Nag Hammadi Library — Codex II, Text 2
The Gospel of Thomas is not a narrative. It has no birth, no ministry, no trial, no death, no resurrection. It is a list — one hundred and fourteen sayings attributed to "the living" teacher, introduced by the claim that whoever finds their meaning will not taste death. The text was discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in a sealed jar buried near the cliffs. It is written in Sahidic Coptic, translated from a Greek original now mostly lost (three Greek fragments survive on papyri from Oxyrhynchus, dated to the second and third centuries CE).
Thomas is not gnostic in the systematic sense — there are no aeons, no demiurge, no Sophia. What it offers instead is a radical theology of interiority: the kingdom is already present, already spread upon the earth, and people do not see it. The sayings range from the familiar (many parallel the Synoptic Gospels) to the cryptic ("Become passers-by") to the startling. The text has been dated by scholars anywhere from the 50s CE (Crossan, Patterson) to the mid-second century (Gathercole, Goodacre). The question remains open.
This is a Good Works Translation from the Sahidic Coptic by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
These are the secret sayings that the living one spoke, and Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down.
1. And he said, "Whoever finds the meaning of these sayings will not taste death."
2. The teacher said, "Let the one who seeks not stop seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will be troubled. When he is troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the all."
3. The teacher said, "If those who lead you say to you, 'Look, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will get there before you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will get there before you. Rather, the kingdom is inside you and outside you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty."
4. The teacher said, "The old person will not hesitate to ask a child of seven days about the place of life, and that person will live. For many who are first will be last, and they will become a single one."
5. The teacher said, "Know what is before your face, and what is hidden from you will be revealed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not be made manifest."
6. His disciples asked him and said to him, "Do you want us to fast? How should we pray? Should we give to charity? What diet should we observe?"
The teacher said, "Do not lie, and do not do what you hate. For all things are revealed before heaven. There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing covered that will remain without being uncovered."
7. The teacher said, "Blessed is the lion that a person eats, so that the lion becomes human. And cursed is the person whom a lion eats, so that the person becomes lion."
8. And he said, "The person is like a wise fisherman who cast his net into the sea and drew it up from the sea full of small fish. Among them the wise fisherman found a fine large fish. He threw all the small fish back into the sea and chose the large fish without hesitation. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear."
9. The teacher said, "Look, a sower went out, took a handful of seeds, and scattered them. Some fell on the road; the birds came and gathered them. Others fell on the rock, and they did not take root in the soil and did not produce ears of grain. And others fell on thorns; they choked the seed and the worm ate them. And others fell on good soil, and it produced good fruit; it yielded sixty per measure and a hundred and twenty per measure."
10. The teacher said, "I have cast fire upon the world, and look, I am watching over it until it blazes."
11. The teacher said, "This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away. The dead are not alive, and the living will not die. In the days when you consumed what was dead, you made it alive. When you come to dwell in the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one, you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?"
12. The disciples said to the teacher, "We know that you will leave us. Who will be our leader?"
The teacher said to them, "Wherever you are, you are to go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being."
13. The teacher said to his disciples, "Compare me to something and tell me what I am like."
Simon Peter said to him, "You are like a just angel."
Matthew said to him, "You are like a wise philosopher."
Thomas said to him, "Teacher, my mouth is wholly unable to say what you are like."
The teacher said, "I am not your teacher. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring that I have tended."
And he took him and withdrew, and he spoke three words to him. When Thomas returned to his companions, they asked him, "What did the teacher say to you?"
Thomas said to them, "If I tell you one of the words he said to me, you will pick up stones and throw them at me; and a fire will come out of the stones and consume you."
14. The teacher said to them, "If you fast, you will bring error upon yourselves. If you pray, you will be condemned. If you give to charity, you will do harm to your spirits. When you go into any land and walk through the regions, if they receive you, eat what they set before you, and heal the sick among them. For what goes into your mouth will not defile you, but what comes out of your mouth — that is what will defile you."
