Codex Tchacos

The Codex Tchacos (CT ) is a collection of manuscripts. The Codex contains several Gnostic texts from the 4th century Coptic language with apocalyptic themes. The documents drawn up in sahidischem dialect texts were originally written in Greek, and most likely the earliest likely date back to the late 2nd century. Probably, it was shot in the 3rd century. It was named Papyrus Codex after Dimaratos Tchacos, the father of the last owner, Frieda Nussberger - Tchacos. Of particular interest was the Gospel of Judas, which is included in the manuscript.

Ownership history

The Codex Tchacos in Middle Egypt was discovered near the city of al - Minya in the 1970s. It is a papyrus codex from the 4th century. Shortly after the discovery, the document was overpriced by an Egyptian merchant offered for sale, the talk was of 3 million U.S. dollars. After it was stolen a short time, was able in 1983, the Code of a team of scientists including Ludwig Koenen, David Noel Freedman, James M Robinson, Astrid Beck and Stephen Emmmel be seen briefly. Emmel was able to identify the first of the works contained two, they were known from Nag Hammadi. The sale did not take place because no buyer or institute could raise this sum and no one could appreciate the importance of as yet unidentified components were also high costs for the preservation and reconstruction to fear. Thus, the Codex of Cairo via Switzerland to New York, where he disappeared more than 16 years in a bank vault for the dealer and was acquired by the Maecenas Foundation, based in Basel in February 2002.

The Maecenas Foundation commissioned along with Frieda Nussberger - Tchacos Geneva Rodolphe Kasser Koptologen with the publication of the text. Kasser took Florence Darbre to the team who worked as a conservator for the Martin Bodmer Foundation. Improper storage in moist air and stored in a freezer, the Codex was divided into hundreds of small fragments. For the reconstruction of each fragment was photographed on both sides and composed of the religious historian Gregor Wurst of the University of Augsburg and his colleagues at the computer. Over the course of three years, nearly 90 percent of the text were able to be reconstructed. The compiled under the direction of Rodolphe Kasser manuscript was published in 2006. Published in 2007 a ​​critical edition of the four texts of the Codex.

9 April 2006, National Geographic published worldwide on his television as part of a two-hour documentary specials the results of the investigations. After translation and restoration of the font, the code will be handed over to the Egyptian government for the Coptic Museum of Cairo to the will of the Foundation. In 2009, a large part of the missing fragments that were stored in a hiding place in the U.S., released by a court order. You will now be reunited and evaluated in Europe with the already known parts of the Codex.

Description

The heavily damaged Codex has disintegrated fragments into several hundred, it includes 31 partially decayed leaves very, so 62 more or less preserved and numbered pages in the format of approximately 16 x 29 cm. The text has been painstakingly detailed work - if possible - reconstructed and published in 2006. A leather cover is partially preserved. The manuscript was produced by a professional Coptic writers. The language, the letters form the manuscript and all circumstances have a close, but no identity to manuscripts of Nag Hammadi on. The palaeographical dating dated the manuscript carefully on the fourth to the fifth century, radiocarbon method came to a likely date of composition of 280 ± 60 years.

Content

The Codex consists of four parts (CT 1-4):

• CT 1: The Letter of Peter to Philip, Epistula Petri ( EPPT )
• CT 2: The First Apocalypse of James ( 1Apc ) Jac
• CT 3: The Gospel of Judas, Judas
• CT 4: ( allogeneic )

EPPT and ( 1Apc ) Jac were already known from the finds at Nag Hammadi. For the Gospel of Judas and ( allogeneic ) is the code the only known text tools. The first three headings are pseudepigraphical, ie they pretend to be from the respective disciple of Jesus. The clip at " ( Allogenes ) " indicates that the original title of the fourth plant is unknown. The term Allogenes ( Greek: Αλλογενής, " foreign Hefty " ) is alternatively used because in this papyrus beginning and end and thus in addition to the title also lack the Responsibility.

" The four extant writings of CT have a distinctive Christian character. " In the first three are instructive dialogues with his disciples, where Jesus tells them important revelations about his skill in the creation of the world and the redemption possibilities for the disciples; and they are placed in time to the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus around. Suffering and persecution are an important issue. In addition, the polemic plays against theology and practice of the majority of the former Christendom a role, most in the Gospel of Judas. Let the fragments of a fifth signature realize that it comes to issues that occur in ( allogeneic ) and ( 1Apc ) Jac: the foreign - being in the world, asking for a special revelation about the rebirth, overcoming the physicality.