Letter of Eugnostos

EUGNOSTOS, LETTER OF ug nŏs’ təs. A Gnostic document contained in Codex III and Codex V of the Nag Hammadi library, but as yet unpublished. It has, however a close parallel in the Sophia Jesu Christi, published by W. C. Till from the Berlin Gnostic Codex. Eugnostos is a straightforward discourse, the Sophia a dialogue between Jesus and the disciples. The most recent discussion of their relationship, by M. Krause, argues that the special material in the Sophia does not fit the common material, while that of Eugnostos does. In particular the questions of the disciples are not matched by the answers of Jesus, and are therefore later insertions. This would show Christianization of a non-Christian (or less Christian?) text.

Bibliography

Till, TU 60 (1955); Krause in Mullus (JAC Erganzungsband I, 1964), 215ff.; Wilson, Gnosis and the New Testament (1968), 111ff.).