Posted on 06/21/2006 5:10:00 PM PDT by blam
The Book of Isaiah under the sands of Egypt
The archaeological mystery has been solved! The latest research shows that the manuscript found by Polish archaeologists in the village of Gourna (Sheikh abd el-Gourna) near Luxor in Upper Egypt contains the entire biblical book of Isaiah in the Coptic
translation. “This is the first complete translation of this book in Coptic” – says Prof. Ewa Wipszycka-Bravo of the Institute of Archaeology at Warsaw University.
In February last year, Tomasz Górecki heading the Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology at the Warsaw University mission in Gourna, made a unique find in the rubbish heap of a monastery. It consisted of two papyrus books in leather covers and a collection of parchment sheets bound by two bits of wood. This was the first discovery of Coptic manuscripts in Egypt since 1952, which are well preserved and supported by a well-researched archaeological context.
One of the books is the “Code of Pseudo-Basili” – the only preserved full text in Coptic, which is a collection of rules regulating Church life. The other contains the life of St. Pistentios, one of the Coptic bishops. Both texts date back to the 7th/8th centuries.
The books are under conservation in the National Museum in Alexandria and only then will the full text be known, says Górecki. However, their character and content are already known.
Identifying the third manuscript was much harder. An untitled collection of 50 richly decorated parchment sheets written in Coptic, bound by two pieces of wood. The Polish archaeologists turned to researchers from the University of Rome to help decipher the texts. Prof. Wipszycka-Bravo says that Tito Orlandi, who reads Coptic documents like most people read a newspaper, has pronounced them to be the book of Isaiah. Many fragments of this book have already been found, but never the whole book.
The wooden planks binding the books were supported by parchment from old texts, one a known apocrypha – “The suffering of St. Peter”, another religious text and tax bills – the professor explains.
It is still not known how these books reached the hermitage. According to specialists, they must have been written in distant scriptoriums. Moreover, an Italian expert dates the book from the 9th-10th centuries, which makes them more recent than the other books.
“The hermitage was abandoned at the beginning of the 8th century, so the parchment could not have belonged to the monks in Gourna. Who brought them there if no Christians were there anymore remains a mystery” – says Prof. Wipszycka-Bravo.
On being transported to Gourna, the books were dumped on the rubbish heap, presumably by the Arabs after chasing out the Christians.
Great find !!
Thanks for a fascinating post. Gee--I'd like to see pictures of those decorated pages!!
Uh, read the article. It's Coptic.
I didn't say the Copts were Muslims. And yes, they have suffered in dhimmitude under the Muslims for 1300+ years.
Uh, read his post, which is what the comment was on.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1653370/posts?page=13#13
"Agreed. In addition, there were the recently acknowledged efforts of the copyists in Irish monasteries. And let's not forget the literally unknown treasures that have quietly deteriorating into mold and dust during centuries of storage in the oft flooded basements of Venice. However, the efforts of Muslim copists should be acknowledged as a major link in the transmission of these works through history."
a related oldie:
How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs
Assyrian International News Agency | Peter BetBasoo
Posted on 06/05/2002 5:45:56 PM EDT by keepa
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/695233/posts
Uh, "Muslim copyist" says Muslim, and Copts (copying Coptics included) aren't Muslim.
I seem to recall that is was the "preservationist" Muslims who ransacked and burned the fabled library of Alexandria. But, I could be wrong; maybe is was Catholic leprechauns.
I seem to recall that it was the "preservationist" Muslims who ransacked and burned the fabled library of Alexandria. But, I could be wrong; maybe is was Catholic leprechauns.
There, better.
Or was it Lesbian Episcopalian Women Priests? Oh that's right Leprechauns aren't real!!
Many of those same works were still available in Greek in Constantinople and its lands...they did not go through the dark age there...there is a complicated interplay of information and ideas that went on in the eastern Mediterranean...and lots of trade."many of those same works" -- not Coptic versions of Scripture.
Just a note to say thanks for taking the time to look up and post this information.
I was a medievalist in a former phase of my life...
Unfortunately for the Islamic world (from our POV), that was pretty much the high point of Islamic scientific culture...by the 14th century, men like Avicenna and Averroes were not to be seen, as the emphasis of the Islamic world view shifted into a mode that took them away from that.
For those who want to catch a glimpse of things in a fictionalized format, (biased a bit against the 12th century church hierarchy and seen through 20th century eyes) read Louis Lamour's the Walking Drum.
But it is something to realize, that the same approach (and burning intensity) that the Old Man of the Mountain used with his band of Assassins against the crusaders, is very similar to those Al Qada and company.
Nothing much new under the sun...
"many of those same works" -- not Coptic versions of Scripture.
Well then, Constantinople didn't have any of those same works. The works in question, after all, were Arabic versions of the classics, but Constantinople merely had the Greek versions, as they did with Scripture.
In addition, a great deal of what are regarded as classics of Greek and Roman civilization were preserved because they were translated into Arabic by medieval Muslim scholars eager to preserve ancient knowledge. Later, during the Renaissance, they were available so they could be translated back into Greek and Latin by European scholars.See also the link in message 26.
As I recall, you brought up about Coptic versions of Scripture. Hence my comment.
That is, in #31, not the article.
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