In July of this year, I was able to travel to Geneva to work with the Bodmer Collection in Cologny.  The object of the trip was a collaboration with Ira Rabin from the BAM (Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung) to do ink analysis on manuscripts from the Bodmer Collection.  I have previously traveled to the archive to work on a project that is in progress, and I was particularly interested in the ink analysis of Papyrus Bodmer 44, a Bohairic translation of the Book of Daniel.  

Research was carried out using an XRF (X-ray fluorescence) spectrometer to analyze the chemical composition of Bodmer manuscripts’ inks.  Specifically, the radiation is sent through the material to be analyzed and the various elements in the ink, e.g. copper, iron, nickel, etc., produce various X-rays, which can then be recorded by the XRF spectrometer. 

Analysis could only be carried out on areas with ink on one side.  Thus, careful preparation was required to identify potential areas that also measured at least Ø 1 mm and had ink in relatively good condition.  Images of the desired areas were also taken using Dino-Lite to produce NL (normal light), UV (ultra-violet), and IR (infrared) photographs of the areas being analyzed.  This provides additional information, and can show when carbon or plant-based inks were being used.

In addition to PB44, we were able to analyze the ink from many different Bodmer manuscripts.  This will be useful not only in understanding the relationship of a text in a singular manuscript, but to also get a better understanding of the Bodmer Papyri as a whole.

The complete analysis of our findings is still in progress, however, I look forward to the results and implementing them in further study on the Bodmer Collection.

 

The Digital Edition and Translation of the Coptic Old Testament at the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony is dedicated to digitally describe, edit and analyse the transmission of the Coptic Old Testament with a focus on the Sahidic tradition. The long-term project has an opening for a one-year paid trainee program, to be filled from January 1, 2026. This trainee program will give the successful applicant the opportunity to expand their knowledge about the Biblical tradition in Coptic and to receive further hands-on training in editorial methods, manuscript studies and digital humanities, as applied to the Coptic Bible and Coptic literature.

The trainee will commit to working 30 hrs per week in a variety of tasks, which will depend on their experience and interests and the current Old Testament project focus. If pursuing a research project within the wider field of the Coptic Bible the trainee will be able to dedicate up to 50% of this time to their own research.

Prerequisites are a degree in Coptic Studies or a project-related field (Egyptology, Biblical Studies, History of Christianity, Digital Humanities or similar) and a working knowledge of Coptic. Other language skills (in particular in Ancient Greek or Arabic) are welcomed.

Please direct enquiries and applications (short CV, digital copies of diplomas or transcripts and letter of motivation – as a single PDF file) by October 15, 2025 to adw.bewerb@adwgoe.de.

For further information contact Prof. Heike Behlmer (heike.behlmer@uni-goettingen.de) or Dr Frank Feder (frank.feder@adwgoe.de). Information about the project is available on its website: https://coptot.manuscriptroom.com.

The Academy aims to increase the proportion of women in areas where they are underrepresented and therefore explicitly invites qualified women to apply. It also sees itself as family-friendly and supports the compatibility of work and caring commitments.

Disabled persons or those of equal status will be given special consideration if their qualifications make them suitable candidates.

We would like to point out that submitting an application constitutes consent under current data protection law for us to process your application data. You can find more details on the legal basis of this and the use of your data at: https://adw-goe.de/ueber-uns/datenschutzerklaerung/.

Travel and application expenses cannot be reimbursed.

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.

It is my great pleasure to announce the guest blog on the British Library website by our colleague, Lina Elhage-Mensching, on the Bohairic–Arabic Holy Week lectionary Add MS 5997 dated 1273 CE. This showcase is one of the results of a collaboration between the British Library and the Coptic Old Testament Project at the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony. Lina analyses this lectionary in the framework of the DFG project Digital Edition of the Coptic Holy Week Lectionary (n° 491266891).

From 2 to 7 June, I visited the British Library in London to examine biblical and liturgical Coptic manuscripts held there. These manuscripts belong to three different projects ongoing at the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony. 

• CoptOT

As a member of the Göttingen CoptOT team, I was responsible for performing autopsy on pages containing texts from the books of the Pentateuch, including Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, as well as Old Testament lectionaries. Nowadays, autopsies are not performed on every page, given that the quality of coloured photographs has improved immensely since the start of my academic career in the early 1990s. Nevertheless, autopsy remains an important method when working with ancient manuscripts. Consequently, the statistics of the Göttingen Virtual Manuscript Room now include the number of pages autopsied by a team member.

 

At the British Library, I consulted Coptic manuscripts in the ‘Asian & African Studies Reading Room’ section on the third floor. There, throughout my research stay, I had the full support of Michael Erdman, the Head of the Middle Eastern and Central Asian Section. He gave me permission to take photos and to use the library’s UV light device. Furthermore, since the British Library does not yet have a special box that can be used as a ‘dark room’ for reading manuscripts under UV light, he also allowed me to build a temporary one using a few book cradles. This practical ‘invention’ served me very well.

 

 

In particular, it helped me read the parchment large leaf, bearing the shelfmark Or. 4717, folio 1 verso, which is the single leaf left from a once extensive manuscript listed in CoptOT as sa 2187 containing biblical Odes 2–4: Deut 32; 1Sam 2; Hab 3. The leaf measuring 290 mm x 235 mm has strong darkened areas and therefore using UV light renders the ink visible beneath the dirt and makes a significant difference. Whereas in cases where the ink has faded, but traces remain from the pressure of the calamus while writing, the result would be less satisfactory.  

 

• DFG project n° 491266891

As the supervisor of the DFG project ‘Digital Edition of the Coptic Holy Week Lectionary’ I needed to photograph two Bohairic lectionaries with the curator’s permission. After studying my photographs, Lina Elhage-Mensching established that one of them, BL Or. 5453.1, folios 1–13, was not a Holy Week lectionary, but rather an Easter Week lectionary. The second lectionary, BL Or. 1242.6, folios 1–3, had not yet been studied in the framework of our project as the photos were lacking. This trilingual Bohairic–Greek–Arabic Holy Week lectionary has the siglum bo 3001L in our project. Its folios are dispersed over various library collections such as Oxford (BL, Copt.c.3, folios 1­­­–4), Hamburg (SUB, Lect. 1, folios 1–40) and Vienna (ÖNB, K 11346, folios 1–3).

• DFG project n° 287993677

Last but not least, as part of the third project, ‘The Hymns in the Coptic Liturgy of the White Monastery in Upper Egypt,’ I had to take care of typikon leaves from the codices MONB.WC, MONB.WK, and MONB.WP. I measured the new typikon leaves and compared my transcriptions with the manuscript. While this work was mostly routine, I was able to identify a few difficult words that were not found in the other typika from different library collections.

It is always a pleasure to visit the British Library and I look forward to my next research stay, as there is still much work to be done in the area of Coptic biblical and liturgical manuscripts.