Lexicon of Spiritual Powers in the Nag Hammadi “Library” in the Light of the Texts of Ritual Power

Abstract

The Lexicon is conceived as a reference book for the names of spiritual powers attested in the Nag Hammadi “library” presented against the background of the texts of ritual power. It provides the names in their immediate lexical and narrative context without any claims to wider philological or theological analyses, although the body of evidence has been put together with the aim of enabling further investigation also in this field. The main goal of the Lexicon is to establish for the first time a tool for reliable research on interrelations between two source corpora replete with the names of power. In previous scholarship, there were made many dispersed observations regarding the influence of so-called magical material on Gnosticism and on the Gnostic heritage in the texts of ritual power (see below), but the solid source base which would enable quantitative analyses has not been built yet. Preliminary observations made in the introduction lead to the conclusion that, in the area of the names of power, Gnostics were rather innovative, and interdependencies with the texts of ritual power are of minor importance. However, the meticulous analyses remain an agenda for the users of the Lexicon (...).