Tag: Coptic

Recent studies on the Coptic catena of de Lagarde?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Looking at the summary of information on catenas on the gospels in Di Berardino’s latest volume of Quasten’s Patrology, I notice an intriguing couple of entries:

E. J. Caubet Iturbe, La Cadena arabe del Evangelio de san Mateo,1 Texto; 2 Version, Vatican City 1969-1970.

and

E. J. Caubet Iturbe, “La Cadena copto-arabe de los Evangelios y Severo de Antioquia”, Homenaje a J. Prado. Miscelanea de estudios biblicos y hebraicos, ed. L.Alvarez Verdes, E.J. Alonso Hernandez, Madrid 1975,421-432.

Now I recall from Graf’s Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur 1, p. 318, n.1 and p.481-2, that the Coptic catena on the gospels published by Paul de Lagarde also exists in an Arabic version in the Vatican.  I came across this reference while searching for material by Eusebius of Caesarea in Arabic.  He’s listed in Abu’l Barakat’s catalogue:

Eusebius of Caesarea: He has explanations on passages of the holy Gospels and other separate religious treatises.

which Graf discusses, referring to a catena with 6 passages from Eusebius on Matthew and material from Severus of Antioch on Luke.  Page 481f discusses an “anonymous gospel catena”, which turns out to be that of Paul de Lagarde.  I’m not sure I’ve read the entry before.  Written in Bohairic, and almost certainly based on a Greek catena now unknown, H. Achelis dates the catena before 888 AD.  The manuscript used by de Lagarde is incomplete, however.   The manuscript turns out to be Vatican Arab 452, and most of the scholia are at least under the name of Eusebius.  A long quotation from Luke, and five chunks on Matthew, are ascribed to Eusebius, or so Graf says.

It is an interesting sight, therefore, to see this in the modern bibliography, and no mention of de Lagarde’s publication.

Is it possible that Iturbe published a critical text of the Arabic version of the catena?  It looks very much like it.  I wish I could obtain the article and see what he says.

UPDATE: After typing those words, I started searching for the book in Google.  Slightly amazing to find my site listed, and this article listed, less than a minute after I pressed save.  Is Google really watching these words that intently!?

I find in COPAC more details of the book:

A compilation of patristic commentaries, with the text of the Gospel, in the Arabic of Codex Vaticanus ar. 452 and in a Spanish version.

which also aligns with my understanding.  Another states:

Studi e testi 254-5.  Half title: Cod. vat. ar. 452, ff. 6-135. Originally presented as the editor’s thesis, Pontificia Commissio Biblica. Based on a Coptic version entitled: Ermēnia n̄te pieuangelion ethouab kata Matheon. cf. the editor’s introd., v.1, p. [li]-liv; H. Achelis. Hippolytsudien. 1897. p. 163-169. Originally presented as the editor’s thesis, Pontificia Commissio Biblica. Arabic text; Spanish introduction, notes and translation.

So there we have it.  This is indeed a critical edition of the Arabic catena.  The next question is whether I obtain this and include it in the Eusebius!  For there is a copy available for sale online…

UPDATE 2: I cannot resist.  It would be cheaper to order the books by ILL, and copy them, etc; but it is far easier to just buy the things. 

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From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Andrew Eastbourne has now translated into English the Latin preface to De Lagarde’s Coptic catena, and this has arrived today.  I’ve passed it over to the lady translating excerpts from Eusebius from the Coptic in that catena, who requested it.  There will be probably be some tweaking as it contains fragments of Coptic.  With luck, this will bring forth the translation of the Coptic materials which I have been awaiting.

A little card on the doormat tells me that the postman has a book for me that he couldn’t get through the letter box.  This must be vol. 1 part 1 of Harnack’s Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur bis Eusebius, in a cheap reprint.  Even that reprint is not simple to find; but part 2 was so full of useful information that I feel obliged to obtain a copy. 

I need to write to Sebastian Brock, the Syriac scholar, and ask him about the report I read in an article from the 1960’s suggesting that some of the lost Syriac mss. from Seert might yet be found, buried in the ground in 1915.  If no-one has ever followed that up, I ought to write to the Time Team TV programme, suggesting it.  Their use of geophysical search technology might well recover the lost books, if they are still there. 

One task that I was not relishing was changing the Greek in footnotes in the Eusebius volume that I have commissioned into unicode.  I’ve passed that out to someone, for money.  Blessedly, he’s done the first chunk, and made a very nice job of it.  I am very grateful — my lingering cold leaves me too weak to do much, leaving me feeling like an old man (!), and I can earn the money to pay for such work more easily than I can do the work myself.   If only I could hire someone to edit the book for me!

