This edition was translated by Members of the Coptic Gnostic Library Project.

The Nag Hammadi library is a collection of religious texts that vary widely from each other as to when, where, and by whom they were written. The focus of this library has much in common with primitive Christianity, with eastern religion, and with "holy men and women" of all times, as well as with more secular equivalents of today. The library of fourth century papyrus manuscripts consists of twelve codices plus eight leaves from a thirteenth comprising a complete text and contains fifty-two separate tractates. Because of duplications, there are forty-five separate titles. Most of the tractates derive from the Hellenistic sects now called gnostic but survive in Coptic translations.

Since the original manuscripts are fragmentary in many places, ellipsis dots (. . .) are included to indicate the place, but not the extent of all lacunae. The page and line numbers of the papyrus codex, given in the translations, should indicate the extent of the damage. There is no clean control copy to allow for correction when compared. Thus, there may be many unintentional errors.

The manuscripts were buried about 400 C. E. and were discovered in 1945. They were found not far from a Panchomian monastery at Chenoboskia in Egypt. Two brothers, while fertilizing their crops in the Naj' Hammadi region of Upper Egypt, came across a jar at the base of a boulder. When they broke the jar, the books appeared. The brothers took the books to their home. A long story follows until the manuscripts reached the Department of Antiquities in Cairo. The manuscripts received their final conservation about thirty years later. The library is kept in The Coptic Museum in Cairo.

This library makes an important contribution not only to the history of religion, but also to the history of philosophy. It draws on material not only those of Judeo-Christian heritage, but also of Egyptian lore. However, the collection is of Christian Gnosticism.

This edition was published by Harper in 1988.