If one disregards what little poetry and what few medical and mathematical texts and church canonical texts survive, then, apart from the afore-mentioned Manichaean and Gnostic texts, the vast majority of surviving Coptic texts belong in church on Sunday. Three things matter most in church: the Book, the Lesson, and the Rite. The Book and the Lesson together form the principal contents of the service, and the rite or liturgy serves as a kind of glue. Accordingly, the bulk of Coptic literature consists of three main types.
First, the Book and what is closely associated with it. At the very center of Coptic literature as a Christian literature stands the Bible, which consists of the Old Testament and the New Testament. Manuscripts containing parts of the Bible constitute by far the most common type of Coptic manuscript. The Old Testament is basically the Hebrew Bible of the Jews in its interpretation by Christians as a preamble to their New Testament. The Coptic Old Testament is a translation, not of the Hebrew Bible, but of the Septuagint or Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. Additional authoritative works became part of the Greek and, therefore, also the Coptic Septuagint. Certain Christian denominations allow them into the Old Testament while others consider them apocryphal. Many other works can be closely associated with the Bible. Their main purpose is to feed a need for more information about the Biblical characters. Among them are the Life of Adam and Eve, the Testament of Isaac, Gospels about the childhood of Jesus and about each of the apostles, and the Acts of Paul.
The Book is basic but also limited and unchanging. Second, therefore, is the Lesson. The need is for additional edification of churchgoers. The sermon serves this purpose. Many sermons and sermon-like texts have been preserved. There are two main types. The first main type concerns interpretation of the Bible, making it more relevant to the lives of believers. Some of the sermons of this type are veritable patchworks of Bible quotes. Many are centered around a certain character or a certain event in the Bible. The second main type focuses on holding up an exemplary Christian as a model that provides inspiration or is worthy of emulation. Many of these are narrative, but the principal aim of some is to sing a song of praise. These Christians are, as a rule, called saints. A special class of saints consists of martyr saints, those who died violently for their faith in the early days of Christianity when it was persecuted, mainly by the Roman authorities. Among the martyrs are a number of soldier martyrs: soldiers in the Roman army who converted to Christianity, swore off the pagan gods, and were martyred for their faith. Some of these works may also have been read by monks in the monastery library. On the other hand, we should remember that literacy was probably rather low.
The Book and the Lesson could not by themselves make up an entire service. Third is the Rite, consisting of liturgical texts. The need was for connective material in the forms of prayers and similar texts, not only for the masses but also for the daily worship routines of the monks. Much has survived in Bohairic with parallel Arabic version, mainly because the texts in question have been in continuous use down to the present day, beginning in the time when Bohairic became the language of the entire Coptic church in the early second millennium, but only very few liturgical texts in dialects other than Bohairic have been preserved (Quecke 1970). Fairly little is, therefore, known about Coptic liturgy of the first millennium.
FURTHER READING
In addition to the works of wider scope mentioned in the references to this chapter much that is useful regarding all facets of Coptic literature specifically and Coptic culture in general will be found in the eight volumes of The Coptic Encyclopedia (1991). Bibliographies are the evident starting-point to gain access to what all has happened and is happening in a field of learning. Earlier bibliography is compiled in A Coptic Bibliography (Ann Arbor, 1950) by W. Kammerer, E. M. Husselman, and L. A. Shier. There is also a very full bibliography in the fourth edition of A. Mallon’s Grammaire copte (Imprimerie catholique, Beirut, 1956), pp. 254-401. More recent literature appears in J. Simon’s Bibliographie copte in the volumes for the years 1948-1967 in the journal Orientalia (Rome). Part of the Annual Egyptological Bibliography (Leiden, since 1947) is also devoted to Coptic Egypt. Some of the most recent bibliography as well as a list of publications currently in preparation can be found on the website of the International Association of Coptic Studies (Http://rmcisadu. let. uniroma1.it/ cgi-bin/iacs). The Association’s journal is the Journal of Coptic Studies, and members also receive a newsletter. Since 1976 the Association has held an International Congress of Coptic Studies at four-year intervals in Cairo (1976), Rome (1980), Warsaw (1984), Louvain-la-Neuve (1988), Washington, D. C. (1992), Munster (1996), Leiden (2000), Paris (2004), and again Cairo (2008). At most of these conferences, plenary papers are read that summarize the state of the field in regard to several topics including literature, monasticism, and Manichaeism. These papers have been published in the Acts of each conference, beginning with The Future of Coptic Studies (Leiden, 1978), edited by R. McL. Wilson.
World History
