The Gnostic Scriptures

 Roughly one week after the initial report by The Guardian, a second update was given by the newspaper regarding the Nag Hammadi Library.  Published on June 24, 1949, this article gives, what I can only imagine, a summation of what these works represent per the initial translations made by M. Dorresse at the time.  To quote the paper, the worldview of the Gnostics per the then newly translated Gnostic scriptures is that :

[Gnostisicm and said scriptures] will turn out to be the product of provincial and rather humble intellectuals out of touch with the big cultural centres.  [The library] will cast light on the feelings and aspirations of educated men, small officials, merchants, and the like in the smaller towns of Egypt and the Near East during the first century BC and the first centuries AD.

No mention of the documents giving hope of enlightenment or hinting at the true religion of the world...this article states that the ancient texts were simply the dreams and aspirations of those not in the "cultural know."  Curious, indeed.

The article also details how the NHL appears to have been assembled.  Sure, everyone knows that the original cache of papyri was found by farmers in the desert, but who exactly put the library together?  There must have been some collector aware of the paper's significance that allowed that person to a) collect the library and b) put a price on the library.

The article mentions that the Egyptian government would indeed buy all 850 pages of the text for 100,000 pounds.  That number, in 1946, is the equivalent of $5,073,535 USD today. That's quite a sum of money.  Whoever put the library together to be sold obviously knew what they were doing and wanted profit...  

Some names in the article that I will research in the future:

• Mr Togo Mina (then director of the Coptic Museum and responsible for price negotiations for the 850 pages of text) 
• M.H.C Puech, an early translator of the works
• Professor Till, another early translator of the works

And, of course, M.J. Doresse; Doresse was one of the original readers of the text and presented to the public titles of the works including:

• The Book of the Great Invisible Spirit
• The Gospel of the Egyptians
• The Epistle of Eugnotus the Blessed
• The Dialogue of the Saviour

Side note : if anyone is actually reading this, and has any background on this "mysterious seller," drop a line below!  I'm curious what the history is of the NHL coming together.