SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

communal resolution and an understanding and common agreement, greetings: Since on this day we all gathered together, we drew up an understanding among ourselves as to whether the naval detachment from the kastrons or other duty could not be settled so that a difficult question might be decided for each one of us. We deliberated in this fashion for no man of us is able to bear the (whole) duty for that event; accordingly we said that a list is to be made, that we declare we made among ourselves, for all duties placed upon us so that we may bear that burden among ourselves in order to find the manner to take care of ourselves in our kastron unabashed. So justly we came to this communal agreement without any deceit or fear or duress or fraud or artifice or ruse or any restraint placed upon us, but of our own resolution. Through this we covenant, swearing by God Almighty and the health of our lords, that for those of us who shall subscribe and those who shall be subscribed for, we shall be communal among ourselves in every matter which is concerned with the duty of the state treasury, whether naval detachment or other duty generally, and that we shall be responsible, at our own risks, that we will not allow any one of us to be mulcted beyond another whether selected as sailor or for any other things. It was decided in this fashion: that if it should be the lot of any one of us to appear before our lords in order to be taken for the naval detachment or other duty generally due by us, we should consider and we should decide among ourselves whether we were free for it or whether we should not allow one to give anything at all beyond the rest of us. Accordingly, if the lot should fall on one or two or three of us and one of us should wish to stay behind, he shall not do this of right and act inconsiderately upon the question, but in the first place it shall happen on this account that he shall be under the curse of the Scriptures and it shall be that he is estranged from the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, for he dared to violate some part of this communal contract. For our security, among ourselves, we drew up this communal agreement, those knowing how to write signing it and those not knowing how to write asking a scribe and he signed it for them. We executed it. + + I, Phoibammon, the son of the late Pises, I sign this agreement in the way it is written. Daveid, the son of the late Severos, he asked me and I wrote for him. + I, Athanasios, the son of Sanchem, I sign this agreement for its validity. ++ I, Aristophane, the son of Iohannes, man of Kastron Jeme, the person asked me and I wrote it for him since he did not know how. + + I, Preshe, the son of the late Ieremias, I sign this agreement for its validity. + + I, Zacharias, the son of the late Kalakolef, I sign this document for....Preshe, I wrote for him...

I, Abraham, the son of the late Pses, I sign [this] document. I, Nicharav, the son of Peha..., [I] sign this document. I, Preshe, I wrote for them [since] they did not know how. + + I, Theophilos, the son.....validity. Thomas, the son of the late [Biktor], I wrote..... + I, Petros, the son of Isaak (?), I sign this agreement for its validity.+ + I, Iezekiel, the son of the late Mathias, I sign this agreement for its validity. I, Zacharias, the son of the late Petros, I sign this agreement for its validity. + I, Lala, the son of the late Mathaios, I am witness. Kyriakos, the son of the late Petros, I wrote for him since [he did not] know how to write. + I, Kyriakos, the son of the late Petros, sign. + I, Helias, the son of Zacharias, I sign this agreement for its validity + I, Isaak, the son of the late Zacharias, he asked me, I wrote for him since he did not kno how to write. + I, Ignatios, the son of the late Mathias, I sign this agreement for its validity. 3. Deed of Sale, acknowledging the receipt of fund for the sale of a room within a house, where the seller was the inheritor (Djeme); Papyrus, Liepzig Univ. Papyrus no. II, 1st half of 8th century AD. Ref. TCLT 7, pp. 64-71 Translation: + In the name..... [Father] and of the Son.....written..... I, Mena, the [son] of the late Athanasios,.....acting as the agent...brothers...the district of the city of Hermonthis, I designate [below] a scribe [who shall] subscribe this document of sale, inviolable and unimpeachable, for me at [my own] wish. I write to Severos, the son of the late Samuel, and Daniel, the son of the late Shenute, men of this same kastron, the district of this same city, greetings: I covenant regarding [this sale] and I enter with fixed writing into this matters; I wish and I [request] without any deceit or fear or duress or fraud or artifice or ruse or any restraint placed upon me, but of my own resolution, I sell to you from today on, which I have named above, all legal ownership, having been satisfied according to the laws of sale. Accordingly I write that from now on unto all time forever after, therefore, the whole room which is below the staircase, which is ours in the house of Paham Soch shall be (yours), that which came to us as the inheritance of my late mother Elisabet, which had been declared as her portion. No other legal rights are left to me in the whole of that room by any other inheritance or by written or unwritten intention. So now to you, you Severos, the son of the late Samuel, and Daniel, the son of the late Shenute, those whom I have named above, you shall enter and you shall take possession of and you shall be owners and you shall be the masters of

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter + I, Samuel, the son of Philotheos, I sign. Daveid, the son of the late Severos, I wrote for him since he did not know how. +

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