Bentley Layton, the pre-eminent scholar of his generation of the late ancient Egyptian language, Coptic, died on March 26 at his home in New Haven from complications of Parkinson’s disease. He was 83.
Layton, the Goff Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies and professor of Near Eastern languages and civilizations at Yale, made immeasurable contributions to the study of major textual corpora, including the gnostic texts found at Nag Hammadi, and the writings of the Egyptian monk Shenoute of Atripe.
He wrote two major books that were lauded in his field. “The Gnostic Scriptures” (1987; 2nd ed. 2021), a work of impeccable scholarship, was described by Harold Bloom as “the one indispensable book for the understanding of Gnosis and Gnosticism.” A crucial investigation into the theology, religious atmosphere, and literary traditions of ancient Christianity and its relationship to Platonic philosophy and Hellenistic Judaism, it included authoritative translations of ancient texts from Greek, Latin, and Coptic.
His book, “The Canons of Our Fathers: Monastic Rules of Shenoute” (2014), was the first publication of a very early set of Christian monastic rules from late Roman Egypt, accompanied by four preliminary chapters discussing their history, social context, and literary character. The book was said “to represent a tremendous advance in the history of monasticism and the history of Christianity by one of the most learned scholars of Shenoute.”
Layton was also an erudite grammarian. His 2004 book, “Coptic Grammar,” revolutionized the study of the language’s grammatical system, and is now regarded as “the most authoritative reference grammar of the Coptic language.” He also published the widely utilized teaching grammar, “Coptic in 20 Lessons” (2006), based on decades of teaching experience at Yale.
He was also deeply accomplished in archival research: his “Catalogue of Coptic Literary Manuscripts in the British Library Acquired since the Year 1906” (1987) provided first editions of many fragments and pioneered a method of manuscript description that has served as a model for many others in the field.
Layton was an inspiring teacher of the highest standards. His former undergraduate students at Yale, nearly all of whom did not become scholars of Coptic or religion, remembered him especially for his popular lecture course, “The History of Ancient Christianity: From Jesus to Augustine,” and his seminars on monasticism and Gnosticism. His former doctoral students now teach at prestigious institutions across North America and Europe, including two who would go on to become presidents of the International Association for Coptic Studies. He was also a dedicated mentor to the graduate students who served as his teaching assistants.
“Bentley was famous for his skill and attentiveness in teaching his graduate students how to prepare and present a lecture,” said Stephen Davis, the Woolsey Professor of Religious Studies in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. “He would read through multiple drafts and sit through multiple dry runs, offering detailed feedback that was always on the mark. In this and many other ways, he modeled for me what it means to be an academic mentor.”
Davis recalled a story that underlined Layton’s punctilious approach, which bridged his scholarship and teaching.
“One December, after administering a final exam, Bentley left the blue books in his office over the weekend,” Davis remembered. “The next Monday, he came and discovered that a squirrel had got in and tore the booklets to shreds. Undaunted, and drawing on his ample skills as a papyrologist, he pieced together the tattered fragments, taped them up, and proceeded to grade the exams as if nothing had ever happened.”
“Such was his commitment to the pedagogical craft and to the research skills that undergirded it.”
Bentley Layton grew up in Jackson, Mississippi. His father, Reber B. Layton, who came from a family active in education, went on to serve in the Jackson Public Schools as a teacher, a principal, and a curriculum director from the late 1930s to the mid-1970s, providing important leadership during the system’s first years of integration. (He was also the co-author of a marvelous work entitled “Bluebirds: Their Daily Lives and How to Attract and Raise Bluebirds” (1986).) His mother, Nellie Gray Oldman Layton, was a fine artist whose paintings can still be found in online auctions.
Layton, acknowledged as brilliant early on, received his B.A. summa cum laude in 1963 from Harvard University, where he became a member of the Society of Fellows, an elite fellowship that give scholars at an early stage of their scholarly careers an opportunity to pursue their studies in any university department. A talented violinist with a gift for orchestral conducting, he was encouraged by Yale’s music faculty to consider a career in the field. But his love of Greek and Coptic philology led him to pursue a Ph.D. in the Study of Religion at Harvard. After graduating in 1971, he taught early Christian literature for five years at the École biblique et archéologique française in Jerusalem before joining the Department of Religious Studies at Yale in 1976.
Layton’s interests were recondite, but he was not an isolated scholar. He enjoyed Yale’s traditions and the fellowship they provided, and he started an important tradition of his own. He was a faithful Fellow of Saybrook College. He was a connoisseur of food and a fan of dining at New Haven’s gourmet restaurant, the Union League Cafe. He was also a founder and key facilitator of the Graeco-Roman Lunch, a platform for anyone at Yale working on ancient Mediterranean-related projects to present their work to a cross-departmental audience after a lunch supported by the Department of Classics.
Layton was a loyal parishioner at Christ Church, New Haven. A Solemn Requiem Mass and burial will be held there at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 26, followed by a reception. His ashes will be buried alongside his parents’ ashes in the Christ Church garden.