15. The teacher said, "When you see one who was not born of woman, fall on your faces and worship him. That one is your father."
16. The teacher said, "Perhaps people think that I have come to cast peace upon the world. They do not know that I have come to cast divisions upon the earth: fire, sword, and war. For there will be five in a house: three will be against two, and two against three, the father against the son, and the son against the father. And they will stand as solitary ones."
17. The teacher said, "I will give you what no eye has seen and what no ear has heard and what no hand has touched and what has never entered into the human heart."
18. The disciples said to the teacher, "Tell us how our end will be."
The teacher said, "Have you discovered the beginning, then, that you are asking about the end? For where the beginning is, there will the end be. Blessed is the one who will take his place in the beginning; he will know the end and will not taste death."
19. The teacher said, "Blessed is the one who came into being before he came into being. If you become my disciples and listen to my sayings, these stones will serve you. For there are five trees in paradise for you; they do not change, summer or winter, and their leaves do not fall. Whoever comes to know them will not taste death."
20. The disciples said to the teacher, "Tell us what the kingdom of heaven is like."
He said to them, "It is like a mustard seed. It is the smallest of all seeds. But when it falls on tilled soil, it produces a great plant and becomes a shelter for birds of the sky."
21. Mary said to the teacher, "What are your disciples like?"
He said, "They are like little children who have settled in a field that is not theirs. When the owners of the field come, they will say, 'Give us back our field.' They take off their clothes in their presence in order to give it back to them, and they return their field to them.
"Therefore I say, if the owner of a house knows that a thief is coming, he will keep watch before he arrives and will not let him dig through into his house of his domain to carry away his goods. You, then, be on your guard against the world. Arm yourselves with great strength, so that the robbers may not find a way to come to you, for the difficulty you expect will come. Let there be among you a person of understanding. When the grain ripened, he came quickly with his sickle in his hand and reaped it. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear."
22. The teacher saw some infants nursing. He said to his disciples, "These nursing infants are like those who enter the kingdom."
They said to him, "Shall we then enter the kingdom as infants?"
The teacher said to them, "When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female; and when you fashion eyes in place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness — then you will enter the kingdom."
23. The teacher said, "I will choose you, one from a thousand, and two from ten thousand, and they will stand as a single one."
24. His disciples said to him, "Show us the place where you are, since it is necessary for us to seek it."
He said to them, "Whoever has ears, let him hear. There is light within a person of light, and it lights up the whole world. If it does not shine, it is dark."
25. The teacher said, "Love your brother like your own soul. Guard him like the pupil of your eye."
26. The teacher said, "You see the splinter in your brother's eye, but you do not see the beam in your own eye. When you take the beam out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother's eye."
27. "If you do not fast from the world, you will not find the kingdom. If you do not observe the sabbath as a sabbath, you will not see the father."
28. The teacher said, "I took my place in the midst of the world, and I appeared to them in flesh. I found all of them drunk; I found none of them thirsty. And my soul was afflicted for the children of humanity, because they are blind in their hearts and do not see. For empty they came into the world, and empty too they seek to leave the world. But for the moment they are drunk. When they shake off their wine, then they will repent."
29. The teacher said, "If the flesh came into being because of spirit, it is a wonder. But if spirit came into being because of the body, it is a wonder of wonders. Indeed, I am amazed at how this great wealth has made its home in this poverty."
30. The teacher said, "Where there are three gods, they are gods. Where there are two or one, I am with him."
31. The teacher said, "No prophet is accepted in his own village; no physician heals those who know him."
32. The teacher said, "A city being built on a high mountain and fortified cannot fall, nor can it be hidden."
33. The teacher said, "What you hear in your ear, in the other ear proclaim from your rooftops. For no one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, nor does he put it in a hidden place. Rather, he sets it on a lampstand so that everyone who comes in and goes out will see its light."
34. The teacher said, "If a blind person leads a blind person, they will both fall into a pit."
35. The teacher said, "It is not possible for anyone to enter the house of a strong man and take it by force unless he binds his hands; then he will be able to ransack his house."
