Christen und Sethianer : ein Beitrag zur Diskussion um den religionsgeschichtlichen und den kirchengeschichtlichen Begriff der Gnosis /
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In Christen und Sethianer. Ein Beitrag zur Diskussion um den religionsgeschichtlichen und den kirchengeschichtlichen Begriff der Gnosis versucht Herbert Schmid zu zeigen, dass es vermutlich keine Vorform der Gnosis an den Rändern des antiken Judentums gegeben hat. Sowohl Schenkes Sethianismus, als auch der Valentinianismus und andere frühe Ausprägungen der Gnosis sind vermutlich als frühe Versuche christlicher Theologie zu begreifen. In diesem Zusammenhang erweist sich der Begriff Gnosis als eine durchaus brauchbare Kategorie, um antike Religionsgeschichte zu beschreiben. In Christen und Sethianer. Ein Beitrag zur Diskussion um den religionsgeschichtlichen und den kirchengeschichtlichen Begriff der Gnosis , Herbert Schmid argues that there are no hints for a more primitive and independent form of Gnosticism which developed on the fringes of ancient Judaism. Not only the Valentinian school, but also Hans-Martin Schenkes Sethianism and other early manifestations of Gnosis are probably best understood as early attempts to phrase Christian theology. In this context, the term Gnosticism is a useful category to describe ancient religious history.
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1 online resource (x, 474 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004355378 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Die Eucharistie ist Jesus : Anfänge einer Theorie des Sakraments im koptischen Philippusevangelium (NHC II 3) /
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Given the concept of salvation through knowledge in Valentinian Gnosis, which is basically anti-materialist, one would not expect concrete physical rituals to play a large role in its practice. The Nag Hammadi Gospel of Philip is widely recognized as a Valentinian text, yet it contains portions of a treatise on the value of baptism, anointing, and the eucharist. The text, which arguably comes from the end of the second century, presents the first developed theory and justification of these sacraments in Early Christianity. The present study reconstructs this theory from the fragmentary text and considers its consequences for the organization of the community. Thus, the book is also an attempt to address the problem of institutionalization in early Christian communities.
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Slightly Revision of the author's thesis--Universität München, 2005. :
1 online resource (xii, 550 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 505-531) and indexes. :
9789047421634 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Gnostica, Judaica, Catholica : collected essays of Gilles Quispel /
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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 Thomas in particular; Tatian's Diatessaron and its influences; the Hermetica ; Mani and Manichaeism; the Jewish origins of Gnosticism; and Gnosis and the future of Christianity. This volume also makes a number of his less known earlier publications (mainly presented under the heading 'Catholica') available to the international community. Until shortly before he died, Professor Quispel remained active in his study of the Gospel of Thomas . He had been one of the first to acquire the Coptic text of the Gospel of Thomas , of which he published the first translation in 1959 and his final translation in 2005. He was also active in researching the Diatessaron , and Valentinus 'the Gnostic'. One of his most recent essays - published for the first time in this volume - is on 'the Muslim Jesus.'
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047441823 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Der Same Seths : Hans-Martin Schenkes kleine Schriften zu Gnosis, Koptologie und Neuem Testament /
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During a lifetime of scholarship and teaching, Hans-Martin Schenke produced a large number of publications in the fields of New Testament, Gnosticism, and Coptology. This collection of his essays and book reviews bears witness to his love for the linguistic aspects of Coptology and illustrates his wide-ranging interest in the development of early Christianity. His insights and deep understanding of Gnostic beliefs and systems as a background for interpreting the New Testament make his contributions to this discipline very rewarding and indispensable reading. Im Laufe seines langen wissenschaftlichen Lebens hat Hans-Martin Schenke eine Fülle von Veröffentlichungen in den Bereichen Neues Testament, Gnosisforschung und Koptologie hervorgebracht. Die hier vorliegende Sammlung seiner Aufsätze und Rezensionen bekundet den Reichtum seines Schaffens. Sie zeugt von seiner Liebe zur koptischen Linguistik und veranschaulicht die Spannweite seines Interesses an der Entwicklung des frühen Christentums. Seine tiefe Kenntnis gnostischer Vorstellungen und Systeme als Hintergrund für das Verständnis des Neuen Testaments lässt seine Beiträge zu einer unentbehrlichen Fundgrube und seine Einsichten zu einem lohnenden Lesevergnügen werden.
