Atkinson — On a South-Coptic Text of M. Bouriant. 231 



It almost takes one breath away : how could mS be followed by 

 €snac6? how could tanpolis mean 'les biens des villes'? how 

 could ta mean anything at all? 



It is all wrong, and should be mntan polis, "w^^ have not here a 

 city which will last ", " continuing city ", for the quotation was from 

 Hebr. xiii. 14, fxevovaav ttoXlv ! 



(b) And the second clause was another quotation, nous sommes 

 citoyens du del par le Christ, alia ere penpoliteuma hn mpeue 

 hatm peXS. Surely the word iroXiTtvixa is not &o very common a 

 word in the New Testament as to have made it difficult to discover 

 that this also was a quotation, Philipp. iii. 20 rjfjilv yap to TroXirevixa 

 iv ovpa.voL's vTrdpx^i., with an added " alonff with Christ ", hatm peXS. 



(c) And the subsequent words are also quotation, viz. Hebr. xi. 10, 

 which is ignored by the Editor, who also renders, its ne regardent que 

 la vilU qui a des fondations telles que doit en avoir une ville dont 

 Varchitecte et le createur est Dieu, but the Coptic is a literal rendering 

 of the words ttjv tous 6ep,ekiov<s 'i-)(ov(Tav TroXti/, tpolis ete wnts 

 snte mmau ; there is no telles que doit avoir. 



And in the end of the paragraph, [184, 12], the Editor once more 

 goes wrong, rendering : fai dit que ceux qui avaient ete eleves dans la 

 richesse supportaient plus penihlement les souffrances du monacat ou du 

 martyre que ceux qui avaient ete eleves dans la pauvrete, d moins quails 

 n'eussent le cosur dur comme une pierre. But why should martyrs 

 have hearts as hard as stone ? That is certainly not the idea of the 

 Coptic: eimete nsetajro mpeuhet nthe nwpetra, "unless 

 they strengthen their heart like a rock ". 

 It is Trerpa, not Tre'rpos ! 



9. And again, consider his treatment of [186, 2], mpefka pnwte 

 naf nboethos, rendered, JDieu lui a retire sa protection! Here we 

 have — 



(ff) pnwte, the subject after the verb without its introductory 



[the " denotative", as I call it] nci ; 

 (l) the proclitic form ka without an immediately following object; 

 (<?) the connexive n (before boethos) after ka ; 

 {d) boethos made an abstract noun = 'protection'; 

 (e) ka rendered ' to take away' ; 



(/) naf, after ka , rendered 'to take away /row him'. 

 There are six distinct unmistakable fundamental errors in this version, 

 containing six French words ! 



The words mean : "he did not put God to himself as a helper", 

 " he hath not made God his helper ". 



