Two versions of the formerly lost ''Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit,'' also informally called the ''Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians''John D. Turner: "Since the late 1940s it has become customary to refer to it inappropriately as the Gospel of the Egyptians." (which is quite distinct from the

Greek Gospel of the Egyptians The Greek ''Gospel of the Egyptians'' is an early Christian religious text. Its title is adopted from its opening line. Dating The Greek Gospel of the Egyptians (which is quite distinct from the later, wholly Gnostic Coptic Gospel of the Egypt ...

) or the ''Gospel of the Egyptians'', were among the codices in the

Nag Hammadi library The Nag Hammadi library (also known as the " Chenoboskion Manuscripts" and the "Gnostic Gospels") is a collection of early Christian and Gnostic texts discovered near the Upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945. Thirteen leather-bound papyr ...

, discovered in 1945. It received the name because towards the end of the text it is also expressed as the “Egyptian Gospel.” Although it is possible that it was written in Egypt, it is far more likely that the name is based on connections made between Seth of the Old Testament and

Set Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics *Set (mathematics), a collection of elements *Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively Electro ...

, the ancient Egyptian god of violence, chaos, and storms. This Gospel differs from the

Gospel of Philip The Gospel of Philip is a non-canonical Gnostic Gospel dated to around the 3rd century but lost in medieval times until rediscovered by accident, buried with other texts near Nag Hammadi in Egypt, in 1945. The text is not closely related to the ...

and the

Gospel of Truth The Gospel of the Truth () is one of the Gnostic texts from the New Testament apocrypha found in the Nag Hammadi codices ("NHC"). It exists in two Coptic translations, a Subakhmimic rendition surviving almost in full in the first Nag Hammadi co ...

in that it is not from a Valentinian perspective and instead focuses on a viewpoint rooted in

Sethianism The Sethians were one of the main currents of Gnosticism during the 2nd and 3rd century CE, along with Valentinianism and Basilideanism. According to John D. Turner, it originated in the 2nd century CE as a fusion of two distinct Hellenistic ...

Overview

The main contents concern the

Sethian The Sethians were one of the main currents of Gnosticism during the 2nd and 3rd century CE, along with Valentinianism and Basilideanism. According to John D. Turner, it originated in the 2nd century CE as a fusion of two distinct Hellenistic ...

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 ...

understanding of how the earth came into being, how Seth, in the Gnostic interpretation, is incarnated as Jesus in order to release people's souls from the evil prison that is creation. More specifically, the text can be divided into four parts concerning: the creation of the heavenly world, the creation and significance of the race of Seth, a hymn, and the history behind the creation of the text itself. It also contains a hymn, parts of which are unusual in being apparently meaningless sequences of vowels (thought to be a representation of early Christian

glossolalia Speaking in tongues, also known as glossolalia, is a practice in which people utter words or speech-like sounds, often thought by believers to be languages unknown to the speaker. One definition used by linguists is the fluid vocalizing of sp ...

), although the vowels of the final paragraph (''u aei eis aei ei o ei ei os ei'') can be partitioned to read (in Greek) ''who exists as Son for ever and ever. You are what you are, you are who you are''. One explanation could be that these vowels are connected to the divine name

YHWH The Tetragrammaton (; ), or Tetragram, is the four-letter Hebrew theonym (transliterated as YHWH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left (in Hebrew), are ''yodh'', '' he'', ''waw'', and '' ...

. Another possibility is that the vowels could represent a secret, sacred way for the soul of the reader to move closer to gnosis.

Triads

''The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit'' lists a series of six different divine triads. The fourth, fifth, and sixth triads are also mentioned in ''

Zostrianos Zostrianos is a 3rd-century Sethian Gnostic text from the New Testament apocrypha. The main surviving copies come from the Nag Hammadi library, but it is heavily damaged.John D. Turner of the University of Nebraska writes concerning its date: "... ...

''.

References

External links

Gnostic Society Library:
translated text

{{The Nag Hammadi Codices , state=collapsed Coptic literature Sethian texts Nag Hammadi library

Overview

Triads

See also

References

External links