Gilles Quispel (30 May 1916 – 2 March 2006) was a Dutch theologian and historian of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

and

Gnosticism Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek language, Ancient Greek: , Romanization of Ancient Greek, romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: Help:IPA/Greek, �nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced ...

. He was professor of early Christian history at

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...

Early life and education

Born in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

, he was the son of a blacksmith from Kinderdijk. He himself was not handy enough to become a blacksmith, and was thus sent to study at the gymnasium. He learned about Plato and gnosis from his teacher of ancient languages. After finishing secondary school in Dordrecht, Quispel studied classical philology from 1934 to 1941 at the

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

. He then became a secondary school teacher, but soon after went for the university, and he was appointed professor of the history of the early Church at

in 1951, at the age of 35. He died in El Gouna,

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

in 2006 during his holidays. At Leiden, he also began to study theology, which he continued at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; , abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen (city), Groningen, Netherlands. Founded in 1614, th ...

. Quispel completed his doctoral work in 1943 at

with a dissertation examining the sources utilized in

Tertullian Tertullian (; ; 155 – 220 AD) was a prolific Early Christianity, early Christian author from Roman Carthage, Carthage in the Africa (Roman province), Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive co ...

's ''Adversus Marcionem''. He devoted study to several Gnostic systems, particularly

Valentinianism Valentinianism was one of the major Gnostic Christian movements. Founded by Valentinus ( CE – CE) in the 2nd century, its influence spread widely, not just within the Roman Empire but also from northwest Africa to Egypt through to Asia Minor ...

Career and research

In 1948-1949, Quispel spent a year in Rome as a Bollingen fellow. Quispel served as a visiting professor at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1964-1965 and at the

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest university in Belgium and the oldest university in the Low Countries. In addition to its main camp ...

in 1968. He was engaged in first editing Nag Hammadi Codex I (the "Jung Codex") and devoted attention to the

Nag Hammadi Library The Nag Hammadi library (also known as the Chenoboskion Manuscripts and the Gnostic Gospels) is a collection of early Christian and Gnostic texts discovered near the Upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945. Thirteen leather-bound papyrus c ...

and particularly to the

Gospel of Thomas The Gospel of Thomas (also known as the Coptic Gospel of Thomas) is a non-canonical Logia, sayings gospel. It was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945 among a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library. Scholars speculate the works ...

throughout the rest of his career. Quispel also made contributions to the study of early "Jewish-Christian" traditions as well as

Tatian Tatian of Adiabene, or Tatian the Syrian or Tatian the Assyrian, (; ; ; ; – ) was an Assyrian Christian writer and theologian of the 2nd century. Tatian's most influential work is the Diatessaron, a Biblical paraphrase, or "harmony", of the ...

's Diatessaron (a second-century gospel harmony). He became emeritus on 1 March 1984. He published five more books afterwards, including a work on Valentinus. Together with J. van Oort, he published a work on the Cologne Mani Codex.

Legacy

After Quispel's death, Johannes van Oort collected his works in ''Gnostica, Judaica, Catholica: Collected Essays of Gilles Quispel'' (2008). This book including unpublished essays, such as an important paper on Jesus in Islam, in which he argued that the origin of most of the Islamic sayings of Jesus were from Judeo-Christian / Jewish Christian sources (as opposed to Gentile Christians).

Publications

* ''De bronnen van Tertullianus' Adversus Marcionem'', thesis, Leiden, 1943. * ''The Original Doctrine of Valentine'', Amsterdam, North-Holland 1947. * ''A Jewish Source of Minucius Felix'', 1949. * ''Gnosis als Weltreligion'', 1951 * ''Het getuigenis der ziel bij Tertullianus (inaugurele rede Utrecht)'', 1952 * ''Tertulliani De testimonio animae.'', 1952 * ''Op zoek naar het evangelie der waarheid (with H.Ch. Puech; on the Codex Jung)'', 1954 * ''The Jung Codex : a newly recovered gnostic papyrus. Three studies (met H.C. Puech and W.C. van Unnik)'', 1955 * ''Evangelium veritatis. Codex Jung f.VIIIv-XVIv / f.XIXr-XXIIr (with Michel Malinine and Henri-Charles Puech)'', 1956 * ''Het evangelie naar de beschrijving van Thomas'' (with A. Guillaumont and H.-Ch. Puech, 1959, 1991, 2005) * ''Het Luikse 'Leven van Jezus' en het jodenchristelijke 'Evangelie der Hebreeën’'', 1958 * ''Makarius, das Thomasevangelium und das Lied von der Perle'', 1967 * ''Faust: Symbol of Western Man'', 1967. * ''Gnosis and The New Sayings of Jesus'', Rhein-Verlag, 1971. * ''Het Evangelie van Thomas en de Nederlanden.'', 1971 * ''The Birth of The Child: Some Gnostic and Jewish Aspects'', Leiden: Brill 1973. * ''From Mythos to Logos'', Leiden: Brill 1973. * ''Gnosis and Psychology'', Leiden: Brill 1973. * ''Gnostic Studies'', 2 vols., Istanbul, 1974. * ''

and the Gospel of Thomas: Studies in the History of the Western Diatessaron'', Leiden: Brill 1975. * ''Van Unnik als geleerde (herdenkingsrede)'', 1978 * ''Het geheime boek der openbaring. Het laatste boek van de bijbel'' (also translated into English: ''The Secret Book of Revelation: The Last Book of The Bible'', New York: McGraw-Hill, 1979. and French. * ''Jewish and Gnostic Man'', (Eranos Lecures) 1986. * ''De Hermetische Gnosis in de loop der eeuwen'' (also translated to German), 1992 * ''Corpus Hermeticum (with Roelof van den Broek)'', 1993 * ''Asclepius; De volkomen openbaring van Hermes Trismegistus'', 1996 * ''Een jongetje uit Kinderdijk. Herinneringen van Gilles Quispel'', 2001 * ''Valentinus de gnosticus en zijn Evangelie der waarheid.'', 2003 *''Het Evangelie van Thomas. Uit het Koptisch vertaald en toegelicht'', In de Pelikaan Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, 2004 * ''De Keulse Mani-Codex'' (with Johannes van Oort), 2005 * ''Gnostica, Judaica, Catholica. Collected Essays of Gilles Quispel'' (redactie Johannes van Oort), 2008 * ''Hermetische geschriften'' (with Roelof van den Broek), 2016

Commemorative books

* * R. van den Broek and M. J. Vermaseren (eds.), ''Studies in Gnosticism and Hellenistic Religions: Presented to Gilles Quispel on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday'' (Leiden 1981)

References