Yesterday was a sad day for me and for biblical/early Christianity scholarship.   Marvin Meyer passed away, the victim of melanoma.  He could not have been old – maybe in his early 60s.  He was a superb scholar and one of the most generous, affable, energetic, personable scholars you would ever hope to find.  Marvin was the Griset Professor of Bible and Christian Studies at Chapman University and Director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute I knew about Marvin’s work for many years before I met him.   He was some years older than me and was well established in the field before I showed up on the scene.   I think the first work of his I used was his translation of Coptic Magical Texts.   Coptic is an ancient Egyptian language, in which a large number of important works were translated in antiquity; in many instances, these translations are the only forms of the text that we have available.  This is true of these magical texts that we have, which are fascinating and of real importance for scholars [...]