Atkinson — On Prof. Bossies South-Coptic Texts. 87 



to render mpw-es-cmcom e-6sm ni-pe- <l>6ovo<i as lie has done 

 is -wholly to disregard Coptic structure. 



164. In the next column, he has not seen that it is a quotation 

 from Jerem. xiii. 23 ; from which accordingly his lacunae may be 

 easily filled up. 



165. Even when it is a familiar quotation from the New Testa- 

 ment, he fails to catch it, or convey the meaning. Thus he gives 

 [68 y 1] : " as St. John said, ' it is not needful that one should testify 

 for man. Because does he Mow what is in man?'" But there is no 

 sign of interrogation in the Coptic, which is a literal version of John 

 ii. 25, "for he knew what (is) in man," ntof gar nefsown jew 

 pethm prome . 



166. A very instructive example may now be given, of the amount 

 of critical acumen he has exhibited in handling this Coptic text, which 

 is so interlarded with Greek words. Thus he has edited [69 y8 foot] : 



pma etfniietf dal luogo in cui e 



nci pephthonos mn Vinvidia e 



tniesikia 



efai te 



tnintrefmestpetho^Y 



sai*e peXS we ebolmniof Crista si allontana. 



He has made no attempt whatever to solve the difficulty here, but 

 has given it up in despair. There cannot be the slightest doubt of 

 the solution, but it may be well to show the materials that lay ready 

 to his hand, to guide him to the solution, if such had not instan- 

 taneously presented itself to him. 



It was evident that mesikia was some Greek word, and the form 

 of the following words is the normal form by which the Copts define a 

 Greek term when employing it, [ete tai te] a form of words exactly 

 equivalent to our viz. The problem therefore resolved itself simply 

 into the determination of the uncouth word 



tmntrefmestpethow. 



I need not dwell on its loveliness to the eye of the body, but to 

 the mind's eye it presented no great embarrassment : t- is the fern, art., 

 mnt denotes the abstract state (as in righteousness), ref means " a 

 person (who)", and pethow means " evil" ; so the whole problem is 

 the determination of the last element mest. Here then the investi- 

 gation begins. Now mest might seem to be the proclitic form of the 

 verb moste , " to hate" ; but, as our word is used in conjunction with 



