272 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



Matth. XX. 3, 6, wHch is missed, when lie renders : ne reste pas ainsi en 

 repos, instead of 'be not idle\ mprsope erwosf , for wosf is the 

 very word for "idleness", cf. Prov. xxviii. 19, petpet de nsa wosf 

 f nasei nimntheke . And in the same passage, recevoir la recompense 

 de tes fatigues, is no version of Jekas ere ji mpwbyke mn nefhise, 

 for the last words certainly do not mean " of thy fatigues"; they were 

 intended as a text meaning, ' along with those loho labour ', nete . 



132. On the other side, he does not know at times when he is 

 right ; for what can be the meaning of his [227, y] putting a (?) after 

 his version, alors le Seigneur viendra, son van d la main, nettoyer son 

 -aire{?). Of course the Coptic word means aire (Matth. iii. 12) ; the 

 form it appears here under, jnaau, just exemplifies the dialectal 

 use of a for o, common in this MS., jnow being the normal South 

 Coptic, cf. 1 Reg. xxiii. 1 ; Job v. 26 ; Agg. ii. 19. But he certainly 

 was justified in putting (?) at [227, lo] where tek-rjnau is not so 

 explicable ! 



The text here is : ohs mpasoma . . . auo nghi hn tekrjnau, 

 which he has rendered, moissonne mon corps . . . et hats-le sur ton aire (?) 

 But how does hn come to mean ' upon ' ? That is just about the 

 most improbable meaning that could be assigned to this preposition ! 

 Here it certainly denotes ' instrumentality ' ; [if one were incliaed to 

 guess the meaning of the feminine word rjnau, it would be to explain 

 it as ' flail ', " smite with thy flail " . But there is no good in guessing :] 

 perhaps an emendation may be suggestive ; certainly the fern, word 

 arcnah, ' craticula', would come very near to the letters of his text. 



133. Then we have a Biblical passage disfigured beyond recognition 

 in the version of [229, 3], qui ne se trouve pas dans un temple d^idoles et 

 qui ne contraint personne a V adorer par V inter mediaire de la force 

 humaine. I doubt whether the most accomplished theologian would 

 be able to divine that this is the form which Acts xvii. 24, 25 has 

 been made to assume ! The Coptic text, wde nfsaat nlaau an, 

 means, " he does not need at all" (to be served by men's hands). The 

 verb saat is so commonly used in this sense, 'stand in need of, 

 Siojxai, ivSe-q?, vcrreprjixa, (cf . Job vi. 22 ; xvii. 2 ; Prov. vii. 7 ; ix. 4 ; 

 xxi. 17 ; xxviii. 16 ; Eccl. i. 15 &c.), that I am at a loss to account 

 for the failure to comprehend the word. 



134. The next page contains a curious misconception, at [230, z], 

 where the young virgin martyr in her bold speech cries, si doncje 

 suis capable de faire quelque chose pour mon pays, voici mon corps qui 

 retournera, cotnme il le doit, a la terre &c. The Editor here seems to 

 have been misled by memories of his country's heroine, Joan of Arc, 



