THE BOOK OF THE FOREIGNER FROM CODEX TCHACOS

This contribution presents a new edition, translation, and literary-historical analysis of the fourth tractate in Codex Tchacos, provisionally enti-tled the Book of Allogenes after its protagonist, Allogenes, “the Foreigner.” Part 1 introduces the modern publication history of the tractate’s various frag-ments, the codicology of Codex Tchacos, and an outline of the tractate’s content. Part 2 presents an annotated Coptic edition and English translation, which for the first time includes all fragments of the manuscript discovered so far. Part 3 follows with an analysis of the tractate’s contents, its relation-ship with other early Christian gospels, especially the Synoptic Gospels, the Gospel of Mary, and apocryphal books known to Epiphanius of Salamis. In the final analysis, I suggest that the book was composed in the fourth century by Christian sectarians described by Epiphanius as the Archontics, among whom were semi-eremitic monastics.