Atkinson — On a South-Coptic Text of M. Bouriant. 273 



[or Jeanne Bare, as the case may be], " if I can do aught for my 

 country". But the Coptic words, tinaserhob epakah ete pasoma 

 pe, mean " (if) I shall be able to till my soil, that is, my body". 

 The phrase fhob epkah means 'to cultivate, till land', as the 

 following example will show; Prov. xxviii. 19 6 epya^o/^ei/os t^v 

 kavTov yrjv, 7rXr]cr6t]creTat apTwv, petrhob epefkah fnasei noeik. 



It is quite a common conception in this order of writing ; thus the 

 martyr said [178, 1 1] " here is my body as a field in the hand of a 

 husbandman ; plough [tibi] in it as thou wilt, and reap it [tibi] as it 

 may please thee". 



135. But, as if to make up for not translating by c'est a dire when 

 he ought to do so, he at times employs it when he ought not, as in 

 the following : " heureux ceux qui eeoutent la parole de Dieu" , c' est-d-dire 

 la sienne. There is not the slightest justification for such an 

 addition, for the words are, [232, 1], naiatw nhwo nnetsotm 

 epsaje mpnwte eteire mmof, which is the Coptic rendering given 

 for Luke xi. 28 /xevoSvye [nhwoj /xaKapLot ol aKovovres tov Xoyov rov 

 0eoS KOL (fivXacra-ovTes avrov. But c'est-a-dire la sienne (l) 



137. If the word be a somewhat uncommon one, we have no 

 expectation that M. Bouriant will meet the emergency. Thus he 

 says, poiirquoi f informer de jours dejd ecouUs et trompeurs — a phrase 

 which has much more of the savour of Lamartine's style than that of 

 a Coptic homily- writer — where the Coptic has, etbe w ksine nsa 

 hnhow eunasrofref nse parage [233,4]. Sere criticism is at 

 once to hand with the objections, that eunasrofref certainly does 

 not mean deJd ecoules, and nse parage does not mean trompeurs I 'Nov 

 will it mend matters to alternate the meanings; the words mean: "days 

 which will fall like leaves and pass away''''; for nseparage is the 

 ' continuative ' use of the conjunctive, and the verb srofref may be 

 examined in situ, at Job xiv. 2 ; xv. 30 ; Ps. xxxvi. 2 ; Ixxxix. 6 ; 

 Prov. xi. 14 ; Isai. Ixiv. 6; Mingarelli, 146, a; 322, a. 



138. Surely it would be nonsense for a blind man to have appealed 

 to the saint in the words which are put into his mouth, si tu as pitie 

 de moi, je suis miserable [!!] The words are, [236, i], ekesanhtek 

 haroi anok peitalaiporos , "thou shalt have compassion on me, 

 this wretched me ". Where did the hypothetical particle come from ? 

 Did M. Bouriant read eke - san - htek ? 



139. And all the sense is washed out of the words by such a 

 version as, nous ne te laisserons pas VEgypte qui ne te suffit pas. The 

 words [236, x] wkwn mpenko nak ebol nkeme, auo inpefrose 

 erok mean, "well then, didwenotlQdiVQ thee Egypt, audit has not sufficed 



E.I. A. PKOC., SEE. III., VOL. III. TJ 



