Bentley Layton (born 12 August 1941), is Professor of Religious Studies (Ancient Christianity) and Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (Coptic) at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
(since 1983). He is a
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
-educated scholar who has been central to the late 20th-century ''Rediscovery of
Gnosticism
Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people ...
'', which was the title of the international conference he hosted at Yale in 1980 and the volume that came of it. His interests lie in the
History of Christianity
The history of Christianity concerns the Christian religion, Christian countries, and the Christians with their various denominations, from the 1st century to the present. Christianity originated with the ministry of Jesus, a Jewish teach ...
from its origins until the rise of Islam, Gnostic studies and
Coptic
Coptic may refer to:
Afro-Asia
* Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya
* Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century
* Coptic alphabet ...
.
With a ''summa cum laude'' thesis on the
Nag Hammadi
Nag Hammadi ( ; ar, نجع حمادى ) is a city in Upper Egypt.
It is located on the west bank of the Nile in the Qena Governorate, about north-west of Luxor. It had a population of close to 43,000 .
History
The town of Nag Hammadi is name ...
Gnostic Coptic
Treatise on the Resurrection, which he presented in a critical edition in 1978, he has moved on to present critical editions of other texts: ''
The Hypostasis of the Archons, Or, The Reality of the Rulers...'', serialized in ''
Harvard Theological Review
The ''Harvard Theological Review'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1908 and published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Harvard Divinity School. It covers a wide spectrum of fields in theological and re ...
'' 67 (1974) 351—425 and 69 (1976) 1—71, and others. His most accessible book is ''The Gnostic Scriptures: A New Translation with Annotations'' (Garden City: Doubleday & Co., 1987), which presents some of the enigmatic literature of gnostic Christianity for nonspecialists. He sets his selection of gnostic scripture, the writings of
Valentinus and his followers, and related writings that display gnostic tendencies within the broader context of
Early Christianity
Early Christianity (up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325) spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewish ...
and Hellenistic Judaism, with generous introductions and plentiful annotations.
For specialists, Layton's Coptic grammar is a standard text. He catalogued all the Coptic manuscripts in the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
. He is a board member on the '' Harvard Theological Review'' and the ''Journal of Coptic Studies''.
External links
Yale University:Bentley Layton ''curriculum vitae''
1941 births
Living people
Harvard University alumni
American Christian theologians
Yale University faculty
Religion in Egypt
Historians of Gnosticism
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