J.H.F. Dijkstra

The Earliest Manuscript of the Coptic Life of Aaron (British Library, Or. 7558 [89] [93] [150])

In this article, we offer a first edition of three papyrus fragments in Sahidic Coptic from the British Library (Or. 7558 [89] [93] [150]). They can be dated to the sixth or seventh century on palaeographical grounds and belong to the earliest known manuscript of the Coptic Life of Aaron . Since a complete manuscript of the text survives in a tenth-century paper codex, also preserved in the British Library (Or. 7029), the fragments enable us to compare the text of a Coptic hagiographical work as it was fairly close to the date of its composition, in this case probably the sixth century, with a much later version of the same text. A detailed analysis allows conclusions about both the reliability of the medieval witness and the nature of the changes that the text underwent in the course of its transmission.

The Fate Of The Temples In Late Antique Egypt

As elsewhere the fate of the temples in late antique Egypt has often been perceived through the lens of the (Christian) literary works, which tell dramatic stories of the destruction of temples and their conversion into churches. When one looks at the other types of sources available from Egypt—inscriptions, papyri and archaeological remains—however, it becomes abundantly clear that the story of what happened to the temples was usually much less dramatic. This article argues that, in order to get a more reliable and complex picture of the fate of the temples, it is best to study them within a local or regional context and from a variety of sources, especially material remains since they can provide the most detailed picture of a whole range of methods of reuse, if the building was reused at all. A case study (of the First Cataract region, Southern Egypt) confirms that violence against temples and their reuse as churches were indeed exceptional and but two aspects in the complex process of the changing sacred landscape of Late Antiquity.

RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE IN LATE ANTIQUE EGYPT RECONSIDERED: THE CASES OF ALEXANDRIA, PANOPOLIS AND PHILAE

ABSTRACT The period of Late Antiquity has long been perceived, and is still often perceived, through the lens of (Christian) literary works, which tell dramatic stories of violence against temples, statues and even ‘pagans’, and may give the impression that this was a period of widespread religious violence. Egypt, where such stories abound, has often been seen as a particularly good illustration of the pervasive nature of religious violence in the Late Antique world. This article takes a different view. By adopting a theoretical framework on religious violence from Religious Studies and including all the other sources available from Egypt—papyri, inscriptions and archaeological remains—it argues that events were often dramatised for ideological reasons and that, when seen against a general background of religious transformation, religious violence occurred only occasionally in specific local or regional circumstances. This point will be demonstrated by discussing three iconic events that have often been adduced as symptomatic of widespread violence in Late Antique Egypt: the destruction of the Serapeum at Alexandria in 391/392, the anti-‘pagan’ crusade of Abbot Shenoute in the region of Panopolis around 400, and the closure of the Isis temple at Philae in 535–537.

Is Early Christianity a Religion or a Philosophy? Reflections on the Importance of “Knowledge” and “Truth” in the Letters of Paul and Peter

George H. van Kooten, “Is Early Christianity a Religion or a Philosophy?: Reflections on the Importance of ‘Knowledge’ and ‘Truth’ in the Letters of Paul and Peter,” in Myths, Martyrs, and Modernity: Studies in the History of Religions in Honour of Jan N. Bremmer (ed. Jitse Dijkstra, Justin Kroesen, and Yme Kuiper; Numen Book Series: Studies in the History of Religions 127; Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2010), 393-408.