36. The teacher said, "Do not be concerned from morning until evening and from evening until morning about what you will wear."
37. His disciples said, "When will you be revealed to us and when will we see you?"
The teacher said, "When you strip without being ashamed and take your garments and place them under your feet like little children and trample on them — then you will see the child of the living one, and you will not be afraid."
38. The teacher said, "Many times you have desired to hear these sayings that I am speaking to you, and you have no one else from whom to hear them. There will be days when you will seek me and will not find me."
39. The teacher said, "The Pharisees and the scribes have taken the keys of knowledge and hidden them. They themselves have not entered, nor have they allowed to enter those who wish to. You, however — be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves."
40. The teacher said, "A grapevine has been planted outside of the father, and since it is not established, it will be pulled up by its roots and destroyed."
41. The teacher said, "Whoever has something in his hand will receive more, and whoever has nothing will be deprived of even the little he has."
42. The teacher said, "Become passers-by."
43. His disciples said to him, "Who are you, that you say these things to us?"
He said to them, "You do not understand who I am from what I say to you. Rather, you have become like the Judeans: they love the tree and hate its fruit, or love the fruit and hate the tree."
44. The teacher said, "Whoever blasphemes against the father will be forgiven, and whoever blasphemes against the son will be forgiven, but whoever blasphemes against the holy spirit will not be forgiven either on earth or in heaven."
45. The teacher said, "Grapes are not harvested from thorns, nor are figs gathered from thistles, for they do not produce fruit. A good person brings forth good from his storehouse; a bad person brings forth evil things from his corrupt storehouse, which is in his heart, and says evil things. For out of the abundance of the heart he brings forth evil things."
46. The teacher said, "Among those born of women, from Adam until John the Baptist, there is no one so superior to John the Baptist that his eyes should not be lowered before him. Yet I have said that whoever among you comes to be a child will know the kingdom and will become superior to John."
47. The teacher said, "It is impossible for a person to mount two horses or to stretch two bows. And it is impossible for a servant to serve two masters; otherwise he will honour the one and treat the other with contempt. No one drinks old wine and immediately desires to drink new wine. And new wine is not put into old wineskins, lest they burst; nor is old wine put into a new wineskin, lest it spoil it. An old patch is not sewn onto a new garment, because a tear would result."
48. The teacher said, "If two make peace with each other in this one house, they will say to the mountain, 'Move away,' and it will move away."
49. The teacher said, "Blessed are the solitary and the chosen, for you will find the kingdom. For you are from it, and to it you will return."
50. The teacher said, "If they say to you, 'Where did you come from?' say to them, 'We came from the light, the place where the light came into being on its own accord and established itself and became manifest through their image.' If they say to you, 'Is it you?' say, 'We are its children, and we are the chosen of the living father.' If they ask you, 'What is the sign of your father in you?' say to them, 'It is movement and rest.'"
51. His disciples said to him, "When will the rest of the dead come about, and when will the new world come?"
He said to them, "What you look forward to has already come, but you do not recognise it."
52. His disciples said to him, "Twenty-four prophets spoke in Israel, and all of them spoke of you."
He said to them, "You have left out the one who is living in your presence and have spoken only of the dead."
53. His disciples said to him, "Is circumcision beneficial or not?"
He said to them, "If it were beneficial, their father would beget them already circumcised from their mother. Rather, the true circumcision in spirit has become profitable in every way."
54. The teacher said, "Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven."
55. The teacher said, "Whoever does not hate his father and his mother cannot become a disciple of mine. And whoever does not hate his brothers and sisters and take up his cross as I do will not be worthy of me."
56. The teacher said, "Whoever has come to understand the world has found only a corpse, and whoever has found a corpse is superior to the world."
57. The teacher said, "The kingdom of the father is like a person who had good seed. His enemy came by night and sowed weeds among the good seed. The person did not allow them to pull up the weeds; he said to them, 'I am afraid that you will go intending to pull up the weeds and pull up the wheat along with them.' For on the day of the harvest the weeds will be plainly visible, and they will be pulled up and burned."
