- Dept. of History
The Ohio State University
230 Annie & John Glenn Ave.
100 Dulles Hall
Columbus OH 43210-1367 - 614-292-2174
David Brakke
Ohio State University, History, Faculty Member
The Gnostics primarily engaged in 'rewritten Bible': they retold and augmented the sto ries of Genesis and the Gospels, sometimes seeming to replace the biblical book as much as to explicate it. Valentinus practised a highly allusive form... more
The Gnostics primarily engaged in 'rewritten Bible': they retold and augmented the sto ries of Genesis and the Gospels, sometimes seeming to replace the biblical book as much as to explicate it. Valentinus practised a highly allusive form of biblical interpretation, in which the Bible and other literature enabled him to express a vision that was personal and biblical. The students of Valentinus participated fully in the emerging 'academic' cul ture of Christian biblical interpretation that arose in the second and third centuries, us ing the techniques of literary criticism. It was the results of their methods as much as the methods themselves that the critics of the Gnostics and Valentinians, such as Irenaeus and Origen, attacked in their responses.
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Early monasticism was about experimentation: monks transgressed the expected and the established to seek new forms of community and greater experiences of prayer and contemplation; many of them drew inspiration for their projects of... more
Early monasticism was about experimentation: monks transgressed the expected and the established to seek new forms of community and greater experiences of prayer and contemplation; many of them drew inspiration for their projects of self-transformation and pursuit of perfection from theologies that can be traced to Origen. And yet community and moral progress seemed to require as well stable social structures (at least for the transmission of wisdom) and personal humility, that is, recognition of what one could not do, at least not on one’s own. Even among and between monks, central values of continuity, humility, and stability could come into conflict with equally compelling values of innovation, perfection, and transformation—and generate charges of heresy.
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Two curses preserved on papyri from late ancient Egypt were composed and/or pronounced by monks. Although it may seem strange for monks to curse other people, evidence from the White Monastery reveals a culture of monastic cursing that... more
Two curses preserved on papyri from late ancient Egypt were composed and/or pronounced by monks. Although it may seem strange for monks to curse other people, evidence from the White Monastery reveals a culture of monastic cursing that included rules that cursed bad monks as well as curses against Satan and sinful lay people. Monks did debate the ethics of cursing, but cursing cohered with monasticism’s biblically based ritualization of as many aspects of life as possible. Monks, like other Christians, composed prayers for justice that, drawing on the Bible, asked God, angels, and other powerful beings to bring disease, suffering, and social disrepute to alleged evildoers.
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Recent scholarship has undermined the traditional picture of desert monasticism as origi nating with Antony of Egypt and then spreading to Palestine and Syria, as consisting of the poor and uneducated, and as developing in complete... more
Recent scholarship has undermined the traditional picture of desert monasticism as origi nating with Antony of Egypt and then spreading to Palestine and Syria, as consisting of the poor and uneducated, and as developing in complete separation from the world. This essay discusses key trends in the study of late ancient desert monks including: the decen tring of Egypt and the turn away from single founders; philosophy as the source of and background for monastic practices and literary forms; scepticism about the myth of the desert; the engagement of monks with wider society; rethinking the concept of the holy man; and attention to women and gender. Publications of new sources (such as the works of Evagrius Ponticus and Shenoute), more theoretically aware readings of old sources, and studies of archaeological and papyrological remains have contributed to these devel opments.
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Gorgias Press is launching a new series on Coptic Christianity. The series consists of monographs, collected volumes, and texts and translations of Coptic documents from Antiquity to modern times. We welcome submissions dealing with all... more
Gorgias Press is launching a new series on Coptic Christianity. The series consists of monographs, collected volumes, and texts and translations of Coptic documents from Antiquity to modern times. We welcome submissions dealing with all aspects of Coptic Christianity, Literature, and Language, except studies dealing exclusively with Nag Hammadi and Manichaean materials. We are particularly interested in studies on Coptic monasticism, liturgy, hagiography, architecture, and Copto-Arabic relations. Please send your submission either to Maged S.A. Mikhail (mmikhail@fullerton.edu) or Tuomas Rasimus (tuomas.rasimus@helsinki.fi) and cc to submissions@gorgiaspress.com. Editorial Board: David Brakke, Lance Jenott, Hugo Lundhaug, Maged S.A. Mikhail, Tuomas Rasimus, Janet Timbie.
