Coptic literature is the body of writings in the Coptic language of Egypt, the last stage of the indigenous Egyptian language. It is written in the Coptic alphabet. The study of the Coptic language and literature is called Coptology.
Definition
Since the term "Coptic" can have, besides a linguistic sense, an ethnic sense (referring to Copts) and a religious sense (Coptic Christianity), there is the propensity for ambiguity in the term "Coptic literature". Coptic literature is usually defined as that in the Coptic language. It is not usually limited to original compositions, but includes also translations into Coptic (mainly from Greek). It also includes texts believed to have been composed in Coptic, but which are preserved only in translation (mainly in Arabic and Ethiopic).
In a broader sense, "Coptic" may include Greek literature produced in Egypt that circulated in the Coptic community. The literature that the Copts wrote in Arabic is generally treated separately as Copto-Arabic literature. "Literature", too, may be taken in a strict sense that excludes documentary and subliterary texts, such as magical and medical texts. includes such texts, but excludes them.
Dialects The standard literary dialect of Coptic was Sahidic and the majority of surviving texts are in that dialect. There are up to six other recognized dialects of Coptic—Bohairic, Fayyumic, Lycopolitan, Akhmimic, Subakhmimic and Oxyrhynchite—and further idiolects. The identification of a text's dialect can narrow down its place of origin. All of the dialects are represented in the literature to some degree, especially Bohairic in the late period.
Manuscripts
Coptic was written on parchment, papyrus and ultimately paper. Early texts were written on scrolls, but with the rise of Christianity the codex came to dominate. Almost all surviving manuscripts are incomplete (fragmentary) codices. Scrolls continued to be used into the Christian period for magical texts. There are also some short works, such as school texts, found on ostraca and boards.
Most manuscripts have been recovered from abandoned monasteries, the most important being the White Monastery. The Morgan Collection comprises 58 volumes discovered in 1910 in the library of the Monastery of Saint Michael in the Fayyum. The local library collection consists of some 5000 volumes, a few fragments of which have been acquired by the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Origins Old Coptic
Efforts to write Coptic in the Greek alphabet probably began in the 1st century BC. The earliest text known is from the 1st century AD. This first phase of written Coptic is called Old Coptic and lasts into the 4th or 5th century. The earliest stage of experimentation with the Egyptian language in the Greek alphabet is often called Pre-Old Coptic or Graeco-Egyptian. Other authors distinguish between early and late Old Coptic.
Old Coptic consists of pagan writings of a magical or divinatory nature. These texts lack the consistent script style and borrowed Greek vocabulary of later Coptic literature, which is entirely Christian or para-Christian (i.e., Gnostic and Manichaean). Some use exclusively Greek letters, with none of the borrowed Demotic letters of standard Coptic, while others use more Demotic letters than became standard. The production of pagan magical texts written in Egyptian in Greek letters continued into the period of Coptic literature proper.
Rise of literary Coptic One traditional theory links the origin of literary Coptic to the Gnostic community in Alexandria. No surviving Coptic manuscript, however, can be linked to Alexandria. Another links it to Christian monasteries and the need to translate Greek teaching into the vernacular. The high proportion of borrowed Greek vocabulary in early Coptic texts, however, makes their practical utility as translations questionable. More recently, it has been suggested that the revival of Egyptian as a literary language (in the form of Coptic) was part of an "effort to revive a national Egyptian culture." Paola Buzi refers to it as an "identity operation", an assertion of distinctness. Conversely, since the rise of the Coptic writing system paralleled the rise of Christianity, it may have been stimulated by desire to distance itself from the pagan associations of traditional Egyptian writing.
Literary Coptic first appears in the 3rd century. The earliest literary texts are translations of Greek texts, either Christian or Gnostic. The five literary texts dated to the 3rd century are all biblical, either marginal annotations to Greek bibles or bilingual Greek–Coptic biblical texts. There is a single documentary text, a private letter on an ostracon, dated to this century.
Appearance of original compositions There are several possible candidates for earliest Coptic author. According to the Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, the 3rd-century writer Hierakas wrote works of biblical exegesis and psalmody in Greek and Coptic. The only surviving work attributed to him is of dubious authenticity.
The first author in literary Coptic whose works survives may be Anthony the Great (died 356). Seven of his authentic letters are known, some in Coptic fragments. They were also translated into Latin from Greek. No Greek version survives and it is not known if some or all of them were originally composed in Greek or Coptic. These letters demonstrate Anthony's familiarity with the controversies engulfing the contemporary church, including that over Arianism. They would provide a link, otherwise unattested, between the origins of Coptic literature and Alexandrian theology.
The earliest certain original author with surviving works is Pachomius the Great (died 346). He wrote rules for a community of monks that was translated into Latin by Jerome. Only a few fragments survive of the original Coptic version of the rule, but several of Pachomius' letters in Coptic are preserved. These "represent the oldest original Coptic texts with true literary characteristics."
