Thoughts on Antiquity, Patristics, putting things online, information access, and more
I’ve translated Macler’s version and placed it here. This translation has no scholarly value, of course, but is more like research notes. I place it in the public domain, so do as you will with it.
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The text was written, in Coptic, ca. 1187 AD. That means that Richard the Lionheart could have met people whose first language was this last dialect of Ancient Egyptian!
Frederic Macler’s articles in the RHR 33 (1896) * discuss the various Apocalypses of Daniel. He knows of nine such texts; six in Greek, one in Coptic, one in Armenian and one in Persian, and lists the publications (p.33f). Clearly it was a popular vehicle to express your sentiments on your own times!
The Coptic text was printed by Woide, Appendix ad editionem N. T. graeci e codici Alexandrino, Oxford, 1799. This is a folio volume of 140 pages; let’s hope it comes online. The manuscript is in the Bibliotheque Nationale, fonds copte, no. 58.
Macler notes in his article that none of the texts exist in French translation, and that producing one would be of more service to most people than a scholarly article. Consequently he prints a translation of the Coptic and Armenian texts. The nine texts have no real relation to one another, or so I gather.
* Non-US readers will need to use an anonymizing proxy to access this.
Ian Tompkins pointed me to an interesting article on this little known Coptic text, in RHR 33 (1896), 163-176. Since I don’t know anything about this text, and M. Macler is willing to tell me (in French), here is a running translation of excerpts of his article.
It’s name, The fourteenth vision of Daniel, is because in the manuscript in which it is found, it follows the book of Daniel which is divided into thirteen visions, as in the Alexandrian manuscript. [Ms. BNF copt 58]
This apocalypse begins by imitating the canonical book of Daniel; it borrows from it the notion of four great monarchies; it even borrows entire phrases…
After a very detailed historical-seeming introduction, which resembles that of the canonical book, the prophet has a vision concerning the realm of the sons of Ishmael. Nineteen kings of this race shall reign over the land (over Egypt); in the reign of the nineteenth and last, Pitourgos, his enemy will return, put him to flight and kill him; then the king of the Romans will rise up and govern the Ishmaelites; then Gog and Magog will shake the earth…then Antichrist will appear… then the Ancient of Days will come, who will put Antichrist to death, and whose kingdom will have no end. Finally Daniel is commanded to seal up all these things until the time when they happen.
Our Apocalypse offers this characteristic, that at first sight all the quoted facts seem historical and easy to identify; but on looking at there more closely, this semblance disappears, and there remains nothing except a bizarre collection of treatises gathered by a less than faithful memory. If the reader, not wanting to remain in that state, reviews in more detail his study, he will see that the author of the Apocalypse has juxtaposed some historical facts which he remembered preciselywith other vague and erroneous data, intended to replace the events which he could not remember.
We will add the results at which we arrived in the notes. We do not claim to have the complete story, but our hypothesis cannot be very far away from the truth.
The author of the Apocalypse enumerates nineteen kings, but he characterizes them only starting with the tenth; as he writes in Egypt, it is probable that he is speaking about Fatimids of Egypt, and in our explanatory notes we will see that Pitourgos indicates the Turks, and more especially Saladin; the Romans (Roumis) arrive, they are the Crusaders: so we believe that our Apocalypse was created around the time of the Third Crusade, a little after 1187.
There then follows a French translation of the text, which I have translated into English and will put online tomorrow.
An email asks me whether I have come across a couple of texts, previously unknown to me; the Coptic apocalypse of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of Samuel of Kalamoun. It continues:
The Apocalypse of Daniel was used during the Crusades to predict the downfall of Muslim rule. The Apocalypse of Samuel contains the strongest denunciation of language shift in the Middle Ages of Egypt by which Coptic was replaced by Arabic.
I think we can agree that both sound very interesting! I’ve been unable to find out anything about either. Does either exist in English, even?
While perusing the Book-Think blog, I came across mention of a find of Coptic books at the Monastery of St. Michael in 1910. This was interesting, since although I am interested in Egyptian manuscript discoveries, I had never heard of it.
I find an article in the Catholic Encyclopedia which deals with the find.
The most important of these discoveries was undoubtedly that of the library of the Monastery of St. Michael in the Fayûm (Spring, 1910). Most of the fifty-eight volumes of which it consisted found their way to Paris, where they were purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (Dec., 1911), in whose library (at New York) they are now preserved. 5000 volumes remained in Egypt, and, with a few fragments of the same origin, are kept [in Cairo]… Mr. Morgan’s collection is no less remarkable as a group of dated manuscripts of absolutely certain provenance. … the Morgan collection contains eighteen dates ranging from A.D. 832 to 914… Many of the manuscripts are still in their original bindings…
Why do we have so many fragmentary books?
One of the most important features of the Morgan collection is that it consists of complete volumes, while other collections, yet reputed so valuable, those of Rome, Paris, and London (see below under British Museum Collection), to name the principal ones, consist mostly of fragments. It is an inveterate habit with the Arabs of Egypt to tear the manuscripts they discover or steal, so as to give each member of the tribe his share of the spoils, and also in the hope of securing higher prices by selling the manuscripts piecemeal, a process fatal to literature, for while some leaves so treated will be scattered throughout the public or private collections of Europe and America, a good many more will either meet destruction or remain hidden indefinitely by the individual owners. Most of the manuscripts of the Monastery of St. Michael had already been divided into small lots of leaves and distributed among a number of Arabs when they were rescued at the cost of untold toil and expense.
