Coptic Texts (The Nag Hammadi Library and Old Testament Fragments) and Language Tools

[Peter Brylov Christensen]

Hello!

 

Even though it's been a while since I read anything Coptic, I was wondering if any texts editions, dictionaries and/or grammars are currently in the pipeline for Accordance - and if people here would like to have these materials in their Accordance library, of course.

At any rate, it's great to see that some of the "core" texts (New Testaments in the Bohairic and Sahidic dialects) are already available, but it would also be neat to have the entire Nag Hammadi Library as well. At least the Gospel of Thomas is there, though.

 

Then there's the matter of the Coptic Old Testament fragments, which in my experience are somewhat difficult to find even in print editions, so I'd particularly like to request these!

 

As for dictionaries, W.E. Crum's "Coptic Dictionary" is probably the best choice for any serious work with the texts, so it's an absolute must. But Richard Smith's "A Concise Coptic-English Lexicon" is a wonderful tool when you just want to make a quick search.

 

There are many different kinds of Coptic grammars out there (in contrast to the dictionaries), but I've been rather happy with Bentley Layton's "A Coptic Grammar - with Chrestomathy and Glossary" in spite of the fact that it only focuses on the Sahidic dialect. It's the same story with his "Coptic in 20 lessons", which we used for our Coptic class. As such, I'm at a loss concerning Bohairic grammars..

 

With kind regards

 

Pchris

[Unix]

Yesterday I discovered the full Coptic Dictionary (which is Coptic-British? English) by Walter Ewing Crum in one of the Uppsala University libraries, there it is bound as one rather large volume - of course not to be borrowed home and has two newer supplements as separate thin volumes:

1. Compléments au Dictionnaire Copte de Crum par Rodolphe Kasser, 1964
2. Toponymes et Lieux-Dits Égyptiens, Enregistrés dans le Dictionaire Copte de W. E. Crum par Gérard Roquet, 1972

I'd really like to have the whole thing, with the errata incorporated digitally produced, especially the main volume. I can't find another solution, photo-copying the main volume would be costly for me, it costs about ¢60 a page (re)produced by the library - so in that case buying it used would be a better option although probably pricey and I don't know whether there are many for sale, haven't checked.
Some small dictionary would hardly bring out many nuances, I'd rather go through the "trouble" of using the big one by Crum.

 

I simply didn't look for a dictionary/lexicon sooner because it's usually expensive (with my finances that is) for me to travel to Uppsala, although it is convenient, and I rather see a book with my own eyes than read about it or merely from the convenience of my home see the library catalogue listing. Right now I have a 30-day commuter ticket for that route but I'm unsure when/if I will ever again have such a ticket to go the whole way over there. I usually only have a 365-day commuter ticket within my county.

The competing software seemed to have initialized (considering the old SKU) it long ago but not having produced it:
https://www.logos.com/product/5970/we-crums-coptic-dictionary - link goes to a product that doesn't exist:

As for dictionaries, W.E. Crum's "Coptic Dictionary" is probably the best choice for any serious work with the texts, so it's an absolute must. But Richard Smith's "A Concise Coptic-English Lexicon" is a wonderful tool when you just want to make a quick search.

[Rick Bennett]

I've been trying to help get more Coptic resources in Accordance since that has been a past research interest of my own, but it is not straightforward and the perceived interest among users is somewhat low. 

 

The standard grammar is Lambdin, and while the publisher may be interested, it would have to be OCR'd and typeset prior to development, which is expensive and time-consuming. Same goes for Crum but on an exponentially greater scale due to its size, complex formatting, and much older printing. Literally every Coptic character would have to be hand-input.

 

There are more recent works by Layton as you suggest, but they are with Peeters, who like other European publishers are generally more difficult to work out agreeable terms with. 

 

Smith's Concise Dictionary is definitely a possibility, but we'd have to OCR it. The size makes this reasonable, but again, the priority just isn't there due to low interest.

 

If you have any leads on additional texts (Old Testament, etc), we'd be open to pursuing that. The NHL (ed. Robinson) is published by HarperOne so could be something we go for, but we would need to get significant interest to justify it.

 

Thanks for the feedback; others are welcome to chime in as well.

Edited October 12, 2015 by Rick Bennett

[Peter Brylov Christensen]

Hi Rick, many thanks for the update! I have a soft spot for the Coptic language (and its texts) myself, so I'm happy to hear that you're looking into getting these resources. While they are indeed in low demand, it does not make them any less important.

From what I hear, there's a new Coptic dictionary in the works that will supersede Crum, so you might want to wait with that one anyway. I just can't remember what the title is, nor the name of the author(s). I'll have to check with my old Coptic professor for that one.

 

But now that you mention it, there is this new publication of Coptic manuscripts called Das sahidische Alte und Neue Testament 2,2 in Biblia Coptica series published by the Harrassowitz Verlag. This latest entry in the series contains a bunch of Old Testament manuscripts, something that's very difficult to come by. Might be worth looking into.

 

Here's the link:

 

http://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/title_1068.ahtml?NKLN=86_B

 

With kind regards

 

Peter

Edited October 12, 2015 by Pchris

[David Foster]

I would love to see Coptic resources as well... but I understand the work that it takes-  but thanks Rick for at least thinking about it!