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"Er muss wachsen, ich aber muss abnehmen." Der Konflikt zwischen Jesusjüngern und Täufergemeinde im Spiegel des Johannesevangeliums. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004226241 :
0929-2470 ; :
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The seventh book of the Stromateis : proceedings of the Colloquium on Clement of Alexandria (Olomouc, October 21-23, 2010) /
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The seventh book of the Stromateis is the culmination of Clement of Alexandria's ethic. Introduced as an apology of the piety of the perfect Christian (the 'gnostic'), it broaches such topics as divine pedagogy, angelology, superstition, prayer, assimilation to God, martyrdom, eschatology, and the criteria of orthodoxy. This volume contains sixteen studies dealing with all major themes of the seventh book and the method of their presentation. It includes a Clementine bibliography of the last fifteen years and two appendices concerned with Clement's 'Hymn to Christ the Saviour.' The publication may serve as a companion to the reader of Stromateis VII and as a compendium of contemporary scholarship dealing with major aspects of Clement's thought in general.
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1 online resource (xviii, 386 pages) : music. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004233898 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Practicing Gnosis : ritual, magic, theurgy, and liturgy in Nag Hammadi, Manichaean and other ancient literature : essays in honor of Birger A. Pearson /
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Ritual, magic, liturgy, and theurgy were central features of Gnosticism, and yet Gnostic practices remain understudied. This anthology is meant to fill in this gap and address more fully what the ancient Gnostics were doing. While previously we have studied the Gnostics as intellectuals in pursuit of metaphysical knowledge, the essays in this book attempt to understand the Gnostics as ecstatics striving after religious experience, as prophets seeking revelation, as mystics questing after the ultimate God, as healers attempting to care for the sick and diseased. These essays demonstrate that the Gnostics were not necessarily trendy intellectuals seeking epistomological certainities. They were after religious experiences that relied on practices. The book is organized comparatively in a history-of-religions approach with sections devoted to Initiatory, Recurrent, Therapeutic, Ecstatic, and Philosophic Practices. This book celebrates the brilliant career of Birger A. Pearson.
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1 online resource (ix, 571 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004248526 :
0929-2470 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Codex Judas papers : proceedings of the International Congress on the Tchacos Codex held at Rice University, Houston, Texas, March 13-16, 2008 /
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This book contains the proceedings from the Codex Judas Congress, the first international conference held to discuss the newly-restored Tchacos Codex. Given that the Tchacos Codex is a newly-conserved ancient book of Christian manuscripts which had yet to be discussed collaboratively by a body of scholars, the research conducted and published within this book by the members of the Codex Judas Congress is nothing less than a landmark in Gnostic studies. Scholars address issues of identity and community, portraits of Judas, astrological lore, salvation and praxis, text and intertext, and manuscript matters. Although the contributions show a variety of interpretations of the Tchacos texts, several points of agreement emerge, including the assessment that the Codex belonged to early Christians in conflict with other Christians who belonged to the apostolic or conventional church. Contributors include: Grant Adamson, Johanna Brankaer, Fernando Bermejo Rubio, Serge Cazelais, April D. DeConick, Ismo Dunderberg, Niclas Förster, Wolf-Peter Funk, Simon Gathercole, Matteo Grosso, Lance Jenott, Karen King, Nicola Denzey Lewis, Alastair Logan, Antti Marjanen, Marvin Meyer, Elaine Pagels, Birger A. Pearson, Pierluigi Piovanelli, James M. Robinson, Gesine Schenke Robinson, Kevin Sullivan, Franklin Trammel, Johannes van Oort, Bas van Os, Louis Painchaud, Tage Petersen, John D. Turner, and Gregor Wurst.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004181403 :
0929-2470 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Studies in Gnosticism and Alexandrian Christianity /
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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 studies which explicitly deal with these topics. This volume is of interest to students of Gnosticism, early Christianity and Graeco-Roman religious and philosophical ideas in general.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004439689
9789004106543
Paul and gnosis /
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This collection of essays-the ninth volume in Brill's Pauline Studies series-features Paul and his relationship to knowledge. Gnosis, the Greek word generally translated as \'knowledge,\' is broadly interpreted, and the essays contained in this volume revolve around both a more general notion of knowledge in relation to Paul and more specific references to Gnosticism. Several of these essays discuss Paul's use of \'knowledge\' words, Paul's knowledge and understanding of key themes and ideas in his writings, Paul's interpreters in light of gnostics like Valentinus and Marcion, and Gnosticism in light of Paul's letters. This collection of essays exposes the reader to crucial topics regarding Paul and Gnosis that are not readily addressed elsewhere.
