The Gnostic texts

This group holds texts of Gnosticism, the diverse early religious currents, flourishing in the first centuries CE, that taught salvation through secret knowledge (gnosis) and often a sharp dualism between the material world and a hidden higher God. Many were long known only from their opponents until the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library in 1945.

The browser will find the works the atlas gathers here. The entries describe each text's teaching and history, noting the recovery of Gnostic writings in the twentieth century and their varied relation to early Christianity.