Their existence, and their implications for the unity of early
Christianity, will be the focus of this chapter’s case study.
Case study: the Nag Hammadi discoveries
and early ChristianityThe mid-1940s were good years for the accidental discovery of
long-forgotten but important religious texts by peasant farmers in
the Middle East. In late 1946 (or early 1947: the date is disputed)
Palestinian shepherd Muhammad edh-Dhib climbed a cliff at
Khirbet Qumran by the shores of the Dead Sea in search of a lost
goat. Instead he stumbled into a cave where he found the first of
the Dead Sea Scrolls. This find is justly famous. Rather less well
known, at least until recently, is the unearthing of another cache
of documents only a year or so earlier. In December 1945 an
Egyptian peasant of the al-Samman tribe called Muhammad Ali
went with his brother Khalifa to Nag Hammadi (located between
Asyut and Luxor in the upper Nile valley) to dig for the nitrate
rich soil that they used as fertilizer on their family farm. We can
only imagine what state of mind Muhammad Ali was in that day.
A few months earlier his father Ali, who worked as a night
watchman, had killed a marauder and been murdered in his turn
in an act of blood vengeance. Some time later, early in 1946,
Muhammad Ali and his brothers managed to identify their father’s
murderer. They killed him, dismembered his body, and ate his
heart, but the blood feud was to continue for years afterwards.
Perhaps, then, Muhammad Ali was slightly agitated on that
December day. He possibly did not feel any more comfortable
when his mattock snagged on something hard on the ground that
further investigation revealed to be a jar, its lid sealed with
bitumen. At first Muhammad Ali was frightened that it might
contain an evil spirit. Then the thought occurred to him that it
might contain treasure instead. He smashed the jar open but found
nothing more than a number of papyrus codices bound in leather
covers. Thus was the collection of early Christian texts known as
the Nag Hammadi library brought to light.
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