In 1952, the codices had been separated. There were twelve and a half codices in the Coptic Museum in Cairo, and the rest were in a safe-deposit box in Zurich. The Coptic Museum was taken over by Dr. Pahor Labib in 1952, and he wanted strict control to be kept over the publication rights of the texts. It was not a well-kept secret that the first scholar to translate and publish any part of these texts would be globally reputed.
Finally, in 1961, a French scholar and Director General of UNESCO urged the publication of the find in its entirety and also wanted to arrange a national committee to go about the translation and subsequent publication. Then, in 1972, the initial volume finally appeared. There were nine other volumes to follow between 1972 and 1977, thus making all of the codices known to the public.
American scholar Professor James Robinson acknowledged the delays from translating these texts in Egypt, and he organized a team of international experts to copy and translate the majority of the material. Professor Robinson also secretly distributed the copies to scholars the world-over; breaking the monopoly previously held on the texts by the Egyptian government. The first English translation of the texts found was published in 1977. |
