A personal reading app for the complete Nag Hammadi Library — 40+ ancient Gnostic texts discovered in Egypt in 1945, presented in a clean, mobile-friendly interface with multiple translations for each text.
The Nag Hammadi Library is a collection of 13 ancient codices (books) found buried in the Egyptian desert in 1945. They contain over 50 texts — many previously unknown — that offer a window into early Gnostic Christianity, including the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, and the Gospel of Truth.
This project is a personal reading app that scrapes translations from the Gnostic Society Library and presents them through a clean REST API and reader interface. It was built as a heartfelt personal reference tool for studying these texts.
- 📖 40+ texts across 9 codices (I, II, III, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, XI, XIII)
- 🔄 Multiple translations per text — switch between scholars like Meyer, Barnstone, Davies, and others
- 📱 Mobile-friendly with a collapsible sidebar
- 🔍 Filter texts by codex or search by title via the API
- 🌙 Dark parchment reading interface
- Backend: Node.js, Express
- Scraping: node-fetch, Cheerio
- Frontend: Vanilla HTML/CSS/JS (no framework)
Prerequisites: Node.js installed
# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/pnkonx/GnosticLibrary.git
cd GnosticLibrary
# Install dependencies
npm install
# Start the server
npm startThen open http://localhost:3000 in your browser.
| Endpoint | Description |
|---|---|
GET /texts |
List all texts |
GET /texts?codex=II |
Filter by codex |
GET /texts?search=thomas |
Search by title |
GET /texts/:id |
Get text metadata |
GET /texts/:id/read |
Read full text (default: first translator) |
GET /texts/:id/read?translator=Meyer |
Read a specific translation |
GET /codices |
List all codices |
GET /codices/:codex |
Get all texts in a codex |
Example:
GET /texts/gospel-of-thomas/read?translator=Meyer
GnosticLibrary/
├── server.js # Express API + scraper
├── public/
│ └── index.html # Frontend reader
├── package.json
└── README.md
Codex I — Prayer of the Apostle Paul · Apocryphon of James · Gospel of Truth · Treatise on the Resurrection · Tripartite Tractate
Codex II — Apocryphon of John · Gospel of Thomas · Gospel of Philip · Hypostasis of the Archons · On the Origin of the World · Exegesis on the Soul · Book of Thomas the Contender
Codex III — Gospel of the Egyptians · Eugnostos the Blessed · Sophia of Jesus Christ · Dialogue of the Savior
Codex V — Apocalypse of Paul · First Apocalypse of James · Second Apocalypse of James · Apocalypse of Adam
Codex VI — Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles · The Thunder, Perfect Mind · Authoritative Teaching · Concept of Our Great Power · Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth · Prayer of Thanksgiving
Codex VII — Paraphrase of Shem · Second Treatise of the Great Seth · Apocalypse of Peter · Teachings of Silvanus · Three Steles of Seth
Codex VIII — Zostrianos · Letter of Peter to Philip
Codex IX — Melchizedek · Thought of Norea · Testimony of Truth
Codex XI — Interpretation of Knowledge · Allogenes
Codex XIII — Trimorphic Protennoia
All translations are sourced from the Gnostic Society Library at gnosis.org, which hosts the work of scholars including Dr. Marvin Meyer, Dr. Willis Barnstone, Dr. Stevan Davies, and Dr. John Turner. This project does not host or redistribute the texts — it fetches them live from gnosis.org.
MIT — do whatever you like with the code. The translations themselves remain copyright of their respective translators.