Atkinson — On Prof. Eossi^s South-Coptic Texts. 37 



it, all those who are in it are wont to become greatly afflicted, &c." 

 But he renders the phrase netnhets, by "i cuori di tutti i suoi 

 abitanti", adding as a note that the literal translation of this passage 

 would be i vostri cuori di essa. There is no such construction known 

 to Coptic grammar as netn-het.s ! That reading is a perfect 

 apocalypse, and the note lifts the veil. What the preacher said was : 

 n-et-Shets, " those who are in it". 



31. [66 a 8] : 



nterefnau epjaje name ntmntrdnie ters^ ete pai pe 

 pdiabolos Je afobr ehwn ntoikwinene ters. 



In this passage the editor did not understand afobr, and so he 

 printed a note thereon : "in the group afobr ehwn, I take the root 

 obr, (not known to me from other examples, nor by me found in any 

 lexicon,) according to the drift of the preposition that accompanies it, 

 in the meaning of to enter, penetrare, invadere, &c. The Coptic word 

 which is nearest in form to our root is sbf, amicus, sociiis, &c., 

 whence we have the verb rsbf , amicus, esse, fieri, &c., but I have 

 not found &c." ; and, accordingly, he concocted a root obr, which 

 he translated to invade. JS'ow, he had just edited on the previous 

 page, nf-orb-es ehwn, with the pronominal form of the verb, 

 6rb-s ehwn; and as we have here the connexive particle n, it 

 might have been expected that a moment's reflection would have 

 given him the solution: the word is not any imaginary obr, still 

 less the poor suggestion of sbr, but is simply an inversion of the 

 letters r and b, viz. af-6rb ehwn, in the absolute form of the 

 verb, "he besieged" ; cf. nai ntauerb-teutn ehwn, Jerem. xxi. 4. 



32. The want of familiarity with the Bible is everywhere pain- 

 fully manifest, but it does not always avenge itself so plainly as in 

 the following : [67 ji 8] 



ncij etswow le mani vanagloriose 



aftreasowtn ebol fece essere rette. 



" He made straight the vain-glorious hands ! " That is, he not only 

 did not know that it was withered hands that were healed, but 

 he did not know the Coptic word for "withered," for he has con- 

 founded 8w6w with swsw : 



OjOTOJOT with cyOTOJOT 



33. It is natural to infer that he has at times misread the papyrus, 

 for where the letters are faded, it is the grammar often which adds 



