classicsreligious studiesgreeklatin

department
faculty
undergraduate
graduate
courses
links

John D. Turner

Cotner Professor of Religious Studies
Professor of Classics and History
Department of Classics and Religious Studies
University of Nebraska-Lincoln 238 Andrews Hall
Lincoln, NE 68588-0337
Voice: (402) 472-7008
FAX: (402) 472-4481
jturner2@unl.edu

Professional History

  • 1960 A.B. Dartmouth College, (Philosophy, Mathematics)
  • 1965-6 B.D., Th.M. Union Theological Seminary in Virginia
  • 1970 Ph.D. Duke University (Religion)
  • 1968-9 Research Associate, Institute for Antiquity and Christianity
  • 1970-1 Assistant Dean, Claremont Graduate School
  • Visiting Assistant Professor, Claremont Graduate School
  • 1971-5 Assistant Professor, University of Montana
  • 1976- Cotner College Professor of Religion, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  • Professor of Classics and History, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  • Chair, Program in Religious Studies, 1978-present
  • 1991 Visiting Research Professor, Université Laval, Quebec, Canada
  • 1992- Chair, Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism Section, Society of Biblical Literature
  • 1994 Visiting Research Professor, Université Laval, Quebec, Canada
  • 1997 Visiting Research Professor, Université Laval, Quebec, Canada

Interests

My principal areas of interest are biblical studies, especially New Testament, Hellenistic and Graeco-Roman religion and philosophy, Gnosticism, later Platonism and Neoplatonism, and Coptic language and literature.

At Nebraska, I regularly teach courses in Religious Studies:
    Ways of Western Religion [Classics 206G],
    Early Christianity [Classics/History 307/807],
    Comparative Religion [Classics/History 308],
    Religion of Late Western Antiquity [History/Classics 409/809];
    Gnosticism [History/Classics 410/810];
and in Classical Greek:
    Greek Philosophical Prose [Greek 962]);
 and in Biblical languages
    Introduction to Coptic [Classics 300E]).

Publications:

A few of my more important publications are:

A. My dissertation:

    The Book of Thomas the Contender from Codex II of the Cairo Gnostic Library from Nag Hammadi (CG II,7): The Coptic Text with Translation, Introduction and Commentary (Revised text and translation 1975; Society of Biblical Literature Dissertation Series 23; Missoula, MT: Scholar's Press), 1975.

B. Text editions: (introductions, critical texts, and English translations of a number of the treatises from the Nag Hammadi Codices discovered in Egypt, December 1945:

Introductions and English translations:
    "The Book of Thomas the Contender," "The Interpretation of Knowledge," "A Valentinian Exposition," "Allogenes," "Hypsiphrone," and "The Trimorphic Protennoia," in The Nag Hammadi Library in English (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1977; paperback edition 1984; San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1977, paperback edition 1981); third, completely revised edition, R. Smith and J. M. Robinson, eds. (San Francisco: Harper & Row and E. J. Brill, 1988; paperback edition San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1990; unaltered fourth revised edition, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996). 

From Codex II:

From Codex XI:

From Codex XIII:

Critical text editions:

  • "The Book of Thomas the Contender: Introduction, Edited Coptic Text, Fresh English Translation, Critical Apparatus to All Other Editions." Pp. 171-205 in Nag Hammadi Codex II.2 -7, together with XIII,2*, Brit. Lib. Or. 4926(1) and P. Oxy. 1, 654, 655. Vol. 2: On the Origin of the World, Exegesis on the Soul, Book of Thomas, Indexes. Edited by. B. Layton. Nag Hammadi Studies 21. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1989.

    •  
  • Nag Hammadi Codices XI, XII and XIII (ed. C.W. Hedrick; The Coptic Gnostic Library Edited with English Translation, Introduction and Notes; Nag Hammadi Studies 28; Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1990).

    • This contains:
    • Introduction to Nag Hammadi Codex XI, pp. 1-22.
    • Nag Hammadi Codex XI, 1: The Interpretation of Knowledge: 1,1-21,35: Coptic Text and English Translation, pp. 33-75.

      • NHC XI, 1: The Interpretation of Knowledge: Notes to Text and Translation, pp. 76-90.
    • Nag Hammadi Codex XI, 2: A Valentinian Exposition: 22,1-44,38: Coptic Text and English Translation, pp. 106-151.