I’ve also written to Claudio Zamagni asking about how he formatted his manuscript of the Greek/French Eusebius, to submit it.  Did he, I asked, set it up with facing Greek and French pages, at that stage?  I really know so little about this side of things that it is hard to get started with setting up the book to be typeset.  I wish,  I wish, that I didn’t have to print a text as well as a translation.

One thing I discovered this week is that the Luxor Hilton hotel has reopened.  First reports from TripAdvisor are positive.  In fact it was open before Christmas, but I didn’t know about it.  I think I might stay there for a week next winter, just before Christmas.  I have truly missed the heat of Egypt this winter!  More snow here today, which is very trying.

Someone owes me a transcription and translation of some bits of Christian Arabic from Sbath’s Vingt traites.  I must try to remember who, and prompt them. 

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The lives of the Coptic Patriarch Isaac

Posted on by Roger Pearse

An interesting email arrived today.

I am writing to you hoping that The Life of Isaac, Patriarch of Alexandria (686-689 AD) would see the light in English translation through you.

Patriarch Isaac’s Life in the History of the Patriarchs of the Egyptian Church, which was complied by Severus of Ashmunin, is available in both Arabic and English translation, but it is a very short biography.

A longer Life is available in Coptic, and has been translated twice into French. To my knowledge it is not available in Arabic.

The two French translations, which are available on the net, and can be got at http://www.coptica.ch/5422/223222.html, are:

1. Amelineau, E., Histoire du Patriarche Copte Isaac. Paris, 1890.
2. E. Porcher, Vie D’Isaac. P.O. V. II. Paris, 1915.

I have always felt that the shorter Life of Isaac which is part of Severus of Ashmunin’s book is deliberately made short. His period was turbulent, and witnessed serious conflicts with the Muslim Ummayad ruler, Abdel Aziz ibn Marwan (685-705 AD). Copts were exposed to severe persecution during his rule, and it seems that there were contacts between Isaac and the Ethiopians and also the Nubians, which angered the Muslim ruler.

My current circumstances mean that I cannot take on any new projects, and I am trying to reduce my work load.  But I think the longer life of this period could not fail to be of considerable interest.  Google translate does a very reasonable job of French these days which would help anyone who took it on.

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The Latin introduction to the Coptic catena published by Paul de Lagarde

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The translator of the fragments of Eusebius found in the Coptic catena published by Paul de Lagarde — I’m never sure whether to write “de Lagarde” or “De Lagarde” — has asked for a translation into English of his preface, written in Latin.  I have hastily asked Andrew Eastbourne for a construe, and he has kindly said he will produce one in a few days.

The preface contains non-Latin material.  So here I am, OCRing it.  Chunks of it are in English, although containing misleading information.

According to de Lagarde, Joseph Lightfoot mentions the catena ms. in A plain introduction to the criticism of the New Testament by F. Scrivener, Cambridge, 1874, p. 335, and says:

The volume, *Parham 102, described in the printed Catalogue (no. 1, vellum, p. 27) as a MS of the Gospels of St Matthew and St Mark, is really a selection of passages taken in order from the four Gospels with a patristic catena attached to each. The leaves however are much displaced in the binding, and many are wanting. The title to the first Gospel is + [coptic], etc. ‘The interpretation of the Holy Gospel according to Matthew from numerous doctors and luminaries of the church.’ Among the fathers quoted I observed Athanasius, Basil, Chrysostom, Clement, the two Cyrils (of Jerusalem and of Alexandria). Didymus, Epiphanius, Eusebius, Evagrius, the three Gregories (Thaumaturgus, Nazianzen and Nyssen), Hippolytus, Irenaeus, Severianus of Gabala, Severus of Antioch (often styled simply the Patriarch), Symeon Stylites, Timotheus, and Titus.

In the account of this MS in the Catalogue it is stated that ‘the name of the scribe who wrote it is Sapita Leporos, a monk of the monastery, or monastic rule, of Laura under the sway of the great abbot Macarius,’ and the inference is thence drawn that it must have been written before 395, when Macarius died. This early date however is at once set aside by the fact that writers who lived in the sixth century are quoted. Prof. Wright (Journal of Sacred Literature vii. p. 218), observing the name of Severus in the facsimile, points out the error of date, and suggests as an explanation that the colophon (which he had not seen) does not speak of the great Macarius, but of ‘an abbot Macarius.’ The fact is, that though the great Macarius is certainly meant, there is nothing which implies that he was then living. The scribe describes himself as [coptic], I the unhappy one (talaipwroj) who wrote it’ (which has been wrongly read and interpreted as a proper name Sapita Leporos). He then gives his name [coptic] (Theodorus of Busiris?) and adds, [coptic], ‘the unworthy monk of the holy laura of the great abbot Macarius.’ He was merely an inmate of the monastery of St Macarius; see the expression quoted from the Vat. MS lxi in Tattam’s Lexicon p. 842. This magnificent MS would well repay careful inspection; but its value may not be very great for the Memphitic Version, as it is perhaps translated from the Greek …

And I think there is a note in the ms. which reads:

Mr Rt Curzon brought this volume from the Coptic Monastery of Souriani on the Natron Lakes, to the west of the villiage of Jerraneh, on the Nile; in the month of March. 1838. It consists of 254 leaves of vellum, which contain 2 indexes, and the Gospels of St Mathew, & St Mark, with the commentaries of St Cyrill, St Chrysostom, Eusebius, Gregory the Patriarch, Titus, &c.

