Soliman


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Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 54 (2014) 494–506 

 2014 Sameh Farouk Soliman 
 
 
 
 

Two Epithets of Mark the Evangelist: 
Coptic ye;wrimoc and  

Byzantine Greek θεόπτης 

Sameh Farouk Soliman 

HE HIGH PROPORTION of Greek words appearing in 
Coptic texts has been discussed by many scholars and 
from different perspectives.1 Some of these Greek loan-

words provide evidence for the difficulties that readers as well 
as scholars find in tracing their specific origin. In what follows, 
I discuss how the treatment of Greek loanwords in Coptic gives 
us some indications of these difficulties.  

Greek loanwords in Coptic are divided into two types: (1) 
Words which entered the target language, Coptic, without 
change either in form or in meaning, so that the speaker used 
them as a part of his vocabulary in Coptic—such as εὐ-
αγγέλιον, ἐκκλησία, συναξάριον, ὁµοούσιος, etc.  (2) Words 
which entered Coptic after suffering some corruption and 
paramorphism—such as ποδήρης (‘reaching to the feet’) which 
entered Bohairic Coptic as pot/ri2 (which in Modern Greek 
means ‘glass’ or ‘cup’!). The present research addresses the 

 
1 See W. A. Girgis, “Greek Loan Words in Coptic,” Bulletin de la Société 

d’Archéologie Copte 17 (1964) 63–73; 18 (1966) 71–96; 19 (1970) 57–88; 20 
(1971) 53–68; 21 (1975) 33–53; 23 (1976–1978) 199–222; 30 (1991) 77–92.; 
40 (2001) 61–88; Matthew Almond, A Comparative Study of Loanword Integration 
in Fourth-Century Coptic Literature (diss. Macquarie Univ. 2011); Sofia Torallas 
Tovar, “What is Greek and What is Coptic? School Texts as a Window into 
the Perception of Greek Loanwords in Coptic,” in Frank Feder and An-
gelika Lohwasser (eds.), Ägypten und sein Umfeld in der Spätantike (Wiesbaden 
2013) 109–119. 

2 Girgis, Bulletin de la Société d'Archéologie Copte 21 (1975) 35. 

T 



 SAMEH FAROUK SOLIMAN 495 
 

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second type of Greek loanwords in Coptic, which will require 
investigation of both languages. 

Saint Mark, whose epithet is the subject of this research, was 
according to the tradition of the Church a disciple from among 
the Seventy, the author of the second canonical Gospel, and 
identical with the John Mark mentioned in Acts (12:12, 25, 
15:37). He was the son of a certain Mary who dwelt at 
Jerusalem (Acts 12:5, 11 ff.); he was perhaps converted to 
Christianity by Peter and for this reason called Peter’s son (1 
Pet 5:13). He was the cousin of Barnabas of Cyprus (Col 4:10) 
and the companion of Paul in some of his apostolic travels 
(Acts 12:25, 13:1–5, 15:39). Other traditions add that Mark 
was a Levite and after becoming a Christian he amputated a 
finger to disqualify himself for that service, hence his Greek 
nickname κολοβοδάκτυλος.3 He is represented as having 
remained in Cyprus until after the death of Barnabas (1 Cor 
9:5–6) and then to have gone to Alexandria, where he founded 
the church,4 became its first bishop, and there died (or was 
martyred) in A.D. 63.  

The Coptic Church alone gives Saint Mark the epithet 
ye;wrimoc or sometimes ye;orimoc (see PLATE 1). This un-
paralleled term from its form and its ending would seem to be 
of Greek origin and mean “Beholder of God.” It was believed 
that Mark knew/saw Christ as an eye-witness and was present 
at the wedding of Cana in Galilee—he was the man who was 
carrying the jar when the two disciples went to prepare a place 
for the celebration of the Passover (Mk 14:13–14, Lk 22:11). 
Mark was also the man who fled naked before the crucifixion 
(Mk 14:51–52). Because of these passages, the Coptic Church 
calls Saint Mark the ye;wrimoc, and in his Coptic Doxology 
and on many occasions and places5 as well he is addressed with 
 

3 Hippol. Haer. 7.30.1 (p.311 Marcovich). 
4 Eus. HE 2.15–16. 
5 Such as the Coptic Synaxarium (30 Paramuda), the Diptych of the 

Coptic Church (al-Majma῾), Psali Adam and Psali Watos of 30 Paramuda, 
the Troparia of the Cymbal, and the Hitennis. 



