About the course

This course offers an introduction to Coptic literature through direct readings of original material written in the Sahidic dialect of Coptic (and some closely related dialects). Each class session will focus on a particular Coptic text representative of its genre.

This is not an introductory grammar course and therefore a prerequisite is required. Students wishing to take this course must have confidence with the comprehension of simple Coptic texts.

This course is a hybrid course and will have simultaneous online and in-class sections. Local students will have the opportunity to attend the in-class course (and have access to all the online materials) while non-local students can take the course entirely online. The weekly in-class session will be livestreamed through Zoom and archived online for viewing at the students’ convenience. Students viewing the live feed will be able to participate and ask questions. Online course materials will include additional readings, links to online content, bibliography, and supplementary material to help engage the students in the study of Coptic language, history, and culture.

There are no required books for this course. All materials related to the Coptic readings will be provided by the instructors.

Module: Teachings of Silvanus (NHC VII,4), 9 hours

This writing was probably composed in Greek in Alexandria in the fourth century. It is preserved only in a Coptic translation in the Sahidic dialect. It has the character of a wisdom teaching with many Jewish and early Christian traditions. As such, it is a witness for a fourth century wisdom theology from Alexandria.

Instructor: Jens Schröter

Module: The Hermetic Thanksgiving Prayer (NHC VI,7) and salvation, 2 hours

During the session the Thanksgiving Prayer, from Nag Hammadi, will be read and translated, with an analysis of how this prayer participates to the way of Hermes, a way of salvation which is focused on the Logos and on gnôsis.

Instructor: Anna Van den Kerchove

Module: Manichaean (Berlin) Kephalaia, 6 hours

The Coptic Manichaica is introduced, by offering a reading seminar on selections from the Kephalaia (Chapters), a scholastic compendium of Manichaean dogma.

Instructor: Dylan Michael Burns

Module: Gospel of Thomas (NHC II,2), 8 hours

The Gospel of Thomas is an early Christian gospel comprising 114 sayings and parables of Jesus organized into a simple list: roughly half of the sayings in Thomas are also found in the synoptic gospels. Some sayings assert a strong interpretive framework holding much affinity with other early Jewish wisdom theologians, especially those oriented to Plato, such as Philo of Alexandria.

Instructor: Andrea Annese

Module The Life of Hilaria, 9 hours

The Sahidic Coptic legend of the Emperor’s daughter Hilaria has repeatedly been object of scientific interest, as its account is supposedly dependent on an Old Egyptian narrative and the figure of a princess clothing and behaving like man for religious reasons is addressing gender issues. The text will be read on the base of Drescher’s 1947 edition of the only complete manuscript testimony.

Instructor: Lothar Vogel

Conferences

Attendance to the programme of conferences, open to public participation and given in English by specialists of Coptic literature, is an integral part of the Coptic Summer School Programme.