‘The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnosties Hans Jonas The Journal of Religion, Vol. 42, No.4 (Oct., 1962), 262-273. Stable URL: http flinksjstor.orgsici?sick=0022-4 189% 28196210%2042%%3A4%9C2623 ATSBOTE®SE2.0.COPBL-Y The Journal of Religion is curtently published by The University of Chicago Press Your use of the ISTOR archive indicates your acceptance of ISTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at flip: feworwjtor org/aboutterms.htmal. ISTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in par, that unless you fave obtained pcior permission, you may not dowaload an cnt isus of @ journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content inthe ISTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial uss. Please contact the publisher cegarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at bhupsferww.jstoc.org/joumals‘ucpresshtel. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transtnission. ISTOR is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of scholarly journals. For more information regarding ISTOR, please contact support @jstor.org- up:thrwwjstor.orgy Mon Aug § 17:12:26 2005THE SECRET BOOKS OF THE EGYPTIAN GNOSTICS' HANS JONAS® one discovery, about 1945, at Nag Hamadi_ in Egypt (the ancient Chenoboskion), of what was prob- ably the complete sacred library of a Gnostic sect is one of those sensational events in the history of religious-his- torical scholarship that archeology and accident have so lavishly provided since the beginning of this century. It was preceded (speaking of written relics only) by the enormous find, early in the century, of Manichaean writings at Turfan in Chinese Turkistan and by the further unearthing, about 1930 in the Egyptian Fayum, of parts of a ‘Manichaean library in Coptic. It was closely fallowed by the discovery of the ‘Dead Sea Scrolls in Palestine. If we add to these new sources the Mandaean writings—whose progressive coming to light since the latter part of the last cen- tury is owed not to the digging of archeologists or the scavenging of shep- ‘Professor Jonas at present a member of the Graduate Facaliy of Polieal and Socal Science al the New Schoo for Social Research, New Vor ity, eceteed bie education at Pretorg, Betty, ‘Marburg, and Heidchers, taking «PhD. deere from Macburg ix 1928. "Phe varios gosto ‘he held before and since coming to the New School include visting leturer at Princeton (19583 196t~ (2) and Colembia (1861) universities andthe Tngersol! Lecturer at Harvard Univerty (1960- 61). Hs published earperinlades such books a8 Auturtie und xs paulicke Breikeitsproblen (1980), Gnowls wad spateniher Gest (2 val 834) 1984), and The Gnostic Reinlon? The Merge of the Alen God and the Detieaings of Chrctianisy, and artes appesring in. nimetoas scholarly pecodials which indude. Theolgiche Zech, Sefer Vohanan Lets, Philosophy end Phonanencogtat Reterch, Gnomon, Fowrn of Philosophy, Measure, Seis! Research, American Tours of Psychoovalysi, and many others. herds and peasants hut to contacts with the still-living, long-forgotten sect it- self—we find ourselves now in posses- sion of a massive literature of “lost causes” from thase crucial five or so centuries, from the first century n.c. gious destiny of the Western world took shape: the voice of creeds and flights of thought which, part of that creative process, ‘were to-become obliterated in the con- solidation of official creeds that fol- Towed upon the turmoil of novelty and boundless vision, Unlike the Dead Sea finds of the same years, the Gnostic find from Nag Hamadi has been beset from the be- ginning and to this day by a persistent curse of political roadblocks, litigation, and, worst of all, scholarly jealousies and “firstmanship” (the last factor has grown by now into a veritable chronique scandaleuse of contemporary acade- mia), the combined upshot of which is that fifteen years after the first recog- nition of the natute of the documents only two of the forty-six (forty-nine)? ings have been properly edited! three additional ones have been trans- lated in full," and two (four) more® are available from a different papyrus that also contains them and has recently been published (in its Gnostic. parts) after having been in the Berlin Museum. for sixty years.* For all the rest, about which fragmentary information has been seeping out aver the years, we have now, and probably for quite some time, to be content with the provisional 262THE SECRET BOOKS OF THE EGYPTIAN GNOSTICS descriptions, excerpts, and summaries offered in the book under review. Its author happened, as a young Egyptolo- t from Paris, to be on the spat when, in 1947, the first of the thirteen papyrus codices’ comprising the find was ac- quired by the Coptic Museum in Cairo. He recognized its significance and was from then on intimately connected with, the unfolding story of further acquisi- tion, inventorying, commenication to the’ scientific community—and the aforementioned intramural feuds? By hiis own account, Jean Doresse is, as of now, the only scholar who has had di- rect access {0 the complete Cairo treas- ure, has at least leafed through i of its twelve codices,* catalogued the writ- ings composing them, and taken notes (of varying copiousness and not always at leisure} of their contents, Whatever the ultimate merits in the scramble, the practical fact for the general student is that by embodying those first-hand notes the present book fs in mere terms of information indeed unique and plain- ly indispensable. ‘The monopolistic situation, unhealthy in itself, could have fallen into less worthy hands. Doresse shows himself a ‘competent scholar who joins enthusiasin for the subject with extensive command of the field of Gnostic and related stud- fes and with a lively sense for relevance and interconnection. With this general praise T pass over the valuable general account of gnosticism and its hitherto extant documents (chap. i, fi), as well as the narration of the discavery, to the crucial chapter v, “Forty-four Secret [and hitherto unknown] Books.” This is the real raison d’étre of the book and at the same time the reason by which it is legitimately meant for superses- sion;* the one hundred pages of this 263 chapter contain, one by one, the ré- ‘sumés or at least listings of all the writ ings of which we hope for more com- plete and more direct knowledge in the not-too-distant future. It is provisional information by its very natute, for the serjous student exciting and tantalizing to the highest degree. The résumés range from the fairly detailed to the very bare: some are enriched by direct quotations, some enlarged into inter- pretations and comparisons with older material; sometimes far-reaching con- jectures are ventured; sometimes a writing rates no more than a catalogue title. “My examination... was... unequal and incomplete,” says Doresse (p. 249), calling his notes “rather hur- tied.” The reader, grateful though sometimes vexed, has to take what is offered. On the whole, he feels ably in- formed wherever the information is substantial. With the obvions reservations dictated by the state of airs, some crtial and supple: mentary conuents may be voiced at this stage, Doresse finds (p. 160) the teaching of the Parapivase of Shem, the longest of the revelations in the whale Kbraty (No. 27 by his ousting, which is adopter here forall f= ences), “ential at nearly so" with what Mippolytus reports of 2 “Pareprase of Seth" Rojas, v. 18°22). To elaborate the qulicn- tion, th fst spe in the Masichacun mae ner of a rsiogrup of the primordia! Darkness {o the Light, while the later speaks of the Light's being attracted downward ta the Darke ness, & catceal dilerence. Seeing that none- theless the two works seem to be close rela~ tives indeed, this {5 a good example of how much saverlng—or shall we say permissive play of varition?—there was on Such basic points of doctrine within the same sect, and ‘ith no apparent cuarel. If, by contrast, we just thine of the biter cxnianan battles in Contemporary ecelesastic Chrstendam, we realize. 'what the presence or absence of “chureW” meant ig such matters. Doresse’s ideatcation of No, 14, Discourse of Truth