James M. Robinson – författare

This is the most complete, up-to-date, one-volume, English-language edition of the renowned library of fourth-century Gnostic manuscripts discovered in Egypt in 1945, which rivaled the Dead Sea Scrolls find in significance.

The best text and the best translation are presented in this classic introductory book to the "Gospel of Thomas". In December 1945, at the base of cliffs that run along the Nile River near the modern-day town of Nag Hammadi, an Egyptian farmer discovered a sealed jar containing thirteen ancient Coptic codices. This discovery represented arguably the most significant manuscript discovery of the twentieth century for the study of the New Testament and Christian origins. Of all the texts found none has been more important than the "Gospel of Thomas" for our understanding of early Christianity. This classic book presents the best text and the best translation of Thomas in user-friendly form. Additional chapters provide a general introduction to the "Gospel of Thomas" and tell the fascinating story of that discovery itself by one who was directly involved in bringing this new Gospel to light. An annotated list 'for further reading' completes the volume. This new edition features updated material which takes account of recent research on the "Gospel of Thomas". The translation has been refined at points, and the bibliographical material updated.

Studies in Biblical Theology 21

SCM Studies in Biblical Theology 25

The Future of our Religious Past, The Festschrift produced to celebrate Rudolf Bultmann's eightieth birthday, contained articles by an international team of distinguished scholars relating to all the major areas in which Dr Bultmann has worked, and made a volume of over eight hundred pages. It was clearly impossible to make the whole of this tribute available in English, but the present book contains a selection of articles of particular interest to the English-speaking world. Contributors include, in the section discussing exegetical questions : Nils Dahl on Qumran, Werner Kummel on Jesus and Eschatology, Ernst Kasemann on Atonement, James M. Robinson on Q, Gunther Bornkamm on Matt. 28.16-20 and Hans Conzelmann on the origin of the Johannine Logos. Those writing on theology and philosophy include : Gerhard Ebeling on 'Time and the Word', Ernst Fuchs on Hermeneutics, Friedrich Gogarten on the task of theology and Martin Heidegger on Leibniz.

In the early '70s, James M. Robinson (Claremont) and Helmut Koester (Harvard), both students of Bultmann, broke new ground in their Trajectories through Early Christianity. The eight essays that comprise this volume seek a wholesale redefinition of the task of New Testament studies, as well as illustrating this newly conceived task.Robinson and Koester claim that the New Testament cannot be read apart from other early Christian literature and that the regnant designation of ""canon"" is misleading because it obscures the essential fluidity of early Christianity. Robinson and Koester not only question the artificial limits of the New Testament as a whole, but also the utility of the most commonly accepted forms ( Gattungen) that constitute the New Testament.In the end, even the labels ""orthodoxy"" and ""heresy"" should be abandoned - along with an outmoded belief that orthodoxy preceded heresy and formed the center of Christianity. From its birth, Christianity was pluriform, and what later came to be known as ""orthodoxy"" and ""heresy"" were only two of many equally legitimate trajectories running through Christianity.Robinson and Koester's bold wrestling with the basic question of Christian origins proves as instructive today as it did over forty years ago: was there ever identifiable unity in early Christianity, or has diversity always been the measuring stick?

First published in 1978, The Nag Hammadi Library was widely acclaimed by critics and scholars alike. Containing many of the writings of the Gnostics since the time of Christ, this was the work that launched modern Gnostic studies and exposed a movement whose teachings are in may ways as relevant today as they were sixteen centuries ago. Although some of the texts had appeared in other translations, the 1978 edition was the first and only translation of these ancient and fascinating manuscripts to appear in one volume.This new edition is the result of ten years of additional research, and editorial and critical work. Every translation has been changed or added to; many have been thoroughly revised.Unearthed in 1945 near the town of Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, the texts literally begin where the Dead Sea Scrolls end. Their discovery is seen as equally significant, bringing to light a long-hidden well of new information, sources, and insights into early Judaism and the roots of Christianity.Each text is accompanied by a new and expanded introduction. Also included are a revised general introduction and an afterword discussing the modern relevance of Gnosticism, from Voltaire and Blake through Melville and Yeats to Jack Kerouac and science fiction writer Philip K. Dick.The translations and introductions to the Nag Hammadi texts are by members of the Coptic Gnostic Library Project, which includes such scholars as Helmut Koester, George McRae, and Elaine Pagels.