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Kidån (4 vol., 1922/23–1925/26); O. Löfgren, Die aethiopische Uebersetzung
des Propheten Daniel (1927); O. Loefgren. Jona, Nahum, Habakuk,
Zephanja, Haggai, Sacharja und Maleachi aethiopisch (1930);
S.A.B. Mercer, The Ethiopic Text of the Book of Ecclesiastes (1931); S.
Grébaut, Les Paralipomènes. Livres I et II: version éthiopienne (1932);
H.C. Gleave, The Ethiopic Version of the Song of Songs (1951); A. Vööbus,
“The Ethiopic Versions,” in: Early Versions of the Old Testament,
243–69 (1954); H.J. Polotsky, “Aramaic, Syriac, and Ge‘ez,” in: Journal
of Semitic Studies 9 (1964); E. Ullendorff, Ethiopia and the Bible
(1968); H.F. Fuhs, Die aethiopische Uebersetzung des Propheten Micha
(1968); O. Loefgren, “The Necessity of a Critical Edition of the
Ethiopian Bible,” in: Proceedings of the Third International Conference
of Ethiopian Studies (1970); H.F. Fuhs, Die aethiopische Uebersetzung
des Propheten Hosea (1971); B. Metzger, The Early Versions of the New
Testament (1977); H.A. Pilkington, A Critical Edition of the Book of
Proverbs in Ethiopic (D. Phil. thesis, Oxford, 1978); E. Ullendorff, “Hebrew,
Aramaic and Greek: the Versions underlying Ethiopic Translations
of the Bible and Intertestamental Literature,” in: G. Rendsburg
et al. (eds.), The Biblical World: Essays in Honour of Cyrus H. Gordon
(1980); E. Ullendorff, “Hebrew Elements in the Ethiopic Old Testament,”
Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 9 (1987); M.A. Knibb,
“Hebrew and Syriac Elements in the Ethiopic Version of Ezekiel?”
in: Journal of Semitic Studies 33 (1988); R. Cowley, Ethiopian Biblical
Interpretation: A Study in Exegetical Tradition and Hermeneutics
(1988); J. VanderKam, The Book of Jubilees (1989); P. Marrassini, “Some
Considerations on the Problem of the ‘Syriac Influences’ on Aksumite
Ethiopia,” in: Journal of Ethiopian Studies 23 (1990); R. Zuurmond,
“Ethiopic Versions,” in: Anchor Bible Dictionary (1992); M.A. Knibb,
Translating the Bible: The Ethiopic Version of the Old Testament (1999);
G.W.E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1 (2001).
[John Huehnergard (2nd ed.)]
Egyptian (Coptic)
Coptic versions of biblical literature – that is, the texts of the
Bible translated into a late antique form of the Egyptian language,
written in an augmented Greek alphabet which includes
seven demotic Egyptian characters – began appearing
in the third century C.E. and were well established by the
fourth century. Coptic was written, and biblical texts have
been preserved, in several dialects and dialect families, the
most important for the study of biblical literature being Bohairic
(Delta region, to the north) and Sahidic (Upper Egyptian,
to the south). Important fragments remain in Fayyumic
and Akhmimic.
It is generally agreed that the Coptic versions have as
their source Greek witnesses. Of interest is the richness of the
extant versions. For example, the Sahidic witnesses vary from
each other, bespeaking independent translators and translation
families, as well as, perhaps, differing Greek base texts. It
should be noted that a host of literatures and genres related to
the Bible (among them apocryphal works, hagiography, liturgical
texts, and Gnostic literature) were variously written and
preserved in Coptic in late antiquity, and that Coptic remains
a language in which biblical and liturgical texts are regularly
read, spoken, and sung.
Bibliography: E.A.W. Budge, The Earliest Known Coptic
Psalter: The Text, in the Dialect of Upper Egypt, Edited from the
Unique Papyrus Codex Oriental 5000 in the British Museum (1898);
idem, Coptic Biblical Texts (Deuteronomy, Jonah, Acts, Apocalypse)
in the Dialect of Upper Egypt (1912); G.W. Horner, The Coptic Version
of the New Testament in the Northern Dialect, otherwise Called Memphitic
and Bohairic, 4 vols. (1898–1905); idem, The Coptic Version of
the New Testament in the Southern Dialect, otherwise Called Sahidic
and Thebaic, 7 vols. (1911–24); W. Till, Die achmîmische Version der
zwölf kleinen Propheten (Codex Rainerianus,Wien) (Coptica 4; 1927);
W.H. Worrell, The Proverbs of Solomon in Sahidic Coptic according to
the Chicago Manuscript (1931); R. Kasser, Évangile de Jean et Genèse I-
IV,2 en bohaïrique …, Bibliotheca Bodmeriana series (CSCO 177; 1958);
idem, “Les dialectes coptes et les versions coptes bibliques,” in: Biblica,
46 (1965), 287–310; M.K.H.Peters, A Critical Edition of the Coptic (Bohairic)
Pentateuch (Septuagint and Cognate Series; Society of Biblical
Literature), 1983–86; B.J. Diebner and R. Kasser, Hamburger Bapurus
Bil, 1: Die Alttestamentlichen Texte… (Cahiers D’Orientalisme 18;
1989), incl. Song of Songs and Lamentations in Fayyumic and Ecclesiastes
in both Greek and Fayyumic; F. Feder, Biblia Sahidica: Ieremias,
Lametationes (Threni), Epistula Ieremiae et Baruch (TU 147) (2002).
In addition, the Biblia Coptica project has begun in earnest to collate
and codify the extant witnesses: K. Schuessler, Das sahidische Alte und
Neue Testament… (1995– ); vol. 1, parts 1–4 on Old Testament texts
was completed in 2000. Websites: P.J. Williams, Coptic Bible Bibliography,
at: www.abdn.ac.uk/divinity/williams/CopticBibleBibliography.htm;
Forschungsabteilung fuer Koptologie und Aegyptenkunde,
at: www.uni-salzburg.at/fka, incl. information about the Biblia Coptica
Project as well as links to the Journal of Coptic Studies.
[Frederick W. Weidmann (2nd ed.)]
Armenian
The need for an Armenian Bible arose once the court converted
to Christianity early in the fourth century. According
to Armenian tradition the Bible was the first book translated
into that language. The translation was undertaken directly
after the invention of the Armenian alphabet in 406 C.E.; the
story of the translation is preserved in the Armenian tradition
for which the prime source is the Varkʿ Maštocʿi, “Life of,
Mashtots” (ca. 345–440; after the fifth century the name begins
to appear as Mesrop Mashtots) written by Koriwn, his pupil
and colleague. Employing the new alphabet, Mashots along
with his ecclesiastical patron the Catholicos Sahak Parteʿw and
their disciples translated the Bible as well as other Christian
religious writings. The initial translation, which according to
these sources was made from Syriac, was subsequently revised
twice in the light of Greek manuscripts brought from Constantinople
and Alexandria. The work was completed by c. 450.
The translation of the Bible as preserved by the Armenian
Church is predominantly Hexaplaric in character, equipped
with Hexaplaric signs and showing a full text. Further relationships
of the versions have been studied only for few books,
where it has been demonstrated that it reveals relationships
with certain non-Hexaplaric Greek text types and with the
Peshitta. There is also evidence for the existence of two recensions
in certain books, such as Chronicles and Ben Sira, and
Revelation in the New Testament. Khalatianz (Moscow, 1899)
published a version of Chronicles apparently reflecting the
translation made from Syriac prior to the revision according to
Greek manuscripts. The translation has been characterized as
“queen of the versions” and its closeness to the Greek original
602 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3