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Includes index. :
1 online resource. :
9789004316690 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Gnosis und Spätantike Religionsgeschichte : Gesammelte Aufsätze /
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A collection of 40 or so of the author's essays and contributions to the study of Gnosis, the Mandaeans and Manichaeism, published in the course of the past 40 years. Most have been revised for this new edition. Subjects treated include on the one hand source problems (Nag Hammadi, Manichaean finds and texts, Mandaean manuscripts), and on the other hand the situating of the gnostic-cum-Manichaean tradition in the context of late-antique religious history, especially with regard to the early Christian Church and its environment. Contributions on the history of research set out the issues and problems that have arisen from the study of these texts. Particular attention is given to the new finds from Nag Hammadi, which have proved highly significant for a new picture of Gnosis and Manichaeism. The author, who is especially well known for his work of Mandaica, has incorporated this aspect of Gnosis in the overall picture.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004439719
9789004106253
Nag Hammadi Codices XI, XII, XIII /
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This volume presents critical editions of three of the most fragmentary codices in the Nag Hammadi Library. Their nine tractates are presented in an English translation with critically edited transcriptions of Coptic texts, including introductions and notes. A complete set of indices is provided for Coptic and Greek words, proper names, ancient texts and authors, and modern authors. The contents of these three ancient books reflect the rich diversity of the Library as a whole. They include a fragmentary (and apparently non-Christian) revelation descent narrative ( Hypsiphrone ); a non-Christian Sethian text reflecting heavy platonizing influence ( Allogenes ); Hellenistic Greek wisdom literature ( Sentence of Sextus ); a non-christian Sethian text, secondarily Christianized ( Trimorphic Protennoia ); Valentinian Gnosticism ( A Valentinian Exposition ); a Christian-Gnostic tractate with Valentinian affinities ( The Interpretation of Knowledge ). A Christian-Gnostic (perhaps Valentinian) homily on the gospel (the Gospel of Truth ); the first page of On the Origin of the World (completely preserved in NHC II) and an identified fragmentary tractate with ethical content. There are also five Valentinian liturgical supplements appended to Allogenes . The publication of these religio-philosophical materials from Nag Hammadi provides the scholar and interested reader with critical editions of texts that help to fill in background and context of gnostic origins, and that shed light on the interaction among early Christianity and gnostic movements in antiquity.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004438958
9789004078253
Femme, Gnose et Manichéisme : De l'espace mythique au territoire du réel /
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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. Part Two ("Histoire et réalité") reconstructs the portraits of some women, especially Manichaean, to whom the historical inquiry gives life again, thanks to a fresh reading of first hand sources, as well of heresiological or archeological testimonies. Some of these studies have been previously published and have now been significantly updated and expanded. Some others are lectures on Feminine in Gnosticism and Manichaeism given by the Author in Sorbonne, Paris, since 1994. *** Les douze études que rassemble ce volume abordent sous différentes facettes le personnage de la femme dans la gnose et dans le manichéisme. Dans la première partie (« Images et symboles »), l'Auteur dévoile la signification cachée de quelques figures féminines qui ont joué un rôle sur la scène du mythe. Si les auteurs gnostiques et manichéens ont emprunté certaines d'entre elles à d'autres traditions, ils ont toutefois remodelé ces figures en profondeur en les chargeant d'une nouvelle signification. La deuxième partie (« Passages ») s'interroge sur la présence de noms féminins dans les titres conservés de la bibliothèque de Nag Hammadi et sur la relation éventuelle entre une protagoniste féminine et le choix d'un genre littéraire. La troisième partie (« Histoire et réalité ») reconstruit les portraits de quelques femmes, surtout manichéennes, dont les traits effacés se précisent grâce à une lecture originale de la documentation directe et des sources hérésiologiques, grâce aussi à l'apport de l'archéologie. Une partie de ces études, publiée auparavant, paraît ici sous une forme largement amplifiée. D'autres reprennent les thèmes de conférences sur la femme dans le manichéisme, données par l'Auteur à la Sorbonne entre 1997 et 2002.