Prof. J. van der Vliet (Jacques)

Professor Jacques van Vliet is an Egyptologist and Coptologist and occupies an endowed chair. He specializes in Coptic, the indigenous language of Christian Egypt, which lives on in the present day Coptic Orthodox church as its liturgical language. Jacques van der Vliet is particularly interested in the rich Coptic literature from late antiquity. A fascinating corpus of magical texts shows for what length of time the ancient Egyptian religion had an effect. Gnostic texts such as those of Nag Hammadi reveal surprising aspects of the early Christian realm of thought. Hagiographic and non-literary texts give us a concrete idea of the world of monks in antiquity. As a papyrologist and epigrapher, Jacques van der Vliet participates in several fieldwork projects in Egypt.