This article re-examines Abrasax (later commonly Abraxas) by separating four historical layers frequently collapsed in modern accounts: Basilidean traditions reported by early Christian heresiologists; late antique magical gems and amulets; appearances of Abrasax in Nag Hammadi literature; and Carl Gustav Jung's twentieth-century reappropriation…
The discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices is often presented in popular media as evidence that alternative Christian writings preserve a more authentic form of Christianity than the New Testament. This article challenges that conclusion by distinguishing between the physical antiquity of a…
The palimpsests preserved at St Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai contain an important body of erased Christian Palestinian Aramaic Gospel material. Recovered through modern multispectral imaging, these fragments provide evidence for both the history of biblical translation and the Christological memory of Palestinian…
This article examines the practical management of material resources in late-antique Christian communities. While histories of early Christianity often concentrate on councils, creeds, bishops, and theological controversies, churches also had to manage land, buildings, oil, wax, grain, clothing, liturgical objects, donations, charitable distributions,…