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Coptic literature is the body of writings in the Coptic language of Egypt, the last stage of the indigenous Egyptian language. It is written in the Coptic alphabet . The study of the Coptic language and literature is called Coptology .
The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit, also known as the Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians, [1] [2] is a Sethian Gnostic text found in Codices III and IV of the Nag Hammadi library. The text describes the origin of three powers: the Father, the Mother, and the Son, who came forth from the great invisible Spirit.
The phonological system of Later Egyptian is also better known than that of the Classical phase of the language because of a greater number of sources indicating Egyptian sounds, including cuneiform letters containing transcriptions of Egyptian words and phrases, and Egyptian renderings of Northwest Semitic names. Coptic sounds, in addition ...
The codex is written in the Sahidic and Subachmimic dialects of Coptic, [62] possibly by a speaker of Subachmimic trying to write Sahidic. [63] This Coptic text is a translation of a now-lost Greek original. [64] [65] The Nag Hammadi manuscript itself was written around 400 CE. [66] Scholars disagree on the date of the original text.
[4] [9] Written in Sahidic Coptic, it is believed to be written by a single scribe, and like other pieces of the Bodmer papyri, is part of a singular library containing a combination of Classical literature, Apocrypha, Biblical canon, math, and personal correspondences of the local monastery, the Pachomian Order. [1] [3] [4]
The Coptic language, the last form of the Egyptian language, continued to be spoken by most Egyptians well after the Arab conquest of Egypt in AD 642, but it gradually lost ground to Arabic. Coptic began to die out in the twelfth century, and thereafter it survived mainly as the liturgical language of the Coptic Church. [15]
Examples of purely Coptic literature are the works of Anthony and Pachomius, who spoke only Coptic, and the sermons and preaching of Shenouda the Archmandrite, who chose to write only in Coptic. The earliest original writings in the Coptic language were the letters by Anthony. During the 3rd and 4th centuries, many ecclesiastics and monks wrote ...
The autobiography has been called the oldest form of Egyptian literature. [3] The Nile had a strong influence on the writings of the ancient Egyptians, [4] as did Greco-Roman poets who came to Alexandria to be supported by the many patrons of the arts who lived there, and to make use of the resources of the Library of Alexandria. [5]