Atkinson — On a Boidh-Coptic Text of M. Bouriant. 251 



pas le Seigneur. That is not the meaning, but, ^'was God powerless, 

 a single time [nwsop nwot], to smite Pharaoh."? 



And in the next clause, \_Dieu'] Va patiemment supporte jusqu' 

 a ce quHl lui eut manifeste. ses prodiges, d lui si redoiitable pour les 

 autres, we have an equally flagrant perversion of the meaning, which 

 is : " till He showed forth his wonders in him, that he might become a 

 terror to the rest", santefwonh ebol nnefspere iihetf, nfsope 

 nhote mpkeseepe, [167, g]. 



65. Again, the Coptic words, mere laau mpethow esei nahraf, 

 [167, z], do not mean, aucun mal ne se commet sous son regne, but " no 

 evil shall be able to come nigh him". Surely the preposition 

 nahraf, ' before him,' ought to have been a guide to the real meaning, 

 if he did not know the reference, Ps. xc. 10. 



66. It is extraordinary how an editor can have kept himself from 

 acquiring a knowledge of the construction of negative clauses in 

 Coptic. It seems incredible, but it is a fact that M. Bouriant kegtj- 

 LAELT translates the phrase neiwos eje wmeese nsaje, hj Je ne 

 veux pas dire une fotde de paroles, cf. 168, 2 ; 188, i ; 202, 1 1 ; 210, 10 ; 

 211, 8; 215, 2; 239, X. 



That is, he takes >^e^-w6s, "I was wishing", to be the negative 

 future 1 sg., nna-wos, " I won't " [! !]. I know that it sometimes 

 appears in the form iinei, cf. Job vii. 16; ix. 17; xvi. 5-; but this 

 does not mend matters one whit, for it is nei, not nnei. 



67. And what could be farther from the meaning than to render 

 thus, le diahle a bouche tes yeux . . . . , de peur que si tes yeux voyaient 

 et tes oreilles entendaient, tu ne te detour nes de lui qui te maintient dans 

 tes crimes, seeing that the text says, " lest thou hear His ivords, so 

 that thou turn to Sim, that He heal thee in thy sins". The Coptic 

 is quite clear, ngkotk erof, nftalcok, [168, 6]. 



68. Nor is M. Bouriant to be congratulated on the success of his 

 attempt at rendering the meditations of the Penitent Thief, in the 

 following Avords : Vun d''eux . . . . fit de telles reflexions qv)il se mit d, 

 dire, laissatit echapper d lafois des paroles de bmediction et de malediction ; 

 ' Allons, je dirai une parole excellente a cet homme et ma langue le con- 

 solera, et pour moi qui n^ai point fait le bien, {il est juste) que le mal 

 retombe sur moi phctSf que sur lui\ 



Now, here it is to be noted that what the Thief said is intro- 

 duced by je ene, as the sign of an 'indirect question' : "he began 

 to reflect, does he say that out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing 

 and cursing" ? The he is no doubt St. James iii. 10. Surely, the 

 Penitent Thief did not act in the way alleged, laissattt echapper d la 