496 TWO EPITHETS OF MARK THE EVANGELIST 
 

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Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 54 (2014) 494–506 

 
 
 
 

this epithet:6  
<ere nak ;w pimarturoc: ,ere pi;eu;aggelict/c: 
,ere pi;apoctloc: abba Markoc piyewrimoc. 
Hail to you, o martyr, hail to the Evangelist, hail to the Apostle, 
Mark the beholder of God. 

Twbh ;m;P|o|c ;e;hr/i ;ejwn: w piyewrimoc ;n;eu;agge-
lict/c: abba Markoc pi;apoctoloc: ;ntef ,a 
nennobi nan ;ebol. 
Pray to the Lord on our behalf, o beholder of God and Evan-
gelist, Saint Mark the Apostle, that He may forgive us our sins. 

Given the obscurity of this epithet, one has doubts concern-
ing its genesis—its meaning in the Greek language and its 
Coptic origin—hence these questions: Is ye;wrimoc actually a 
correct Greek word? Does it in fact mean “Beholder of God”? 
Is it a general and recognized ancient epithet of Saint Mark the 
Evangelist? Is it found in any other ancient Church? Does the 
Liturgy of Saint Mark contain such an epithet? How do the 
ancient ecclesiastical writers, either Greek or Coptic, call Mark 
the Evangelist? Why is Mark the Apostle considered the only 
“beholder of God”? 

From the linguistic perspective, the word ye;wrimoc, sup-
posedly Greek in origin and meaning “Beholder of God,” in 
fact does not occur in any Greek text, either ancient or 
modern. A simple TLG search shows that a word θεώριµος is 
not found in extant Greek, whether Classical or Patristic, nor is 
it in any Greek dictionary. ye;wrimoc is used only in the 
Coptic Church and has no Greek attestation. 

Accordingly, the epithet does not appear in Greek where we 
might have expected it. So the title of the Alexandrian Liturgy 
attributed to Saint Mark:7 Ἡ Θεία Λειτουργία τοῦ Ἀποστόλου 
καὶ Εὐαγγελιστοῦ Μάρκου, µαθητοῦ τοῦ ἁγίου Πέτρου, “The 
Divine Liturgy of the Apostle and Evangelist Mark, Disciple of 
Saint Peter.”  
 

6 Holy Annual Psalmody of the Coptic Orthodox Church (Beni Suef 1908) 357. 
7 F. E. Brightman, Liturgies Eastern and Western 1 (Oxford 1896) lxiii, 113. 



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Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 54 (2014) 494–506 

 
 
 

 

None of the Greek ecclesiastical historians applies this epithet 
to Mark. Eusebius speaks about him thus (HE 2.16.1):  

τοῦτον δὲ Μάρκον πρῶτόν φασιν ἐπὶ τῆς Αἰγύπτου στειλάµενον, 
τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον ὃ δὴ καὶ συνεγράψατο, κηρῦξαι, ἐκκλησίαις τε 
πρῶτον ἐπ’ αὐτῆς Ἀλεξανδρείας συστήσασθαι. 
And they say that this Mark was the first that was sent to Egypt, 
and that he proclaimed the Gospel which he had written, and 
first established churches in Alexandria itself.  

Theodoret of Cyrrhus once calls him τρισµακάριος,8 “thrice-
blessed,” and once µακάριος,9 “blessed,” and elsewhere ὁ 
θειότατος Μάρκος,10 “the most divine Mark.” Thus the epithet 
ye;wrimoc has no precedent in the Church historians; if it were 
originally Greek we would expect it first in Eusebius and then 
in the later historians. 