The same happened to the Gospel of Judas, the Exodus, the Greek Mathematical Treatise and the Letters of Paul manuscripts, half a century later.
The Catholic Encyclopedia article lists the books (bless them!). There are biblical texts, liturgical stuff, and masses of Saints’ lives. There are also some homilies by Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Athanasius, Shenuda, among others.
Interestingly, at the end of the page in the CE, are details of other purchases by the British Museum of Coptic mss. Among the texts found is a “discourse of Eusebius of Cæsarea on the Chanaanite woman” [Ms. Or., 5001, item 10]. Has this ever been published, or translated? The article gives as sources:
On Or. 5000 and Or. 5001 cf. CRUM, Catalogue of the Coptic Manuscripts of the Brit. Museum (London, 1905), Nos. 940, 171; WALLIS BUDGE, The earliest known Coptic Psalter in the Dialect of Upper Egypt from the unique Papyrus oriental 5000 in the Brit. Museum (London. 1908); IDEM, Coptic Homilies in the dialect of Upper Egypt (from Or. 5001 text and English tr., London 1910).
The last item is at Archive.org, which is a blessing, believe me. For I saw a bound copy of this book, thick, small, fat and with a tight binding impossible to photocopy, and my heart failed me and I passed by on the other side and did not try to scan it. Thankfully someone else has. From this I find that the homily is of Eusebius of Caesarea in Cappadocia!
Our knowledge of the dynasties of the Pharaoh’s derives in the first place from Manetho, a Greek working for the Ptolemies. Actually that well-worn statement is misleading; Manetho is lost, and our knowledge of the contents of his work derives from quotations by Eusebius, mostly in the Chronicle.
In the 19th century Drovetti discovered a papyrus roll, dated to the 12th century BC, containing a list of kings so far. This he sold to the Italians, and in the process of being passed around the nearly complete roll was reduced to a heap of fragments.
From this article I understand that some mislaid fragments have been located, and that the British Museum will be trying to piece them into the remains.
A commercial blog on places of interest in Egypt, with lots of nice pictures! This includes Coptic sites.
This blog reports a publication (offline – these papyrologists really don’t get it, do they?) of some narrative texts from the temple in ancient Tebtunis in Egypt. Look at the contents!
The book presents ten narrative texts written in the demotic script and preserved in papyri from the Tebtunis temple library (1st/2nd century AD).
Eight of the texts are historical narratives which focus on the first millennium BC. Four concern prince Inaros, who rebelled against the Assyrian domination of Egypt in the 7th century, and his clan. One is about Inaros himself, while the other three take place after his death. Two other narratives mention Necho I and II of the Saite Period. The story about Necho II is particularly noteworthy, since it refers to the king as Nechepsos and for the first time provides us with the identity behind this name. Nechepsos is well attested as a sage king in Greek literary tradition, above all in relation to astrology. Of the two final historical narratives, one belongs to the cycle of stories about the Heliopolitan priesthood and the other concerns the Persian occupation of Egypt in the 5th or 4th century. The volume further includes a prophecy that forms the continuation of Nectanebo’s Dream, known from the Greek translation by Apollonios, and a new version of the mythological Contendings of Horus and Seth. Apart from a translation of the prophecy, none of the papyri have previously been published.
When I was in Egypt before Christmas, I got bitten to pieces by mosquitos. On mentioning this, David Miller tells me that “canopy” is derived from the Greek word for mosquito-net.
The word is “k0n0peion”. The derivation is via late Lat. ‘canopeum’ — perhaps with a supposed connection to ‘Canopus’ .
k0n0ps (??”cone-face”??) = mosquito.
Imagine all those hard-bitten Greek mercenaries working for the late Pharaohs in the Nile Delta getting bitten, eh?
While I was in Egypt, I was interested to learn that the Coptic church has been undergoing a quiet revival over the last few decades. This has centred on their monasteries, from which the Coptic Patriarch is always chosen. By 1960, one of the most important monasteries, that of St. Macarius in the Wadi al-Natrun (the Nitrian Desert, or Scete) had only six frail old monks, and the building was in considerable disrepair. Today it has 130.
Much of the credit belongs to the late Fr. Matta el-Meskeen. He had created an independent monastic community in the Wadi al-Rayan during the 60’s. In 1967 he and his dozen monks were ordered by the then Patriarch, Cyril VI – today widely considered a saint – to go to St. Macarius. They did so, and Fr. Matta then revitalised the community, and began the current revival. Monasteries are filling up with monks; men who have completed their military training, had a professional education, but have been drawn to the monastic life. Abandoned monasteries are being reopened, although this has sometimes led to land disputes. New monasteries are being built.
Books by Fr. Matta have been translated into several languages, and are available from the monastery here.
Fr. Matta was not always able to avoid politics. As a senior monk in the church he was a natural candidate for patriarch, twice nominated and twice passed over. As an important copt he was one of those consulted by President Sadat at the time when the Coptic Pope Shenouda III was sent into internal exile. His closeness to Sadat meant that he was able to enjoy state protection, and to add land for cultivation to the St. Macarius monastery. But the same factors meant that Shenouda’s supporters regarded him with suspicion, and attempts were made to find theological heresy in his books. Such communal struggles are inevitable in this life, and should not detract from the immensity of his achievement. He was able to find a way for Copts to reconnect with God in the modern world, and was the Lord’s implement to renew his people in a Moslem land.
I have been unable to locate any English biography of him. The Wikipedia article has several links which are helpful.