392 Clarence Russell Williams, 



Mus. Or. l;i]n of the Bolmiric Version which reads "In the cop\- of 

 the Sa'id." This note refers to tha Saliidic copy declares Horner 

 (Sahidic, p. 636). 



The Sahidic, as we have seen, is older than the Bohairic, the latter, 

 though not entirely independent of it, being based on a later Greek 

 text. Tlie fact that one MS of the Sahidic contains the double ending 

 in the text while the two Bohairic MSS which contain the Shorter 

 Conclusion relegate it to the margin, confirms our theory of the his- 

 tory of the conclusions of Mark as developed in Egypt. The Sahidic 

 represents our third, the Bohairic our fourth stage. At the same time 

 there are also indications, as Zahn has shown, that some Bohairic MS 

 contained the Shorter Ending only. That the Egyptian versions 

 should mirror the text dominant in Alexandria at various periods is 

 what would be antecedently expected, and what the evidence seems 

 to show. 



The Bohairic Version. 



The Bohairic ^'ersion, still in ecclesiastical use among the Copts, is 

 probably to be dated toward the close of the third or in some part of 

 the fourth century (so Kenyon, Lake, etc.). It originated almost 

 certainly in Alexandria, and shows an underlying Alexandrian text 

 (Hyvernat quoting Headlam, and so also Nestle). 



Present critics consider the underlying Greek text "singularly 

 pure and free from so-called 'Western' additions." It belongs to 

 the type of text represented by ><B and L. 



Our earliest codices of this version belong to the twelfth century, 

 though certain fragments may be as early as the ninth century. The 

 Bohairic is often accompanied by an Arabic translation, though a 

 Graeco-Bohairic MS has not as yet been discovered. 



This version has been edited by G. Horner in "The Coptic Ver- 

 sion of the New Testament in the Northern Dialect, otherwise called 

 Memphitic or Bohairic, with Introduction, Critical Apparatus, and 

 literal English Translation," Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1898. Horner 

 declares that in all the MSS examined by him the customar}^ type of 

 the Gospel according to Mark was found, \\'ith no reference to the 

 Shorter Ending save in Hunt 17, (Horner's A) and Brit. Mus. Or. 1315 

 (Horner's E). 



The testimony of Hunt 17, "a very fine and im])ortant j\IS" (Light- 

 foot) is given by Horner (p. 480) as follows : 



"At the end of v. 8, in the break, as if referring to the last twelve 



verses, is a gloss [in Arabic] 'this is the chapter expelled in the 



Greek.' 



