St Paul's Epistles and Acts

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

  • Reference
    • GB 59 Or 424
  • Dates of Creation
    • 1307
  • Language of Material
    • Arabic Coptic
  • Physical Description
    • 1 item 217 ff Material: Oriental paper. Dimensions: 260 x 190 mm leaf [ 210 x 140 mm written; 40 mm]. Foliation: British Museum foliation in pencil; Coptic numerals. Lines per page: 32 lines/page. Script: Naskh. Scribe: Yūnis Abū Saʿīd ibn Saiyyd al-Dār Abū al-Faḍl. Ink: Black ink, with rubricated headings in red. Decoration: Sporadically small birds in yellow, red, and green colour in the margins. A new epistle is normally preceded by a yellow-coloured square and the first letter in the Coptic text is large and coloured in red, yellow, and black. On f 132v, the entire page is coloured in yellow (cf. Or 425 which has the same layout). These coloured areas were likely intended to include illustrations, as in Or 425. Binding: British Museum binding. Condition: Good though some restoration, apparently to stop acid burning. Marginalia: A few notes. Quire marks: Quinions; an ending and beginning quire spread is marked with geometrical figures in red, yellow, and green in the middle of the upper margins on each page.

Scope and Content

This volume contains Pauline Epistles (ArabCopt2), the Catholic Epistles, and Acts. The text is bilingual Coptic-Arabic, with each language provided in a separate column.Contents :. Romans, fols. 3r-26r. 1 Corinthians, fols. 26r-49v. 2 Corinthians, fols. 49v-64r. Galatians, fols. 64v-72r. Ephesians, fols. 72r-79v. Philippians, fols. 80r-85r. Colossians, fols. 85v-90v. (fol. 91 blank). 1 Thessalonians, fols. 92r-96v. 2 Thessalonians, fols. 97r-99v. Hebrews, fols. 99v-117r. 1 Timothy, fols. 117r-122v. 2 Timothy, fols. 123r-127r. Titus, fols. 127r-129v. Philemon, fols. 129v-130v. (fols. 131-132r blank). Illustration, fol. 132v. James, fols. 133r-139r. 1 Peter, fols. 139r-145v. 2 Peter, fols. 145v-149v. 1 John, fols. 149v-155v. 2 John, fols. 155v-156r. 3 John, fols. 156v-157r. Jude, fols. 157r-158v. (blank unfoliated page). Acts, fols. 159r-217v. The volume contains two colophons found on ff 130v and 217v. On f 130v, the scribe, Yūnis, Abū Saʿīd ibn Saiyyd al-Dār Abū al-Faḍl, mentions that the manuscript was copied from a manuscript copied by John, bishop of Samanūd known as al-Samanūdī and that it was in the hand of Patriarch Gabriel, when he was still only a priest and that he invested much work in correcting the Greek and the Arabic. It was provided for by Abū Shākir b. al-Sannī al-rāhib b. al-Muhaddib, called ibn al-Risāh. It was completed on 10 Kiyāhk 966 Anno Martyrum (13 December 1249 CE), corresponding to Ramadan 647 AH. He states that the present copy was completed on Saturday 9 Bāba 1024 Anno Martyrum (15 Oct 1307 CE), corresponding to 7 Second Rabīʿa 707 AH (13 October 1307 CE). In connection to the Catholic epistles and Acts on f 217v, the scribe mentions that the manuscript was made from a copy by Jurjah b. Saksīk, 'the famous scribe' and in the hand of Gabriel, who took great care in correcting it, and that it was provided for by Abū Shakīr. That copy was completed in 10 Kiyāhk 966 Anno Martyrum (13 December 1249 CE), corresponding to Ramadan 647 AH. The present part was made by that copy and finished on Thursday 28 Bāba 1024 Anno Martyrum (3 November 1307 CE), which equals 26 Second Rabīʿa 707 AH (1 November 1307 CE) by Abū Saʿīd ibn Saiyyd al-Dār Abū al-Faḍl.

Access Information

Not Public Record(s)

Unrestricted

Acquisition Information

Bought by the British Museum from Dean. H. Tattam's sale on 16 June 1868.

Other Finding Aids

Crum, Walter Erwing, Catalogue of the Coptic Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1905), vol. 2, item 758, p. 329.

Related Material

For more information, 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). Zaki, Vevian. The Pauline Epistles in Arabic: Manuscripts, Versions, and Transmissions (Leiden: Brill, 2021).