Nag Hammadi: Religious History Once Had Multiple Versions
In December 1945, near the town of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, local people found a clay jar containing leather-bound books. They were not a complete hidden Bible. They were 13 codices, 13 bound volumes, preserving 46 works in 55 textual versions according to the current scholarly catalogue. The surviving copies were written in Coptic, an Egyptian language using an alphabet based on Greek, around the fourth century. Many of the works had first been composed in Greek during the second and third centuries and translated later.
In December 1945, near the town of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, local people found a clay jar containing leather-bound books. They were not a complete hidden Bible. They were 13 codices, 13 bound volumes, preserving 46 works in 55 textual versions according to the current scholarly catalogue. The surviving copies were written in Coptic, an Egyptian language using an alphabet based on Greek, around the fourth century. Many of the works had first been composed in Greek during the second and third centuries and translated later.
In December 1945, near the town of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, local people found a clay jar containing leather-bound books. They were not a complete hidden Bible. They were 13 codices, 13 bound volumes, preserving 46 works in 55 textual versions according to the current scholarly catalogue. The surviving copies were written in Coptic, an Egyptian language using an alphabet based on Greek, around the fourth century. Many of the works had first been composed in Greek during the second and third centuries and translated later.
In December 1945, near the town of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, local people found a clay jar containing leather-bound books. They were not a complete hidden Bible. They were 13 codices, 13 bound volumes, preserving 46 works in 55 textual versions according to the current scholarly catalogue. The surviving copies were written in Coptic, an Egyptian language using an alphabet based on Greek, around the fourth century. Many of the works had first been composed in Greek during the second and third centuries and translated later.
In December 1945, near the town of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, local people found a clay jar containing leather-bound books. They were not a complete hidden Bible. They were 13 codices, 13 bound volumes, preserving 46 works in 55 textual versions according to the current scholarly catalogue. The surviving copies were written in Coptic, an Egyptian language using an alphabet based on Greek, around the fourth century. Many of the works had first been composed in Greek during the second and third centuries and translated later.