ABSTRACT

There has been al long lasting debate among scholars about the origins of the Pachomian rules. It seems clear that especially the Praecepta underwent a development over a certain period of time, and some have argued that later generations added to them and that the rules represent a stage of organisation of the Pachomian Koinonia from a period long after Saint Pachomius' death. When we take a look at the structure of the Praecepta we can easily identify two sets of additions (Praecepta 108-119 and 129b-143), apart from them the order of the rules follows a clear and simple structure. If we look at the text we find that the so-called „small conclusions“ (de Clercq) give no hints whatsoever to a growing of the rules or to later additions. In fact, the writing style of the Praecepta is that of Pachomius and definitely not that of Horsiese or Theodoros (apart from Praecepta 8a). Even the above mentioned additions show this same style of writing, so we must conclude that they come from Pachomius himself no matter when they were added and who may have done it. The whole set of rules of the Praecepta represents a stage of development of the Koinonia that was reached at the end of Pachomius' life. Horsiese quotes some of them in his Liber and labels them as being issued by Pachomius or „the elders“. So there is no reason to doubt that the Praecepta one way or another stem from the great founder of cenobite monasticism: Saint Pachomius.