COLIN Η. ROBERTS

Manuscript, Society and Belief

in Early Christian Egypt

The Schweich Lectures 1977

PUBLISHED FOR T H E BRITISH ACADEMY

BY OXFORD U N I V E R S I T Y PRESS

1979

T h e origins and development o f the Church in Egypt remain one o f the vexed problems o f early Christian history. I n his Schweich Lectures D r . C . H . Rober ts examines the evidence o f the Christ ian papyri discovered in Egypt to see what l ight they cast on the problems and how far they support state­ments in our ancient authorities or the theories o f modern scholars. Among matters discussed are the influence o f Judaism and whether Gnostic ism was really as powerful in the first three centuries in Egypt as is sometimes thought; particular attention is paid to the historical significance in these early manuscripts o f the nomina sacra, the abbreviations o f the divine names.

D r . C . H . Rober ts is an Honorary Fellow o f S t . John 's College, O x f o r d .

Dominus illuminatio mea

MANUSCRIPT, SOCIETY

AND BELIEF IN EARLY

CHRISTIAN EGYPT

C O L I N H . R O B E R T S

H O N . D . L I T T .

Fellow of the Academy

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D E L H I B O M B A Y C A L C U T T A MADRAS K A R A C H I

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© The British Academy 1979

Printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Oxford

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PREFACE

It is a pleasure to thank both the President and Council of the British Academy for the invitation to give the Schweich Lectures in the spring of 1977 and the President and Fellows of St. John's College, Oxford, who in continuation of a generosity and con­sideration that now goes back over more than fifty years elected me to a Senior Research Fellowship for the years 1974-6. This provided me with both the incentive and facilities to put together scattered notes I had accumulated on the subject matter of these lectures, to re-think some old problems, and to discover some new ones in an attempt to link palaeography and papyrology with the history of the early church in Egypt.

The printed text is substantially that of the lectures; to this I have added notes, sometimes discursive, and a few appendices. These will, I hope, make clear my indebtedness to other scholars, but there is one acknowledgement which calls for particular mention. The publication in 1976 by the Abbe J. van Haelst of his catalogue of Christian papyri (referred to on p. ix) has simplified my task, makes it easier for the reader to discover more about a particular text, and has placed all students of early Christianity in his debt.

December_1978 C.H.R.

CONTENTS

A B B R E V I A T I O N S i x

L E C T U R E I . T H E E V I D E N C E O F T H E P A P Y R I ι

L E C T U R E I I . NOMINA SACRA: O R I G I N S A N D

S I G N I F I C A N C E 26

L E C T U R E I I I . T H E C H A R A C T E R A N D D E V E L O P M E N T O F T H E C H U R C H 4 9

A P P E N D I C E S 7 4

I. Jewish theological papyri of the Roman period 74

II. The date of P. Chester Beatty VI (Numbers and Deuteronomy) 78

III . The so-called 'Psalm of Naassenes' (P. Fayum 2) 81

IV. Christianity and magic in the papyri 82

V. Nomina Sacra; Some eccentric forms 83

I N D E X 85

A D D E N D A 89

A B B R E V I A T I O N S

P u b l i c a t i o n s o f p a p y r i are referred t o b y the s t a n d a r d a b b r e v i a t i o n s ,

a list o f w h i c h m a y c o n v e n i e n t l y be f o u n d in E. G. T u r n e r ' s Greek

Papyri: an Introduction ( O x f o r d , 1968) . F o r b ib l i ca l a n d o t h e r t h e o l o g i c a l

p a p y r i , w h e t h e r C h r i s t i a n or J e w i s h , a cross-reference is g i v e n to t h e

A b b é v a n H a e l s t ' s i n v a l u a b l e Catalogue des papyrus litteraires juifs et

chrétiens (Paris , 1976) w h i c h g ives a b r i e f descr ipt ion of a n d s o m e

b i b l i o g r a p h i c a l i n f o r m a t i o n o n e a c h t e x t ; i t i s c i ted a s Ή ' , f o l l o w e d

b y the n u m b e r i n the c a t a l o g u e .

O t h e r a b b r e v i a t i o n s e m p l o y e d are a s f o l l o w s :

Archiv Archiv für Papyrusforschung

CPJ V . A . T c h e r i k o v e r , A . F u k s , M . S t e r n , Corpus Papyrorum

Judaicarum

GLH C. H. R o b e r t s , Greek Literary Hands ( O x f o r d , 1956)

GMA W E . G . T u r n e r , Greek Manuscripts of the Ancient World ( O x f o r d ,

1971) HTR Harvard Theological Review

JEA Journal of Egyptian Archaeology

JTS Journal of Theological Studies

T u r n e r , E. G. T u r n e r , The Typology of the Early Codex ( U n i v e r s i t y of

Typology P e n n s y l v a n i a , 1977)

ZPE Zjeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik

ZTNW Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft

Previous Schweich Lectures on Biblical Archaeology

SEMITIC WRITING: FROM PICTOGRAPH TO ALPHABET By G. R. D R I V E R . 1944

Third edition by S. A. HOPKINS. 1976

ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS By ROLAND DE VAUX, O.P. 1959

English translation of the French text incorporating new material, 1973

ETHIOPIA AND THE BIBLE By EDWARD ULLENDORFF. 1967

THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE, JERUSALEM By C H A R L E S COÜASNON, O.P. 1972

SOME ASPECTS OF HITTITE RELIGION By O. R. GURNEY. 1976

Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press

Walton Street, Oxford

ISBN ο 19 725982 ο