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Gorgias Press is launching a new series on Coptic Christianity. The series consists of monographs, collected volumes, and texts and translations of Coptic documents from Antiquity to modern times. We welcome submissions dealing with all... more
Gorgias Press is launching a new series on Coptic Christianity. The series consists of monographs, collected volumes, and texts and translations of Coptic documents from Antiquity to modern times. We welcome submissions dealing with all aspects of Coptic Christianity, Literature, and Language, except studies dealing exclusively with Nag Hammadi and Manichaean materials. We are particularly interested in studies on Coptic monasticism, liturgy, hagiography, architecture, and Copto-Arabic relations. Please send your submission either to Maged S.A. Mikhail (mmikhail@fullerton.edu) or Tuomas Rasimus (tuomas.rasimus@helsinki.fi) and cc to submissions@gorgiaspress.com.
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David Brakke appeared on the 2017 SBL review panel for New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. I really enjoyed his paper and asked him to allow me to publish it here.
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Why did Sethian gnostic authors write pseudonymously? In addition to making a claim to authority, gnostic pseudepigraphy, exemplified by The Three Tablets of Seth, was multiple and performative, implying that the self is multiple—a... more
Why did Sethian gnostic authors write pseudonymously? In addition to making a claim to authority, gnostic pseudepigraphy, exemplified by The Three Tablets of Seth, was multiple and performative, implying that the self is multiple—a manifestation of selfhood at different levels of a single reality—and that performing one's self as multiple provides a path to higher knowledge of one's self and thus of God. That is, gnostic pseudonymity stems from a distinctive understanding of the self and functions as a mystical practice that performs that understanding. The eschewal of pseudonymity in Valentinian literature reflects different conceptions of the self and of the path to gnosis.
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This short monograph presents Einar Thomassen's 2018 Hans Lietzmann Lecture, the twentyfourth in that prestigious series. Preceded by an eight-page preface by Christoph Markschies, the essay of thirty-six pages (plus bibliography of three... more
This short monograph presents Einar Thomassen's 2018 Hans Lietzmann Lecture, the twentyfourth in that prestigious series. Preceded by an eight-page preface by Christoph Markschies, the essay of thirty-six pages (plus bibliography of three pages) represents a significant intervention into current discussions of Gnosticism. In brief, Thomassen argues that there was, as Irenaeus had claimed, continuity from what Irenaeus called "the gnostic sect" to the Valentinians. The coherence that he finds between and within these sources of what historians have traditionally labeled Gnosticism is multifaceted, but at its heart is the idea that the passion of Jesus is an image of the ultimate God's self-manifestation, which involves passion or suffering as the deity "passes from boundlessness to determination, from unfathomability to knowability, from oneness to multiplicity" (33). Thomassen's careful and lucid reasoning to this conclusion makes reading this lecture an intellectual delight of the highest order.
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Gorgias Press is launching a new series on Coptic Christianity. The series consists of monographs, collected volumes, and texts and translations of Coptic documents from Antiquity to modern times. We welcome submissions dealing with all... more
Gorgias Press is launching a new series on Coptic Christianity. The series consists of monographs, collected volumes, and texts and translations of Coptic documents from Antiquity to modern times. We welcome submissions dealing with all aspects of Coptic Christianity, Literature, and Language, except studies dealing exclusively with Nag Hammadi and Manichaean materials. We are particularly interested in studies on Coptic monasticism, liturgy, hagiography, architecture, and Copto-Arabic relations. Please send your submission either to Maged S.A. Mikhail (mmikhail@fullerton.edu) or Tuomas Rasimus (tuomas.rasimus@helsinki.fi) and cc to submissions@gorgiaspress.com.