Eusebius tells us, in the early third century by bishop Serapion
of Antioch in Syria (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History6.12). For
all that, it was still being read in Egypt some four hundred years
later. The discoveries at Akhmim and Nag Hammadi, together
with other stray fragments and manuscripts, suggest that there
was a broad spectrum of interests, and perhaps also of beliefs,
among Egyptian Christians throughout antiquity and into the
early middle ages. Such material – together with evidence for
the tenacity of heterodox and schismatic groups elsewhere in the
Mediterranean world – points to a diversity in early Christianity
that is not always highlighted in traditional narratives of church
history.
Ancient texts and modern readersThis survey of the implications raised by the Nag Hammadi
discoveries has touched repeatedly on the problem of how they
should be interpreted within a framework of Christian history that
owes much to models derived from early church writers like
Irenaeus and Eusebius. It is unlikely, I suspect, that a scholarly
consensus will be reached any time soon on the Nag Hammadi
library. The various reactions to it, however, remind us that the
interpretation of early Christianity is often driven by the personal
sympathies of modern readers. Consider, for example, the Gospel
of Thomas. This text has provoked so much debate, to the extent
that some would advocate reopening the canon and including
this gospel in an expanded New Testament (cf. Baarda 2003:
46–7). That may never happen, and some would say it should
never happen. The prospect of any such debate would certainly
have outraged Irenaeus. Yet the very fact that such a debate is
happening reveals that some modern Christians have found some-
thing attractive in what is usually categorized as an apocryphal,
even heretical gospel. In North America, for instance, it has been
adopted as a favoured text by Christian reading groups dissatis-
fied with the teachings of the established churches.^6 Indeed, the
modern appeal of texts from the Nag Hammadi library is probably
ORTHODOXY AND ORGANIZATION IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY1
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