Lundhaug and Jenott (eds.), The Nag Hammadi Codices and Late Antique Egypt

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK: The Nag Hammadi Codices and Late Antique Egypt. Ed. by Hugo Lundhaug and Lance Jenott. [Die Nag Hammadi Kodizes und das spätantike Ägypten.] 2018. XII, 508 pages. Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum / Studies and Texts in Antiquity and Christianity 110. 99,00 €. sewn paper. ISBN 978-3-16-153973-2.

Published in English.
This volume showcases the new trend in scholarship to treat the Nag Hammadi Codices as sources for Christianity and monasticism in late antique Egypt rather than for Gnosticism. The essays situate the Nag Hammadi Codices and their texts in the context of late antique Egypt, treating such topics as Coptic readers and readings, the difficulty of dating early Greek and Coptic manuscripts, scribal practices, the importance of heavenly ascent, asceticism, and instruction in Egyptian monastic culture, the relationship of the texts to the Origenist controversy and Manichaeism, the continuity of mythical traditions in later Coptic literature, and issues relating to the codices' production and burial. Most of the essays were originally presented at the conference “The Nag Hammadi Codices in the Context of Fourth- and Fifth-Century Christianity in Egypt,” organized by the ERC-financed project New Contexts for Old Texts: Unorthodox Texts and Monastic Manuscript Culture in Fourth- and Fifth-Century Egypt (NEWCONT), at the University of Oslo in December 2013.

Cross-file under Gnosticism Watch.

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