Julian's Texts
Julian in Context
Julian's Texts The precise dates when the two versions of Julian's writings, the Short
Text and the Long Text, were written is not made explicitly clear by her.
As a consequence this remains a matter of scholarly debate. However, Julian does note that she did not immediately understand the parable of a Lord and a Servant which is the heart of chapter 51 of the Long Text and which was part of her original visionary experience. It is probably for this reason that the parable does not appear at all in the Short Text.
Equally probably, Julian's reflections on Jesus as Mother and, more broadly, on God as Mother depend in some way on her eventual understanding of this parable and therefore also do not appear in the Short
Text. Chapter 51 itself notes that it was "twenty years after the time of the revelation except for three months" that she received a further "inward instruction" which helped to clarify matters regarding the parable. That would date the new insight to around 1393, presumably after the Short Text had been written. Also, in the final chapter 86 of the Long
Text, Julian refers to her continuous desire after her initial visionary revelations "to know in what was our Lord's meaning." She notes that she received a further spiritual revelation that answered her questioning
"fifteen years after and more" – that is, around 1388. There have been speculations that the Short Text may have been a later abridged version of the Long Text but this viewpoint is not the scholarly consensus.
Whatever the dating of the two texts, it seems more likely that the Short Text precedes the Long Text.18
Based on this internal evidence, it also seems likely that Julian did not begin the Long Text until at least 1388 and perhaps later. It has been noted that chapter 1, which summarizes the sixteen showings or revelations, makes no mention of the parable of a Lord and a Servant. This suggests that the writing of the Long Text may have been an extended process with a first draft being written somewhere between 1388 and 1393 with further revision taking place after that date in the light of the further "inward instruction."
Fundamentally, the move from an earlier Short Text to a later Long Text represents a shift from a more experience‐based narrative by Julian as participant to a teaching‐centered presentation by Julian as interpreter, informed by extensive reflection and also, apparently, by further divine revelation. Equally, in this regard it has been noted that the language of the Long Text is much more plural than the Short Text; it uses "we" rather than the more subjective "I." The Short Text is basically a scene‐by‐scene account of her visionary experience in twenty‐five chapters and roughly eleven thousand words. In contrast, the eighty six chapters of the Long
Text, which at around sixty‐three thousand words is roughly six times