Layton's «Coptic Gnostic Chrestomathy» is an essential tool for scholars
and students of the Gnostic corpus. This useful and accurate text edition
contains a large, representative selection of works in Coptic, ranging
from Sethian Gnostic classics such as the «Apocryphon of John» to
Valentinian works like the «Gospel of Truth» and «Gospel of Philip» to the
Mesopotamian «Gospel of Thomas the Contender», all but one from the Nag
Hammadi manuscript hoard. Laid out in a readable literary format, the
Coptic text is discreetly analyzed into its component morphs, clarifying
the grammatical structure at every point. Greek words are annotated in
footnotes, and esoteric Gnostic vocabulary in Egyptian Coptic is covered
in a separate glossary. A brief introduction to each work points to
information on problems of dialect, grammar, manuscript, and scholarly
bibliography. Prepared by a leading expert on Gnosticism and the Coptic
language, this is the ideal Gnostic text collection, in a single volume,
for the use of scholars of religion, Egyptologists, Coptologists,
teachers, and students. Contents (in Coptic): Apocryphon of John,
Apocalypse of Adam, Hypostasis of the Archons, Thunder-Perfect Mind,
Trimorphic Protennoia, Gospel of the Egyptians, Zostrianos, Allogenes,
Three Steles of Seth, Gospel of Truth, Prayer of the Apostle Paul,
Treatise on Resurrection, Gospel of Philip, Gospel of Thomas, Book of
Thomas the Contender. Corresponding English translations of all these
works can be found in Bentley Layton, «The Gnostic Scriptures».