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  • 7 - Textual Fluidity and Multiple Versions in Monastic Textual Practice

  • Paul Linjamaa, Lunds Universitet, Sweden
  • Book:
    The Nag Hammadi Codices and their Ancient Readers
    Published online:
    04 January 2024
    Print publication:
    11 January 2024, pp 187-223
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  • Summary

    This chapter studies the implications of the multiple versions of texts in the Nag Hammadi codices. Previously, scholars have viewed the existence of such duplicates as indicating that the texts were not meant to be regarded as a collection, or even that they were not owned by the same people. Who would keep two copies of the same text? This chapter offers a new interpretation and argues that reading two or more text versions parallel to each other could, in fact, be used as a valuable interpretative and theological exercise tool. The various Nag Hammadi duplicates and triplicates are studied, and the differences between them are analysed in light of ancient school exercises practised in Christian monasteries. Keeping multiple versions turned them into useful pedagogic tools when training monks in interpretation and the practice of reformulating gnomic sentences. The chapter draws on the growing field studying textual fluidity in ancient texts.