Concordance des textes de Nag Hammadi. Le Codex VII
With the aid of a software program called "Lemmatiseur" developed by Laval University, Régine Charron has inaugurated a most valuable series with a concordance of Codex VII from the Nag Hammadi Library. After an introduction in both French and English, different sections offer concordances of Coptic words, Greek words, proper names, and magical syllables. Most valuable is the inclusion of the full Coptic text of the tractates. This is followed by a complete index of both Coptic and Greek words, which is helpful for the former but rather unnecessary for the latter.
Explanations are offered for the various prefixes and particles, and French definitions are given for homonymous forms, for example, sine "porter" and eine "resembler." It would have been most helpful if brief definitions had been listed with each word. Almost all the Coptic words can be found in Richard Smith, A Concise Coptic-English Lexicon (1983), but for some, one has to refer to the massive Coptic Dictionary by W. E. Crum. And a few words, e.g. šime "particle," are not contained in that basic reference.
Codex VII contains five interesting tractates: (VII,1) The Paraphrase of Shem, [End Page 107] (VII, 2) The Second Treatise of the Great Seth, (VII,3) The Apocalypse of Peter, (VII,4) The Teachings of Silvanus, and (VII,5) The Three Steles of Seth. In the first (1977) edition of The Nag Hammadi Library, edited by James M. Robinson, F. Wisse, the translator of Paraph. Shem, described it as a text which sets forth the figure Derdekeas as "a redeemer whose features agree with those features of New Testament Christology which may very well be pre-Christian in origin" (p. 308). It is interesting to note that the introduction by Michel Roberge in the third (1990) edition of The Nag Hammadi Library concludes that the tractate's sharp polemic against water baptism assumes a post-Christian date (p. 341), as a number of scholars such as J.-M. Sevrin, and K.-M. Fischer have argued.
Both the Apoc. Pet. and Treat. Seth set forth striking docetic representations of the crucifixion, in which a substitute takes the place of Christ on the cross, while the Savior stands by, "laughing." The Teach. Silv. is a non-Gnostic series of Christian exhortations, which combine biblical concepts with those derived from Middle Platonism and Stoicism. It may have been included in the collection because of its ascetic emphasis. The Steles Seth are hymnic prayers addressed to the Self-begotten son, the mother Barbelo, and the Unbegotten Father.
The importance of Charron's new reference can hardly be overestimated. Though one could take the trouble to look up the indices in the monographs of the series, The Coptic Gnostic Library, the most accessible index heretofore was that of proper names and personified concepts in the first edition of The Nag Hammadi Library, which was regrettably replaced in the third edition with an essay by the publisher's editor. While this index is adequate for locating such names as Derdekeas, it is incomplete. For example, while it lists all nine occurrences of Hades (Coptic amnte) in Paraph. Shem , it does not list any of the six occurrences in Teach. Silv.
The frequency of some words as compared to the infrequency of other words highlights the different emphases of the Nag Hammadi texts as compared to the New Testament, the Apostolic Fathers, and the Apologists. Nobe "sin" occurs 20×, various derivatives of baptizein 6×. Episcopos occurs but once, and neither presbuteros or diakonos is attested. Ekklēsia occurs but 9×, and only in the sense of "assembly" in Treat. Seth. Metanoia appears thrice, all in Paraph. Shem 35:20-36:1. Nomos occurs but 5×, and stauros but twice, as does charis.
Whereas the name Jesus occurs but 4×, Christ appears 46×.
It may be surprising that gnōsis occurs only 8×, and that plērōma appears 4×. On the other hand, meeue "thought" occurs 79×, and sooun "to know" 100×, ouoein "light" 212×, ouōnh "reveal" 116×.
The most interesting words are neither the hapax legomena nor the very common words such as kake "darkness" 120×, but words which occur in relatively significant passages. The concordance provides the tool for conducting studies of such key Coptic words as blle "blind" which occurs 18×; eneh "eternal" 31×; hoou "glory" 40×; kloole "cloud" 60×; kōht "fire" 51×. In addition to these Coptic words, we have key Greek words to consider as: logos 36×, megethos 37×, and sophia 25×.
Old Testament names such as Adam, Moses, David, Solomon are concentrated in Treat. Seth. Paul occurs but once in Teach. Silv. 108:30; Peter's name occurs 8× in the apocalypse of his name. [End Page 108]
One interesting hapax is bōlos "lump" in Paraph. Shem 45:18, a clear indication of Manichaean influence, which is interesting in the light of several studies of H. J. W Drijvers, who has argued for such influence upon several other Nag Hammadi tractates.
I would like to offer a suggestion to the publishers. When the series of concordances of the Nag Hammadi codices is completed, I would suggest that a selective concordance of key words for the entire library be published. There are pages of lists in this reference which only a Coptic philologian would love, such as pp. 31-46 on the a- perfect affirmative prefix, pp. 48-51 on the negative particle, pp. 52-57 on variations of the first person pronoun—but such entries are of little interest to church historians. These could be omitted in a more compact reference work. From a marketing standpoint, one can safely bet that there are many more patristics scholars than Coptologists. For the former such a work would be invaluable, and perhaps even affordable.
