Berlin Codex

It's also worth noting that the various versions of the Apocryphon of John don't always exactly agree.

For instance, in the Berlin Codex, which was discovered in the 19th century, there's an important note that the distinction between men and women, specifically the subordination of women to men, was actually instituted by the hideous pseudo-god Yaldabaoth.

And so in that version, we have a very interesting idea that patriarchy itself is an unjust form of social relation instituted by a false god.

A not minor point if you're, you know, a woman.

In fact, when we look at the Nagamati Library, inside of the cartonnage of some of those codices, the cartonnage is simply the packing material that's used to make the covers a bit stronger, there's actually a date, several dates in fact, inside of the cartonnage of those codices, and the latest date there is 348 of the Common Era.

So that gives us a rough sense about when the Coptic texts would have been produced and when the Apocryphon of John, at least as we know it in the Coptic editions that survive, would have been produced.

There's also some good reason to believe that the Berlin Codex, the one discovered in the 19th century, actually the first manuscript discovered of the Apocryphon of John, actually dates to a slightly later period.

But again, if one wants to study the Apocryphon of John in all of its various versions and all of its various recensions, it's going to be very important to study all four manuscripts and their translations, if that's possible.