The Berlin Codex (also known as the Akhmim Codex), given the accession number ''Papyrus Berolinensis'' 8502, is a

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 ...

manuscript from the 5th century AD, unearthed in

Akhmim Akhmim ( ar, أخميم, ; Akhmimic , ; Sahidic/Bohairic cop, ) is a city in the Sohag Governorate of Upper Egypt. Referred to by the ancient Greeks as Khemmis or Chemmis ( grc, Χέμμις) and Panopolis ( grc, Πανὸς πόλις and Π� ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

. In Cairo, in January 1896, Carl Reinhardt bought the codex, which had been recently discovered, wrapped in feathers, in a niche in a wall at a Christian burial site. It was 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 ...

bound book (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 ...

), dating to early 5th century (or possibly late 4th century) that was written in

Sahidic Coptic (Bohairic Coptic: , ) is a language family of closely related dialects, representing the most recent developments of the Egyptian language, and historically spoken by the Copts, starting from the third-century AD in Roman Egypt. Coptic ...

dialect of Coptic, which was in common use in Egypt during that time. It was taken to Berlin for the Berliner Museen, where it was brought to the notice of the

Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences The Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences (german: Königlich-Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften) was an academy established in Berlin, Germany on 11 July 1700, four years after the Prussian Academy of Arts, or "Arts Academy," to which "Berlin ...

by Carl Schmidt, July 16, 1896. Schmidt edited the

Act of Peter :''This article discusses a text which is quite distinct from the Acts of Peter''. The ''Act of Peter'' is a brief miracle text celebrating virginity that is found in the 5th-century papyrus Berlin Codex (Berolinensis Gnosticus 8502). It treats o ...

in 1903, but the

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 ...

contents of the Berlin Codex were not finally completely translated until 1955. Few people paid attention to it until the 1970s, when a new generation of scholars of early Christianity took an increased interest in the wake of the discovery of the more famous group of early Gnostic

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

documents found at

Nag Hammadi Nag Hammadi ( ; ar, نجع حمادى ) is a city in Upper Egypt. It is located on the west bank of the Nile in the Qena Governorate, about north-west of Luxor. It had a population of close to 43,000 . History The town of Nag Hammadi is name ...

in 1945. The "Berlin Codex" is a single-quire Coptic codex bound with wooden boards covered with a

leather Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffalo, pigs and hogs, ...

that neither resembles tanned leather, nor does it resemble

parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a writing medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins of ...

alum An alum () is a type of chemical compound, usually a hydrated double salt, double sulfate salt (chemistry), salt of aluminium with the general chemical formula, formula , where is a valence (chemistry), monovalent cation such as potassium or a ...

-tawed skin (i.e. skin that has been dressed with alum to soften and bleach it). Four texts are bound together in the Berlin Codex. All are Greek works in Coptic translations. The first, in two sections, is a fragmentary ''

Gospel of Mary The Gospel of Mary is a non-canonical text discovered in 1896 in a 5th-century papyrus codex written in Sahidic Coptic. This Berlin Codex was purchased in Cairo by German diplomat Carl Reinhardt. Although the work is popularly known as the Go ...

'', for which this is the primary source manuscript. The manuscript is a Coptic translation of an earlier Greek original. Though the surviving pages are well-preserved, the text is not complete and it is clear from what was found that the ''Gospel of Mary'' contained nineteen pages, assuming that the codex begins with it;“''The above figures do assume that ''the Gospel of Mary'' was the first work in the codex and that nothing preceded it. This is probably the case (if there were another text preceding the gospel in the codex, it must have been very short), but given the state of existing evidence, one cannot be certain.''”, Christopher Tuckett, ''The Gospel of Mary'', p. 6, n. 8. pages 1–6 and 11-14 are missing entirely. The Codex also contains the ''

Apocryphon of John The ''Apocryphon of John'', also called the ''Secret Book of John'' or the ''Secret Revelation of John'', is a 2nd-century Sethian Gnostic Christian pseudographical text attributed to John the Apostle. It is one of the texts addressed b ...

'', ''

The Sophia of Jesus Christ The Sophia of Jesus Christ is a Gnostic text that was first discovered in the Berlin Codex (a Codex purchased in Cairo in 1896 and given to the Berlin Museum which also contains the ''Gospel of Mary'', the ''Apocryphon of John'', and a summary of ...

'', and an

epitome An epitome (; gr, ἐπιτομή, from ἐπιτέμνειν ''epitemnein'' meaning "to cut short") is a summary or miniature form, or an instance that represents a larger reality, also used as a synonym for embodiment. Epitomacy represents "t ...

of the ''

''. These texts are often discussed together with the earlier Nag Hammadi texts.

Works

*
Die alten Petrusakten
'' im Zusammenhang der apokryphen Apostellitteratur nebst einem neuentdeckten Fragment, untersucht von Carl Schmidt, Hinrichs, Leipzig 1903. In: ''Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur.'' herausgegeben von Oskar von Gebhardt und Adolf Harnack, Neue Folge Neunter Band, der ganzen Reihe XXIV Band. This German translation refers to the papyrus manuscript P 8502 in the Berliner Papyrussammlung. *

Notes

External links

{{Wikiquote
Contents of the Berlin Codex
appended to an analysis of 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 ...

. 5th-century manuscripts Gnostic apocrypha Coptic literature Papyrus