Douglas M. Parrott writes (The Anchor Bible Dictionary, v. 5, pp. 264):
This tractate is the first in the miscellaneous collection of Sahidic Coptic tractates comprising Nag Hammadi Codex VI. For all its brevity (12 pages) it is a remarkably complex document. The first half consists mainly of an account, with heavy allegorical overtones, about a pearl merchant who attracts the poor but is shunned by the rich, and who turns out not to have the pearl he is hawking; it is available only to those willing to journey to his city. The pearl merchant's name is Lithargoel, which means, according to the text, a lightweight, glistening stone (5.16-18) (Wilson and Parrott 215 n.). The account takes place in on island city identified simply as "Habitation" (the Coptic for which may be a translation of the Greek word meaning "inhabited world").
Parrott states on its dating (op. cit., p. 265):
The earliest portion of the tractate - the allegory - probably should be dated not later than the middle of the 2d century, because of the affinity with Herm. Sim., which is dated in the mid-century or before. The tractate as a whole, then, may have been put together in its present form toward the end of the 2d century, or early in the 3d.
Go to the Chronological List of all Early Christian Writings
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