John D. Turner
After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1960, Turner served a stint in the Army, then worked as an actuary and a car salesman before entering the Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, seeking to become a Presbyterian minister. Although he earned a master's degree in theology in 1966, he decided against the ministry and instead entered Duke University's religious program, seeking a doctorate in early Christianity. While at Duke, he joined a team of about 20-young American scholars, assembled by James M. Robinson, to edit and translate the Nag Hammadi library. His expertise was in Biblical Studies, New Testament, Hellenistic and Graeco-Roman religion and philosophy, Gnosticism, later Platonism and Neoplatonism, Coptic language and literature. He had expertise in the study of ancient Gnosticism, in particular the restoration, conservation, translation, and interpretation of the thirteen fourth-century papyrus codices from Nag Hammadi. Turner had contributed to research into the relationship between Neoplatonism and Gnosticism, including a study of the use of terms and concepts by the author or authors of the Sethian Allogenes text.
Life
He was well known for his translations of the Nag Hammadi library.