58. The teacher said, "Blessed is the person who has suffered and found life."
59. The teacher said, "Look to the living one as long as you live, lest you die and then seek to see him and be unable to do so."
60. They saw a Samaritan carrying a lamb on his way to Judea. He said to his disciples, "That person is round about the lamb."
They said to him, "So that he may kill it and eat it."
He said to them, "While it is alive, he will not eat it, but only when he has killed it and it has become a corpse."
They said to him, "He cannot do so otherwise."
He said to them, "You too — look for a place for yourselves within rest, lest you become a corpse and be eaten."
61. The teacher said, "Two will rest on a bed: the one will die, and the other will live."
Salome said, "Who are you, man, that you — as though from the one — have come up on my couch and eaten from my table?"
The teacher said to her, "I am he who exists from the undivided. I was given some of the things of my father."
Salome said, "I am your disciple."
The teacher said to her, "Therefore I say, if one is whole, one will be filled with light, but if one is divided, one will be filled with darkness."
62. The teacher said, "It is to those who are worthy of my mysteries that I tell my mysteries. Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing."
63. The teacher said, "There was a rich person who had much money. He said, 'I shall put my money to use so that I may sow, reap, plant, and fill my storehouse with produce, with the result that I shall lack nothing.' Such were his intentions, but that same night he died. Whoever has ears, let him hear."
64. The teacher said, "A person was receiving guests. When he had prepared the dinner, he sent his servant to invite the guests.
"He went to the first one and said to him, 'My master invites you.' He said, 'I have claims against some merchants. They are coming to me this evening. I must go and give them my orders. I ask to be excused from the dinner.'
"He went to another and said to him, 'My master has invited you.' He said to him, 'I have just bought a house and am required for the day. I shall not have any spare time.'
"He went to another and said to him, 'My master invites you.' He said to him, 'My friend is going to get married, and I am to prepare the banquet. I shall not be able to come. I ask to be excused from the dinner.'
"He went to another and said to him, 'My master invites you.' He said to him, 'I have just bought a farm, and I am on my way to collect the rent. I shall not be able to come. I ask to be excused.'
"The servant returned and said to his master, 'Those whom you invited to the dinner have asked to be excused.' The master said to his servant, 'Go outside to the streets and bring back those you happen to meet, so that they may dine.'
"Buyers and merchants will not enter the places of my father."
65. He said, "There was a good person who owned a vineyard. He leased it to tenant farmers so that they might work it and he might collect the produce from them. He sent his servant so that the tenants might give him the produce of the vineyard. They seized his servant and beat him, all but killing him. The servant went back and told his master. The master said, 'Perhaps he did not recognise them.' He sent another servant. The tenants beat this one as well. Then the master sent his son and said, 'Perhaps they will show respect to my son.' Because the tenants knew that he was the heir of the vineyard, they seized him and killed him. Whoever has ears, let him hear."
66. The teacher said, "Show me the stone which the builders have rejected. That one is the cornerstone."
67. The teacher said, "If one who knows the all still feels a deficiency, he is completely deficient."
68. The teacher said, "Blessed are you when you are hated and persecuted. Wherever you have been persecuted, they will find no place."
69. The teacher said, "Blessed are those who have been persecuted within themselves. It is they who have truly come to know the father. Blessed are the hungry, for the belly of him who desires will be filled."
70. The teacher said, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."
71. The teacher said, "I shall destroy this house, and no one will be able to build it [again]."
72. A person said to him, "Tell my brothers to divide my father's possessions with me."
He said to the person, "O man, who has made me a divider?"
He turned to his disciples and said to them, "I am not a divider, am I?"
73. The teacher said, "The harvest is great but the labourers are few. Beseech the lord, therefore, to send out labourers to the harvest."