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047404019
9789004114524
Mystery and secrecy in the Nag Hammadi collection and other ancient literature : ideas and practices : studies for Einar Thomassen at sixty /
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Mystery and secrecy were central concepts in the ritual, rhetoric, and sociological stratification of antique Mediterranean religions. That the ultimate nature and workings of the divine were secret, and either could not or should not be revealed except as a mystery for the initiated, was widely accepted among Pagans, Jews, and then Christians, both Gnostic and otherwise. The similarities and differences in the language of mystery and secrecy across religious and cultural borders are thus crucial for understanding this important period of the history of religions. The present anthology aims to present and analyze a wide selection of sources elucidating this theme, reflecting the correspondingly wide scholarly interests of Professor Einar Thomassen in honor of his 60th birthday.
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1 online resource (xx, 540 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789004215122 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Women and knowledge in early Christianity /
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Women and knowledge are interconnected in several ways in late ancient and early Christian discourses, not least because wisdom (Sophia) and spiritual knowledge (Gnosis) were frequently personified as female entities. Ancient texts deal with idealized women and use feminine imagery to describe the divine but they also debate women's access to and capacity of gaining knowledge. Combining rhetorical analysis with social historical approaches, the contributions in this book cover a wide array of source materials, drawing special attention to the so-called Gnostic texts. The fourteen essays, written by prominent experts of ancient Christianity, are dedicated to Professor Antti Marjanen (University of Helsinki).
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1 online resource (x, 379 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004344938 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Nag Hammadi texts and the Bible : a synopsis and index /
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This volume places in synoptic form parallel texts from Nag Hammadi and from the Bible. This will enable scholars of Coptic Gnosticism, as well as scholars concerned with early Christian biblical interpretation, to make the comparisons necessary to determine relationships and what dependence, if any, there may be between these two bodies of material. This volume should facilitate the discussion concerning the origin, antiquity, and relationship of Gnosticism to Christianity. The volume also contains an extensive bibliography of materials relevant to this topic. Finally, a Scripture index will make it possible for the reader to find quickly any desired passage.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [425]-466) and indexes. :
9789004379886 :
0077-8842;
The Apocryphon of John : Synopsis of Nag Hammadi Codices II,1 - III,1 and IV,1 with BG 8502,2 /
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This synopsis of the Apocryphon of John presents the four Coptic text (NHC II,1; III,1 and IV,1; with BG 8502) in parallel columns with English translations in similar arrangement beneath the Coptic text. Important parallel texts are included in an appendix. The volume also contains a research bibliography on the Apocryphon of John and an index of Coptic and Greek words.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004439658
9789004103955