Atkinson — On Prof. Rossi's South- Coptic Texts. 97 



paragraphing the clauses wrongly ; e. gr. he gives this version of 

 [34 y8 2] : " It was a great and joyous spectacle, great hy those who 

 were in the contest, joyous by the virtue of a weak woman who had 

 power to struggle against tlie&e powerful men, who had mutually prep ared 

 each other for the struggle. 



The heavens opened, the angels &c." 



Then he gives a note, quoting the Greek : ws ovv erot/xos yiyov^v 

 rj iraXrj, ■rjvoL-^Orjcrav ol ovpavoi &c. ~Why, that is exactly what the 

 Coptic says, which paragraphs the clause in just the same way : 

 " when these had prepared themselves to fight with each other, the 

 heavens opened &c." It was not of the mutual preparation of the 

 two old reprobates that the text was speaking, but of the two com- 

 batants, viz. Susanna on the one side, and her accusers on the other! 

 Prof. Eossi's translation is utterly impossible with his text, which 

 reads, ntere nai de sbtotw emise mn neuereu. 



197. At [33 a foot] he leaves a word omitted, as being unable to 

 conjecture it, and edits : 



wde pctnaboethei erois ne alcuno che le portasse aiiito 

 nsa laau n[. . . .] 



It should have been ; "nsalaau nsa, "on any side whatever"; 

 Job xix. 7, mmn hap nsa laau nsa, oiSafjiov KpLfia. 



198. And here is another confession of ignorance [36 a 17], 

 where he suggests: af[j]61c nnse ejof ; his translation being: 

 "already the wood was placed upon the altar". But, as is seen, 

 there was a letter missing in the text, where the word was . . . 61c. 

 Now, there are only three verbs known to the Coptic language, 

 which would fU up the gap, viz. hole, pole and sole; well 

 Prof. Eossi has selected not one of these, but has invented a neiv 

 verb, jolc. Surely, pole distrihuere was more likely. 



199. In fact, wherever a conjecture almost forces itself upon one. 

 Prof. Eossi will shut his eyes to it, and select something impossible. 

 Here is a striking example [36 /? foot] : 



auo eisheete ed ecco 



tinamw mpeirla. ... io morrb per questa calumiia. 



That is absolutely his version, " behold, I shall die by this calumny " ! 

 And how did he obtain it '? 



The word la does mean " calumny ", but it never is used with f : 

 the proper verb would be hi, "tofing calumny", hi-la, not f -la, 

 ^'to do calumny " ; and even then, it would not be a noun. 



R.I. A. PHOC, SEE. III., VOL. IH. H 



