The Hypostasis of the Archons: On the Origin of the World

For this term paper I chose The Hypostasis of the Archons: On the Origin of the World text from Nag Hammadi to study in details. Using at least 10 secondary sources (books/articles), you are to explore aspects
such as the texts genre, authorship, theological perspective, historical milieu, and scholarly reception.

Here is a link to help reach the text:
http://gnosis.org/naghamm/hypostas.html

Please please DON’T make the source list included to the words count I need 2750 words without counting the list of sources.

Here are some important questions about the paper and answered by the prof:

DO I NEED TO HAVE A THESIS?
Every essay needs to have a thesis of some sort, even if it simply describes what the paper is doing.
However, since this is an undergraduate course I do not expect ground-breaking research or for you to
formulate your own opinion about a topic that you are just learning about. This is not a philosophy paper or
an opinion piece. The aim of the paper is to allow you to explore in more depth a topic related to the course
that youd like to learn more about.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN 10 SOURCES?
Yes, 10 sources! This can be a mixture of secondary sources: scholarly books and/or articles (either in print
or from an online database), and primary sources: texts written by your subject(s), artifacts, music, poetry,
etc. Please note that individual chapters within a book by the same author do not count as separate sources,
but if it is a collection of essays by different authors, those can be cited separately. Also DO NOT cite
websites, because they are not peer-reviewed.
DO I NEED TO USE DIRECT QUOTATION?
You are not obligated to quote from the sources directly, but even if you paraphrase its information you
should be citing. As a rule, you should only cite a source verbatim if the passage itself is a key piece of
evidence, or if the author has used a particular interested and/or problematic wording.
WHAT CITATION STYLE SHOULD I USE?
Any style you like as long as its consistent. Dont forget to put the page numbers.
CAN I WRITE IN THE FIRST PERSON?
I have no objection to statements using I in a research paper.
WHAT IS THE LATE POLICY?
Assignments submitted late will be subject to a deduction of 1% off per day.
SHOULD I PLAGIARIZE?
Plagiarism of any sort will result in an automatic zero on the assignment and possibly the course. Such
incidents will also be reported to the appropriate university authority.
SPECIAL NOTE ON RELIGION PAPERS:
As a detached scholarly observer, it is not your aim to prove or disprove the validity of the belief system
you may be writing aboutleave that to the philosophers and theologians. Your goal is threefold: describe,
analyze, explain. As a reader, I am not interested in your personal belief system, but rather in your ability
to synthesize and articulate previously unfamiliar material.