Atkinson — On Prof. Mosses South-Coptic Texts. 69 



is wrong, in any case. And what has the Greek ? Sos kol Xa/3e Trap 

 avTOV TO KCffidXaLOV, koi /xovov orav t)(rj. 



112. Political economists would have strange conclusions to deduce 

 as to the action of this Council of Nicsea, if they took the authority 

 of Prof. Eossi's translation [12 a 15] : "if thou hast money or grain, 

 and one asks it of thee for usury [to pay thee interest], sell it at a high 

 price, and seeh also to have it at a low price at a fitting time, in order 

 that thou mayest profit more largely". 



Surely, even the editor might have seen that this was an impossille 

 counsel to have heen given hy the prelates at any time, especially 

 when they had just declared that men are not to exact usury, nor to 

 ask hack anything of a loan but the principal ! 



The extraordinary thing is that he is careful to tell us that 

 M. Eevillout has omitted certain letters as illegible, which are to 

 be found in Prof. Eossi's text, just at this exact passage ; while he 

 did not see that his own text is utterly wrong, and contains a senti- 

 ment diametrically opposite to the whole teaching of the Church, at 

 any period ! How did he even think of the imperative here ? 



«$ope wn homnt [so]op nak e [ejbra^ nte wa wos eji 

 ntootk emese^ ng^ti ebol nwnoc ntiniej iig'sine hoof 

 nsa jitw nwkwi ntime eyliow^ je ekeji nwhwo. 



**M. Revillout reads : emese n . . . . ng ebol". 



So runs his note ; was there no other difficulty ? M. Revillout 

 had edited two texts, and the other text suggests an explanation, viz. 

 after the first mese, "usury", by inserting the words: mepos 

 ngtmwos eji mese, after which second mese, both texts proceed 

 with the remaining clause. The text as it stands reads: "if thou 

 hast &c., and one ask to get it from thee on interest, and if thou sell 

 at a high price &c", corresponding to the Greek lav yap ep^j^s .... 

 Kal . . . Sta TO /XT] Xafifidvetv (re tokov, ttcoXtJs Tt^utcore/aws Iva ayopa.(rrj% 

 <u(ov<os ev [vocrrov] KaipQ k.t.X. 



113, [12^ 26]: ' 



mprhiwe erome ni percuoterc I'twmo 



epterf eimetei affatto, se non 



eakvri un poeo 



etbe wsbo per istruzione. 



But e-u-kwi certainly does not mean, "a little"; it is the 

 directive case after hiwe, "to smite", of w-kwi meaning "a child": 



