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  • 5 - Vowel Constellations and Secret Language

  • 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 120-167
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  • Summary

    This chapter deals with an aspect of the Nag Hammadi texts often portrayed as one of the reasons why they do not fit into a Christian context: namely, the many passages touting different constellations of vowels and magical letters. These have not been neglected in previous research but have mainly been treated separately, in light of the particular text and their specific context, representing their ‘pagan’ origin. This chapter focuses on the question of why this phenomenon appears in an otherwise chiefly Christian text collection and how they would have been understood and used by those who owned, copied and read the Nag Hammadi texts. The magical vowel features in the texts are read in light of the mystical practices with letters of Pachomius the Great, as described in Pachomius’ Letter 6 and the Greek Vita Pachomi. It is argued that the magical letter feature of the texts would have made them of particular interest for monks in a Pachomian milieu.