Image Details

NAG HAMMADI ARCHIVES, THE CLAREMONT COLLEGES DIGITAL LIBRARY

COVERED IN WASTE. The most famous discovery of early Christian manuscripts took place in 1945 near Nag Hammadi in southern Egypt. Comprising 12 papyrus books and one loose tractate, the Nag Hammadi Codices contain a variety of Christian material, including the famous Gospel of Thomas. Like other early books, these codices were bound in covers stuffed with “old paper.” When these waste papyri contain dated texts, they provide the earliest possible date when the codex was manufactured. Pictured here is the cover of Codex VIII.