Notice on the Bruce Gnostic Papyrus

THE
GNOSTIC
BRUCE
PAPYRUS.

MMOC NHTN XE MN Coptic monogram for MYSTERY XOM ETPETETNBWK EΠEY-
2OYN ϢANTETNXI MΠCoptic monogram for MYSTERY MΠKA NOBE EBOΛ NϢOΡΠ.

Thus, in this phrase, the sign Coptic monogram for MYSTERY returns five times and in such circumstances that one cannot think of translating it as martyr: I translate it as mystery and it is an abbreviation for the word MYSTERION mystery written in its entirety in other passages. From which it follows that one must translate the preceding phrase thus:

"When you have arrived in that place, they (the Archons and the Angels of that place) will see that you have received (the knowledge of) these mysteries with the exception of the mystery of remitting sins; they will seize you in that place, because they have not yet received the mystery of the remission of sins, so that you may perform for them the mysteries that you have received. This is why I tell you that it is not possible for you to enter into the interior of their (world) before having received first of all the mystery of the remission of sins."

Without contradiction, the word mystery is taken here in a particular sense: it signifies a sort of sacrament conferred by initiation upon the disciples of the Gnostic Jesus; but this sense is the primary sense of the word and has not yet received this special meaning that Christianity must give it. Moreover, the same word is used in the Pistis Sophia to designate the same mystery, and there the word is written without abbreviation: AYⲰ †NA† NHTN MΠMYCTHPION MΠKA NOBE EBOΛ 2IXM ΠKAϨ : "and I will give you the mystery of the remission of sins upon the earth 1." There is therefore no doubt to have concerning the reading and the sense of this first abbreviation.

The second and the third are related: ⊡ and ʘ. It is not

1) Pistis Sophia, ed. Schwartze, p. 374 of the text, ⲧⲁⲃ verso of the ms. and 233 of the translation. The word is found perhaps a thousand times; I have chosen the topical passage par excellence.