The leaves are not in their proper places, the two Gospels being mixed together, they have been put together just as they came over, to prevent their being lost. The name of the scribe who wrote this MS, is Zapita Leporos, a monk of the monastery of sic Laura, under the rule of the Abbot Macarius. Macarius of Alexandria, Abbot of the Monks of Nitria, died according to the Art de verifier les Dates; either in the year 395, or 405. it would therefore apper sic that this manuscript must have been written before the end of the fourth century, in which case it is the most antient book in existance sic with a date, several of the Syriac MSS which were brought to England from the same monastery in which this was discovered, are supposed to be of equal antiquity, the earliest of those which have any date given in them, is a quarto of Eusebius, which was written in the year 411. it is now in the British Museum, it seems however that this manuscript is even more antient, as it was probably written about the year 390.

These little snippets of information, or misinformation, may make us smile but they do show scholarship emerging from ignorance, little by little.

Update 10 Feb 2024.  The translation was uploaded as part of the errata for the Gospel Problems and Solutions, so here.

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A fragment of the Didache in De Lagarde’s Coptic catena?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I was looking at the introduction to Catenae in evangelia aegyptiacae quae supersunt by Paul de Lagarde (1886; available at Lulu here).  This is a publication of a Coptic catena on the four gospels, which contains a fair number of fragments of Eusebius, and that is why I was reading it.  But then I noticed something more. 

In the list of authors quoted, there is [didache twn apostolwn], given as p.73, line 7.  A fragment of Chrysostom starts on line 10.  So it’s only a short chunk.  There’s no label against the passage (hence the brackets) which belongs to a chunk starting “Epiphanius” on line 1.

I don’t follow Didache scholarship, but I wonder whether this fragment has been noticed by scholars?

PS: I wonder how many people know of this bibliography of published Coptic texts, here: P. Cherix, Petite bibliographie des textes coptes litteraires edites?  I encountered it just now, looking for stuff on De Lagarde.  The site, http://www.coptica.ch/ seems to be very useful indeed.  Here are links to texts; studies; manuscripts; and a mass of bibliographies.  Wonderful!

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Eusebius update

Posted on by Roger Pearse

More news on Eusebius of Caesarea’s Gospel problems and solutions.  I’ve had an email from the lady who has been translating the coptic fragments of this work from Delagarde’s catena.  Apparently this is now close to completion.  She also tells me that Delagarde’s intro is interesting, and should be translated.  This I will put elsewhere, as she is tied up.

One issue I have not explored is transcribing the coptic.  I don’t know if it will be hard to do; I would think not.

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Samuel al-Suryani

Posted on by Roger Pearse

While I was looking at the medieval Coptic history attributed to Abu Salih and in reality by Abu’l Makarim, I came across the publication of this work, complete, in four volumes by an Egyptian monk, Samuel al-Suryani.  I haven’t ever managed to set eyes on a copy. 

Fr. Samuel went on to become a bishop, and is now deceased.  This was all I knew of him.

But an email brings me more details on his life. 

UPDATE: Apparently this information relates to a different bishop Samuel!  My apologies for the misinformation.  See attached comment.

It seems that he was killed during the assassination of President Sadat of Egypt in 1981.  A prominent figure, he was on the dais with the president at the time, and died from a grenade.

There is a detailed Evening News Obituary online, which outlines his life.  It seems that he nearly became Coptic patriarch.  There is also a book mention.

It’s worth remembering that Coptic Christianity and scholarship takes place against a background of constant violence.  I do wish, tho, that Coptic publications were more easily accessible!

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Fragments of Eusebius in a Coptic catena

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’ve mentioned before that the Coptic catena on the gospels in the Bohairic dialect published by Delagarde contains fragments attributed to Eusebius.

Six months ago I commissioned a translation of these into English.  The lady who agreed to do it refused payment, indicating that they would be done as part of a small group teaching exercise.  Unfortunately she did part of the first fragment and then went silent.

Some months later I commissioned someone else to have a go, who did fragments 2-6, although I wasn’t sure the results were as fit for publication as I would have liked. 

