volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

Papyrus Codex of Books of the Bible. 373
linen, with an iron chain round his waist. Between his
feet was a linen-covered bundle, which, when untied,
was found to contain a papyrus book. When the finder
of this MS. brought it to me it was still in the linen
wrappings in which he discovered it. The MS., which
measured about 11 inches by 6 inches, was in a very
dilapidated state ; all the leaves had broken away
from the covers, and many of them were worm-eaten,
and many of them were much rubbed at the edges and
corners. The covers were formed of fragments of old
papyri gummed together, and the binding consisted of
a strip of thick, dark brown leather, lined with two or
three layers of papyrus. The leaves were very brittle,
and when turned over portions of the letters flaked off
them, but without disturbing them greatly I was able
to find out that the MS. contained a copy of the Coptic
version of Deuteronomy, the Book of Jonah, and the
Acts of the Apostles in the dialect of Upper Egypt.
I therefore agreed to buy it and took possession of it.
I questioned the finder of the MS. very closely, and
then went at once with him to look at the tomb and the
cofi&n in which he had found the MS., and I was convinced
that the coffin was made in the Roman Period.
From what I could see in and about the tomb I assumed
(i) That the man who was in the coffin with the MS.
was a Christian, and probably a " solitary" or anchorite
of especial holiness ; (2) that the MS. found between
his feet was his own property ; (3) that he had copied
it with his own hands, and valued it highly, and always
had it with him or near him during his lifetime ; (4)
that he had been buried by his disciples, who either found
the coffin empty—which was most probably the case
or had turned out its occupant to make room for their
master ; (5) that the man with whom the MS. was
buried lived either towards the end of the fourth or
early in the fifth century of our Era at the latest. I
arrived at the last conclusion after a careful examination
of the mummies that were in the tomb, for all of them
certainly belonged to the period when the coffin was
made, and this period was the second or third century