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3 unusual facts about Nag Hammadi Library


At the Gates of Paradise

At the Gates of Paradise is an album by John Zorn released on Zorn's own label, Tzadik Records, in 2011 and featuring music inspired by William Blake and the Gnostic texts from the Nag Hammadi library.

Jabal al-Ṭārif

It is also the location where the Nag Hammadi library writings were found by tribesmen known as Mohammed Ali and Abu al-Maid (sons of Ali Khalifa), belonging to a clan named al-Samman.

Philip the Apostle

One of the Gnostic texts found in the Nag Hammadi library in 1945 has been given the modern title "Gospel of Philip", though this text makes no claim to have been written by Philip.


Bentley Layton

With a summa cum laude thesis on the Nag Hammadi Gnostic Coptic Treatise on the Resurrection, which he presented in a critical edition in 1978, he has moved on to present critical editions of other texts: The Hypostasis of the Archons, Or, The Reality of the Rulers..., serialized in Harvard Theological Review 67 (1974) 351—425 and 69 (1976) 1—71, and others.

Marvin Meyer

Professor Meyer was best known for his translations of the texts of documents associated with the ancient mystery religions, early Christian magic, and Gnostic texts, of which the most notable have been the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Judas, the former of which is included among the Nag Hammadi library.

Stephen Emmel

He began graduate study with James M. Robinson, who took Emmel with him to Cairo, Egypt, in 1974 as a research assistant in the international project to publish the Coptic Gnostic texts of the Nag Hammadi Codices.


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