Epistle of Eugnostos

The Eugnostosbrief is known as part of the Nag Hammadi collection of Gnostic texts. He is survived twice. For one, he appears as the third copy of the Code 3 (NHC III, 3;. 70.1 to 90.13 p, pages 79/80 are missing), and secondly as the first font of the 5th Code ( NHC V, 1; p. 1-17). In the Code, the letter V is indeed fully narrated, but the condition of the papyrus is bad ( from all sides missing some rows of the upper and lower halves of the leaf ). Therefore, text editions and translations of the text of the Code III is based on supplementing with the missing pages from Codex V.

The full title is " The blessed Eugnostos to his family ." The said Eugnostos indicated otherwise unspecified, possibly it is a spiritual name (Eu, beautiful gnosis, knowledge ).

Content and Classification

The text takes the form of teaching letter. The first section contains a brief rejection of the views of Hellenistic philosophy concerning root and nature of the world. These are confronted and developed a detailed description of the changes taking place over a wide range of shades and emanations of the Divine Seinswerdung, formed in the end in the masculine - feminine, one part of which the Son of Man and the other part is the Sophia ( Wisdom).

The meaning of the text in its time is not only shown by the fact that the Nag Hammadi corpus contains two versions, there is also a Christian reshaping of the text, as Sophia of Jesus Christ, both as part of the Nag Hammadi writings as well as it is delivered independently as Codex Berolinensis Gnosticus 8502.

Expenditure

• Original texts and translation have been published in the series Nag Hammadi Studies (NHS ):

• An English translation:

• A German translation appeared in: