Epistles and Acts

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

  • Reference
    • GB 59 Or 8779
  • Dates of Creation
    • 1794
  • Language of Material
    • Arabic Coptic
  • Physical Description
    • Codex 271 ff Material: European paper. Dimensions: 220 x 165 mm [150 x 110-110 mm written; Arabic 30 mm]. Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil; Coptic numerals. Lines per page: 23-27 lines/page. Script: Naskh (small). Scribe: Yūḥannā ibn Mīkhāʾīl (cf. Zaki, The Pauline Epistles). Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings in red. Decoration: On fols. 3v and fol. 164v there are drawings of biblical figures, seemingly unfinished (uncoloured). Sporadic illustrations of birds, snakes, and other figures appear in the margins (cf. fol. 197v). An epistle is usually introduced by a headpiece in a geometrical pattern and ribbons, sometimes in the shape of a bāb, in yellow, red, and blue colours. On the last folio, there is a frame in geometrical patterns in green, blue, yellow, red, and white with nothing it in. Binding: British Museum binding. Condition: Generally good, though many folios have suffered from acid burning. Marginalia: (Coptic numerals). Quire marks: On the spread where a quire ends and a new one begins, there are two signatures in Coptic numerals in the upper margin on each page.

Scope and Content

This volume contains a bilingual Coptic-Arabic version of the Pauline Epistles (ArabCopt 2), Catholic Epistles, and Acts. Contents :. Romans, fols. 4r-40v. 1 Corinthians, fols. 41r-67r. 2 Corinthians, fols. 67v-83v. Galatians, fols. 84r-92r. Ephesians, fols. 92v-101r. Phillipians, fols. 101v-107v. Colossians, fols. 108r-114r. 1 Thessalonians, fols. 114v-120r. 2 Thessalonians, fols. 120v-123v. 1 Timothy, fols. 124r-131r. 2 Timothy, fols. 131v-136v. Titus, fols. 137r-140r. Philemon, fols. 140v-141v. Hebrews, fols. 142r-163r. Colophon, fol. 163r. (fols. 163v-164r blank). Illumination, fol. 164v. James, fols. 165r-172v. 1 Peter, fols. 173r-180v. 2 Peter, fols. 181r-186r. 1 John, fols. 186v-193v. 2 John, fols. 194r-v. 3 John, fols. 195r-196r. Jude, fols. 196v-198v. (blank unfoliated folio). Acts, fols. 199r-269v. Colophon, fol. 270r. (fol. 270v blank). Frame, fol. 271r. In the colophon on fol. 163r we read that the copy was completed on Amshīr 1510 Anno Martyrum (March 1794 CE) which equals Shaʿbān 1208 AH (March 1794 CE) from a copy by Gabriel the Monk, which was written 966 Anno Martyrum (1249 CE), which equals 647 AH (1249 CE). Dates are provided in both Coptic Epact numerals and in Arabic letters in all these instances. Fol. 270r repeats the information regarding Gabriel and gives the date 2 Barmūda 1510 (8 April 1794 CE), which equals Ramaḍān 1208 AH (April 1794 CE), as the date of completion for the second part. See transcribed in Horner, The Coptic Version, vol. 3, pp. xvi-xvii. For extracts and more details, see Horner, The Coptic Version, vol. 3, pp. xiii-xvii.

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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. xiii-xvii. Zaki, Vevian. The Pauline Epistles in Arabic: Manuscripts, Versions, and Transmissions (Leiden: Brill, 2021).