Notice on the Bruce Gnostic Papyrus

THE GNOSTIC PAPYRUS BRUCE.

As Woïde took care to copy it page by page, so that each line of his copy corresponded to each line of the manuscript, the task is further simplified, and one can collate the copy with the original despite the erasure of the letters, which would be totally impossible if the copyist had not followed the indicated method original: "Comptes rendus de l'Acad. des inscr. et belles-lettres, loc. cit., p. 220-221."."

This state of the papyrus has been, without a doubt, one of the causes that prevented the publication of the Gnostic work: the ordering of the pages is indeed more difficult than I first believed, because of the double work or the double title contained in the papyrus. From this double title arise doubts that soon lead to great uncertainty. Despite this difficulty and the uncertainties that have several times assailed me, I have determined myself to an order that scholars will judge, approve, or condemn. Even if there were a better order to propose than the one in which I have arranged the leaves, it would not be a matter of consequence; for I have taken care to note minutely the places where the text ceases to be coherent, and thus one will always be able to judge the ideas contained in the double Gnostic treatise. As I will show later, although the title is double, the ideas contained in each of the two books are not so different that they must necessarily be arranged under one of the two titles rather than the other; it is one more difficulty in the arrangement of the leaves; but it is also a negative advantage, in the sense that the value of the ideas and the developments could not depend absolutely on the place that this or that page occupied in the chain of ideas, for this chain, if it existed, is purely artificial.