The Appendices to the Gospel according to Mark. 389 



origin of the Bohairic Version must therefore be associated with 

 Alexandria. 



But Greek was the earty official language of this part of Egypt, 

 and the earliest extant writings of Egyptian Christianity are in that 

 tongue. It would therefore be antecedently probable that Upper 

 Eg3'pt, which we know formerly reacted against foreigners, would first 

 require a version in the vernacular. Critical study supports this 

 inference, concluding that the Sahidic Version was most probably the 

 earliest Egyptian version, followed by the Middle Egyptian and the 

 Bohairic in the order named. 



The date of the earliest Egyptian version is generally given as the 

 latter part of the second or the early half of the third century. The 

 year 200 A.D. cannot be very far wrong (Kenyon) since the Sahidic 

 shows in the N.T. a type of text which prevailed in the second century 

 and in the O.T. a pre-Origenian text. 



The Greek text from which the Sahidic was translated belonged to 

 the type represented by NB, although it contained a considerable 

 "Western" element of an early character, perhaps the type shown in 

 Clement of Alexandria. The translation is idiomatic, and in some 

 cases inexact. 



The Middle Egyptian Version is known to have been profoundly 

 influenced by the Sahidic, but is not yet available for critical use. 



The Bohairic, the latest of these versions, shows a desire for more 

 literal exactness in translation, and also exhibits the influence of what 

 was considered, at the time it was made, a better Greek text. Where 

 it differs from the Sahidic it almost always follows "Alexandrian" 

 readings. 



The Sahidic Version. 



The Sahidic Version agrees with the Bohairic in its "Neutral" ten- 

 dencies and in its freedom from "Antiochian" interpolations, which 

 do not seem to have influenced the text of Egypt until the tenth cen- 

 tur}'. It is to be placed among such representatives of the ancient 

 text as iS, B, Claromontanus, Irenaeus, and Clement of Alexandria. 

 Its lack of readings peculiar to L, with the exception of the double 

 ending of Mark, show that it does not belong to the late Alexandrian 

 type of text. 



Most of the Coptic manuscripts known have been supplied by the 

 \Miite Monastery, from which, according to the estimate of Dr. Crum, 

 nine thousand leaves have been obtained. 



The Sahidic Gospels have been edited from many fragments by 

 G. Horner in "The Coptic Version of the New Testament in the 



