SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

Affinity to Coptic Version: The Greek text upon which the Coptic Version was based on is still a satisfactorily unanswered question. This is due to the lack of a standard edition of the Coptic Old and the New Testaments to allow for such conclusion. However agreement with Codex Vaticanus is pronounced in both the Bohairic as well as the Sahidic versions of the New Testament. This is clearly attested to in B.M. Metzger's survey of the Coptic versions in his 1977's The Early Versions of the New Testament - Their Origin, Transmission, and Limitations , pp.133-141. New Facsimile Edition: Owing to the delicate state of the Codex, the Vatican in 1999 authorized the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca Dello Stato to produce a new facsimile edition of this codex. The purpose was not only to provide a reproduction of the Codex contents, but to actually produce a replica of it in every detail that is humanly possible. Only 500 copies will be made, 150 will be for the Vatican Library's own use. According to the publisher, these copies are individually numbered in Roman Numerals from I to L, and in Arabic Numerals from 1 to 450. One such copy was received by St. Catherine Monastery in Egypt's Sinai desert as a gift from Pope John Paul II, upon his historic visit to the monastery in February 2000. The edition consists of two volumes. The first is a small Prolegomena volume of about 76 pages, with essays about the codex in a variety of languages. The volume size is 25.4x27.7 cm, printed on paper weighing 140 g/m 2 . This volume is also autographed by Pope John Paul II, on December 25, 1999.

The second and most important volume is the facsimile edition, measuring 26.2x27.7 cm. It contains the 1560 pages of the original without any addition that is not found in the codex at it is preserved now in the library. It is printed on special non-conventional, parchment-like paper, weighing 115 g/m 2 . The copper-like color of the paper was designed to emulate the color of the original parchment pages of the manuscript. For this purpose, the publisher commissioned Cartiere Miliani di Fabriano to manufacture this paper especially for this project. They also manufactured the heavier, but standard, paper of the Prolegomena volume. Th exquisite binding was a further emulation of how the original volume looked. Both volumes are fitted in a sturdy Plexiglas pocket case, 0.5 cm thick on all sides. This makes the total thickness of the case to be slightly less than 6 inches thick. A sight to be hold for a most important treasure of Christianity in general and Egyptian Christianity in particular. A treasure that H. B. Swete described in the introduction to his edition of the Septuagint as "THE CHIEF GLORY OF THE VATICAN LIBRARY"!!! The society in its effort to acquire copies of such treasures has acquired a copy of this magnificent edition for its antiquity as well as its value in the study of the original Bible. This set which is numbered 202/450 will go on display at the Los Angeles Coptic Center during the Bible in Egypt Exhibit during the month of June, 2000.

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter St. Thomas the Anchorite of Shinshif (by Hany N. Takla)

that St. Shenouda had for him. Currently there is a monastic church built on the site of the mountain in his name. This church holds a great significance to this writer, whose family was in charge of serving it from its base in the Pachomian monastery of Al-

Introduction: Around the time of St. Shenouda, there lived in a mountain, near Akhmim, an anchorite monk, called Thomas. Our knowledge of him is derived mainly from the Arabic Life of St. Shenouda, where we are told of the great reverence

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