At the end of 1945, thirteen codices in Coptic were discovered in Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt, with a total of more than a thousand pages. No one could have guessed that this find would turn out to be the largest collection of Gnostic self-testimonies to date. The Nag Hammadi library, which primarily derives from Greek originals from the second and third centuries, sheds new light on the Gnostics, who were fiercely contested by the Christian church of the second century. These texts, suppressed by the 'orthodox' church, speak for themselves and offer new insights into the religious diversity of early Christianity. Gerd Lüdemann and Martina Janssen present a complete German translation of the spectacular find from Nag Hammadi in this book. The work includes an introduction to each of the more than five.