Pistis sophia. A gnostic gospel (with extracts from the books of the saviour appended)

Atasius used these letters to explain the dogmas of creation, providence, and redemption, as Dulaurier describes. In 1847, Dulaurier promised to publish the text and a French translation, but these works were never released.

We can also include several Greek Papyri, mostly in fragments, which relate to the magical side of this subject. Two of the Leyden Papyri from the third century were recently edited and translated by A. Dieterich in his book Abraxas original: "Abraxas: Studien zur Religionsgeschichte des Spätern Altertums". The London and Parisian Papyri, dating to the third or fourth century, were edited by Wessely. In 1852, C. W. Goodwin also published a fragment of a Greek-Egyptian magical work from the British Museum. The scholar Amélineau mentions that Rossi, an Egyptologist in Turin, published a papyrus containing an invocation similar to those in the Pistis Sophia, but I have not found this work. It is not included in the Coptic Papyri of the Turin Egyptian Museum which Rossi translated between 1887 and 1892.

There is also a short Hebrew treatise called The Sword of Moses, which was recently translated and published by Gaster in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1896.

These magical works, however, are more closely related to common superstitions and sorcery than to higher magic. When they are attached to Gnosticism, they usually represent the tradition's decay in the hands of uneducated or superstitious people.

We should also mention the Codex Nazaræus The Book of the Nazarenes, though it is said to be from a period after the rise of Islam. There are at least four manuscript copies in the National Library of France. This Codex is the scripture of the people known as Sabæans, or Christians of St. John, or Mandaites. It is also known as

the Sidra Adam Book of Adam. The text is written in a rare Chaldean-Syriac dialect. It was first published in Sweden (1815–1816) by Matth. Norberg, with a vocabulary and a Latin translation. There is also a French translation in Migne’s Dictionary of the Apocrypha (1856). One can also refer to the thesis on the stars and spiritual beings of the Nazarenes original: "Stellæ Nasaræorum Æones ex Sacro Gentis Codice" by Olof Svanander (1811).

Finally, we have the Ethiopian literature related to the Book of Enoch. In 1773, James Bruce brought three copies of the Ethiopian version of The Book of Enoch from Abyssinia. Archbishop Laurence published an English translation in 1821. Other translations followed: a German version by Hoffman (1838), a Latin version by Gfrörer (1840), and a critical text and German version by Dillmann (1851). Migne’s Dictionary of the Apocrypha (1856) contains an anonymous French translation. More recently, Charles published an English translation in 1893. This year, Charles also published The Book of the Secrets of Enoch, which is a translation from Slavonic. This presents an entirely new tradition, the "Slavonic Enoch," based on a Greek original from between 30 B.C. and 70 A.D., which itself had an even older Hebrew background. It also includes a fragment of literature related to Melchizedek. For over 1,200 years, this version of Enoch was unknown except in Russia, and Western Europe did not even know it existed in Russia until 1892.

Aside from unofficial scriptures and the major world bibles, these are all the documents directly or indirectly connected to the Gnosis that we currently possess. Despite the good work done since 1850,