bibliotheque copte de Nag Hammadi. Nag Hammadi Codex VII completes the series of critical editions from this Claremont-based group.

As a collaborative work, Nag Hammadi Codex VII required considerable time to complete; it represents the work of ten contributors, some of whom have been involved with the project since the 1960s. Frederik Wisse's introduction of the Paraphrase of Shem, to cite an example, represents work from years ago. Gregory Riley, by contrast, has completely redone the work of Joseph A. Gibbons on the Second Treatise of the Great Seth. In some cases, the old and new meet, as in Michel Desjardins' contribution of a new introduction to James Brashler's edition of the Apocalypse of Peter. This collaborative effort works - the volume strikes the right balance between the strengths of many experts contributing their best efforts and research to the field, and the careful editing of Birger Pearson, which imposes a rigid enough framework to give coherence to a disparate collection of materials.

The volume begins with a detailed introduction to the orthographic and papyrological details of the codex. Codex VII, the best preserved of the Nag Hammadi codices, contains five separate tractates: the Paraphrase of Shem, the Second Treatise of the Great Seth, the Apocalypse of Peter, the...