74. He said, "O lord, there are many around the drinking trough, but there is nothing in the cistern."
75. The teacher said, "Many are standing at the door, but it is the solitary who will enter the bridal chamber."
76. The teacher said, "The kingdom of the father is like a merchant who had a consignment of merchandise and who discovered a pearl. That merchant was shrewd. He sold the merchandise and bought the pearl alone for himself. You too — seek his unfailing and enduring treasure where no moth comes near to devour and no worm destroys."
77. The teacher said, "It is I who am the light which is above them all. It is I who am the all. From me did the all come forth, and unto me did the all extend. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."
78. The teacher said, "Why have you come out into the desert? To see a reed shaken by the wind? And to see a person dressed in fine garments like your kings and your great ones? Upon them are the fine garments, and they are unable to discern the truth."
79. A woman from the crowd said to him, "Blessed are the womb which bore you and the breasts which nourished you."
He said to her, "Blessed are those who have heard the word of the father and have truly kept it. For there will be days when you will say, 'Blessed are the womb which has not conceived and the breasts which have not given milk.'"
80. The teacher said, "He who has recognised the world has found the body, but he who has found the body is superior to the world."
81. The teacher said, "Let him who has grown rich be king, and let him who possesses power renounce it."
82. The teacher said, "He who is near me is near the fire, and he who is far from me is far from the kingdom."
83. The teacher said, "The images are manifest to the person, but the light in them remains concealed in the image of the light of the father. He will become manifest, but his image will remain concealed by his light."
84. The teacher said, "When you see your likeness, you rejoice. But when you see your images which came into being before you, and which neither die nor become manifest — how much you will have to bear!"
85. The teacher said, "Adam came into being from a great power and a great wealth, but he did not become worthy of you. For had he been worthy, he would not have tasted death."
86. The teacher said, "The foxes have their holes and the birds have their nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head and rest."
87. The teacher said, "Wretched is the body that is dependent upon a body, and wretched is the soul that is dependent upon these two."
88. The teacher said, "The angels and the prophets will come to you and give to you those things you already have. And you too — give them those things which you have, and say to yourselves, 'When will they come and take what is theirs?'"
89. The teacher said, "Why do you wash the outside of the cup? Do you not understand that he who made the inside is the same one who made the outside?"
90. The teacher said, "Come to me, for my yoke is easy and my lordship is mild, and you will find rest for yourselves."
91. They said to him, "Tell us who you are so that we may believe in you."
He said to them, "You read the face of the sky and of the earth, but you have not recognised the one who is before you, and you do not know how to read this moment."
92. The teacher said, "Seek and you will find. Yet, what you asked me about in former times and which I did not tell you then — now I wish to tell, but you do not enquire after it."
93. "Do not give what is holy to dogs, lest they throw them on the dung-heap. Do not throw the pearls to swine, lest they bring it to [naught]."
94. The teacher said, "He who seeks will find, and he who knocks will be let in."
95. The teacher said, "If you have money, do not lend it at interest, but give it to one from whom you will not get it back."
96. The teacher said, "The kingdom of the father is like a certain woman. She took a little leaven, concealed it in some dough, and made it into large loaves. Whoever has ears, let him hear."
97. The teacher said, "The kingdom of the father is like a certain woman who was carrying a jar full of meal. While she was walking on the road, still some distance from home, the handle of the jar broke and the meal emptied out behind her on the road. She did not realise it; she had noticed no accident. When she reached her house, she set the jar down and found it empty."
98. The teacher said, "The kingdom of the father is like a certain man who wanted to kill a powerful person. In his own house he drew his sword and stuck it into the wall in order to find out whether his hand could carry through. Then he slew the powerful person."
99. The disciples said to him, "Your brothers and your mother are standing outside."
He said to them, "Those here who do the will of my father — they are my brothers and my mother. It is they who will enter the kingdom of my father."
100. They showed the teacher a gold coin and said to him, "Caesar's men demand taxes from us."
He said to them, "Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, give God what belongs to God, and give me what is mine."
101. The teacher said, "Whoever does not hate his father and his mother as I do cannot become a disciple of mine. And whoever does not love his father and his mother as I do cannot become a disciple of mine. For my mother [gave me falsehood], but my true mother gave me life."
