Church History · 1945

The Nag Hammadi Library Is Found

In December 1945, farmers digging near Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt found a jar holding thirteen ancient leather bound books. The 52 writings inside, including the Gospel of Thomas, were mostly Gnostic texts in Coptic. They tell us a lot about early Christian history, but they are not lost books of the Bible.

Read it in the Bible: 1 John 4:2-3 John 1:14 Colossians 2:8-9 Jude 1:3

In December 1945, two brothers digging for fertilizer near the town of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt found a sealed clay jar. Inside were twelve leather bound books, plus pages from a thirteenth, made of papyrus in the 300s. They held 52 writings in the Coptic language, most of them Gnostic texts that had been lost for about 1,600 years. The most famous is the Gospel of Thomas, a collection of 114 sayings credited to Jesus. The Nag Hammadi library is one of the most important finds for understanding early Christian history. It also shows clearly why the early church did not include these books in the New Testament.

How Was the Nag Hammadi Library Discovered?

The finders were Muhammad Ali al Samman and his brother, who were digging near a cliff called Jabal al Tarif for soft soil to use as fertilizer. They found a red clay jar about two feet tall. Muhammad Ali was afraid at first that it might hold an evil spirit. Then he hoped it held gold. Instead he found old books.

He took them home, and his mother burned some of the loose pages in her oven, which is why parts of one book are missing. The rest passed through local traders and antiquities dealers. Over the next years, Egyptian authorities gathered them, and today nearly all are kept at the Coptic Museum in Cairo. One book, called the Jung Codex, went to Switzerland for a time before returning to Egypt.

Full photographs were published in the 1970s, and a complete English translation, edited by James M. Robinson, came out in 1977.

What Is in the Nag Hammadi Library?

The books were copied in Coptic, the language of Egyptian Christians, but most were first written in Greek. The writings include:

The Gospel of Thomas: 114 sayings of Jesus with no story of His death or resurrection.
The Gospel of Philip and the Gospel of Truth: Gnostic reflections on salvation and the sacraments.
The Secret Book of John: a Gnostic retelling of creation that presents the God of Genesis as a lesser, flawed being.
Other texts, including a short piece from Plato's Republic and a book of wise sayings.

Some famous texts often called Gnostic Gospels were not found here. The Gospel of Mary and the Gospel of Judas came from other manuscripts.

What Is Gnosticism?

Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis, which means knowledge. It was a group of movements in the second and third centuries. Most taught that the physical world is bad or a prison, that it was made by a lesser god, and that people are saved by secret knowledge about their true spiritual nature. In many Gnostic texts, Jesus is a revealer of secrets more than a Savior who dies for sins. Some taught that He only seemed to have a body.

The church already knew about these groups before 1945, mostly from writers who opposed them, like Irenaeus of Lyons around AD 180. Nag Hammadi let scholars read the Gnostics in their own words for the first time.

What Is the Gospel of Thomas?

The Gospel of Thomas is the best known book from Nag Hammadi. Some of its sayings are very close to sayings in Matthew, Mark and Luke. Others are strange and sound Gnostic, like the closing saying about Mary. Greek fragments of it had been found earlier at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt, but no one knew what they were until the full Coptic text appeared.

Most scholars date Thomas to the second century, after the four Gospels. A smaller number argue that some of its sayings go back to the first century. Either way, it does not tell the story of Jesus' life, death and resurrection, which is the heart of the four Gospels.

Why Aren't These Books in the Bible?

The church looked for books that came from the apostles or their close companions, that agreed with the faith handed down from them, and that were widely used in churches everywhere. The Nag Hammadi books came later than the New Testament, were used by small groups, and taught a different God and a different Jesus. That is why church leaders rejected them long before the New Testament list was finalized.

Some scholars think the books were buried by monks from a nearby monastery after Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, sent his Easter letter in 367 listing the 27 New Testament books and warning against secret books. That is a reasonable theory, but we don't know for sure who buried them or why. For more, see the FAQ What About the Gnostic Gospels on this site and the Athanasius page.

Why It Matters for You Today

The Nag Hammadi library does not reveal a hidden, truer Christianity. It confirms what the New Testament writers warned about: teachers who denied that Jesus truly came in the flesh. John wrote about this very issue.

By this you will know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and which is already in the world at this time. 1 John 4:2 to 3

The good news is not secret knowledge for a few. It is a public message for everyone: God became a real man, died a real death and rose from a real tomb.

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

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Questions People Ask

What is the Nag Hammadi library?

It is a collection of 52 ancient writings in 13 papyrus books found in a jar near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945. The books were copied in Coptic in the 300s. Most are Gnostic texts, including the Gospel of Thomas.

Who found the Nag Hammadi library?

Two brothers, Muhammad Ali al Samman and Khalifah Ali, found it while digging for fertilizer near the cliff of Jabal al Tarif. Their mother burned some loose pages. The rest eventually reached the Coptic Museum in Cairo.

Is the Gospel of Thomas a lost book of the Bible?

No. Most scholars date it to the second century, after the four Gospels, and it was never accepted by the church as Scripture. It is a collection of sayings with no account of Jesus' death or resurrection, and some sayings reflect Gnostic ideas.

What did the Gnostics believe?

Most Gnostics taught that the physical world is evil or flawed and was made by a lesser god. They believed salvation comes through secret knowledge of a person's true spiritual self. The early church rejected these teachings as contrary to the apostles' faith.

Sources

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