DOI Artikel:
Crum, Walter E.: Prgress of Egyptology: coptic studies
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11173#0066
52
Progress of Egyptology.
C.—COPTIC STUDIES.
1. Biblical and Apocryphal. A few years ago the British Museum
acquired two MSS. of quite exceptional interest from a material, antiquarian
point of view. Both were written in hook form on papyrus, and were in
an astonishing state of preservation. One at any rate—Or. 5000, that
here under notice—is still in its ancient (if not original) leathern binding,
and is, to all appearance, as fresh as if it was the work of modern times.
This volume, which contains the Sa'idic Psalter, has now been printed by
Dr. Budge,1 the limits of the text on each page being made to tally with
those of the pages of the MS. itself. The text includes Psalm cli., not
elsewhere extant in this dialect, though well known in the Bohairic Psalter
(e.g. in Labib's recent edition). The editor offers no criticism of the text,
such work being left " to more competent hands." The text is, as he says
(p. xi.), the only complete example of this Psalter that has come down to
us, and is therefore of no small value; * but the title of the publication
might have been more moderate. The " earliest known " MS. is probably
that at Berlin, described in Aeg. ZeiUclxr. xxviii. 62. The age of that
now edited may be judged from the photographs in the publication. It
will be seen that the script closely resembles Oiasca, Sacr. Bibl. Frag, ii,
tab. xxv. Whether Dr. Budge is justified in proposing to assign such a
hand to the end of the sixth century (p. xii.) may appear questionable,
though it. must be owned that the script belongs just to that class which is
of all the most difficult to date. On p. xiii. the headings are printed of the
ten Homilies contained in the companion MS. (Or. 5001). They seem to
be partly identifiable, partly new. Prof. H. Achelis has jmnted transla-
tions of these titles with some speculations as to their possible identities.3
Dr. Budge promises to publish the texts themselves as soon as possible.
Mr. J. E. Oilmore, who in 1895 published some Sa'idic fragments of the
Old Testament, has now given a short account of some much longer texts
recently acquired by him.3 These contain parts of the Pauline Epistles,
several of which are here made known for the first time. Besides passages
from 1 and 2 Cor. and Gal., the fragments once contained the whole of
Ephes.—Philem., only part of 2 Tim. being missing. It is most unfortunate
that the leaves are so much mutilated, for, to judge from the few words
in which the script is described, the MS. should be of considerable
antiquity.
M. Cledat has printed the Sa'idic Kevelation iii. 4—vi. 5 from a
* In Hyvernat's list of hitherto known MSS. some thirty-four Psalms are still
totally wanting.
Progress of Egyptology.
C.—COPTIC STUDIES.
1. Biblical and Apocryphal. A few years ago the British Museum
acquired two MSS. of quite exceptional interest from a material, antiquarian
point of view. Both were written in hook form on papyrus, and were in
an astonishing state of preservation. One at any rate—Or. 5000, that
here under notice—is still in its ancient (if not original) leathern binding,
and is, to all appearance, as fresh as if it was the work of modern times.
This volume, which contains the Sa'idic Psalter, has now been printed by
Dr. Budge,1 the limits of the text on each page being made to tally with
those of the pages of the MS. itself. The text includes Psalm cli., not
elsewhere extant in this dialect, though well known in the Bohairic Psalter
(e.g. in Labib's recent edition). The editor offers no criticism of the text,
such work being left " to more competent hands." The text is, as he says
(p. xi.), the only complete example of this Psalter that has come down to
us, and is therefore of no small value; * but the title of the publication
might have been more moderate. The " earliest known " MS. is probably
that at Berlin, described in Aeg. ZeiUclxr. xxviii. 62. The age of that
now edited may be judged from the photographs in the publication. It
will be seen that the script closely resembles Oiasca, Sacr. Bibl. Frag, ii,
tab. xxv. Whether Dr. Budge is justified in proposing to assign such a
hand to the end of the sixth century (p. xii.) may appear questionable,
though it. must be owned that the script belongs just to that class which is
of all the most difficult to date. On p. xiii. the headings are printed of the
ten Homilies contained in the companion MS. (Or. 5001). They seem to
be partly identifiable, partly new. Prof. H. Achelis has jmnted transla-
tions of these titles with some speculations as to their possible identities.3
Dr. Budge promises to publish the texts themselves as soon as possible.
Mr. J. E. Oilmore, who in 1895 published some Sa'idic fragments of the
Old Testament, has now given a short account of some much longer texts
recently acquired by him.3 These contain parts of the Pauline Epistles,
several of which are here made known for the first time. Besides passages
from 1 and 2 Cor. and Gal., the fragments once contained the whole of
Ephes.—Philem., only part of 2 Tim. being missing. It is most unfortunate
that the leaves are so much mutilated, for, to judge from the few words
in which the script is described, the MS. should be of considerable
antiquity.
M. Cledat has printed the Sa'idic Kevelation iii. 4—vi. 5 from a
* In Hyvernat's list of hitherto known MSS. some thirty-four Psalms are still
totally wanting.