Then the other day, suddenly, I got an email from the other lady, attaching a file with the extension .doc but clearly not in any normal format, containing the second half of the fragments; done to quite  a high standard, but because of the formatting very difficult to disentangle.  Apparently the rest have been done as well, and will be sent to me (which was some weeks ago).

Last night I went through all the material, to see what was done and what not.  I’m still missing translations of a few of them.  I really need a reliable Copticist of professional standard to pull all this together — wonder where I could find one?

The notes from the lady tell me that the catena is lacunose; in translating they came across obvious unsignalled areas where the text is missing, perhaps pages missing.

Much of the material is very banal, consisting of a few words, then a sentence of scripture, another few words, another sentence, and so on.  It is easy to see that working through the catenas is 90% dross and 10% excitement.  It does urgently need doing, tho.

One phrase in the 6th fragment did catch my eye, and I will share it with you:

Our enemies are the devil and also his demons; they who hate our life and they seek our destruction every moment.

A useful reminder that our lives are not as banal as they seem, and small decisions may be twisted by our enemies for our destruction.

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Copts in literature from ancient times to the present

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Christianity came early to Egypt. The distance from Jerusalem is not great, and the substantial Jewish community in Alexandria must have provided fertile ground for early missionaries. But for the first couple of centuries there is relatively little literary material, even though the discoveries of papyri at Oxyrhynchus indicate the presence of Christians. Clement of Alexandria at the end of the second century witnesses to the substantial Christian community; Origen in the third century does likewise. In this way the Egyptian church comes into being, and has continued to exist to this day. Its roots in the native population led to Coptic being its language.

The historical sources for Christianity in Egypt are not as numerous as might be desired.  There is the mighty History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria, first compiled supposedly by the 10th century bishop Severus of al-Ashmunein, or Sawirus ibn Mukaffa` as he is in Arabic.  This runs from the time of St. Mark, down to the modern era, and the notices are often contemporary, and vivid.  The length account of the reign of Cyril III Ibn Laqlaq will illuminate any discussion of modern Palestine, as the writer grapples with regular Western — ‘Frankish’ — incursions into the region.  The vulnerability of the Christians to Moslem attack, even in time of peace under very tolerant Sultans, is visible throughout.

Unfortunately the history withered in the later Middle Ages, and notices from that period down to the 19th century are perfunctory.  The size of the book, even so, can be gauged by the fact that it fills four fascicles of the Patrologia Orientalis, and a further 8 similar sized fascicles in the Cairo continued translation.  All this material is now in Arabic, but some was originally in Coptic.  All of it is online in English here and here.

Beyond that there seem to be few sources.  The other source is the history of which part was published by B.T.A.Evetts as the Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and some neighbouring countries, ascribed to Abu Salih, and which is really by Abu al-Makarim  This portion is online here.  But the work is actually a history, which happens to include sections on churches and monasteries.  I have been writing about this important 13th century source, since I discovered the existence of the whole work in an Arabic edition by Bishop Samuel al-Suryani.  I hope to discover whether an English translation of the whole exists; it seems that the Bishop may have translated at least some of it.

These histories give us a window into the Egyptian church in ancient times, after the ending of our standard histories — Eusebius, Sozomen, Socrates and Evagrius Scholasticus.  The schisms of the 5th century and the collapse of Roman society mean that our knowledge of what happened there tends to be sketchy.  These sources can rectify this, if we let them.  They will tell us what it was like to live under Islam; and how doing so tended to corrupt senior clergymen.

Accounts of 20th century Coptic Christianity seem to be patchy.  A really good book, aimed at the western Christian, does not seem to exist.  Yet Christianity remains strong in Egypt even today, in a situation very like that of the times of Ibn Laqlaq.  The Sunday School movement of the early 20th century has led to a renewal among the Copts.  Coptic Orthodox monasticism is thriving, and monasteries are being reopened.  Interest in Coptic studies is increasing all the time.  Islamic violence — malevolent, yet somehow feeble — remains a problem, as it has done for centuries.  But a true picture of what God has been doing among the Copts has never reached me.  I wish there was one!

(This post has been written to give some context on my posts on Coptic and Egyptian Arabic Literature to the general visitor, who might otherwise find himself wondering just why anyone cares about some bloke named Abu al-Makarim!)

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A Coptic fragment of Eusebius

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Wanted: people who know Coptic and would like 10c a word to translate it!  There are quite a few fragments of Eusebius in the coptic catena of De Lagarde, and I’d like to get them all translated into English.  A friend has just completed the second one — which was 134 words long.  But there’s plenty more to do.

Interestingly the same catena has a fragment from Apollinaris, on Luke 1.  Clearly the fact that a writer was a heretic was not that important in the catenas.

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