The book is a collection of articles on the Christian Egypt of late antiquity. The basis of the collection is the contributions to a conference on this subject in December 2007 at the Eberhard Karls Universität in Tübingen. This conference was at the initiative of a group who had the intention of keeping alive the teaching of the languages and cultures of the Christian Orient at the said university. However, it failed, as in all other German universities, and so this collection marks the end of a long teaching tradition in Tübingen. Not all contributions to the conference have been published in this volume. Instead three contributions to another conference and three further articles have found their way into this book, as well as the preliminary annotated edition by Jan Dochhorn of the Testament of Isaac according to the Sahidic and Bohairic texts together with an introduction and an appendix with fragments (pp. 291–329). Under the group heading, ‘Biblical’, Frank Feder treats the different Coptic versions of the Book of Proverbs. It is an inventory of manuscripts up to the twelfth century and his own attempts at dating. At the end of the book reproductions of some samples are provided (pp. 1–21). Under the heading ‘Apocrypha and related fields’ Jan Dochhorn has a further contribution, which was given at the conference, on the myths of the establishment of the archangel Michael in the Coptic literature, which he sees closely connected to the Vita Adae et Evae (pp. 23–42). Emmanouela Grypeou writes on apocalyptic motives in the vitae of Egyptian monks. Her research is limited to the motives of voyages to hell and angelic lives in the Vita of Pachomios and the testamentum of Isaac (pp. 43–54). Peter Nagel presents a history of Coptic research where he shows how Coptologists have contributed to research on apocryphal gospels. It starts with a bibliography from the eighteenth century until the present day (pp. 55–69). Uwe-Kasten Plisch gives a short commentary on the gospel of Thomas xxix (pp. 71–4). Alexander Toepel compares the ethics in the gospel of Thomas with those of Epicurus (pp. 75–9). Under the heading ‘Fourth century’ Pablo Agarate describes the reception and the tradition of the De spiritu sancto of Didymos, on which little research has been done (pp. 81–91). Dmitrij F. Bumazhnov's article is on the twelve virtues of the Holy Ghost and Hellenistic influence on Paul of Tamma's De humilitate 4–8 (pp. 93–111). Ioannis K. Grossmann asks what was the original language of the earliest vita of Pachomios. In order to answer this question he compares the Arabic, Coptic and Greek texts (pp. 113–48). Irmgard Männlein-Robert treats the motif of midday demons in late antiquity (pp. 149–60). Under the heading ‘Fifth to sixth century’ Hans-Joachim Cristea presents two connected Coptic fragments on false confessions. These fragments are a homily by Shenute and this, their first edition, has an introduction and a word index. The codex was written at the famous White monastery (pp. 161–77). Benjamin Gleede offers a literary criticism of the De sectis of Abbas Theodor, an unfinished text published by one of his students (pp. 179–216). Eva Schulz-Flügel compares the meaning of ‘desert’ for Egyptian and for European monks according to the Historia monachorum and the Historia lausiace. She shows that in Europe the desert is slowly replaced by the wood (pp. 217–29). Under the heading ‘Iconography and iconology’ Bärbel Dümler combines the findings of archaeology with the contents of texts concerning the maiestas-presentations in Egyptian monasteries. She pleads for combining both research fields as it gives complementary results, and thus a better interpretation of the research object (pp. 231–59). The book has a preface (pp. v–vii) and ends with an index of biblical and patristic citations, an index of modern authors and an index on persons, realia and places (pp. 331–55).

These articles very considerably in length due to the different approaches taken. Some of these articles examine larger subjects, others are more of the order of short notes on a specific issue. As with all such collections a potential reader will find only some articles which meet his or her specific interests in late antique Christian Egypt.