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Language
Coptic
The final phase of the Egyptian language, and a key early witness to the New Testament.
- Family
- Afro-Asiatic (Egyptian)
- Script
- Coptic alphabet (Greek letters + demotic-derived signs)
- Era
- c. 200 CE – 1300 CE
Character
Coptic is the last stage of the Egyptian language, written with the Greek alphabet plus a handful of extra signs. Bible translations exist in several dialects — Sahidic (Upper Egypt) and Bohairic (Lower Egypt) are the most important — and were produced very early, giving direct access to the Greek text as it circulated in Egypt.
What it does well
- Sahidic and Bohairic versions are principal witnesses to the Alexandrian text-type.
- Word-for-word translation style makes reconstruction of the underlying Greek unusually reliable.
Translation challenges
- Dialectal variation: readings in Sahidic may not agree with Bohairic.
- Coptic lacks some Greek grammatical categories, so certain nuances are lost in translation direction.
Notes
The Nag Hammadi library (also Coptic) is unrelated to the biblical text but shows how widely Coptic was used for religious literature.
Documents in Coptic
Manuscripts
No catalogued manuscripts.
Versions
English translations
No catalogued translations.