Further, the History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of 
Alexandria never gives Saint Mark this epithet. It begins: “The 
first biography of the history of the Holy Church. The history 
of Saint Mark, the Disciple and Evangelist, Archbishop of the 
great city of Alexandria, and first of its Bishops.”11 And in an 
encomium in a Coptic codex from the White Monastery, Mark 
is nowhere given the epithet.12  

Abū al-Barakāt ibn Kabar (†1324), in his Mişbāh al-żulmah wā 
idāh al-khidma (The Lamp of Darkness and the Explanation of the 
Service), on the names of the seventy Apostles, calls him simply 
“Mark the Evangelist.”13 And as for the liturgies used in the 
 

8 Eranistes, ed. G. H. Ettlinger (Oxford 1975) p.212.31. 
9 Eranistes, p.263.31. 
10 Comm. in Isaiam 12.34; ed. J.-N. Guinot, SC 295 (1982) II p.396. 
11 Ed. B. Evetts, PO 1.2 (1904) p.135; see also Johannes Den Heijer, 

Mawhüb ibn Manṣǖr ibn Mufarriğ et l’historiographie copto-arabe: Etude sur la com-
position de l’Histoire des Patriarches d’Alexandrie (Louvain 1989). 

12 Tito Orlandi, “Un codice copto del ‘Monastero Bianco’, Encomii di 
Severo di Antiochia, Marco Evangelista, Atanasio di Alessandria,” Le 
Muséon 81 (1968) 351–405. 

13 Anba Samuel Bishop of Ŝibīn al-Qanāţir (ed.), Mişbāh al-żulmah wā idāh 
al-khidma (Cairo 1998) 87–89, 101. 



498 TWO EPITHETS OF MARK THE EVANGELIST 
 

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Coptic Church, ibn Kabar mentions the one of Saint Mark as 
“The Liturgy of Saint Mark, Martyr, Apostle, Evangelist and 
the Preacher of the Country of Egypt.”14 Thus the epithet 
ye;wrimoc is also not found in the ecclesiastical historians of 
the Coptic Church. 

In the liturgical books of the Greek Church there is no trace 
of the epithet. Moreover, in the Μηναῖα the Byzantine hym-
nographers call Mark by many other epithets, but not this one. 
Thus in the Ἀπολυτίκιον: Ἦχος δ΄. ταχὺ προκατάλαβε: τοῦ 
Πέτρου συνέκδηµος, καὶ κοινωνὸς ἱερός, τοῦ Λόγου διάκονος, 
καὶ ὑποφήτης σοφός, ἐδείχθης Ἀπόστολε, ὅθεν τὸ τοῦ Σωτῆρος, 
Εὐαγγέλιον θεῖον, Μάρκε διαχαράττεις, ὡς οὐράνιος µύστης, 
διὸ Εὐαγγελιστὰ σέ, πόθῳ γεραίροµεν,15 “The fellow-traveler 
of Peter, the holy participant, the servant of the Word, the wise 
interpreter, you received, o Apostle, from the Savior the Holy 
Gospel, and wrote it down, o Mark, as a heavenly confidant, so 
with love we honor you, the Evangelist.” In another place on 
the same day Mark is addressed thus: Ἦχος γ΄. Ἀπόστολε ἅγιε 
καὶ Εὐαγγελιστὰ Μάρκε, πρέσβευε τῷ ἐλεήµονι Θεῷ,16 “O 
Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark, intercede on our behalf 
before the merciful God.” In the Byzantine Synaxarion Mark is 
known as Ἅγιος Ἀπόστολος καὶ Εὐαγγελιστὴς Μάρκος,17 “the 
Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark.” The hagiographer 
Symeon Metaphrastes (ca. 960) calls him ἁγιώτατον Μάρκον 
… ὅθεν καὶ εὐαγγελιστὴν αὐτὸν ἐθέσπισαν οἱ µακάριοι 
κανόνες τῆς ἁγίας καὶ ἀποστολικῆς Ἐκκλησίας, “The most 
holy Mark … so the blessed canons of the Holy and Apostolic 
Church call him Evangelist,” and ἐκοιµήθη ὁ µακάριος 

 
14 Mişbāh 123, 124. 
15 Μηναῖα τῆς Ἀποστολικῆς Δ∆ιακονίας τῆς Ἐκκλησίας τῆς Ἑλλάδος 

(Athens 1959–1973) Ἀπριλίου 25, p.97. 
16 Μικρὸν Ὡρολόγιον, ἔκδοσις Παπαδηµητρίου (Athens 2001) 364. 
17 Μηναῖα, Ἀπριλίου 25, p.97; Σ. Αγουρίδης, “Μᾶρκος,” Θρησκευτικὴ καὶ 

Ἠθικὴ Ἐγκυκλοπαίδεια 8 (1966) 748–755, and Σ. Εὐστρατιάδου, Τὸ Ἁγιο-
λόγιον τῆς Ὀρθοδόξου Ἐκκλησίας, Ἀποστολική Δ∆ιακονία τῆς Ἐκκλησίας 
τῆς Ἑλλάδος (Athens 1995) 303, 304. 



