Abstract:
Recent scholarship on the Bodmer Miscellaneous Codex (BMC) has analysed various features of the manuscript, mostly attempting to answer questions like “Why was this codex created?” and “What purpose did it serve?” Some have given more specific answers, while others believe the document to be largely enigmatic. To further the academy’s understanding of this ancient codex, this paper will examine the BMC, which comprises 11 different writings, for evidence of early Christian social identity formation. More specifically, it will heuristically apply Social Identity Theory (SIT) and Social Identity Complexity Theory (SICT) to reflect on identity and boundary construction in the BMC. It will be argued that various features of this ancient codex reveal a process of social identity formation, specifically an emerging orthodox Christian identity that is seeking positive distinctiveness and striving to reinforce the boundaries between an ingroup and various other outgroups. Furthermore, it is argued that the evidence of these features, in the context of persecution and competing Christianities, denotes a lower level of social identity complexity.
Description:
This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring the Complexity of Identities and Boundaries within the New Testament World.
This article emanates from the MTh dissertation (2023) "Papyrus 72 and the Bodmer Miscellaneous Codex : a study of the dynamics of early Christian identity formation" by Oliveira, Nycholas Lawrence David. (URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2263/93349).
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT :
No new data were created or analyzed in this study. Data sharing is not applicable to this article.
