Codex VIII from Nag Hammadi contains two tractates, Zostrianos and The Letter of Peter to Philip. This volume presents a critical edition of those texts, and includes regarding each separate text a transcription with notes, an introduction, and a translation. In addition it includes an introduction to the Codex itself, and several sets of indices. The tractate Zostrianos recounts a heavenly journey of a gnostic mystic who gains and brings back with him the saving gnosis. That gnosis is most closely related to Middle Platonism and the document intends to be part of that tradition. As such it was refuted by Plotinus and his pupil Amelius. Much of the manuscript is poorly preserved. The Letter of Peter to Philip is a gnostic revelatory discourse in letter form with Peter as its hero. The Risen Christ reveals a gnostic view of the universe and of human existence.

The latest volume in a project begun in 1966 to make important Gnostic texts available to scholars. From the eighth codex of the Nag Hammadi manuscripts, facing pages present a transcription of the Coptic, and an English translation substantially revised from the most recent one (1988). The main work is Zostrianos, a pseudonymous account of a kinsman of Zoroaster on an otherworldly journey. A letter from Peter to Philip is also included. Each work is indexed by Coptic, Greek (the original language), and English words, and by proper names. The bibliography lists both ancient and modern works. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Preliminary Material /R. McL. Wilson --The Demiurge in the Apocryphon of John /Gilles Quispel --Anapausis in the Epistula Jacobi Apocrypha /Jan Helderman --The Colophon of the Gospel of the Egyptians: Concessus and Macarius of Nag Hammadi /P. Bellet. O.S.B. --Report on the Dialogue of the Savior (CG III, 5) /Elaine Pagels and Helmut Koester --Die Paraphrase als Form gnostischer Verkündigung /Barbara Aland --Un rituel idéal d'intronisation dans trois textes gnostiques de Nag Hammadi /Maddalena Scopello --The Letter of Peter to Philip and the New Testament /G. P. Lutiikhuizen --La Lettre de Pierre à Philippe: sa structure /Jacques É. Ménard --La bibliothèque copte de Nag Hammadi /Jacques-É. Ménard --Koptisch-gnostische Schriften Volumes 2 and 3 /Hans-Martin Schenke --On Investigating the Hermetic Documents contained in Nag Hammadi Codex VI. /Karl-Wolfgang Tröger --Jacob as an Angel in Gnosticism and Manicheism /Alexander Böhlig --Report on the Coptological Work /Alexander Böhlig --Un double symbole de foi gnostique dans le Kephalaion un de Médînet Mâdi /J. Ries --Egyptian Survivals in the Nag Hammadi Library /Pahor Labib --Literarkritische Probleme der Zephanja-Apokalypse /Bernd Jörg Diebner --Index /R. McL. Wilson.

Preliminary Material /Harold W. Attridge --Foreword /James M. Robinson --Preface /Harold W. Attridge --Table of Tractates in the Coptic Gnostic Library /Harold W. Attridge --Abbreviations and Short Titles /Harold W. Attridge --Introduction /Harold W. Attridge --The Prayer of the Apostle Paul /Dieter Mueller --The Apocryphon of James /Francis E. Williams --The Gospel of Truth /Harold W. Attridge and S.J.|George W. MacRae --The Treatise on the Resurrection /Malcolm L. Peel --The Tripartite Tractate /Harold W. Attridge and Elaine H. Pagels --Indices /Harold W. Attridge.

This volume presents critical editions of three of the most fragmentary codices in the Nag Hammadi Library. Their nine tractates are presented in an English translation with critically edited transcriptions of Coptic texts, including introductions and notes. A complete set of indices is provided for Coptic and Greek words, proper names, ancient texts and authors, and modern authors. The contents of these three ancient books reflect the rich diversity of the Library as a whole. They include a fragmentary (and apparently non-Christian) revelation descent narrative (Hypsiphrone); a non-Christian Sethian text reflecting heavy platonizing influence (Allogenes); Hellenistic Greek wisdom literature (Sentence of Sextus); a non-christian Sethian text, secondarily Christianized (Trimorphic Protennoia); Valentinian Gnosticism (A Valentinian Exposition); a Christian-Gnostic tractate with Valentinian affinities (The Interpretation of Knowledge). A Christian-Gnostic (perhaps Valentinian) homily on the gospel (the Gospel of Truth); the first page of On the Origin of the World (completely preserved in NHC II) and an identified fragmentary tractate with ethical content. There are also five Valentinian liturgical supplements appended to Allogenes. The publication of these religio-philosophical materials from Nag Hammadi provides the scholar and interested reader with critical editions of texts that help to fill in background and context of gnostic origins, and that shed light on the interaction among early Christianity and gnostic movements in antiquity.