Notice on the Bruce Gnostic Papyrus

THE GNOSTIC PAPYRUS BRUCE.

If the manuscript had been complete when Bruce became its owner, it would undoubtedly be possible to put the leaves back in their place; but, as I said just now, the manuscript was already incomplete when it came into the hands of the famous traveler, and even a superficial examination of what remains of its contents is enough to prove it. In one particular place, Jesus teaches his disciples how they must pass through all the worlds to reach the great treasure of light; he gives a number for these worlds which he then details one by one, and the discourse stops long before the series is completed, as one will be able to convince oneself by reading the translation I provide of the work itself. Furthermore, at the end of the copy by Woïde, and likely also at the end of the second of the two Gnostic works contained in the papyrus, one finds a series of tables each representing one of the aeons eternal realms/divine emanations of the Valentinian Pleroma fullness/totality of divine powers. This Pleroma was composed differently depending on whether one was a partisan of the Valentinian Oriental school or the Valentinian Italic school original: "Pour cette division, cf. Philosoph., lib. VI, p. 296, l. 3-4; et E. Amélineau, Essai sur le Gnosticisme, p. 184-189."; in one case, it was composed of thirty worlds or aeons; in the other, of thirty-two; in no case twenty-eight, as in the Bruce papyrus; certainly not that the author had adopted this number twenty-eight, but rather that the papyrus is incomplete. Therefore, no matter how one turns it over, it is certain that doubts will always remain about the true place that the leaves should occupy. When, in the passage I cited, I wrote that it was almost easy to put the leaves back in their place, I used an expression that went too far, and I took my desire for reality. A more attentive examination of the papyrus and more continuous studies have corrected my first way of seeing. Despite this difficulty, I have attempted, and I had to, to put back