      • NHC XI, 2: A Valentinian Exposition: Notes to Text and Translation, pp. 153-172.
    • Nag Hammadi Codex XI, 3: Allogenes: 45,1-69,22: Coptic Text and English Translation, pp. 192-240.

      • NHC XI, 3: Allogenes: Notes to Text and Translation, pp. 243-267.
    • Nag Hammadi Codex XI, 4: Hypsiphrone, 69,23-72,35: Introduction, pp. 269-270.

      • Nag Hammadi Codex XI, 4: Hypsiphrone, 69,23-72,35: Coptic Text and Translation, pp. 272-279.
      NHC XI, 4: Hypsiphrone: Notes to Text and Translation, p. 280.
    • Codex XI: Fragments, pp. 283-287.
    • Introduction to Codex XIII, pp. 363-373.
    • Nag Hammadi Codex XIII, 1*: Trimorphic Protennoia, 35*, 1-50,24: Introduction, pp. 374-405.

      • Nag Hammadi Codex XIII, 1 *: Trimorphic Protennoia, 35*,1-50*,24: Coptic Text and English Translation, pp. 406-437.
      NHC XIII, 1*: Trimorphic Protennoia: Notes to Text and Translation,pp. 439- 458.
    • Nag Hammadi Codex XIII, 2*: On the Origin of the World: 50,23-38: Introduction, p. 459.

      • Nag Hammadi Codex XIII, 2*: On the Origin of the World: Coptic Text and English Translation, pp. 460-461. NHC XIII, 2*: On the Origin of the World: Notes to Text and Translation, p.463.
      Nag Hammadi Codices XI, XII and XIII: Indices of Coptic, Greek and Proper Names, 467- 551.

C.  Articles dealing mostly with the relation between Gnosticism and Platonism, and with the nature of
    a hitherto unknown religious movement of the first three centuries CE, known as gnostic Sethianism":
  • "The Gnostic Threefold Path to Enlightenment: The Ascent of Mind and the Descent of Wisdom," Novum Testamentum 22 (1980), 324-51.
  • "Sethian Gnosticism: A Literary History," in Nag Hammadi, Gnosticism and Early Christianity (ed. C.W. Hedrick and R. Hodgson; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1986), 55-86.
  • "The Figure of Hecate and Dynamic Emanationism in The Chaldaean Oracles, Sethian Gnosticism and Neoplatonism,"The Second Century Journal 7:4, (1991), 221-232.
  • "Gnosticism and Platonism: The Platonizing Texts from Nag Hammadi in their Relation to Later Platonic Literature," in Gnosticism and Neoplatonism (ed. R. T. Wallis; Studies in Neoplatonism 6; Albany: S.U.N.Y. Press, 1992), 425-459.
  • "Typologies of the Sethian Gnostic Literature from Nag Hammadi," in Colloque internationale sur les textes de Nag Hammadi, Universite/ Laval, 15-22 Septembre, 1993 (Louvain and Quebec: Peeters and Universite/ Laval, 1994), 169-217.
  • "Ritual in Gnosticism," in Society of Biblical Literature Seminar Papers, 1994 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994), 136-181.
  • "The Gnostic Seth," in Biblical Figures Outside the Bible, ed. M. Stone and T. Bergren (Trinity International Press, forthcoming, 1997).
  • Editor, with Anne McGuire, The Nag Hammadi Library after Fifty Years: Proceedings of the 1995 Society of Biblical Literature Commemoration (Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 44. Leiden,  New York, and Köln: Brill), 1997.

D. Projects Underway:
 

  • ìIntroductionî and ìCommentaire,î Marsanes. Traité séthien sur le monde spirituel. (Bibliothèque copte de Nag Hammadi, section ìTextes;î  Québec: Presses de líUniversité Laval; Leuven-Paris: Peeters), forthcoming 1998.

    •  
  • ìCommentaire,î Zostrianos. Traité séthien platonisante. (Bibliothèque copte de Nag Hammadi, section ìTextes;î  Québec: Presses de líUniversité Laval; Leuven-Paris: Peeters), forthcoming 1998.