Translations
Biblical translations
The Bible was translated into Coptic from the Greek Septuagint and New Testament. It may have been the earliest literary text put into Coptic. The history of its translation can be divided into three phases. Between the 2nd and 4th centuries, many individuals were working on translations in many dialects. In the 4th and 5th centuries, the Sahidic translation was standardized. Finally, by the 9th century, the Bohairic translation was standardized. By the early 4th century, the Bible in Coptic—or at least the Psalms and New Testament—was in official use in the churches.
The circumstances of the earliest translation work are obscure. The relatively early standardization of the Sahidic text, which remains largely unchanged throughout Coptic history, attests to the high standards of the original translation work.
Gnostic and Manichaean texts
Coptic translations of Gnostic and Manichaean texts date from the same period as the early biblical translations and demonstrate a diversity of thought and community at the earliest stage of Coptic literary production. The most important collection of Gnostic or "gnosticizing" texts is the Nag Hammadi library. There are also the Askew Codex, Berlin Codex and Bruce Codex. The quality of Gnostic texts is generally lower than that of orthodox Christian ones. Their orthography is less consistent and they contain more grammatical errors. On the whole, they are less professional productions. Shenoute's Against the Origenists shows, however, that such texts were widely read in orthodox communities.
Manichaeism was introduced to Egypt around 350. Within a few decades they began translating their texts into Coptic, some from the Aramaic originals and sometimes from Greek intermediaries. This makes the Manichaean translations slightly later than the Gnostic and biblical texts. The Manichaean manuscripts all date from the 4th and 5th centuries and all were found at Medinet Madi, although they were most likely produced at Lycopolis, since they were written in the Lycopolitan dialect. They include the Manichaean Psalter and the Kephalaia among others.
Prognostic texts
A variety of prognostic texts are known in Coptic. These include (which give prognostications for each day of the lunar month) and kalandologia (which give predictions for the year based on the day of the week on which it begins or the direction of the wind during the first week). The first day of the year is regarded as the sixth day of the month of Ṭūba, which corresponded to the first (kalends) of January, the official start of the year in the Roman Empire. These texts are derived or translated from Greek originals. They are also influenced by concept of (lucky and unlucky days) in the ancient Egyptian calendar. Predictions relating to the flow of the Nile are a distinctly Egyptian feature.
Fragments of hemerologia and kalandologia in Sahidic are found on papyrus, parchment and paper from the 6th–12th centuries. Predictions based on the day of the week and the direction of the wind are often found in the same manuscript. There are also Bohairic papyrus fragments from the 6th–8th centuries.
Biblical apocrypha Coptic translations are an important source of both Old Testament apocrypha and New Testament apocrypha. In some cases, the Coptic is the main or only witness to a text, as in the Gospel of Judas. There were two main phases in the production of Coptic apocrypha. In the first, in the 4th century, the works translated were mainly associated with founding figures like Peter and Paul. In a second phase, in the 5th century, a new genre of "apostolic memoir" appears. The Gospel of the Saviour is an example of an apocryphal text composed in Coptic after the Council of Chalcedon (451).
Examples of Old Testament apocrypha in Coptic include Wisdom of Solomon, Testament of Abraham, Testament of Isaac, Testament of Jacob, Ascension of Isaiah, Apocalypse of Moses, Apocalypse of Elijah and Apocalypse of Zephaniah. New Testament apocrypha include Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Nicodemus, Gospel of Bartholomew, Gospel of Mary, Epistula Apostolorum, Protevangelium of James, Letter of Abgar to Jesus, Acts of Paul, Acts of Peter, Acts of John, Acts of Andrew, Acts of Pilate and Apocalypse of Paul. The selection of New Testament apocrypha suggests direct contacts with Asia unmediated by Alexandria. The Apocalypse of Elijah and Ascension of Isaiah, however, are native Egyptian works.
Patristics
The earliest translation of the Church Fathers into Coptic also date from the period of the first biblical translations, the 2nd and 3rd centuries. One of the earliest manuscripts of such works is the Crosby-Schøyen Codex. Most, however, date to a slightly later phase, the 4th through 6th centuries. The translations were notably selective, with a stronger preference for the "edifying and pastoral" over the "theological and exegetical".. Quotations from . The earliest identifiable are the homilies De pascha and De anima et corpore by Melito of Sardis and the Pseudo-Basilian De templo Salomonis.
From the later period, the Cappadocian Fathers are well represented (Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus), as are Athanasius of Alexandria, Cyril of Alexandria, Ephrem the Syrian, Epiphanius of Salamis and John Chrysostom. Also translated are the Apostolic Fathers and Hippolytus of Rome. There is a Coptic version of the Sayings of the Desert Fathers. Notably absent are works by two of the most outstanding early Egyptian Christian writers, Clement of Alexandria and Origen, although the Berlin Coptic Book of anonymous treatises shows traces of Clementine thought. Works were generally treated individually and rarely was a whole body of work translated, although there are corpora of homilies by Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa and Severus of Antioch.