So it pays to actually read those e-flyers from publishers and respond fast. It pays $45 US dollars retail, plus shipping, to be precise. I got this email from Random House a couple weeks ago. I happened to be in class and saw the email pop up on my screen. Being the responsible student that I am, I waited to check it on my break. I just like looking at the books and reading the descriptions in case I miss anything from the piles of paper catalogs that come to me via snail mail. Then I noticed that little bit in small but bold print that said: “Click here to receive a free copy of The Gospel of Judas: Critical Edition (available to the first 25 responders).”
I thought I might have a fightin’ chance . . . after all, how many people really receive these e-bulletins for Academic religious titles, actually read them, and are motivated enough to respond in the first hour or so? But I didn’t hear anything, so I thought I didn’t make it. Until yesterday evening, when The package arrived at my door. The dust jacket got a little tattered in the mail, but otherwise a beautiful copy with great photos and everything else. Thanks, Random House! Now I just have to learn how to read Coptic!
You should rip the pages out and paste them into your NRSV. Then you’ll have all five canonical gospels
Patrick,
Glad you got the book. The texts in it are amazing. They give us insight into what was going on in the second century. The copy of the 1 Apocalypse of James is beautiful, much fuller than the NH version. I think that it is probably a Valentinian text, while the Gospel of Judas is a Sethian one.
April
How hard can Coptic be? It’s got an alphabet!
Jim says:
How hard can Coptic be? It’s got an alphabet!
Well, yes, but it also has a grammatical system that is very different from English, French, German, Italian, Greek, Spanish, Latin, Russian, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malay and, as far as I can tell, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. I’m not suggesting it’s outrageously difficult, just that most people find it very different from anything they’ve ever learned before and it takes a while to get your head around it. Lambdin, currently considered the text book for learning Coptic, doesn’t actually teach you a verb as such until chapter 7, but you are able to make sentences from chapter 1. You can say things as complicated as What is the darkness which is upon the city? without using a Coptic verb.
Of course, Pat, you could always send it on to me. I can already read Coptic.
Free books are always worth it, no matter what the language.
Hope your summer is going well.
Alan