I recently came across a remarkable film I might not have believed existed: one shot in a Coptic church, featuring Coptic priests in supporting roles. The film, Egypt by Three, was produced and directed by Victor Stoloff and released in 1953. Its posters proudly proclaim it as “the first American picture filmed entirely in Egypt.”…
Read in Coptic: The Tower of Babel
The biblical story of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) attempt to explain the origin of the world’s many languages. According to the narrative, after the Flood, united by a common language, humanity migrated from the east and settled in the plain of Shinar (southern Mesopotamia). There, they began building a city and a towering…
Digitised bibliography of Crum’s “List of Abbreviations”
Walter E. Crum’s A Coptic Dictionary (1939) remains the standard reference dictionary for Coptic. To compile it, Crum drew on the latest published editions of Coptic texts available in his day and consulted many unpublished collections held by institutions and in private hands. Crum used a series of abbreviations to indicate the sources for his…
How to talk about age in Coptic
Do you know how to ask “How old are you?” and respond with “I am X years old” in natural, idiomatic Coptic? In this post, we’ll find out with the help of examples from literature. We’ll also talk about the grammar behind these expressions. If you’d prefer to get straight to the answer, go to…
Read in Coptic: John Chrysostom on Calming the Storm
Recently, we read Calming the Storm from Matthew 8:23-27. This time, we will read a version of John Chrysostom’s commentary on this episode in Coptic, adapted from his Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew (Homily XXVIII), which he delivered in Antioch at the end of the fourth century. 1 The oldest surviving Bohairic manuscript (dated…
Read in Coptic: Calming the Storm
Calming the Storm is a well-known story recorded in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In Coptic, it is called ⲡⲓϫⲓⲛⲉⲣⲉ̀ⲡⲓⲧⲓⲙⲁⲛ ⲛ̀ⲛⲓⲑⲏⲟⲩ ⲛⲉⲙⲫⲓⲟⲙ “The Rebuking of the Winds and the Sea”. The story recounts Jesus’s miraculous authority over nature while on a boat with his disciples on the Sea of Galilee. The following is…
Read in Coptic: Elymas struck blind
Acts 13:4–12 (ⲡⲣⲁⲝⲓⲥ ⲓ︦ⲅ︦:ⲇ︦-ⲓ︦ⲃ︦) tells the story of the Holy Spirit calling Barnabas and Saul (also known as Paul) from Antioch to embark on a mission to Cyprus. There, they encounter a magician named Bar-Jesus—also called Elymas—who opposes their work. Let’s read the story in Coptic… (4) ⲛ̀ⲑⲱⲟⲩ-ⲙⲉⲛ–ⲟⲩⲛ ⲉ̀ⲧⲁⲩⲟⲩⲟⲣⲡⲟⲩ ⲉ̀ⲃⲟⲗ ϩⲓⲧⲉⲛ-ⲡⲓⲡ︤ⲛ︦ⲁ︥ ⲉⲑⲟⲩⲁⲃ, ⲁⲩⲓ̀ ⲉ̀ϩⲣⲏⲓ ⲉ̀ⲥⲉⲗⲉⲩⲕⲓⲁ̀…
Why is Coptic Christmas celebrated on 7 January?
The Coptic Orthodox Church today celebrates ⲡⲉϩⲟⲟⲩ ⲙ̀ⲙⲓⲥⲓ ⲙ̀ⲡⲭ︤ⲥ︥, Christmas or the Nativity, on 7 January while the West celebrates it on 25 December according to the Gregorian calendar. We will explore the history of these dates and what led to the celebration of the Nativity on different dates. Introduction The exact date of Jesus’s…
A note by Champollion in Coptic
Jean-François Champollion is celebrated as the first person to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs. Many of his insights were built on an intense and obsessive study of the Coptic language, to which he was introduced by a Coptic priest named Yuhanna Chiftichi. 1 In 1809, soon after meeting Chiftichi and at just eighteen years old, Champollion wrote…
The Coptic Bible: (ⲃ̅) Historical Books
This is the second of a series of articles surveying the published editions of the Bible, or ⲛⲓⲅⲣⲁⲫⲏ ⲉ̀ⲑⲟⲩⲁⲃ, in the Bohairic dialect of Coptic. The first article dealt with the Pentateuch. This article will focus on the Historical Books, with further parts planned for the Poetic Books, Major Prophets, Minor Prophets, and later the…