Atkinson — On Prof. Bossi's South-Coptic Texts. 71 



Vatican text, which of course was the cause of the legitimate (stc) of 

 M. Revillout. The Greek is /x-^ aTro tokwv tj TrAeove^tas Trpayfjuxroiv 

 [i.e., rj Trpayjaaret'as, Hyvernat apud Batiffol] ; the TrAeove^t'a was 

 the "insatiahleness', mntatsei, of the Coptic text. Something is 

 omitted, of course, and none of the text is satisfactory just here : the 

 next clause has distaze [T.], hut tiose [V.], while the Greek text 

 has not got it at all. 



117. [15/3 14]: 



eksanjpo nak nwsose se possiedi un campo 



ekeanakhorei cedilo, 



ng^anakhorei an se non lo cedi, 



alia eksobe ma inganni, 



ere henkowe sobe iisok altri ingannano le. 



This is no version of the Coptic, for the verb ava-^oipeiv does not 

 mean to cede, but to retreat (from the world into a monastery) ; and 

 the drift of the passage is this: "if thou art acquiring a field, then, 

 while pretending to retreat, thou art not really doing so, but mocking, 

 and so others will mock at thee." Cf. the Greek lav -xtapLov KTrjo-rj, 

 [ev fjLOvacTTTjpLio^ ava)^(jjpwv ovk dve^^copT^cras, dAX' e/ATrat^et? kol eyUTrat'^Ty, 

 from which it is clear that the Coptic should be ek - (and not eke -) 

 anakhorei , as it is in the Yatican text. 



118. Nor is it a good version of the Coptic text when Prof. Rossi 

 edits as follows, [15 y 1] : 



esope wn kwi se altri 



caluw erok ti commenda, 



sope ekthbbieu sii umile. 



I call attention to this passage, because it exhibits precisely the 

 defect of the procedure : Prof. Rossi's version is dependent on the 

 word found at the time in the dictionary. 



Consider the above : "if another person commend thee, be humble"; 

 such, a translation must mislead readers into the idea that approbation 

 was meant, which is not the case. The word calow is unsatis- 

 factorily treated in the dictionaries : it is either, (a) the present 

 participial form of coeile, "to be a sojourner", cf. Ps. xxxviii. 13, 

 where ei-cal6w is coupled with rm-n-coile, Trap^Tri^r}p.o<i ; or 

 (J), as here, the verb calo, "to commit, entrust", with 3 pi. suffix 

 -w. The text means : "if young persons entrust themselves to thee^^ ; 

 the Greek has vewr^pov^ eav ^XV^ Trepl creavTov. And if he yet doubts 

 the meaning, he may compare Tobi. iv. 20, speaking of the ten talents 

 which ^' I deposited with G.", ntaicalow e-G., a TrapeOep.rjv. 



