John D. Turner (15 July 1938 in Glen Ridge - 26 October 2019) was the Cotner Professor of Religious Studies and Charles J. Mach University Professor of Classics and History Classics & Religious Studies at the

University of Nebraska A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

. He was well known for his translations of 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 ...

Life

After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1960, Turner served a stint in the Army, then worked as an actuary and a car salesman before entering the Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, seeking to become a Presbyterian minister. Although he earned a master's degree in theology in 1966, he decided against the ministry and instead entered

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

's religious program, seeking a doctorate in

early Christianity Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the History of Christianity, historical era of the Christianity, Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Spread of Christianity, Christian ...

. While at Duke, he joined a team of about 20 young American scholars assembled by James M. Robinson to edit and translate the Nag Hammadi library. His expertise was in

Biblical studies Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse disciplines to the study of the Bible, with ''Bible'' referring to the books of the canonical Hebrew Bible in mainstream Jewish usage and the Christian Bible including the can ...

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

, Hellenistic and Graeco-Roman religion and philosophy,

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 ...

, later Platonism and

Neoplatonism Neoplatonism is a version of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a series of thinkers. Among the common id ...

Coptic language Coptic () is a dormant language, dormant Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language. It is a group of closely related Egyptian dialects, representing the most recent developments of the Ancient Egyptian language, Egyptian language, and histori ...

and literature. He had expertise in the study of ancient Gnosticism, in particular the restoration, conservation, translation, and interpretation of the thirteen fourth-century papyrus codices from Nag Hammadi. Turner had contributed to research into the relationship between

Neoplatonism and Gnosticism Gnosticism refers to a collection of religious groups originating in Jewish religiosity in Alexandria in the first few centuries AD. Filoramo, Giovanni (1990). ''A History of Gnosticism''. Blackwell. pp. 142-7 Neoplatonism is a school of Hellen ...

, including a study of the use of terms and concepts by the author or authors of the Sethian Allogenes text.

Education

*B.D., Th.M., Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, 1966 *Ph.D. with Highest Distinction,

(Religion), 1970

Works

* ''The Book of Thomas the Contender from Codex II of the Cairo Gnostic Library from Nag Hammadi (CG II,7)''. Missoula 1975, . * with Anne McGuire: ''The Nag Hammadi Library after fifty years. Proceedings of the 1995 Society of Biblical Literature commemoration''. Leiden 1997, . * ''Sethian gnosticism and the Platonic tradition''. Québec 2001, . * with Liv Ingeborg Lied and Christian H. Bull: ''Mystery and secrecy in the Nag Hammadi collection and other ancient literature. Ideas and practices. Studies for Einar Thomassen at sixty''. Leiden 2012, .

Commemorative publications

References

External links