HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Bruce Codex (Latin: ) is a
codex The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...
that contains
Coptic Coptic may refer to: Afro-Asia * Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya * Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century * Coptic alphabet, t ...
, Arabic, and Ethiopic manuscripts. It contains rare
Gnostic Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized pe ...
works; the Bruce Codex is the only known surviving copy of the Books of Jeu and another work simply called Untitled Text or the Untitled Apocalypse. In 1769,
James Bruce James Bruce of Kinnaird (14 December 1730 – 27 April 1794) was a Scottish traveller and travel writer who confirmed the source of the Blue Nile. He spent more than a dozen years in North Africa and Ethiopia and in 1770 became the first Euro ...
purchased the codex in
Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancie ...
. It currently resides in the
Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...
(Bruce 96), where it has been since 1848.


History

The Scottish traveler
James Bruce James Bruce of Kinnaird (14 December 1730 – 27 April 1794) was a Scottish traveller and travel writer who confirmed the source of the Blue Nile. He spent more than a dozen years in North Africa and Ethiopia and in 1770 became the first Euro ...
purchased the codex around 1769 while in
Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancie ...
, near
Medinet Habu Medinet Habu ( ar, مدينة هابو; Egyptian: ''Tjamet'' or ''Djamet''; cop, ''Djeme'' or ''Djemi'') is an archaeological locality situated near the foot of the Theban Hills on the West Bank of the River Nile opposite the modern city of Lu ...
. It had supposedly been found in the ruins of a building once inhabited by Egyptian monks. The codex came to the attention of
Carl Gottfried Woide Carl Gottfried Woide (german: Karl Gottfried Woide) (4 July 1725 – 9 May 1790), also known in England as Charles Godfrey Woide, was an Orientalist, a biblical scholar and a pastor. Career Woide began his career as a pastor at the Reformed chur ...
, who made a copy of the Coptic Gnostic texts within, as well as discussed the codex in a work on Egyptian copies of the Bible and other religious manuscripts. In 1848, both Woide's transcript of the text as well as the original codex were acquired by the
Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...
and classified as "Bruce 96". took the next look at comparing the versions, but died in 1848 with his work unfinished. Coptologist
Émile Amélineau Émile Amélineau (1850 – 12 January 1915 at Châteaudun) was a French Coptologist, archaeologist and Egyptologist. His scholarly reputation was established as an editor of previously unpublished Coptic texts. But his reputation was destro ...
began work on the text in 1882 and published a translation into French in 1891. At the recommendations of
Adolf Erman Johann Peter Adolf Erman (; 31 October 185426 June 1937) was a renowned German Egyptologist and lexicographer. Life Born in Berlin, he was the son of Georg Adolf Erman and grandson of Paul Erman and Friedrich Bessel. Educated at Leipzig and ...
and
Adolf von Harnack Carl Gustav Adolf von Harnack (born Harnack; 7 May 1851 – 10 June 1930) was a Baltic German Lutheran theologian and prominent Church historian. He produced many religious publications from 1873 to 1912 (in which he is sometimes credited ...
, the German Coptologist Carl Schmidt was sent to Oxford to examine the codex. Building on Woide and Schwartze's work (and largely ignoring Amélineau's), Schmidt made a new edition, as well as proposed an ordering of the pages. He also associated the work with the "Books of Jeu" mentioned in the
Pistis Sophia ''Pistis Sophia'' ( grc-koi, Πίστις Σοφία) is a Gnostic text discovered in 1773, possibly written between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. The existing manuscript, which some scholars place in the late 4th century, relates one Gnostic g ...
, another Gnostic work; the manuscript does not self-identify itself as the Books of Jeu, but instead titles itself "The Book of the Great
Logos ''Logos'' (, ; grc, λόγος, lógos, lit=word, discourse, or reason) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric and refers to the appeal to reason that relies on logic or reason, inductive and deductive reasoning. Arist ...
Corresponding to Mysteries." Schmidt's critical edition of the Books of Jeu was published in 1892, with both the original Coptic and his translation into German; he slightly updated his translation in a 1905 book that contained related Gnostic writings from other codices, such as the
Pistis Sophia ''Pistis Sophia'' ( grc-koi, Πίστις Σοφία) is a Gnostic text discovered in 1773, possibly written between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. The existing manuscript, which some scholars place in the late 4th century, relates one Gnostic g ...
. In 1918, F. Lamplugh published ''The Gnosis of the Light'', a translation of The Untitled Apocalypse into English largely based on Amélineau's French translation. Charlotte A. Baynes published a different English translation in 1933 based directly on Coptic, skipping an intervening step through French or German; she also differed from Schmidt's proposed ordering of the pages of the codex, and placed Schmidt's final five leaves at the beginning instead. Violet MacDermot published a new translation of both the Books of Jeu and the Untitled Text into English in 1978.


Contents

The Bruce Codex, when it was purchased by Bruce, consisted of 78 loose unordered
papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...
leaves. Each leaf was inscribed on both sides for 156 pages total. By the time the Bodleian acquired the Codex, 7 of the original leaves had gone missing, however. Knowledge of them is kept by the copies Woide made when all of the leaves were still there. The Bodleian bound the loose leaves together in 1886, but haphazardly and by someone who did not speak Coptic: pages were in a random order and sometimes upside-down. The Bodleian would later re-bind the text in Schmidt's suggested page order in 1928. The Books of Jeu consist of 47 leaves, of which 3 are missing, and is written in a
cursive Cursive (also known as script, among other names) is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in functionali ...
style. The Untitled Apocalypse consists of 31 leaves, of which 4 are missing, and is written in an
uncial Uncial is a majuscule Glaister, Geoffrey Ashall. (1996) ''Encyclopedia of the Book''. 2nd edn. New Castle, DE, and London: Oak Knoll Press & The British Library, p. 494. script (written entirely in capital letters) commonly used from the 4th ...
style. Schmidt associated two small fragments (a hymn and a prose passage on the progress of a soul through the "Archons of the Midst") with the second ''Book of Jeu'', which is incomplete, although hypothetically they could have been fragments of an unknown and lost third text. The Untitled Apocalypse is also incomplete, lacking both a beginning and an end. Due to lack of modern knowledge and care on proper preservation of papyrus, the condition of the manuscript, already poor to begin with (considering a number of transcription errors Woide made), deteriorated further over the course of the 19th century. It is currently in "very poor" state, with dark spots covering text from
mildew Mildew is a form of fungus. It is distinguished from its closely related counterpart, mould, largely by its colour: moulds appear in shades of black, blue, red, and green, whereas mildew is white. It appears as a thin, superficial growth consi ...
due to being in a more humid environment than optimal for too long; the reason the codex had survived as long as it did, when so much other literature of the period was lost, was due to Egypt's dry climate. The writing is so faded as to be almost illegible. As such, the photographs made when the codex was in better condition are a key resource in interpreting the manuscript itself.


See also

* Setheus


References

{{Reflist


External links


The Gnostic Society Library - The Bruce Codex
* ttps://books.google.com/books?id=arY3AAAAIAAJ Google Books limited preview of the Coptic text with an English translationbr>PDF of the complete Bruce Codex in English
Gnostic texts Works of unknown authorship Egyptian manuscripts Coptic manuscripts