Study of the Gospel according to Philip, an important gnostic Christian text, has been hampered by unresolved questions about the unity, genre, and sectarian contexts of the work.
This book argues that terms of self-designation, use of controversial vocabulary, style, hermeneutic strategies, and theological commitments together present persuasive evidence of derivation from multiple sectarian milieux. The document's organizing principles are found to be in accord with the excerpting and collection practices of Late Antiquity. The coherence of the text lies in its compiler's distinctive...

The discovery of the Nag Hammadi Library (1945) has given an enormous impetus not only to the study of ancient Gnosticism but also to that of early Christianity in general. Most of the studies contained in this volume deal with mythological conceptions and theological ideas found in various Nag Hammadi writings.
The gnostic views on the nature of God and on creation and salvation receive particular attention, ranging from Philo to the medieval Cathars. The Nag Hammadi Library also shed new light on the development of early Alexandrian Christianity and its theology. The book contains six...

Manichaeism, once a gnostic world religion, soon spread to the Roman West. Here, the life and the work of the future (and, without doubt, most influential) Church Father Augustine (354-430) became inextricably connected with Manichaean teachings and practices. In view of the many new Manichaean texts in particular, it turns out that, without a thorough knowledge of the 'Religion of Light', Augustine's theology and philosophy are hardly conceivable. This volume brings together the selected papers of the Fribourg-Utrecht symposium Augustine and Manichaeism in the Latin West, organized on...

In this book, Thomas Zockler treats the Gospel of Thomas as a witness to a distinctive early branch of the tradition of Jesus' teachings which shows a variety of theological notions and ideas. The author first considers Thomas' position within the early sayings tradition, summarizing the main arguments for this gospel's independence from the Synoptic Gospels, and comparing in detail the versions of the four wisdom sayings in Thomas and Q. In a second part, Zockler identifies three theological motifs that dominate Thomas' sayings collection (Searching and Finding, Life and Death, Twoness and...

This book considers the place of the women disciples of Jesus in Christian Gnostic documents. It examines their significance and representation in Nag Hammadi documents (GosThom, GosPhil, SophJesChr, DialSav, 1ApocJas) and other early gnostic sources (GosMary, Pistis Sophia), in Patristic anti-Gnostic documents, and in Manichaean Psalms. In these documents, mostly composed during the second and third centuries C.E., Mary Magdalene, Salome, Martha and Mary, Arsinoe, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and other anonymous women appear as female disciples. A central issue of the book is the relation...

The present volume offers twelve studies dealing with feminine figures in Gnosticism and Manichaeism. In Part One ("Images et symboles"), the Author unveils the hidden meaning of some feminine figures having played a role on the mythical scene of those trends. Some of these figures, borrowed from other traditions, have been deeply reworked by Gnostics or Manichees assuming thereby a new significance. An intermezzo ("Passages") investigates the presence of women names in titles preserved in the Nag Hammadi Library and the relationship between a female protagonist and a specific literary genre....

This is the second volume of scholarly studies in Manichaeism which were originally presented before the Manichaean Studies Group of the Society of Biblical Literature from 1997 through 1999. Like its predecessor, Emerging from Darkness: Studies in the Recovery of Manichaean Sources (Brill, 1997), this volume presents the latest international scholarship from leading researchers in the growing field of Manichaean studies. Here the researchers move from the continuing foundational work of recovering Manichaean sources to the necessary task of understanding the relationship of...

This volume is both an essay in Gnostic poetics and a study in the history of early Christian appropriation of ancient philosophy. The object of study is the cosmological model of the Apocryphon of John, a first-hand and fully narrated version of the Gnostic myth. The author examines his target text against a complex background of religious and philosophical systems, literary theories, and rhetorical techniques of the period, and argues that the world model of the Apocryphon of John is inseparable from the epistemological, theological, and aesthetic debates within contemporary...

This book is a new edition and translation of the Nag Hammadi tractate, The Concept of Our Great Power, with introduction and commentary. It suggests that the tractate is composite, and that its basis was a non-Christian Gnostic apocalyptic work whose background may have been Samaritan, and which emanated from a breakaway Simonian group who, unlike other Simonians, believed in celibacy. The tractate later received Christian additions. The last of these may refer to the career of Julian the Apostate. This is a fresh approach to the interpretation of this puzzling tractate.

This volume brings together a rich and varied collection of essays by Gilles Quispel (1916-2006), Professor of the History of the Early Church at Utrecht University from 1951 until his retirement in 1983. During his illustrious career, Professor Quispel was also visiting Professor at Harvard University in 1964/65, and visiting Professor at the Catholic University of Leuven from 1969 until 1974. The fifty essays collected in this volume testify to most of the prominent themes from Professor Quispel's scholarly career: the writings of the Nag Hammadi library in general and the Gospel of...