Scholar Research Update - Lance Jenott
What are scholars of early Christianity looking for these days? What’s on their minds? We'll help you stay up with current research.
Lance Jenott
Lance is a senior lecturer at Washington University in St. Louis, in classics and religious studies, with a focus on early Christianity and classical civilizations.
Jenott’s research interests include New Testament and Christian origins, second temple Judaism, and religions of antiquity.
Jenott’s most recent publications include the following:
Forthcoming – Hermeneia Series commentary on the Gospel of Judas, Fortress Press
Forthcoming – “The Letter of Peter to Philip: Texts and Translations from Codex Tchacos and Nag Hammadi.” Coptic Apocrypha: New Frontiers—New Perspectives, ed. Hugo Lundhaug et al., Mohr Siebeck, 2026
2023 – “Peter’s Letter to Philip: Textual Fluidity in a New Testament Apocryphon.” The Nag Hammadi Codices as Monastic Books, ed. Hugo Lundhaug and Christian Bull, Morh Siebeck
2020 - “The Book of the Foreigner from Codex Tchacos.” Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists 57 (2020): 235-76.
2020 – Translation: “John of Parallos, Homily Against Heretical Books” and “The Investiture of the Archangel Gabriel.” Pages 553-79 in New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, vol. 2, ed. Tony Burke. Eerdmans, 2020.
2016 - “Reading Variants in James and the Apocalypse of James: A Perspective from New Philology.” Pages 55–85 in Snapshots of Evolving Traditions: Jewish and Christian Manuscript Culture, Textual Fluidity, and Material Philology, ed. Liv Ingebord Lied and Hugo Lundhaug. Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur. De Gruyter, 2016.
2015 - The Monastic Origins of the Nag Hammadi Codices, co-authored with Hugo Lundhaug. Studies and Texts in Antiquity and Christianity 97. Mohr Siebeck, 2015.
Jenott is acknowledged as an expert in the Nag Hammadi Codices and Codex Tchacos, including such New Testament apocrypha as the Letter of Peter to Philip, the Gospel of Judas, James, and the Book of Allogenes. His work focuses on understanding the original composition of such texts in the history of Christian sectarianism without using the lens of Gnosticism, and also focuses on how the texts were later received, read, and revised by Christians in Egypt who produced the only surviving copies. He is recognized for his work challenging the traditional, narrow view of the Nag Hammadi Codices, which holds that they were merely hidden in monasteries. Instead, he argues that they were copied and read by monks for their ascetic and demonological teachings.
He specializes in bringing together different scholarly fields such as the New Testament, church fathers, monastic rules, papyri, and archaeology for the purpose of understanding the social and religious world of late antiquity.
Jenott’s Bible and Beyond appearances:
January 26, 2026: The Fate of the Apostles in the Gospel of Judas (archived discussion)
August 1, 2021: How Adam the Original Sinner Became Adam the Victim, then Adam the Glorified (podcast interview)