In Early Christian Books in Egypt, New York University papyrologist Roger Bagnall argues that a significant proportion of what has been written over the last 100 years relating to the early editions of Christian texts discovered in Roman Egypt has been inaccurate.
His book is made up of four chapters, each representing a lecture given by the author at Paris' École Pratique des Hautes Études. It is presented in a relaxed writing style which is very easy to read. However the book is still of an academic nature, and the reader would benefit from being familiar with Coptic Egypt, as well as some of the documents discussed.
The first chapter gives an overview of the problem with the dating of early Christian writing, concluding that while most Christian papyri are published, there are very few, if any, examples which can be dated securely to the second century AD. Some have attributed this to the lottery of archaeological recovery, although the author Roger Bagnall argues that this silence is more likely a reflection of the small-scale spread of Christianity among Egyptians, with the number able to write or own books even more marginal.
The Desert Fathers of ancient Egypt were some of the world's first hermits. Despite the modern ideal of the hermit, these didn't live in total isolation. However, they did live a sparse, hard life in the country's early Christian monasteries. If women chose to enter their sphere, they would do so dressed as men. Who were these scholastic men of the desert, and how did their form of worship influence Christianity for millenia to come?
In the fourth century AD, Egypt was a province of the Roman Empire (in modern terms, an occupied territory) vital to Roman security, since the Nile valley supplied most of the grain for the "bread and circuses" that kept Rome's proletariat quiet. But that didn't get Egypt any preferential treatment. It was rigorously controlled, ruthlessly taxed; many small farmers, too poor to pay, abandoned their land, and Egypt's economy slowly deteriorated.
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A contemporary joke: What are the only two things a hermit flees from? Answer, a woman and a bishop.
The Desert Fathers of ancient Egypt were some of the world's first hermits. Despite the 
