Women as Readers of the Nag Hammadi Codices

Recent scholarship has analyzed the Nag Hammadi codices as fourth- or fifth-century books that ought to be interpreted in the historical, ecclesiastical, ritual, theological, and literary environment in which they were produced. Most studies have assumed, implicitly or explicitly, that the codices’ primary readers were men—either in monastic, scholastic, or other settings. This article proposes that, in light of evidence for women’s literacy in the region, we ought to consider that women, too, were among the codices’ readers, and then explains what difference it makes, for our interpretation of the textual collections and our understanding of their reception and transmission, to imagine such women readers.