Gospels of Thomas and Philip and Truth - Syriac Christian Church

evolving after the invasion of Alexander the Great (332 BC) and subsequently
supplanted by Arabic following the Muslim conquest (640 AD); see Biblio.20. It has
always been the liturgical language of the Egyptian Church; moreover, the ancient
Coptic versions of the Old and New Testaments are of great importance in textual
Biblical studies. Utilizing many Greek loan words, Coptic also adopted the
Greek alphabet, adding these letters: 4 (shai), 3 (fai), 6 (hori), ` (janja), 2 (gima), and
5 (ti), as well as ¯ (syllable or abbreviation indicator); see P001 and www.proel.org/
alfabetos/copto.html. English terms which derive from ancient Egyptian via Coptic
include ‘pharaoh’ (Coptic p.r-ro: the-king, P080 C299a), ‘adobe’ (Coptic twwbe:
brick, C398a; via Arabic and Spanish), ‘oasis’ (from Egyptian via Greek; Coptic
parallel oua6e, C508b), and ‘manna’ (Coptic moone: to feed, C173a). ‘C...’ and ‘P...’
are references to pages/sections in Crum's Dictionary and Plumley's Grammar
(Biblio.4+5).
Adam (46 85): Heb Md) (blood-red, clay)— the original human and/or generic
mankind.
Aesop (102 109): crippled Gk slave who flourished in the 6th-century BC and
was executed at Delphi for ‘impiety’, whose Fables were well-known thruout the
ancient world; the only non-Israelite other than the Delphic Oracle (‘Recognize
thyself’: Th 3) whom Christ is known to have quoted, as also in Lk 4:23 (moral from
‘The Quack Frog’), Mt 7:15 (‘The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing’) and various other
allusions.
All (77): see Totality.
Bear (101): interpolated Coptic text:
ta.maau gar n-ta.[s.mast ero.i eb]ol
P050, C197a Gk P202+186b, P035, C184b, P039 P261.7, P035 C034a
my-mother For did(II)-[she-bear accusative-me for]th.
I assume that the inclusion here of the pronominal ero.i is for clarity and emphasis,
as the first-person singular suffix -i is omitted after mast= (the Pronominal Form of
mise): see P039; image of the papyrus: www.metalog.org/files/pap.gif.
Bed (61b, NB as also in 61a): the Coptic text here is:
a.k.telo e`m- pa.glog
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