Nag Hammadi Codex XIII (designated by

siglum Scribal abbreviations or sigla ( singular: siglum) are abbreviations used by ancient and medieval scribes writing in various languages, including Latin, Greek, Old English and Old Norse. In modern manuscript editing (substantive and mechani ...

NHC XIII) is a

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 ...

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 ...

with a collection of early Christian

Gnostic texts Gnosticism used a number of religious texts that are preserved, in part or whole, in ancient manuscripts, or lost but mentioned critically in Patristic writings. Gnostic texts Gnostic texts preserved before 1945 Prior to the discovery at Nag H ...

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 ...

(Sahidic dialect). The manuscript is dated to the 4th century.

Description

The manuscript was written on papyrus in the form of a codex. It is written in Sahidic dialect.Bentley Layton
''Nag Hammadi codex II, 2-7: together with XIII, 2*, Brit. Lib. Or.4926(1), and P.OXY. 1, 654, 655 : with contributions by many scholars''
BRILL, 1989, p. 2. The codex contains: ''

Trimorphic Protennoia The ''Trimorphic Protennoia'' is a Sethian Gnostic text from the New Testament apocrypha. The only surviving copy comes from the Nag Hammadi library ( Codex XIII). I mthe Thought of the Father, Protennoia, that is, Barbelo, the perfect Gl ...

'' and ''

On the Origin of the World ''On the Origin of the World'' is a Gnostic work dealing with creation and the end time. It was found among the texts in what is known as the Nag Hammadi library, in Codex II and Codex XIII, immediately following the '' Reality of the Rulers'' ...

''. It is the only surviving copy of the ''Trimorphic Protennoia''. The text is written in

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 The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one ...

letters. It is well written in an informal book hand. There is no punctuation, no division between sayings. The

nomina sacra In Christian scribal practice, nomina sacra (singular: ''nomen sacrum'' from Latin ''sacred name'') is the abbreviation of several frequently occurring divine names or titles, especially in Greek manuscripts of the Bible. A nomen sacrum consists ...

are contracted in an unusual way (ΠΝΑ, ΧΣ, ΧΡΣ, ΙΗΣ), the words at the end of line are abbreviated. The scribe is identical with the scribe A of Codex II. The scribe employed several styles.Bentley Layton
''Nag Hammadi codex II, 2-7: together with XIII, 2*, Brit. Lib. Or.4926(1), and P.OXY. 1, 654, 655 : with contributions by many scholars''
BRILL, 1989, p. 4. The scribe made several errors of

haplography Haplography (from Greek: haplo- 'single' + -graphy 'writing'), also known as lipography, is a scribal or typographical error where a letter or group of letters that should be written twice is written once. It is not to be confused with haplology, wh ...

(omitted letter N in 38.7; 48.28; omitted OY 40.18; omitted T in 48.15) and

dittography Dittography is the accidental, erroneous act of repeating a letter, word, phrase or combination of letters by a scribe or copyist. The term is used in the field of textual criticism. The opposite phenomenon, in which a copyist omits text by skippi ...

(42.26; 45.31). The so-called "Codex XIII" is in fact not a codex, but rather the text of ''Trimorphic Protennoia'', written on "... eight leaves removed from a thirteenth book in late antiquity and tucked inside the front cover of the sixth."

John D. Turner John D. Turner (15 July 1938 in Glen Ridge - 26 October 2019) was the Cotner Professor of Religious Studies and Charles J. Mach University Professor of Classics and History Classics & Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska. He was well ...

, ''Nag Hammadi Codex XIII'', in: Elaine H. Pagels, Charles W. Hedrick
''Nag Hammadi codices, XI, XII, XIII''
BRILL, 1990, p. 401. Only a few lines from the beginning of ''Origin of the World'' are discernible on the bottom of the eighth leaf. It was buried with the other Nag Hammadi Codices, where it lay until the day of its discovery in 1945. On June 8, 1952 the

Coptic Museum The Coptic Museum is a museum in Coptic Cairo, Egypt with the largest collection of Coptic Christian artifacts in the world. It was founded by Marcus Simaika in 1908 to house Coptic antiquities. The museum traces the history of Egypt from its b ...

received the codex. The text of the codex was edited by Gesine Schenke. It was examined and described by James J. Robinson in 1979.Bentley Layton, ''Nag Hammadi codex II, 2-7: together with XIII, 2*, Brit. Lib. Or.4926(1), and P.OXY. 1, 654, 655 : with contributions by many scholars'', BRILL, 1989, p. 5. Currently the manuscript is housed at the Department of manuscripts of the

(Inv. 10545) in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

References

External links

Nag Hammadi Archive

Antiquities of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity

NH Codex 11, 12 and 13

LDAB The Leuven Database of Ancient Books (LDAB) is a resource for all ancient written literary manuscripts, from 500 BC to AD 800. It currently lists more than 16.000 Greek, Latin, Coptic, Syriac and Demotic literary texts. It is said that it "attempts ...

* John D. Turner
TRIMORPHIC PROTENNOIA (XIII 35, 1 -50, 24)
{{Authority control Gnostic Gospels 4th-century manuscripts Nag Hammadi library

Description

See also

References

Further reading

External links