SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

life of Pope Timothy according to current scholarship. He further elaborated on his actions during the turbulent post-Chalcedonian years which brought great hardships upon the Copts and indirectly paved the way for the rise and quick spread of Islam, about a century and a half later. He also enlightened us with some of the views of the West toward Tome of Leo, the cornerstone of Chalcedon. Views that the Copts in attendance were encouraged by them and made them feel that they were not as alone in their opposition as previously believed. d. Coptic Language: We were pleased this year to have a paper presented on the Coptic Language. It was delivered by Prof. Ayad on Friday Afternoon, sandwiched between the two Coptic History papers on Friday. It dealt with the history of the Coptic Language as the primarily Christian successor of the Ancient Egyptian Language. In fact it is mostly the same, except written in a different form or script. Prof. Ayad, from his linguistic background, introduced the audience to many examples of this widely accepted premise. He also showed that if it was not for the knowledge of Coptic, scholars like Champollion would never have fully deciphered the Hieroglyphs or figure out how it was pronounced. This intriguing presentation took on a form of an educational lecture rather than a research paper. It gave the audience a break from the somewhat dry subject of pure research. e. Coptic Literature & Patristics: This was by far the largest section of the Conference, due mainly to the wide array of topics that this subject encompass. Three of the papers were presented on Friday and the other three on Saturday. The first was authored by our colleague from Melbourne, Australia, Dr. Youhanna N. Youssef, and was delivered by Mr. Hany N. Takla. It dealt with the image of Job, the person, as portrayed in the Coptic liturgical tradition. He presented three themes about him: The Renewing, Temptation and sadness, and the Right Man. He illustrated these themes with quotations found in currently-used liturgical books in use at the Coptic Church today.

These included the Difnar, Psalmodia, Pascha Book, and the Euchologion. He also included quotations from Medieval Coptic writers. The second paper was authored and presented by Miss Nefertiti Takla, a UCLA student. She dealt with the difficult subject of the relationship of Healing and Salvation in early Egyptian Christian thought. She used primarily the Egyptian Liturgy of St. Mark (known as Liturgy of St. Cyril of Alexandria) and the Egyptian Fathers, Serapion, Athanasius, and Cyril; to show how this relationship can be understood. She also surveyed and discussed the Coptic vocabulary pertaining to this subject. The concept of healing through triumph of Good over Evil emerged as the perceived common thread, whether the healing was spiritual or physical or both. It was a great introduction and an admirable treatment of a fascinating and thought-provoking topic. It is hoped that Miss Takla or others explore and develop this concept, using a wider range of Coptic Literature as well as the Coptic Version of the Bible. The third paper on Friday was the marquee one of the day. It was presented by Dr. Mark Swanson of St. Paul Minnesota. It dealt with the Arabic writings of a 9 th century Syrian monk that was quoted extensively by the Coptic bishop Severus ibn al-Muqaffa‘. In the presentation he introduced these writings which were referred to as “Kitab Ustath” or the “Book of Eustathius”, and the methodology of identifying them. He also gave a brief biographical sketch of him as can be discerned from his writings as well as other writers. The author here advanced with considerable arguments that the reasons behind bishop Severus’ use of such writings was that it provided him with an Arabic model to pattern his apologetic writings after. Such apologetics for the faith of the Church in Arabic was new and much needed at such time. This was a rare and very important occasion to introduce the audience to the importance of Christian Arabic Literature. A subject that this presenter is one of its finest representative.

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

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