Testimony of Truth

The Testimony of Truth is the third manuscript from Codex IX of the Nag Hammadi Library. It is not to be confused with the Quaker ideal sometimes bearing the same name (see also: Testimony of Integrity). The copy of the manuscript from the Nag Hammadi Codices is in horrible condition, and almost too fragmentary to actually read and begin to comprehend. The text is different from many other Christian texts in that it doesn't portray martyrdom as something to be glorified:

:"The foolish, thinking in their heart that if they confess "We are Christians," in word only but not with power, while giving themselves over to a human death, not knowing where they are going or who Christ is, thinking that they will live while they are really in error, hasten toward the principalities and the authorities."

and

:"But when they are "perfected" with a (martyr's) death, this is the thought that they have within them: "If we deliver ourselves over to death for the sake of the Name we will be saved." These matters are not settled in this way. But through the agency of the wandering stars they say they have "completed" their futile "course", and [...] say, [...] . But these [...] they have delivered themselves ... "

External links

* [http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/testruth.html Translation to English by Søren Giversen and Birger A. Pearson]
* [http://gnostics.tribe.net/thread/4483af61-5915-41c0-853a-9a93f12ebf34]
* [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19031]