Atkinson — On a South- Coptic Text of M. Botiriant. 237 



not punished, seeing that God ordered him to leave his father and to 

 cease worshipping his father's idols. That is the context : here is the 

 continuation as given by M. Bouriant : 



Cela veut dire : quitte les habitudes mmivaises de tes peres, abandonne 

 les idoles qiiHls reverent et suis-moi, car j'e suis le Dieu veritable, et ne 

 sois point un sectateur d^ idoles comme les autres. Done pour celui qui est 

 mort, adieu ses dignites ; car Dieu ne lui dira point : Sors de la maison 

 de ton pere, mais Dieu examinera le ccBur de chacun . . . c'est Vdme 

 pecheresse qui mourra. 



[N'ovr, I call attention to the central clause : 



Done pour celui qui est mort, adieu ses dignites. 



What sense has it, or was it supposed to have ? The logic of the 

 passage is obviously this, that though a disobedient son was no doubt 

 to be put to death, yet if the son disobeyed his father on a principle 

 of higher obedience, obedience to the law forbidding idol-worship, 

 then the son was not amenable to the jmnishment for such disobedience; 

 the father suffered for his own sin, but the son did not die for it. And 

 the Coptic text of the central clause expressed that idea [200, 3] : 



ara pai ntafmw did he then die, 



pbol nipef bathmos outside of his fidOnos ? 



■continuing, ' assuredly God would not have said to him, come 

 out &c.' But how did M. Bouriant even imagine, adieu ses dignites ? 

 The phrase, pbol m, 'outside of, is a common equivalent for e^w, 

 £$(i}Oev : cf. Exod. xxvi. 35; Lev. viii. 17. 



24. 0r again, where is the logic to be found in the following ? 



iTe suis venu pour Jeter le feu sur la terre Sfc. . . . voici ce quHl veut 

 dire : Je suis venu pour repandre le feu de V intelligence sur les gentils et 

 sur tous ceux qui adorent la creature plutot que le Createur . . . etje 

 donnerai un signe a ceux qui me craignent ... Je ferai tomher sur les 

 pecheurs . . . une pluie de feu et de soufre 8fc. 



So then, it would seem that in order to spread the pire of intel- 

 ligence over the Gentiles, the suitable way is to rain flaming sulphur 

 down on them ! 



And what said the Coptic writer? He simply talked of a koht 

 nnoeton, 'a vorjTov fire', and had not the remotest notion in his 

 head of this j^ri? of intelligence ! 



But now, in the Coptic text the words are quite wrongly divided 

 [201, 2], for they are not nwj enwkoht, as he has it, but 



ntaiei enwje iiwkolit iiiioeton. 

 M. Bouriant has taken the line over the n in nwkoht to be the 



