Coptico-Graeca: The Sahidic Version of St Athanasius' "Vita Antonii" Browne, Gerald M Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Spring 1971; 12, 1; ProQuest pg. 59 Coptico-Graeca: the Sahidic Version of St Athanasius' Vita Antonii Gerald M. Browne I T IS A WELL-KNOWN FACT that from Alexander the Great's conquest until subjugation by the Arabs, Egypt was a bilingual society, in which a large percentage of the population was completely fluent in both Greek and Egyptian. For over a millennium Greek was the official language of the country, and anyone who studies the papyri which have survived from the period soon realizes that all dealings with the ubiquitous bureaucracy had to be carried on through Greek documents. The practical value of acquiring the ability to read, write and speak Greek was enormous, and it did not take long for bilingual­ ism to develop.1 This bilingualism has an interesting ramification which has not yet been sufficiently explored. In studying the Coptic translations of Greek biblical and patristic literature, scholars have long used the Greek original to elucidate the meaning and structure of Coptic. But the operation can be reversed: we can learn something about Greek if we pay close attention to the work of the Coptic translators. Since the latter had an intimate knowledge of Greek, it is not surprising that they should reproduce in their versions the subtleties and nuances of the original. To demonstrate the skill of the Coptic translators, I have selected some passages from the Sahidic version of St Athanasius' Life of St An­ tony and have compared them to the original Greek.2 These passages 1 For aspects of this bilingualism, see W. Peremans, "Over Tweetaligheid in ptolemaeisch Egypte," AntCl4 (1935) 403-17; H. C. Youtie, "ATPAMMATO£: An Aspect of Greek So­ ciety in Egypt," forthcoming in HSCP 75 (1971); G. Mussies, "Egyptianisms in a Late Ptolemaic Document," Antidoron Martino David [Papyrologica Lugduno-Batava 17] (Leiden 1968) 70-76. I should like to thank my colleagues, Bentley Layton and Zeph Stewart. for their helpful advice in the preparation of these notes. 2 Ed. G. Garitte. S. Antonii Vitae versio Sahidica [CSCO 117, Scrip.copt. iv.l] (1949). cited by page and line number; Greek ed. Montfaucon, in Migne, PG 26 (1887) 835-976. 59 60 COPTICO-GRAECA: ST ATHANAS IUS' VITA ANTONII show that the Copts were familiar with features of Greek that are by no means obvious to modern scholars. I In chapter 52 the author relates how Satan sent a pack of hyenas to attack St Antony. The latter addressed the animals in uncompromis­ ing terms, and the text continues: TaUTa TOU ' AV'Twvtov AEYOVTOC, E¢>VYOV EKE'iva£ we V1TO /Laenyoe TOU '\6yov OLwKo/LEvaL (920 A 1-3). The syntax of we V7rO /Laenyoe TOU AOYOV OLwKO/LEVaL has frequently been misunderstood; editors and translators have long tended to regard TOU AOYOV as dependent upon jLaenyoe and to render accord­ ingly: "as if pursued by the whip of the word." The anonymous fourth-century Latin version 3 has beluae fugiebant, quasi a jlagello ser­ monis effugatae; and Evagrius, who translated the text ca. A.D. 370, appears to have a similar view of the syntax of the passage, despite his rather free paraphrase:4 omnis bestiarum multitudo, quasi maiestatis ver­ here caederetur, aufugit. Bernard de Montfaucon's version, which ap­ peared originally in 1698 and which was reprinted in Migne, has aufugere illae quasi verbi jlagello pulsae. Finally, in 1950, R. T. Meyer wrote5 "they fled, as though hounded by the whip of that word." These translators should have noticed that we tJ'TTO jLaenyoe TOU ,\oyov OLWKojLEvaL is an idiomatic piece of Greek, which means not" as if pursued by the whip of the word," but rather "pursued by the word as if by a whip." We are dealing with a condensed form of expression r ., .. \1 •• , I ~ I Wh h h lor V1TO TOV I\oyov we V1TO jLaeTLyoe OLWKOjLEvaL. en cases ot er t an the genitive are involved, the construction is clearer; e.g. 856 B I1TapE­ Ka(JE~ovTo we E1T~ VEKpifJ TifJ 'AV'Twvt~; Heliodorus, Aethiopica 9.18.3 fI "\''/'' "',/,. I 'Y" ,/,.' we1TEp €1TL I\O~OV 7J ~pOVpLOV TO ,:>WOV KaTa~€vyOV'T€e. Phrases of this type appear occasionally in classical Greek (see Kuhner-Gerth II p.492.2), but the construction is not confined to Attic. The XVIII-century scholar d'Orville, on p.283 of his commen- 3 Ed. G. Garitte, Un thnoin important du texte de la vie de S. Antoine par S. Athanase [Etudes philol.arch.hist.anc. 3] (Brussels-Rome 1939); and H. W. F. M. Hoppenbrouwers, La plus an­ aenne version latine de la vie de S. Antoine par S. Athanase (Utrecht 1960). 