For the Children, Perfect Instruction

Prof. Dr. Hans-Martin Schenke, internationally renowned New Testament scholar and pioneer researcher in Gnosticism as it became brilliantly illuminated by the publication of the Nag Hammadi Codices, organized a small group of students and colleagues in “East Berlin” in the early 1970s to investigate the difficult new primary sources from the “Coptic Gnostic Library” discovered in Upper Egypt in 1945. This group, the “Berliner Arbeitskreis für Koptisch-Gnostische Schriften,” published its first results in 1972, and Prof. Schenke and the Arbeitskreis have been at the forefront of Nag Hammadi studies ever since. The present volume is a collection of twenty-seven studies by colleagues, students, and friends of Prof. Schenke in honor of his many contributions to the study of Gnosticism and related religious phenomena in Antiquity, Coptic language and literature, and the New Testament. The book also includes an extensive bibliography of Prof. Schenke’s own publications, whose breadth and insightfulness are appropriately mirrored in the variety of contributions to this rich volume.

'Un tel panorama de spécialités, mais surtout une qualité certaine dans un très grand nombre de contributions font de cet hommage un volume qui fera date dans les études coptes et gnostiques.' Jean-Daniel Dubois, Apocrypha, 2004. 'This volume is a fitting tribute to one of the most brilliant and creative scholars of our time, who unfortunately died just a few weeks after it was presented to him.' Birger A. Pearson, Religious Studies Review, 2003.

Hans-Gebhard Bethge, Dr.theol. (1975), Dr.sc. (1985), Humboldt University in Berlin, is Professor of New Testament Studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin. He is a Contributor to The Coptic Gnostic Library (Brill, 1989) and The Nag Hammadi Library in English (Brill, 1996).Stephen Emmel, Ph.D. (1993), Yale University, is Professor of Coptic Studies at the University of Münster. He is a Contributor to The Fascimile Edition of the Nag Hammadi Codices (Brill, 1972-1984), The Coptic Gnostic Library (Brill, 1989) and The Nag Hammadi Library in English (Brill, 1996).Karen L. King, Ph.D. (1984), Brown University, is Professor of New Testament Studies and the History of Ancient Christianity at Harvard Divinity School. She is a Contributor to The Nag Hammadi Library in English (fourth edition, Brill, 1996) and The Complete Gospels (1992).Imke Schletterer is a candidate for the master's degree in the Theological Faculty of the Humboldt University in Berlin.