St. Paul's Epistles

This material is held atBritish Library Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections

  • Reference
    • GB 59 Or 1318
  • Dates of Creation
    • 1416
  • Language of Material
    • Arabic Coptic
  • Physical Description
    • Codex 294 fols. Material: Oriental paper. Dimensions: 260 x 175 mm [200 x 140 mm written]. Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil; Coptic numerals. On foliation, see also Crum, Catalogue, 329n3. Lines per page: 19-21 lines/page. Script: Naskh. Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings and stops in red. Decoration: Rubricated headings in a ribbon-pattern in yellow, red, black (cf. bāb) introduce a book (see more Horner, vol. 3, xxxiv). Binding: British Museum binding. Condition: Generally good, incomplete in the beginning and end; first folios have restored margins. Marginalia: Some notes, including corrections in Arabic. Quire marks: Quinions; an ending and beginning quire spread are marked with decorative stamps in the middle of the upper margins. Catch words: In the Coptic text in the lower margin at the right side of a verso.

Scope and Content

This volume contains a bilingual Coptic-Arabic translation of the Pauline Epistles (ArabCopt2), arranged in two columns.Contents :. Romans (beginning missing, starts at 5:15), fols. 1r-42r. 1 Corinthians, fols. 42v-100r. 2 Corinthians, fols. 100v-139r. Galatians, fols. 139v-158r. Ephesians, fols. 158v-178v. Philippians, fols. 179r-192v. Colossians, fols. 193r-206r. 1 Thessalonians, fols. 206v-218v. 2 Thessalonians, fols. 219r-225v. 1 Timothy, fols. 226r-241r. 2 Timothy, fols. 241v-252r. Titus, fols. 252v-258v. Philemon, fols. 259r-261v. Hebrews, fols. 262r-294v (incomplete). For extract and more details, see Rieu, Supplement, 10-11. The colophon is found on fol. 261v, where it is stated that the copy was completed on the 29 Kiyahk 1132 Anno Martyrum (4 January 1416 CE).

Access Information

Not Public Record(s)

Unrestricted

Acquisition Information

Purchased by the British Museum from Sir Charles A. Murray on 12 June 1875.

Other Finding Aids

Crum, Walter Erwing. Catalogue of the Coptic Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1905), item 759, pp. 329-330. Rieu, Charles. Supplement to the Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: The British Museum, 1894), Item 12, pp. 10-11.

Related Material

For more information, please see:Horner, George. The Coptic Version of the New Testament in the Northern Dialect Otherwise Called Memphitic and Bohairic with Introd., Critical Apparatus, and Literal English Transl.: The Epistles of S. Paul Edited from Ms. Oriental 424 in the British Museum. Vol. 3. (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1905), pp. xxxiii- xxxiv. Zaki, Vevian. The Pauline Epistles in Arabic: Manuscripts, Versions, and Transmissions (Leiden: Brill, 2021).