"Celine Lillie’s fresh and extensive analysis of portrayals of Eve’s rape in three Nag Hammadi writings, skillfully reappraised against the background of rape discourses that had been exploited in Roman imperial founding myths, is path breaking and powerful. The value of her eminently readable study will certainly not be limited to Nag Hammadi specialists. It will also benefit more widely students of early Christianity and Greco-Roman society, as well as many other readers seeking insight into the dynamics of patriarchal paradigms and sexual violence.”

"Celene Lillie’s The Rape of Eve is both ground-breaking and breathtaking. Her three Nag Hammadi texts, On the Origin of the World, The Reality of the Rulers, and the Secret Revelation of John oppose Roman imperial theology not just in itself but as the present material investment of a primordial cosmic aberration. This changes absolutely how we read these three texts—and other “Gnostic” ones like them as well."

"The book is full of refreshing and remarkable insights. Lillie’s reading of the Nag Hammadi texts helps us fill out the complex picture of early Christianity, particularly how some Christ-followers might have approached the Hebrew scriptures and regarded the Roman Empire.  It also alerts us to the intimate relations between sexual and imperial hierarchies, as well as the dynamic, creative, contextual, and intertextual development of religious traditions."