Le tonnerre, intellect parfait (NH VI.2).

• Author: Denzey, Nicola
• Position: Review

Le tonnerre, intellect parfait (NH VI.2). By PAUL-HUBERT POIRIER, with two contributions by WOLF-PETER FUNK. Bibliotheque copte de Nag Hammadi, section "Textes," vol. 22. Louvain: PEETERS; Quebec City: LES PRESSES DE L'UNIVERSITE LAVAL, 1995. Pp. xviii + 372. FB 3200.

The poetic second tractate from the sixth codex of the Nag Hammadi library, Thunder, Perfect Mind, has enchanted scholars since translations of the text first appeared after its discovery in 1945. This tractate remains unique in our corpus of ancient literature for its eponymous divine locatrix, Protennoia, her characteristic mode of first-person address, and her expression of divine realities through paradoxes or riddles, such as "I am she who has given birth, and many are my children" and "I am the whore and the holy one."

The attempt to learn more about Thunder has been confounded by the paucity of secondary studies. Examined for the first time by Jean Doresse in 1948, its editio princeps was not published until 1971, in German, by M. Krause and P. Labib. Poirier's volume does much to fill the void. Like all the volumes in the outstanding Bibliotheque Copte de Nag Hammadi series under the aegis of Louis Painchaud at Laval University. Poirier's study includes a detailed introduction, the Coptic text of the tractate with a facing-page French translation, extensive commentary, appendices, and indices. No other comparative analysis of this tractate currently exists, making this volume indispensable for any serious study.

The thoroughness of Poirier's scholarship immediately impresses; this volume is certainly the most comprehensive, ambitious work on the Thunder ever attempted. The tractate is a mere eleven folia in length; Poirier's notes and commentaries comprise over three hundred and fifty pages. The culmination of many years' work for Poirier, it is a very fine piece of scholarship.

This edition commences with a detailed analysis of the manuscript and its Coptic orthography--the exacting, critical textual work of Poirier's collaborator, the Coptic scholar Wolf-Peter Funk. Funk's analyses are comprehensible, however, only to devoted Coptologists. Poirier contributes a lengthy introduction, drawing upon literary analysis to illuminate the treatise's form, structure, characters, and intent. He excels in placing the Thunder in its intellectual context, helping to broaden the impact of the team's scholarship. He notes extensive parallels, in particular, with ancient works: with...