The present volume contains philological editions of three unpublished Coptic texts, with annotated translations and indices. Two of the three texts are stories of martyrdoms, whilst one is a sermon on Archangel Gabriel.
The three hitherto unpublished Coptic literary texts edited and translated here derive from the famous monastery of St Michael at Hamuli and currently belong to the collections of the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. The first work, a passio of a soldier named Phoibamon, is a native Coptic composition that provides a prime example of the so-called 'epic' type of Egyptian martyrdom literature. The second text, another martyrdom of three saintly soldiers, Theodore, Leontius, and Panigerus, represents anciently translated literature and shows interesting deviations from the more standard mould of Coptic martyrdoms. The third and final work edited here is a sermon on St Michael the Archangel attributed to Archelaos, a bishop of the town of Neapolis.
These fascinating stories and discourses are of notable interest to students of early Christianity as well as to Coptologists and Egyptologists.
Sami Uljas
Egypt Late Antiquity Early Christianity Hagiography