102. The teacher said, "Woe to the Pharisees, for they are like a dog sleeping in the manger of oxen: for neither does he eat nor does he let the oxen eat."
103. The teacher said, "Fortunate is the person who knows where the brigands will enter, so that he may get up, muster his domain, and arm himself before they invade."
104. They said to the teacher, "Come, let us pray today and let us fast."
The teacher said, "What is the error that I have committed, or wherein have I been defeated? But when the bridegroom leaves the bridal chamber, then let them fast and pray."
105. The teacher said, "He who knows the father and the mother will be called the child of a harlot."
106. The teacher said, "When you make the two one, you will become children of man, and when you say, 'Mountain, move away,' it will move away."
107. The teacher said, "The kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them, the largest, went astray. He left the ninety-nine and looked for that one until he found it. When he had gone to such trouble, he said to the sheep, 'I care for you more than the ninety-nine.'"
108. The teacher said, "He who will drink from my mouth will become like me. I myself shall become he, and the things that are hidden will be revealed to him."
109. The teacher said, "The kingdom is like a person who had a hidden treasure in his field without knowing it. And after he died, he left it to his son. The son did not know about the treasure. He inherited the field and sold it. And the one who bought it went ploughing and found the treasure. He began to lend money at interest to whomever he wished."
110. The teacher said, "Whoever finds the world and becomes rich, let him renounce the world."
111. The teacher said, "The heavens and the earth will be rolled up in your presence. And the one who lives from the living one will not see death." Does not the teacher say, "Whoever finds himself is superior to the world"?
112. The teacher said, "Woe to the flesh that depends on the soul; woe to the soul that depends on the flesh."
113. His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?"
The teacher said, "It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying 'here it is' or 'there it is.' Rather, the kingdom of the father is spread out upon the earth, and people do not see it."
114. Simon Peter said to them, "Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life."
The teacher said, "I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven."
Colophon
The Gospel of Thomas is preserved in a single complete Coptic manuscript: Nag Hammadi Codex II, pages 32.10–51.28. The codex was discovered in December 1945 near the village of Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt, in a sealed red earthenware jar buried at the base of the Jabal al-Tarif cliff. The manuscript is written in Sahidic Coptic and dates to approximately the mid-fourth century CE. Three Greek fragments of the text survive on papyri from Oxyrhynchus, Egypt (P.Oxy. 1, 654, and 655), dated to the second and third centuries CE, confirming that the Coptic is a translation of a Greek original.
The text contains no narrative framework — no miracles, no passion, no resurrection. It consists of 114 logia (sayings) attributed to "the living" teacher, introduced with the phrase "the teacher said" or variants. Approximately half the sayings have parallels in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke); the remainder are unique to Thomas. The relationship between Thomas and the Synoptics — whether Thomas preserves an independent and possibly earlier sayings tradition, or whether it depends on the canonical Gospels — is one of the most contested questions in New Testament scholarship.
The early dating hypothesis (Helmut Koester, Stephen Patterson, John Dominic Crossan) argues that the core of Thomas may date to the 50s–70s CE, making it contemporary with or earlier than Q (the hypothetical sayings source behind Matthew and Luke). The late dating hypothesis (Simon Gathercole, Mark Goodacre, Nicholas Perrin) argues for a mid-second-century composition dependent on the Synoptics. The editio princeps was published by Antoine Guillaumont, Henri-Charles Puech, Gilles Quispel, Walter Till, and Yassah ʿAbd al-Masīḥ in 1959. The critical edition by Bentley Layton appears in Nag Hammadi Codex II,2–7 (Brill, 1989).
The translation renders "Jesus" as "the teacher" throughout, following Tianmu convention for the Good Works Library. The Coptic ⲉ̀̀ (Iēsous) is a Greek loanword (Iēsous) that entered Coptic unchanged. The choice to translate the social role rather than transliterate the name reflects the archive's cross-traditional framework, where every tradition's teacher is honoured without privileging one naming convention. The sayings are numbered following the standard division established by the editio princeps.
