• Athan. Vit Ant. 1 (Migne, PO, xxvi. 840 f.X
0 Tb. 2. The Syriac version of the Life has : ' There was the reading in the church ; and at the end of all the Scriptures the Gospel was read ' (see Schulthess, Probe einer Syrinchen Version der Vita St. Antonii (Leipzig, 1894), Syriac text, p. 6, Unes 12 f.
y Vit. Ant. a. i lb. 1.
1 lb. 74 ; Hier. Vit. HB. SO (Tall. IL 81) ; Pallad. Hilt. Law. 26 (PG, xxxiv. 1076).
C r((. ArU. 16.
n tb. 89.
9 See Renaudot, Liturgiarum Orientalium ColUctio (Paris, 1716), vol. 1, p. 203 ff.
J Ih. pp. cxxiii, 207.
« lb. p. 204.
X E.g. the discourse in chapter 74. Robertson, who believes in the geituineness of the Life, admits that ' even an Athanasius would not so entirely rise out of the bio;rraphical habits of his d.iy as to mingle nothing of his own with the 6i>rorhe3 of his 'hero '('Athanasius' in Sicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, I p. 191).
I
I
EGYPTIAN VERSIONS
EGYPTIAN VERSIOKS
en
accoonts given in his Life, he himself spoke E(,'y[jtian, and only acnuireU Greek in later years.o Uis monks as a rule were eoiniiion E<^yptian peasants, who knew no langua^'e Ijut their own. The Greeks and Romans of his settlement were in a separate house, presided over by Theodore of Alexandria.^ Yet throughout his Life great stress is laid on the study of the Bible, and there are frequent allusions to learning passages by heart.7 Pachomius himself was in the habit of speaking from the Scriptures to his nioiiks.J When a novice first came, according to the rules of the monastery extant in Greek, lie began by receiving ' the Prayer of the Go.'pel ' (ttjx fuxiiy toO ciayye- \lov) and learning certain Psalras.e Unless our accounts of Pachomius' life and work are most misleading, we can scarcely doubt that there was, early in the 4th cent., a Coptic version of the Bible. The attempt to trace the translation further back is beset with difficulties. We know very little concerning Christianity in Upper Egjpt before the time of Pachomius. Eusebius indeed tells us that in the persecution under Severus (A.D. 202), which was especially felt at Alexandria, martyrs were brought to that city from ' Egypt and all the Thebaid.'f But no such tiadition survives in Coptic literature. We have no evidince that in early days the Alexandrian C'lurch seriously attempted missionary work. If the Alexandrians had wished to do so, it would have been no easy task. For they were regarded as foreigners by the rest of Egypt ; 17 and their position was not unlike that which Englishmen occupy in India to-day. 6 Besides the difficulty of the language,i they found it, as Origen says, no easy task to persuade an Egyptian to give up idolatry and ' despise those things which Tie had received from his fathers.' /t Heathen worship down to a late time ' retained its firmest stronghold in the pious land of Egypt.' X The increase of the Episcopate under Demetrius (c. 189-232 A.D.), and more especially under his miccessor Heraclas (c. 233-218 A.D.), must indeed be regarded as an indication of missionary activity.yu If Christianity in the time of Demetrius had spread as far south as Antinoe,*' the Church was evidently becoming too large for the personal supervision of a. single bishop at Alexandria.
The bishop who succeeded Heraclas — Dionysius
a Ct. Am^lineau, Annalet du Mwiie Ouimtt, rvU. pp. 147, 629; Act* 88. Mai. liv. VU. Path. 60; Parai. de SS. I'ach. et Theodor. 27.
g Amtl. op. cit. pp. 147, 160.
r See e.g. Ain«l. op. cit. pp. 12, 18, 22, S7, 41 1., 60t., 78 1., 92, W.
I lb. p. 141 : Miuion Arch. Mtmoirtt, Iv. p. B53.
I Mif^e, PO, x\. 049. For the correapondinp Ethiopio Bee Basset, Let Apoc. Elhiopiene, viil. (1896) p. 31. Tile Latin form U found In (Heron. VaU. ii. 62.
{ Eusebius, UK, vi. 1.
n In the Life of Theodore we hear of brethren * who Inter- >reted his words in Greelc to those who did not know SpJl'tian, because they were strangers (gixcoO and Alex- andrians.* See Zoegu, op. cit. p. 871 ; Am^I. AnnaU* du MG, ivii. p 302.
e Ct. lilommsen, Provineet of th» Roman Smpin (Dlcluon's Eni;. trans.), il. p. 262.
I See the account of MocariuB, bishop of Antaeopolis, In Aln61. Miction Arch. Mimoire*, iv. pp. 93. 95 f. ; Zoega, op. eit. p. 99.
s oriKen, Contra Celt. I. 62 (Ixjmm. ivlll. p. 97).
X Monimscn, op. cit. ii. p. 260. See also Ainiil. Let Acttt det Martvrt de f^iflite eopte (Paris, 1890), p. 7, note 2; Erman, ZA.S, 1896, p 43 n
u Eutvcbiua, Annalet (Pococke, Oxford, 1866), I. p. S.'i" (sec LiBhtloot. rhilippiant, p. 231 f). The fact that before tlie time of l>emetnus there was no E(0'l>tian iiishop out«ido of Alexandria nee<l not gu^f^rest thnl ' tlio prn^reHS of Christianity was for a long time confined witliin the tiniits of a single city ' (see Gilibon, Decline and Fait 0/ the Roman Hmjnrr, c. XV. Bnn-'s ed. ii. p. 60). For the Alexandrian diocese might have been, like the early dioceses of Oanl atid N. Italy (DuohtHiie, Faetet /jriecojtaux de t'ancienn* Gaule, I. p. 33 IT.), of very consideralde extent. See Pearson, Vindicitt Epint. S, /i/mifii (Cambridge, 1672) I. p. 170.