A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, Vol. II.Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose
Religion
A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, Vol. II.
Scrivener, Frederick Henry Ambrose
Bible. New Testament -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
But the discoveries do not stop here. As early as 1876 M. E. Revillont had
published (Papyrus Coptes, 1876, p. 103) a collection of documents in the
Louvre which came from the Monastery of Abba Jeremias, close to the
Serapeum, near the site of the ancient Memphis. These were examined by
Stern (Z. A. S. 23, 1885, p. 145 sq.), who shows that here we have again a
different dialectic form. It has affinities to the Sahidic, affinities to
the Bohairic, and affinities to the Fayoum dialect. It represents in fact
the language of ancient Memphis, and an attempt has been made to call it
Memphitic, but this would create endless confusion. Stern suggests Lower
Sahidic (Unter Sahidisch), but the name Middle Egyptian is the one which
has been generally adopted. It is this discovery that shows the necessity
of avoiding the term Memphitic for the principal Egyptian version, and
substituting the Arabic name ’Bohairic.’ That was the language of the
province on the sea-coast in the neighbourhood of Alexandria. And it was
not until the eleventh century, and the removal of the Patriarchate to
Cairo, that it became the language of the district of Memphis, that is,
long after the decline of Memphis had begun.
But our knowledge of the dialects of Egypt was still further to be
extended. About ten years ago excavations were undertaken by the Egyptian
Department of Antiquities in the Coptic Cemetery of Akhmîm, the ancient
Chemnis or Panopolis in Upper Egypt. Amongst the results of this discovery
were the Apocryphal fragments, which have created a considerable sensation
lately. These seem to have been considered by their discoverers to possess
so little interest, that they were only accidentally given to the world
seven years afterwards. The Coptic fragments were more fortunate, and in
1884 M. Bouriant, head of the French School at Cairo, published
considerable fragments of the Old Testament, including a hitherto unknown
Apocryphal work, the Testament of Sophonias (Zephaniah), in a fifth
dialect, to which, for some reason, he at the time gave the name of
Bashmuric (Mémoires, i. 1884, p. 243). This dialect was examined by Stern
(Z. A. S. 24, 1886, p. 129), who showed that, while its affinities were
with the Middle Egyptian or Lower Sahidic, it represented a more primitive
stage in the language, and that these documents are our oldest literary
remains of the Coptic language.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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