The Library

The Texts

Every text below is served complete and free: the actual public domain translation or our own labeled rendering, with the source manuscript and translator named on every page, and the manuscripts' gaps shown as gaps. These are the primary sources — not summaries of them.

Text	Date	Manuscript	Translation	Length
The Gospel of Judas	2nd century CE (attested by Irenaeus, c. 180 CE)	Codex Tchacos 3 (pp. 33–58)	Mark M. Mattison	3,116 words
The Gospel of Mary	early 2nd century CE	Berlin Codex (BG 8502,1)	Mark M. Mattison	1,107 words
The Gospel of Peter	mid-2nd century CE	Akhmîm fragment (P.Cair. 10759), discovered 1886–87	Mark M. Mattison	1,568 words
The Gospel of Philip	3rd century CE	Nag Hammadi Codex II,3 (pages 51–86)	Mark M. Mattison	8,805 words
The Gospel of Thomas	1st–2nd century CE	Nag Hammadi Codex II,2	Mark M. Mattison	4,718 words
The Gospel of Truth	mid-2nd century CE	Nag Hammadi Codex I,3 (pp. 16–43)	Mark M. Mattison	5,004 words
The Hymn of the Pearl	c. 2nd–3rd century CE	Acts of Thomas 108–113	G.R.S. Mead	1,429 words
Thunder, Perfect Mind	2nd–3rd century CE (Coptic copy c. mid-4th century)	Nag Hammadi Codex VI,2 (pages 13–21)	The Gnostic Library	421 words

The Gospels

2nd century CE (attested by Irenaeus, c. 180 CE)

The Gospel of Judas

The Gospel of Judas is a second-century Sethian text in which Jesus laughs at his disciples' piety and gives private teaching to Judas Iscariot — the only disciple who understands who Jesus really is.

Mark M. Mattison · 8 sections early 2nd century CE

The Gospel of Mary

The Gospel of Mary is an early Christian text in which Mary Magdalene comforts the frightened disciples after the resurrection and teaches them what the Savior told her privately — until Peter and Andrew challenge her right to speak.

Mark M. Mattison · 6 sections mid-2nd century CE

The Gospel of Peter

The Gospel of Peter is a second-century passion narrative that survives as a single dramatic fragment: the trial, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus told with details found nowhere else — including a walking, talking cross and a Christ whose head reaches above the heavens.

Mark M. Mattison · 14 sections 3rd century CE

The Gospel of Philip

The Gospel of Philip is a Valentinian anthology of reflections on sacraments, marriage, resurrection, and the names of Christ, preserved in Nag Hammadi Codex II.

Mark M. Mattison · 19 sections 1st–2nd century CE

The Gospel of Thomas

The Gospel of Thomas is a collection of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus, preserved complete in Coptic in Nag Hammadi Codex II and in three Greek fragments from Oxyrhynchus.

Mark M. Mattison · 116 sections mid-2nd century CE

The Gospel of Truth

The Gospel of Truth is a Valentinian meditation on the good news that the Father is not unknowable after all — error and forgetfulness, not sin, are the human problem, and knowledge of the Father is their cure.

Mark M. Mattison · 16 sections

Wisdom & the Deep Teachings

c. 2nd–3rd century CE

The Hymn of the Pearl

The Hymn of the Pearl is a poem embedded in the apocryphal Acts of Thomas: a prince is sent from the East to Egypt to recover a pearl guarded by a serpent, forgets who he is, and is awakened by a letter from home.

G.R.S. Mead · 22 sections 2nd–3rd century CE (Coptic copy c. mid-4th century)

Thunder, Perfect Mind

Thunder, Perfect Mind is a poem from Nag Hammadi Codex VI in which a female divine voice proclaims herself in relentless paradox: 'I am the first and the last.

The Gnostic Library · 3 sections

The library grows

This library expands on a public roadmap. Coming next: the Secret Book (Apocryphon) of John, the Apocryphon of James, the Infancy Gospels of James and Thomas, the Egerton Gospel, Pistis Sophia, and new renderings of the Sethian revelations. New texts arrive on this site and in the app — free for everyone on the web, and free forever for All Access owners in the app.