Preliminary material -- INTRODUCTION -- EDESSA'S HISTORY AND CULTURE -- THE SOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF EDESSA'S RELIGION -- THE CULT OF NEBO AND BEL -- THE CULT OF ATARGATIS -- THE CULT OF SIN LORD OF THE GODS AT SUMATAR HARABESI -- THE CULT OF AZIZOS AND MONIMOS AND OTHER ARAB DEITIES -- EDESSAN RELIGION, PAGANISM IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE, AND EARLY CHRISTIANITY -- INDEX -- LIST OF PLATES -- PLATES I-XXXIV.

In this volume, a reprint of his 1966 monograph, H. J. W. Drijvers investigates the life and teachings of Bardaisan of Edessa, determining his place in the religious and cultural life of Edessa in the second half of the second century of the common era.

The book deals with thinkers and movements that were embraced by many second-century religious seekers but which are now largely forgotten or known only as "heretics": Basilides, Sethianism, Valentinus' school, Marcion, Tatian, Bardaisan, Montanists, Cerinthus, Ebionites, Nazarenes, Jewish-Christianity of the "Pseudo-Clementines," and Elchasites.