Hugo Lundhaug: The Book of Thomas and Early Egyptian Monasticism

While the texts of the Nag Hammadi Codices have traditionally been interpreted as expressions of “Gnosticism,” this contribution will draw on recent research indicating a monastic provenance for the Nag Hammadi Codices and analyze the Book of Thomas, the final text of Nag Hammadi Codex II, as an example of early monastic literature. The preserved Coptic text will be approached as a piece of Coptic literature, and compared with other monastic texts roughly contemporary with the Nag Hammadi Codices, including parts of the Pachomian corpus and the writings of Shenoute. Moving beyond traditional questions of the authorship and composition of the hypothetical original, and taking into account the textual fluidity and scribal creativity inherent in the production and dissemination of such literature in Coptic, it will be demonstrated that the Book of Thomas deals with questions of theology and ascetic praxis that were of major interest to Egyptian monks.