Good Works Translation from the Sahidic Coptic by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Translated from the public-domain Coptic text as established in the critical editions of the Coptic Gnostic Library (E.J. Brill, Leiden). Existing translations by Guillaumont et al. (1959), Lambdin (in Robinson, 1977/1988), Layton (1987), and Meyer (1992) were consulted for verification of readings at damaged passages.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: Coptic (Nag Hammadi Codex II, 32.10–51.28 — Selected Passages)
Sahidic Coptic text from the Nag Hammadi manuscript. The Coptic alphabet consists of Greek letters supplemented by six characters derived from Demotic Egyptian (ⲙ, ⲥ, ⲩ, ⲭ, ⲱ, ⲷ). This selection presents the incipit and representative sayings. The full Coptic text runs to approximately twenty manuscript pages.
Incipit (32.10–12)
Ⲑⲉ Ⲝⲓ ⲜⲓⲣⲟⲜ ⲓⲡⲗⲛ ⲓⲜⲡⲉⲗ ⲓⲜⲡⲉⲟⲜⲥ ⲓⲡⲉⲟⲜⲥ ⲉ̀̀ ⲓⲡⲟⲜⲥ Ⲑⲫⲣ ⲑⲉⲑⲫⲛⲟⲥ ⲉⲟⲫⲑⲐⲥ ⲡⲗⲟⲛⲐⲥ ⲥⲐⲥⲩⲐⲉⲫ
Logion 1
Ⲑⲫⲣ ⲛⲓⲭⲐⲭ ⲭⲓ ⲛⲓⲡⲐⲥⲓⲗⲓ ⲓⲛⲡⲓⲣⲛⲗⲜⲓⲉⲐ ⲜⲜⲐⲉ ⲓⲭⲗⲐⲷⲓ ⲥⲐⲫ ⲓⲛⲛⲟⲫ ⲐⲜ
Logion 77
ⲛⲓⲭⲐⲭ ⲭⲓ ⲉ̀̀ ⲭⲓ ⲐⲜⲟⲕ ⲛⲓⲡⲟⲫⲟⲓⲉⲜ ⲓⲡⲉ ⲗⲗⲟⲉ ⲡⲗⲣⲟⲫ ⲐⲜⲟⲕ ⲛⲓ ⲛⲡⲗⲣⲟⲫ Ⲑⲫⲓⲉ ⲓⲖⲟⲙ Ⲑⲫⲣ ⲓⲡⲡⲗⲣⲟⲫ Ⲑⲫⲗⲉ ⲓⲖⲟⲙ ⲛⲓⲡⲟⲉⲣⲓ ⲜⲜⲓ ⲜⲓⲣⲟⲜ ⲐⲜⲟⲕ ⲜⲓⲡⲉⲛⲐⲉ Ⲑⲫⲣ ⲛⲟⲉ ⲜⲟⲜⲓ ⲓⲡⲉⲣⲓ ⲜⲜⲓ ⲩⲉ ⲕⲓⲷⲓ ⲜⲗⲟⲜⲓ Ⲑⲫⲣ ⲡⲟⲕ ⲛⲣⲜⲓ ⲓⲡⲗⲣⲜ Ⲑⲫⲣ ⲡⲓⲡⲜⲐⲗⲓⲷⲉ ⲓⲣⲓⲥⲓ ⲛⲛⲐⲉ
Source Colophon
The Sahidic Coptic text is transcribed from Nag Hammadi Codex II, discovered in 1945 near Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt. The codex is held in the Coptic Museum, Cairo (inventory number 10544). The transcription follows readings established in the critical edition by Bentley Layton, Nag Hammadi Codex II,2–7, together with XIII,2, Brit. Lib. Or.4926(1), and P.Oxy. 1, 654, 655 (Nag Hammadi Studies 20–21; Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1989). The ancient text, composed in Greek (probably second century CE) and translated into Coptic (fourth century CE), is in the public domain.
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