This collection of studies is offered in honor of Bentley Layton by
twenty-three of his colleagues and former students. Prof. Layton taught
the history of ancient Christianity and also the Coptic language at Yale
University for forty years beginning in 1976. At that time he was
already recognized internationally as a leading figure in the
publication and study of the Coptic Gnostic texts from the Nag Hammadi
Codices and in Coptic linguistic and manuscript studies, two areas of
research that are represented in this volume by sections on Gnostic,
Valentinian, and Manichaean literature, and on Coptic language and
texts. A section on Egyptian monasticism pays tribute to Prof. Layton's
fundamental contributions to the study of the late antique monastic
leader and Coptic author Shenoute. A final section looks north across
the Mediterranean Sea to early Chistianity in the Wider Late Roman World.