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Μάρκος ὁ εὐαγγελιστὴς καὶ πρωτοµάρτυς τοῦ Κυρίου ἡµῶν, 
“The Blessed Mark, the Evangelist and the first martyr rested 
in our Lord” (PG 115.164A, 169C). As we see, the Greek 
Church gives Saint Mark many epithets, but ye;wrimoc is not 
among them.  

Greek loan-words in the Coptic language have been well 
studied.18 Various sorts of dictionaries have been compiled of 
terms of Greek origin to be found in Coptic documentary 
sources, with full references to the original sources and val-
uable, with some limitations, also for literary Coptic.19 And a 
reasonably complete list of names in Coptic documentary texts 
includes Greek, Egyptian, Biblical, and Arabic names.20 None 
of these mentions the term ye;wrimoc or claims for it a Greek 
origin.21 

Arietta Papaconstatinou in her study of the cult of saints in 
Egypt cites for Μάρκος Εὐαγγελιστής many epithets, including 
ἅγιος, απα, ἀπόστολος, and peneiwt (“our father”): again,	
  
ye;wrimoc is absent.22 

In what follows I endeavor to investigate the possible inter-
pretation of the origin of the epithet ye;wrimoc.  

It can be proposed that Coptic ye;wrimoc may be a corrup-
tion for the Greek θεορρήµων/θεορήµων (deriving from θεός + 
ῥῆµα),23 which in effect means ‘theologian’ as does θεολόγος. It 
is applied for example to Gregory of Nazianzus24 and John 

 
18 M. Paryski, A Study of Greek Loan-Words in the Sahidic and Bohairic Dialects 

of the Coptic Language (diss. Univ. Michigan 1941). 
19 Hans Forster, Wörterbuch der griechischen Wörter in den koptischen dokumen-

tarischen Texten (Berlin/New York 2002). 
20 Monika Hasitzka, Namen in koptischen dokumentarischen Texten (2007: 

http://www.onb.ac.at/files/kopt_namen.pdf). 
21 It is absent too from J. Cerny, Coptic Etymological Dictionary (Cambridge  

1976) 43–44. 
22 Le culte des Saints en Egypte des Byzantins aux Abbassides (Paris 2001) 141–

143. 
23 Cf. Sophocles, Lexicon 577. 
24 John of Damascus Orationes de imaginibus tres 1.11; ed. B. Kotter (Berlin 

 



500 TWO EPITHETS OF MARK THE EVANGELIST 
 

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Chrysostom.25 This term occurs in the Life of Saint John 
Khame, describing Saint Macarius:26  
ouoh afseptotc af;i ebol hitotc qenouir/n/ 
ouoh aft/if epimwit mmosi ef] ntotf 
njenpihmot nte V] santef;i epitopoc eyouab 
nte penyeor/monoc ama nyeoceb/ctatoc 
peniwt eyouab abba makari 
And he saluted her and departed from her in peace and betook 
him to the high-road, the grace of God assisting him, until he 
came to the holy topos of our divinely-speaking (?: θεορρήµων) 
and most pious, holy father, Abba Macarius. 

And so of Mark himself: in the Athos MS. Actes inédits de Saint 
Marc 9 our Saint is referred to as ὁ ἀξιάγαστος καὶ θεορρήµων 
Μάρκος, “the marvelous and divinely-speaking Mark.”27 In the 
Rite of Consecration of the Patriarch of Alexandria (dated 1364),28 we 
have four times yeorimoc (pp.12.15, 30.17, 33.9, 46.13) and 
one time yeorimenoc (41.18), normalized in R. Tuki’s edition 
as yeorr/menoc.29 Tuki’s Arabic translation is al-mutakallim 
bi’l-ilahiyāt and one time (p.151.2) al-nāṭiq bi’l-ilahiyāt. 