'Text in Migne PG 26,835-976 below the Vita; for the date, see Garitte, "Le texte grec et les versions anciennes de la vie de Saint Antoine," Studia Anselmiana 38 (1956) 5. 5 R. T. Meyer, St. Athanasius, The Life o!Saint Antony [Ancient Christian Writers 10] (West­ minster 1950). GERALDM. BROvv.NE 61 tary on Chariton,6 collected instances from the Koine. From his ex­ amples I select the following: Heliodorus 9.22.2 €le~Aae€v ~e1T€p J4>' apf-LaToe TOU JU4>avToe, "he rode in, mounted on the elephant as if on a chariot." Here it is particularly obvious that the second noun cannot depend upon the first. Chariton 3.2.6 aVaKV1TT€W J{3t(f~€TO Ka8eX1T€p €K TptKVf-LLae TOV 1TeX8ove, "he forced himself to bear up under his passion, as if under a mighty flood." Especially close to the phrase we IJ1TO f-LeXenyoe TOU Aoyov are the fol­ lowing examples from d'Orville: Heliodorus 7.24.5 €{3€{3A7]TO f-LEV we IJ1TO TpWe€We TWV Aoywv, "he was struck by the words as if he were wounded."7 The author expressed the same idea in 7.7.7 ~e1T€p {3€AH Tip p~f-LaTt {3A7]8ELe, "wounded by the word as if by a missile," a phrase which elucidates the syntax of WC tJ1TO TPWCEWC TWV A6ywv. Chariton 6.5.6. T~V Kap8lav E-TrA~y7] we1TEp IJ1TO gLcpove TOV Aoyov, "she was struck in her heart by the word as if by a sword." There can now be no doubt that we IJ1TO ll-eXenyoe TOV Aoyov 8LWKO­ f-LEvaL is to be translated "pursued by the word as if by a whip." The Coptic translator has not fallen into the error of the versions listed above; his translation shows that he correctly understood the passage: ~YlTWT N61 NeTuu~y ere lTeq'9~.xe lTHT NCWOY Nee N N Oyu~cTlr~8 (p.59.3-4), "they fled, with his word pursuing them like a whip." II In chapter 33 St Antony discourses on the futility of knowing the Ii . d Hid ,t;:< \ \ • ~ It;:<' I , uture In a vance. e cone u es: OVOEtC yap 7]f-LWV KpLVETaL OLa TL OVK olo€, Kat ouOEk f-LaKapL~ETaL on f-LEf-LeX87]K€ Kat ;yvw (893 A 5-6). The 8 J. P. d'Orville, Charitonis Aphrodisiensis de Chaerea et Callirhoe amatoriarum narrationum libri viii, 2nd ed. C. D. Beck (Leipzig 1783). 7 See the remark of the Bude editors of Heliodorus, R. M. Rattenbury, T. W. Lumb, and J. Maillon, 2nd ed. (Paris 1960) ad loc.: "L'authenticite du texte est confirmee par maints passages analogues, par ex. A II, 5 3 WCTTfiP Vn-O TTPT)CTijpoc Tijc 5.pfiWC {3AT)()€VTfiC, et A XXIII, 2 3 t5TTo 'TWV A6ywv WCTTfiP TtVOC CfitpfjVOC KfiKAT)/L€voc." 8 iii iii 0YUACTlfl for N OyuAcTlr~. 62 COPTICO-GRAECA: ST ATHANASIUS' VITA ANTONI! anonymous Latin version renders this sentence as nemo enim nostrum iudicari habet9 quia non scit, neque beatus appellari habet quia dicit talia aut novit; Montfaucon has nemo nostrum in iudicium vocatur, quod ea non norit; nemo beatus censetur, quod didicerit et noscat; and Meyer trans­ lates "for no one of us is judged by what he does not know, and no one is called blessed because of what he has learned and knows." These versions ignore the precise meaning of SUX Tt; it is not the equivalent of 07"£ or S'07"£ (because),' but is rather an interrogative, ,&"ov To/ 8£0/ 8'd: Tl ~>'afJov Ka~ £lc Tl, "those then who receive alms shall render ac­ count to God as to why and for what purpose they received them," where 8'd: Tl more or less= £lc Tl. [lowe the reference to the Hermae Pastor to Bentley Layton.] 11 Coptic characteristically uses oratio recta to render Greek oratio obliqua. The or.ree. may be introduced by ~€, a common ellipse for € q ~ ill UUO C ~€. See W. Till, Koptische Grammatik2 (Leipzig 1961) §397. The conjunction ~€ in ~€ Aq€1 u€ €NAI could mean "because', i.e. 0-,-" but it is more likely that the translator here handled his original some­ what freely and continued the direct discourse of€TB€ oy N q COOyN AN N NAI. 12 Kleine Beitritge I (Rome 1964) 93-130 (=NAkG 1933,319-54). GERALDM. BROvv.NE 63 pressions, or even nouns. If they function as cola, they acquire an em­ phasis and semantic independence that they would not normally have. In Isaeus 4.11 (Fraenkel p.119), 7TpO S~ TOtlTWV, ovS' av TWV TeOvewTwv ouSek KCt.Te!fiev8eTo, the position of av shows that 1TPO OE TOVTWV is semantically isolated from the rest of the sentence; it func­ tions as a substitute for a clause and means