Janet Timbie: "Pay For Our Sins": A Shared Theme in the Pachomian Koinonia and the White Monastery Federation

In his translation of Pachomian texts, L.-Th. Lefort suggested that an emendation was needed in the text of the Third Catechesis of Theodore, so that it would read "fill up our benefits" rather than "fill up our sins" (CSCO 159, p. 45).  Examination of the manuscript and the Coptic vocabulary in this passage suggests that this emendation is unnecessary, and that the meaning is "pay for our sins".  Theodore, at this point in the Third Catechesis, shares both vocabulary and message with statements in the works of Shenoute.  Both the Koinonia and the White Monastery Federation are described as suitable places to pay for one's sins.  Elsewhere in the Third Catechesis, several other significant parallels with Shenoutean usage can be identified.  These are evidence of connections between the two groups that go beyond shared monastic rules and include elements of monastic, specifically cenobitic, catechesis.