Atkinson — On a South- Coptic Text of M. Bouriant. 263 



the meaning of which is, " doth God hate father and son ? no ! but this 

 is what He saith [petef -jo] &c." M. Bonriant has totally ignored 

 mm on, which is merely the ' explicit' of the negative implicit in the 

 introductory jxtj. But the translator should have been kept from his 

 version by all the other indications : the meaning assigned to moste, 

 the function allotted to the preposition hi, the position of mmon in 

 the sentence, all concurred to warn him off a dangerous precipice, 

 — in vain. 



103. The prepositions are like the small cog-wheels of a complicated 

 piece of machinery, the whole of which is often flung out of gear by 

 the wrong action of the little intermediators. Thus when he renders, 

 je sauverai mes lien-aimes en les flaqant a ma droite^ he has given a 

 wholly wrong turn to the meaning, which is, " (I have come) to save 

 my beloved ly my right hand", auo ntanwhm nnamerit hn 

 tawnam [201,4], where it was his anxiety to render rightly the 

 preposition hn that led him into the error; but hn is just the 

 precise word to use in this connexion to express the instrument. 



104. Sui'ely one would have thought that the words kata tmeris 

 mpeujo [201,6], "according to the portion of their w^ ", rj /xepls 

 Tov TTOTTjpcov avTiov, wcrc sufficiently obvious to make error therein 

 imiJossille, but M. Bouriant renders, as if it were 36, 'to sow' {je 



ferai tomler sur les pecheurs une pluie de feu et de soufre ) 



suivant ce qu'ils out semel It was only Ps. x. 7. 



105. The misconception of the meaning of a term introduces curious 

 confusion, when he renders la separation d''une file de sa mere, d^une 



fiancee de son fiance. But fancy such a mistake as this, 



tes-some, son fiance ! 



tes used as masculine ., and some, the characteristically /e??^^?^^?l6! form : 

 som, 'father-in-law'; some, 'mother-in-law'! This mistake occurs 

 at [201, i], and to make sure is repeated at [201, 13]. 



106. At [202, 3] we find, je suis un Dieu Ion qui n'ai de Jiaine pour 

 aucun de ceux qui viennent a moi, where the text gives emeiste laau 

 nrome, which he took to be the verb meste, ' to hate' ! But it was 

 mei - ste ebol, ' I do not cast out', ov /xt] e/cySaAw e^w, John vi. 37. 



107. Immediately after, il ne me convient pas d^ avoir les preferences 

 par mi ceux qui sent a fnoi, is given for the words, ouk exestei nai 

 er petiwasf hn netenwi ne, "is it not lawful for me to do what 

 I will with those that are mine" [nete nwi], Matth. xx. 15. 



108. And just below he gives rightly, si un de ceux qui m'' appartien- 

 nent s'eloigne de moi pour ce meter aux gentils, though he has edited the 



