(CE:1981a-1981b)
PLATO'S REPUBLIC. The only piece of its kind in the NAG HAMMADI LIBRARY, this short excerpt from Plato's corpus (588-589 [CGVI,50]) encompasses barely more than three pages of text (48.16-51.23). The Coptic translation exhibits inaccuracies, which may be due partly to tendencies found among apocryphal works: imitation and vulgarizing that frequently result in a literary product inferior to the original. The motives suggested for this text's translation and inclusion vary and remain beyond unqualified proof. However, its highly moralistic flavor, including concern for both righteousness and its opposite, plus the effects generated thereby, could certainly appeal to Gnostics. Interest in the "image[s] of the lion," presumably the baser human motives, finds parallel in the Gospel of Thomas, logion 7.
S. KENT BROWN