This interpretation of the word may be valid, and the change 
of form can reflect the fact that the ancient Copts commonly 
changed the unusual Greek endings of nouns, especially those 
that do not end in -ος. For example, Greek µάρτυς entered 
Coptic as marturoc. As the ancient Copts, it appears, were 
not accustomed to such endings, we can suppose that some-
thing like that happened to θεορρήµων: final -ων became -ος, η 
rendered as ι is familiar, so the epithet θεορρήµων became 
ye;wrimoc. Thus the origin of the epithet of Saint Mark may 

___ 
1975) III 85. 

25 Georgius Cedrenus I 94.3 Bonn. 
26 M. H. Davis, The Life of Abba John Khamé (PO 14.2 [1919]) 335. 
27 F. Halkin, AnBoll 87 (1969) 343–371, at 353. 
28 Ed. O. H. E. Khs-Burmester (Cairo 1960). 
29 R. Tuki, PiJwm eferapantoktin eJennieu,/ eyouab I 

(Rome 1761). 



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be θεορρήµων, “speaking from God” (Lampe 632), i.e. Theo-
logian—although Mark was far from being a theologian in the 
same meaning and level of John the Evangelist, for example, or 
Gregory of Nazianzus, and he has never been classified as a 
theologian. 

But how in fact did the Greek Church call Saint Mark? In 
the Canon of the Feast of Saint Mark on 25 April,30 attributed 
to a hymnographer named Theophanes (maybe the Confessor, 
VIII–IX cent.), Mark is called Μάρκος ὁ θεόπτης, “Mark the 
Beholder of God,” or “One who sees God” (Lampe 632). In an 
encomium for Mark written by Procopius Diaconus (†815) the 
evangelist is referred to again by the correct Greek epithet 
θεόπτης (PG 100.1196C). The epithet is associated specifically 
with those few who have seen God, like Moses and Elijah.31 

The question then is: Why was Saint Mark specially called in 
these two ancient churches θεόπτης and ye;wrimoc? For every 
one of the Twelve Disciples and all of the Seventy Apostles saw 
Jesus Christ and could be called θεόπτης and ye;wrimoc. In a 
text attributed to Papias of Hierapolis, who wrote before the 
middle of the second century, we find that he had some doubts 
about Saint Mark and his canonical apostolicity:32  

Μάρκος µὲν ἑρµηνευτὴς Πέτρου γενόµενος, ὅσα ἐµνηµόνευσεν 
ἀκριβῶς ἔγραψεν, οὐ µέντοι τάξει, τὰ ὑπὸ τοῦ Κυρίου ἢ 
λεχθέντα ἢ πραχθέντα. οὔτε γὰρ ἤκουσεν τοῦ Κυρίου οὔτε 
παρηκολούθησεν αὐτῷ, ὕστερον δέ, ὡς ἔφην, Πέτρῳ, ὃς πρὸς τὰς 
χρείας ἐποιεῖτο τὰς διδασκαλίας, ἀλλ’ οὐχ ὥσπερ σύνταξιν τῶν 
κυριακῶν ποιούµενος λογίων, ὥστε οὐδὲν ἥµαρτεν Μάρκος, 
οὕτως ἔνια γράψας ὡς ἀπεµνηµόνευσεν. ἑνὸς γὰρ ἐποιήσατο 

 
30 Μηναῖα 25 Απριλίου, p.96. 
31 Sophocles, Lexicon 577; Rhetorica anonyma 27.5 (III p.175.20 Spengel); 

Manetho FGrHist 609 F 2 (p.12); Theodore Stud. Epist. 51.69, 465.11, 
557.30 (ed. Fatouros); John Damasc. Hom. in sabbatum sanctum 25 (PG 
96.624D); George Monach. Chron. p.135.12, 492.4 de Boor; George Syncell. 
p.2.4 Mosshammer. 

