Notice on the Bruce Gnostic Papyrus

THE
GNOSTIC
BRUCE
PAPYRUS.

church. In the present document, it seems indeed sometimes to behave with the same idea as the word AION and is exchanged with it; but it also signifies, with certainty, a determined part of the aeon, for in an aeon there are several TOPOS, and the Egyptian Gnostics had reproduced, in their celestial worlds, the geographical divisions that existed in their homeland. As for the symbol 𐍈, it seems also to be exchanged with the symbol ⊡; but however, one finds them used side by side, and in such a way that the difference of their specific sense jumps to the eyes, as in this phrase where Jesus, addressing his disciples, says: KⲰTE EPOI ΠA I̅B̅ MMAΘHTHC AYⲰ MMAΘHTPIA NC2IME NTAXⲰ EPⲰTN NNNO6 M̅M̅ MΠE ⊡ MΠ𐍈 NAI ETE MN ΛAAY COOYN MMOOY 2M ΠAAOPATOC NNOYTE. Coptic: "Surround me, O my twelve disciples and female disciples, so that I may tell you the great mysteries of the aeon of the treasury, which no one knows in the invisible God." Obviously here the ⊡ and the 𐍈 do not designate the same thing, since the first is part of the second. There is therefore a difference between the TOPOS and the AION, and between the AION and the 𐍈. Now this symbol, which I believe to be a Θ enclosing an omicron, seems to me to be the abbreviation of the word THESAUROS treasury. Indeed, this word THESAUROS is used to satiety to designate certain parts of the aeon or certain superior aeons, among others for the world where resides the God of truth, that is to say the great principle of Gnostic emanation. I will translate therefore the cited phrase thus: "Surround me, O my twelve disciples, as well as the female disciples, so that I may tell you the great mysteries of the aeon of the treasury, which no one knows in the invisible divine." That if one were to object to me that the word treasure is a new term in the Gnostic nomenclature, I would reply that there also the appearance is deceptive, and that in the system of Basilides a similar word is used to designate the place where all the germs were gathered in their triple state of power before passing to