Marvin W. Meyer is Professor of Religious Studies at Chapman University. He has written and edited several books, including The Unknown Sayings of Jesus and Ancient Magic and Ritual Power. He is a research project director at the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Claremont Graduate School, and codirector of the Albert Schweitzer Institute.

"The ancient mysteries have remained all too mysterious because of the lack of ready access to them. . . . Now we have in one volume a fine collection of the sources that have survived. . . . This will be for many students the lifting of the veil for which they have been looking."-- "James Robinson, Institute of Antiquity and Christianity, The Claremont Graduate School"

"The Ancient Mysteries contains a very balanced selection of sources for the study of the ancient so-called mystery religions, starting with Eleusis and ending with mysteries in Judaism and Christianity. . . . No other modern sourcebook exists in this field. Therefore this book fills a gap not only in the area of late antiquity and early Christianity, but also in the field of history of religions in general."-- "Kurt Rudolph, Philipps-Universitat Marburg, Germany"

"Unlike most books on 'ancient mysteries, ' this one is based on careful reading of the original texts in their original languages. It is a competent, intelligent, and sympathetic study of which the original conclusions deserve careful consideration."-- "Morton Smith, author of Jesus the Magician and The Secret Gospel"

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Pub date: 1999-05-07

Length: 280 pages