Gnostic texts

Part of a series on Gnosticism


History of Gnosticism Early Gnosticism Syrian-Egyptic Gnosticism Gnosticism in modern times
Proto-Gnostics Philo Paul the Apostle Valentinius Cerinthus Basilides
Gnostic texts Gnostic Gospels Nag Hammadi library Codex Tchacos Bruce Codex Gnosticism and the New Testament
Related articles Gnosis Pythagoreanism Neoplatonism and Gnosticism Manichaeism Esoteric Christianity Theosophy This box: view • talk • edit

Gnosticism used a number of religious texts that are preserved, in part or whole, in ancient manuscripts or are lost but mentioned critically in Patristic writings.

[edit] Gnostic texts

These texts exist in surviving manuscripts.

These texts are mentioned or partially quoted in the writings of the Church Fathers.

Gospel of Basilides mentioned by Origen, Jerome, Ambrose, Philip of Side, and Bede.
Basilides' Exegetica mentioned in Hippolytus of Rome (Refutatio Omnium Haeresium VII, i-xv and X, x) and Clement of Alexandria (Str. IV, xii and IV, xxiv-xxvi)
Epiphanes' On Righteousness, mentioned in Clement of Alexandria (Str. III, ii).
Heracleon, Fragments from his Commentary on the Gospel of John, mentioned in Origen (Commentary on the Gospel of John)
Naassene Fragment mentioned in Hippolytus (Ref. 5.7.2-9).
Ophite Diagrams mentioned in Celsus and Origen
Ptolemy's Commentary on the Gospel of John Prologue, mentioned in Irenaeus^[1].
Ptolemy's Letter to Flora, mentioned in Epiphanius^[2].
Theodotus: Excerpta Ex Theodoto mentioned in Clement of Alexandria.

The Nag Hammadi library is a collection of early Christian Gnostic texts discovered near the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945.

Askew Codex contains Pistis Sophia and some other unknown texts.
Berlin Codex, 5th century, contains a fragmentary Gospel of Mary, out of nineteen pages, pages 1-6 and 11-14 are missing entirely, the Apocryphon of John, The Sophia of Jesus Christ, and an epitome of the Act of Peter.
Bruce Codex contains the first and second Books of Jeu and three fragments - an untitled text, an untitled hymn, and the text "On the Passage of the Soul Through the Archons of the Midst".
Codex Tchacos, 4th century, contains the Gospel of Judas, the First Apocalypse of James, the Letter of Peter to Philip, and a fragment of Allogenes.
Nag Hammadi library contains a large number of texts (for a complete list see the listing)
Three Oxyrhynchus papyri contain portions of the Gospel of Thomas:
- Oxyrhyncus 1: this is half a leaf of papyrus which contains fragments of logion 26 through 33.
- Oxyrhyncus 654: this contains fragments of the beginning through logion 7, logion 24 and logion 36 on the flip side of a papyrus containing surveying data.
- Oxyrhyncus 655: this contains fragments of logion 36 through logion 39 and is actually 8 fragments named a through h, whereof f and h have since been lost.