When undertaking textual criticism of the Coptic translation of the Septuagint, one encounters all kinds of errors that are inherent to the manuscripts, yet these have a bearing on the textual history. I recently encountered such an error while preparing the critical edition of the Sahidic translation of Deuteronomy, specifically at the beginning of Deuteronomy 33:16.

As the editor of Deuteronomy, I had to make a decision regarding this part of the verse, and decided to emend it, as it did not make sense and was not consistent with any Greek Vorlage. The CoptOT project team at the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony has decided to adopt the siglum “Sa” from the Göttingen edition of the Septuagint for cases where we do not have a direct Greek text witness, but have to correct an obvious mistake that occurs in all manuscripts.

Deuteronomy 33:16a is part of the blessing that Moses gave to Joseph, which is found in verses 13–16. For better clarity regarding the context of the passage in question, I am quoting these verses according to the New English Translation of the Septuagint (NETS), edited by A. Pietersma & B.G. Wright, New York 2007:

Deut 33:13           “And to Ioseph he said:

                            His land is from the Lord’s blessing,

                            from the seasons of the sky and of dew

                            and from unfathomable springs below

Deut 33:14          and in a season of produce of the sun’s changes

                           and from conjunctions of months

Deut 33:15          and from the top of mountains of yore

                           and from the top of the everlasting hills

 Deut 33:16         and in a season of earth’s fullness.”

In what follows, I am comparing the Greek text of the Göttingen Septuagint with the Coptic manuscripts from the fourth, ninth/tenth or eleventh centuries for Deuteronomy 33:16a, offering my reconstruction of the original Sahidic text, as well as, for comparison, the Bohairic version:

Deuteronomy 33:16a

Gö LXX:                       καὶ καθ’ ὥραν γῆς πληρώσεως

sa 17 (IV c.)                 ⲁ[ⲩ]ⲱ ⲛ̄ⲧⲡⲉ ⲙ︤ⲛ︥ ⲡϫⲱⲕ’ ⲙ̄ⲡⲕⲁϩ

sa 2006 (IX/X c.)          ⲁⲩⲱ ⲧⲡⲉ ⲙⲛ ⲡϫⲱⲕ ⲙⲡⲕⲁϩ

sa 2164 (XI c.)             ⲁⲩⲱ ⲛ̄ⲧⲡⲉ ⲙ︤ⲛ︥ ⲡϫⲱⲕ ⲙ̄ⲡⲕⲁϩ

Sa                               ⲁⲩⲱ ⲙ̄ⲡⲧⲉ ⲙ̄ⲡϫⲱⲕ ⲙ̄ⲡⲕⲁϩ

Bo                               ⲛⲉⲙ ⲕⲁⲧⲁ ⲡⲥⲏⲟⲩ ⲛⲧⲉ ⲡϫⲱⲕ ⲛⲧⲉ ⲡⲓⲕⲁϩⲓ

Why would three Sahidic manuscripts from such different periods translate the phrase by (ⲛ̄)ⲧⲡⲉ ⲙ︤ⲛ︥ ⲡϫⲱⲕ ⲙ̄ⲡⲕⲁϩ “(in) the heaven and the fullness of the earth”? The key phrase is καθ’ ὥραν “in a/its season”, which occurs eight times in the Septuagint. For our purposes, only the occurrences in Deuteronomy 11:14 and Hosea 2:11 will be of relevance. In both cases, the Greek phrase καθ’ ὥραν is translated as ⲙ̄ⲡⲉϥⲧⲉ, with ὥρα being rendered by the Coptic noun ⲧⲉ, while in the other instances the Sahidic translation uses a different word.

According to Crum’s Coptic Dictionary, the masculine noun ⲧⲏ, meaning “time, season” (Crum 391b), “oftenest” occurs as its variant ⲧⲉ and can be used in adverbial phrases such as ⲙⲡⲉϥⲧⲉ, meaning “at his/its time, right time” or ⲉⲡⲧⲉ, meaning “at, in time”. If we were to translate καὶ καθ’ ὥραν γῆς πληρώσεως in Deuteronomy 33:16a into Sahidic using the noun ⲧⲉ, we should not expect the possessive article ⲡⲉϥ-, however, but rather the article ⲡ-, since the Greek uses a genitive construction involving two nouns, resulting in the Coptic expression ⲙ̄ⲡⲧⲉ ⲛ̄-/ⲙ̄- “in the season of ...”.

We can now reconstruct how the Coptic scribes may have arrived at their incorrect reading of Deuteronomy 33:16a. At an early stage in the history of the Coptic Deuteronomy text, the letters Tau (ⲧ) and Pi (ⲡ) were erroneously transposed. This is evident in our earliest surviving manuscript sa 17, which most likely dates to the fourth century. From a linguistic perspective, this could be termed a metathesis. Subsequent copyists did not suspect an error, as the noun ⲡⲉ with the correct feminine article ⲧ- exists in Coptic and means “heaven, sky” (Crum 259a). This word occurs abundantly in the Old Testament and is frequently used in conjunction with the word ⲕⲁϩ, meaning “earth” (Crum 131a). Once ⲡⲧⲉ became ⲧⲡⲉ, a further change suggested itself, namely to replace My (ⲙ) with Ny (ⲛ), as ⲛ̄- is the correct form of the preposition ⲛ̄-/ⲙ̄- before a word starting with the letter Tau (ⲧ).

Subsequently, in order to make sense of the phrase, the scribes changed another letter: The preposition ⲛ̄-, which can have several meanings, and assimilates to ⲙ̄- when placed in front of the letter ⲡ, was replaced by the preposition ⲙ︤ⲛ︥-, meaning “and, with” (Crum 169b–170a). It is evident that the scribes found it more comprehensible to unite “heaven” and “earth” by using “and”.

We have therefore an example of what the Germans would term a “Verschlimmbesserung”, meaning “disimprovement”, whereby a subsequent correction of an original mistake only makes things worse.