Few studies focus on the modes of knowledge transmission (or concealment), or the trends of continuity or change from the Ancient to the Late Antique worlds. In Antiquity, knowledge was cherished as a scarce good, cultivated through the close teacher-student relationship and often preserved in the closed circle of the initated. From Assyrian and Babylonian cuneiform texts to a Shi'ite Islamic tradition, this volume explores how and why knowledge was shared or concealed by diverse communities in a range of Ancient and Late Antique cultural contexts. From caves by the Dead Sea to...

The apocryphal Apocalypse of Paul (Visio Pauli) plunges us right into the heart of early-Christian conceptions of heaven and hell. Its vivid eyewitness account of otherworldly punishment and reward was translated into many different languages and inspired numerous later authors, among whom Dante. This book offers a re-edition and English translation of the ancient Coptic version. An exhaustive commentary makes the text accessible and situates it in the time and place where it was written, fourth-century Egypt. As this new study shows, the Coptic version is by far the best available witness of...