32 Eus. HE 3.39.15 = K. Bihlmeyer and W. Schneemelcher, Die aposto-
lischen Väter3 (Tübingen 1970) 134–139. 



502 TWO EPITHETS OF MARK THE EVANGELIST 
 

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πρόνοιαν, τοῦ µηδὲν ὧν ἤκουσεν παραλιπεῖν ἢ ψεύσασθαι τι ἐν 
αὐτοῖς. 
Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down ac-
curately whatsoever he remembered. It was not, however, in 
exact order that he related the sayings or deeds of the Lord. For 
he neither heard the Lord nor accompanied Him. But after-
wards, as I said, he accompanied Peter, who accommodated his 
instructions to the necessities [of his hearers], but with no inten-
tion of giving a regular narrative of the Lord’s sayings. Where-
fore Mark made no mistake in thus writing some things as he 
remembered them. For of one thing he took especial care, not to 
omit anything he had heard, and not to put anything fictitious 
into the statements. 

From this passage of Papias33 we can perceive an accusation 
that St. Mark never heard or followed Jesus in the flesh; and so 
a trend emerged in the Greek and the Coptic Churches to give 
Saint Mark a special epithet confirming that he was a real and 
canonical apostle and a contemporary of Jesus. Its function was 
to defend Mark against the denials of Papias and others that he 
knew/saw Christ. This epithet includes at the same time a 
defense by these two churches of their canonical and apostolic 
position. So the epithet (Beholder of God) exists in a correct 
form θεόπτης in the Greek Church, but by some error was 
introduced into the Coptic Church as ye;wrimoc.  

How early does the epithet ye;wrimoc occur in the Coptic 
Church? All that can be said is that we see it first in the Sullam34 
of Anba Yuhannā al-Samannūdī which dates from the middle 
of the 13th century (see PLATES 2–3).35 It appears also in many 

 
33 See A. Farrer, A Study in St. Mark (Westminster 1951) 20. 
34 The Arabic term for a Coptic-Arabic dictionary is sullam (“ladder”), as 

the words are arranged to the left (Coptic) and the right (Arabic) in a way 
that gives the impression of a ladder (Latin scala). 

35 Bishop of Samannūd in the western Delta in the mid 13th century, 
author of the first Coptic grammar, who also wrote the first known Coptic 
dictionary. Of his Al-Sullam al-Kana’isi (or Scala Ecclesiastica) two versions 
survive, Sahidic (cf. H. Munier, La Scala copte 44 [Cairo 1930] 1–43) and 
 



 SAMEH FAROUK SOLIMAN 503 
 

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manuscripts of the 14th–15th century, for example Vat.Copto 24, 
P. Copte 26, Vat. Copto 18, P. Copte 73, and P. Copte 30. All these 
include liturgies of the three Saints Basil, Gregory, and Cyril. 

We can conclude that the Coptic word ye;wrimoc as an 
epithet of Saint Mark the Evangelist does not have a simple or 
obvious derivation from Greek. I propose the following pos-
sibility: The Coptic tradition knew the Greek θεορρήµων, 
“divinely-speaking” (as in the Greek texts for Mark and the 
Coptic for Macarius: 500 above), but at some stage it was mis-
spelled to become ye;wrimoc, and there was also a misunder-
standing of the meaning, and so ye;wrimoc was translated into 
Arabic by al-Samannūdī as nazir al-ilah, “beholder of God” 
(PLATE 1).  

 
June, 2014 Assistant Professor of Byzantine Literature 
 Department of Classical Studies 
 Faculty of Arts, Cairo University 

 P.O. Box 12613 Urman-Giza 
 Cairo, Egypt 
 samehfarouk2002@hotmail.com 

 

___ 
Bohairic, both found in many manuscripts: G. Graf, Geschichte der christlichen 
arabischen Literatur II (Vatican City 1947) 372–374).  



504 TWO EPITHETS OF MARK THE EVANGELIST 
 

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PLATE 1: MS. Mingana Arabic 61, 14th cent. 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 



 SAMEH FAROUK SOLIMAN 505 
 

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PLATE 2: Al-Sullam of al-Samannūdī 
MS. Huntington 365 (Bodleian Library, Oxford) 



506 TWO EPITHETS OF MARK THE EVANGELIST 
 

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PLATE 3: Al-Sullam of al-Samannūdī 
MS. Huntington 384 (Bodleian Library, Oxford)