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NAG HAMMADI STUDIES EDITED BY MARTIN KRAUSE - JAMES M. ROBINSON FREDERIK WISSE IN CONJUNCTION WITH ALEXANDER BOHi.IG - JEAN DoRESSE - S0REN GIVERSEN HANS JoNAs - RoDOLPHE KAssER - PAHOR LABIB GEORGE w. MACRAE- JACQUES-E. MENARD- TORGNY SXVE-SODERBERGH WILLEM CoRNELis VAN UNNIK - R. MeL. WILSON JAN ZANDEE XIII VOLUME EDITOR R. MeL. WILSON LEIDEN E. J. BRILL 1978 THE COPTIC GNOSTIC LIBRARY EDITED WITH ENGLISH TRANSLATION, INTRODUCTION AND NOTES published under the auspices of THE INSTITUTE FOR ANTIQUITY AND CHRISTIANITY THE BOOKS OF JEU AND THE UNTITLED TEXT IN THE BRUCE CODEX TEXT EDITED BY CARL SCHMIDT TRANSLATION AND NOTES BY VIOLET MACDERMOT LEI DEN E. J. BRILL 1978 ISBN 90 04 05754 4 Copyright 1978 by E. J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this hook may he reproduced or translated in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche or any other means without written permission from the publisher PRINTED IN BELGIUM CONTENTS Foreword . Introduction History of the Bruce Codex Description of the Manuscript Contents Abbreviations . Sigla Note VII IX IX X XIII XXIII XXVI XXVI THE TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS The First Book of Jeu . The Second Book of Jeu The Untitled Text 125 213 Bibliography . Key to Words of Greek Origin Greek Words . Selected Words of Coptic Origin Proper Names References Old Testament . New Testament Non-Canonical Literature Ancient Authors . Gnostic Literature Hermetic Literature Manichaean Literature 319 322 328 333 337 339 339 339 340 340 342 345 345 v FOREWORD Of the two Coptic gnostic treatises in the Bruce Codex, the Books of Jeu and the Untitled Text, only the latter has previously been translated into English. The Bruce Codex has been known to scholars since 1892 in the excellent edition and German translation by C. Schmidt (Bibl. 32). The translation was re-edited by W. Till in 1954 (Bibl. · 36), but Schmidt's edition of the text has been out of print for many years. It is therefore timely that there has been a decision to republish the already known gnostic texts in the Nag Hammadi Studies Series. Schmidt's emended edition of the text has been reproduced here unaltered, and the present English translation is based upon it. For purposes of study and comparison with the German, the general format of Bibl. 36 has also been retained here. To facilitate reference to the German version, all the indexes are based on the page numbers of Schmidt's edition of the text (Bib!. 32) which are employed for both text and translation in the present volume. In Till's version (Bibl. 36) these page numbers appear in the margin. Division of the text into paragraphs and numbered chapters also follows Bib!. 36. Although the present translation owes much to those of Schmidt and Till, and also to C. A. Baynes (Bib!. 9), there are passages in which some or all of the translations differ. In such cases the alternative readings or versions are given as footnotes. Till's notes on Schmidt's translation which appear in the Appendix to Bib!. 36 are also incorporated into the present footnotes. Schmidt's footnotes to the Coptic text are given here in English translation: his references to the readings by Woide and Schwartze who first copied the text have been omitted. Baynes' version is of particular value for her notes on the many obscure words and passages in the Untitled Text. In the translation it will be seen that words of Greek origin are italicised. The alternative of giving the Greek words in brackets after the English words would have added considerably to the cost of publication. A key to these words of Greek derivation is given on page 322. Certain Greek words, some of w