The Roots of Egyptian Christianity (Studies in Antiquity and Christianity)

349 Pages·1997·22.47 MB·English

by  Birger A. Pearson

THE ROOTS
OF EGYPTIAN
CHRISTIANITY
STUDIES IN ANTIQUITY AND CHRISTIANITY
The Institute for Antiquity and Christianity
Claremont Graduate School
Claremont, California
Editorial Board
James M. Robinson, Director
James E. Goehring
Ronald F. Hock
Rolf Knierim
Burton Mack
Edmund Meltzer
Tova Meltzer
Edward O'Neil
Birger A. Pearson
James A. Sanders
Vincent Wimbush
STUDIES IN ANTIQUITY & CHRISTIANITY
THE ROOTS
OF EGYPTIAN
CHRISTIANITY
Birger A. Pearson &
James E. Goehring, editors
FORTRESS PRESS PHILADELPHIA
COPYRIGHT © 1986 BY
THE INSTITUTE FOR ANTIQUITY AND CHRISTIANITY
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other­
wise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Main entry under title:
The Roots of Egyptian Christianity.
(Studies in antiquity and Christianity)
Includes index.
1. Christianity—Egypt—Addresses, essays, lectures.
I. Pearson, Birger Albert. II. Goehring, James E.
III. Series.
BR1380.R661986 281'.7 85-47736
ISBN 0-8006-3100-5
1739H85 Printed in the United States of America 1-3100
Contents
Contributors vii
Preface by James M. Robinson xi
Foreword by Birger A. Pearson and James E. Goehring xvii
Abbreviations xxiii
PART ONE. Greek, Coptic, and Arabic Sources
1. The Discovering and Marketing of Coptic Manuscripts
The Nag Hammadi Codices and the Bodmer Papyri
James M. Robinson 2
2. Coptic and Greek Inscriptions from Christian Egypt:
A Brief Review
S. Kent Brown 26
3. Coptic Documentary Papyri as a Historical Source for
Egyptian Christianity
Leslie S. B. MacCoull 42
4. Coptic Literature
Tito Orlandi 51
5. Arabic Sources for Early Egyptian Christianity
Khalil Samir, S.J. 82
PART TWO. The Environment of Early Christianity in Egypt
6. The Socio-Economic Background of Christianity in Egypt
Henry A. Green 100
v
vi Contents
7. Mithra in Egypt
Gary Lease 114
PART THREE. The Emergence of Christianity in Egypt
8. Earliest Christianity in Egypt: Some Observations
Birger A. Pearson 132
9. Jewish Christianity in Egypt
A.F.J.Klijn 161
PART FOUR. Theological Speculation and Debate
10. Theological Education at Alexandria
Robert M. Grant 178
11. Jewish and Platonic Speculations in Early Alexandrian
Theology: Eugnostus, Philo, Valentinus, and Origen
Roelof van den Broek 190
12. Athanasius of Alexandria vs. Arius: The Alexandrian
Crisis
Charles Kannengiesser, S.J. 204
13. Anti-Chalcedonian Polemics in Coptic Texts, 451-641
David W. Johnson, S.J. 216
PART FIVE. Monasticism
14. New Frontiers in Pachomian Studies
James E. Goehring 236
15. The State of Research on the Career of Shenoute of
Atripe
Janet Timbie 258
16. Monasticism and Gnosis in Egypt
Armand Veilleux 271
17. The Manichaean Challenge to Egyptian Christianity
Gedaliahu G. Stroumsa 307
Contributors
S. Kent Brown
Professor and Chairman, Department of Ancient
Scripture
Brigham Young University
James E. Goehring
Assistant Professor of Religion, Mary Washington College
Fredericksburg, Virginia
Robert M. Grant
Carl Darling Buck Professor of Humanities
Professor of New Testament and Early Christian
Literature
University of Chicago Divinity School
Henry A. Green
Director, Judaic Studies Program
Associate Professor of Religion and Sociology, University
of Miami
David W. Johnson, S.J.
Professor of Coptic Language and Literature
Department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and
Literatures
The Catholic University of America, Washington D.C.
vii
viii Contributors
Charles Kannengiesser, S.J.
Catherine F. Huisking Professor of Theology
University of Notre Dame
A. F. J. Klijn
Professor of New Testament, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Gary Lease
Professor in the Program of the History of Human
Consciousness
Kresge College, University of California at Santa Cruz
Leslie S. B. MacCoull
U.S. Representative of the Society for Coptic Archaeology
Washington D.C.
Tito Orlandi
Professor of Coptic Studies, University of Rome
Director, Corpus dei Manoscritti Copti Letterari
Birger A. Pearson
Professor of Religious Studies
University of California at Santa Barbara
James M. Robinson
Arthur Letts, Jr., Professor of Religion, Claremont
Graduate School
Director, Institute for Antiquity and Christianity
Khalil Samir, S.J.
Professor of Christian Arabic Studies
Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome
Gedaliahu G. Stroumsa
Lecturer, Department of Comparative Religions
Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Janet Timbie
Ph.D. Graduate of the Department of Religious Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Contributors ix
Roelof van den Broek
Professor of Hellenistic Religions and Patristics
Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht
Armand Veilleux
Abbot of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit
Conyers, Georgia