Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (14.2002(2003))

NAQLUN

EGYPT

now lost, whereas the lower half contains
a damaged prayer for a deacon Shenoute.
Judging from the surviving textual
formulae, one is tempted to consider him as
the copyist. If that is the case, then the
loose layout and writing, the mediocre
spelling and the illogically placed colons of
this colophon are quite remarkable. The
lower margin of this leaf is occupied by
a four line inscription in very carelessly
written and blotchy Arabic. This may be an
owner's entry or a reader's note. The latter
text, which is clearly secondary, may
indicate that the codex was not buried with
its first owner; on the other hand, the lack
of marginal notes and secondary corrections
in the text itself suggests that it cannot
have circulated for a very long period after
its production.
Undoubtedly the most important
feature of the codex is that it contains an
overall complete copy of the Gospel of Saint
John in Sahidic Coptic. Because of their
supposed early date, the Coptic translations
of the New Testament occupy a privileged
position in the field of NT textual
criticism. This holds in particular for the
Sahidic translation or translations of John.6)
However, although fragments of Sahidic
NT texts abound, completely transmitted

units are rare, owing mainly to the decline
and disappearance of Sahidic after about
1000. Actually, the Gospel of John is
relatively well represented, but even then
only four complete Sahidic manuscripts
were available until now, ranging in date
from the 5th to the 9th century.7) The
Naqlun find adds a fifth one that, though
late, is of considerable interest.
Although Sahidic was at the time of
copying not the written vernacular of the
Naqlun region (this was rather a kind of Sf,
characterised by a strong fayumizing accent
in the vowel system), the present copyist
writes a very correct Sahidic which seems to
lack the local tainting sometimes dis-
cernible in the older Sahidic John from
nearby Hamouli (Quecke's M, from the 9th
or early 10th century).8) This does not neces-
sarily imply, however, that the Naqlun
John was written outside the Fayoum.
The text itself clearly adheres to the
Sahidic standard text of John (Kasser's
“classic” Sahidic version), sharing a number
of well known peculiar readings with other
Sahidic manuscripts9-* and lacking, of
course, the pericope of the adulterous
woman (7:53-8:11).10) On account of
geographical and chronological proximity,
one could perhaps expect the Naqlun John

6) See the monographs: R. Kasser, L'Evangile selon Saint Jean et les version coptes de la Bible. Bibliotheque theologique
(Neuchatel 1966) and R.L. Moretz, The Textual Affinity of the Earliest Coptic Manuscripts of the Gospel of John. PhD
thesis (Duke University 1968). I did not see Manal Yousri Gabr, Philological Studies in the Coptic Versions of the Gospel
of John, PhD thesis (University of Liverpool 1990).
7) See H. Quecke, Das Johannesevangelium sai'disch. Papyrologica Castroctaviana, Studia et Textus 11 (Rome-Barcelona
1984), who gives the text of the oldest of them (P) and the variant readings of the other three (A, B, M; respectively nos.
sa 1, 4, 5 and 9 in F.-J. Schmitz, G. Minke, Liste der koptischen Handschriften des Neuen Testaments. I: Die sahidischen
Handschriften der Evangelien. Arbeiten zur neutestamentlichen Textforschung, Bd. 8, 13 and 15 (Berlin 1986-1991).
A fifth one, also from Hamouli (Schmitz, Minke, op. cit., sa 10; Schiissler, op. cit., sa 507), can only be called complete in
a restricted sense and is, owing to extensive damage, practically worthless for text-critical purposes. Note that Horner's well
known edition (G.W. Horner, The Coptic Version of the New Testament in the Southern Dialect, vol. Ill: The Gospel of
St. John (Oxford 1911)) offers a textus mixtus based on fragments only.
8) A codex of the four gospels, Schmitz, Minke, op. cit., sa 9; see now Depuydt, op. cit., no. 13- For the sigla used here
(after Quecke), see the preceding note.
9) For which see Quecke, op. cit., 57-58.
10) Cf. Kasser, op. cit., 60-61.

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