Politics, Monasticism, and Miracles in Sixth Century Upper Egypt: A Critical Edition and Translation of the Coptic Texts on Abraham of Farshut

175 Pages·2012·5.98 MB·English

by  James E. Goehring

Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum
Studies and Texts in Antiquity and Christianity
Herausgeber/Editors
Christoph Markschies(Berlin) · Martin Wallraff(Basel)
Christian Wildberg(Princeton)
Beirat/Advisory Board
Peter Brown(Princeton) · Susanna Elm(Berkeley)
Johannes Hahn(Münster) · Emanuela Prinzivalli(Rom)
Jörg Rüpke(Erfurt)
69

James E. Goehring
Politics, Monasticism,
and Miracles in
Sixth Century Upper Egypt
A Critical Edition and Translation of the Coptic Texts
on Abraham of Farshut
Mohr Siebeck
James E. Goehring, born 1950; 1968 BA from UC Berkeley; 1972 MA from UC Santa
Barbara; 1981 PhD in Early Christian Studies from Claremont University; currently
Professor of Religion at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
e-ISBN PDF 978-3-16-152276-5
ISBN 978-3-16-152214-7
ISSN 1436-3003 (Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum)
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbiblio-
graphie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2012 by Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, Germany. www.mohr.de
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted
by copyright law) without the publisher’s written permission. This applies particularly to
reproductions, translations, microfilms and storage and processing in electronic systems.
The book was printed by Laupp & Göbel in Nehren on non-aging paper and bound by
Buchbinderei Nädele in Nehren. The Greek and Coptic fonts in this work are available
from www.linguistsoftware.com.
Printed in Germany.
For Linda

Preface
This volume represents an interest that has spanned my academic career.
In 1983, I delivered a paper at the international conference on the Roots of
Egyptian Christianity in Claremont, California, entitled “New Frontiers in
Pachomian Studies,” in which I explored the nature of the available
sources, noting their concentration on the movement’s early history and
the relative dearth of information on its later years. While the pattern is
fully understandable, it awakened in me an interest in the later years of the
movement, which led me to the texts on Abraham of Farshut. This bore
fruit in 1984 in the form of a paper delivered at the 1984 annual meeting of
the Society of Biblical Literature entitled “Chalcedonian Power Politics
and the Demise of Pachomian Monasticism,” which appeared in 1989 in
the Occasional Papers series of the Claremont Institute for Antiquity and
Christianity.
My decision in 1985 to accept a faculty position at Mary Washington
College in Fredericksburg, Virginia, resulted in new expectations and new
scholarly connections. Interest in the documentary evidence of early
Egyptian monasticism came to intrigue me in terms of the counter-
evidence it supplied to the familiar literary accounts. Numerous papers and
articles resulted, which led eventually to my interest in the role of the
desert in the real and the literary construction of monastic origins.
Throughout the years, however, as time permitted, I found myself return-
ing to Abraham of Farshut. I carved out time to gather photographs of the
manuscript pages, to transcribe and translate them, and to visit the
museums and libraries that housed the originals. As my efforts progressed,
Abraham of Farshut began to surface with increasing frequency as the
subject of paper presentations and published articles. The decision to focus
on these texts for my 1995 presidential address to the North American
Patristics Society marked a turning point. While publication of the critical
edition remained many years away, my focus had returned more fully to
Abraham of Farshut.
As with any research project, and especially one that has spanned so
many years, numerous people and institutions that offered help, insight,
and support deserve credit and thanks. Many elements in this volume
depended on them. Tito Orlandi kindly supplied me with copies of
Antonella Campagnano’s preliminary microfiche editions of White
viii Preface
Monastery codices GB and GC, which contained the primary texts on
Abraham of Farshut. The late René-Georges Coquin shared with me his
interest in the project as well as his own transcriptions and photographs of
the manuscript pages housed in the Institut français d’archéologie
orientale. Stephen Emmel responded to numerous queries, checked various
transcriptions against the originals, and helped resolve the codicology of
the manuscripts. Apart from his wisdom and help, the codicological
analysis and resulting pagination would be less secure. My colleague
Mehdi Aminrazavi translated the Arabic section on Abraham of Farshut in
the Copto-Arabic Synaxarion, and Febe Armanios kindly agreed to review
it. Other scholars to whom I turned with specific questions and/or requests
over the years included Monica Blanchard, Douglas Burton-Christie,
Elizabeth Clark, Hans Förster, Gawdat Gabra, Clayton Jefford, David W.
Johnson, Rebecca Krawiec, Bentley Layton, Mark Mousa, Caroline
Schroeder, L. Stoerk, Janet Timbie, Richard Valantasis, Tim Vivian, and
Colin Wakefield. I would also like to thank Ilse König of Mohr Siebeck,
whose friendly help in the typesetting process accounts for much of the
volume’s pleasant design.
I must thank as well those who facilitated my work at the various
libraries and museums that currently house the manuscript pages, and
supplied permission to publish them in the present edition. These included
the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna, the Bibliothèque
nationale de France in Paris, the Biblioteca Nazionale “Vittorio Emanuele
III” in Naples, the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin, the
Insitute français d’archéologie orientale in Cairo, the University of
Michigan Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the Coptic Museum in
Cairo. Both those with whom I corresponded and those on site were
helpful and encouraging. I am also grateful to the Royal Library in
Copenhagen which supplied the relevant pages from Zoega’s papers used
in this edition, and to Paul Peeters of Peeters Publishers who granted
permission to include the excerpt on Abraham contained in the Panegyric
on Apollo.
At my own institution, staff and students played an important role in the
production of this volume. Our director of interlibrary loan services, Carla
Bailey, offered essential aid, as did our departmental secretary, Cindy
Toomey. Student requests to teach introductory Coptic generated
opportunities to focus on the language and in some cases actually read
pages from the panegyrics on Abraham of Farshut. Josh Sosin and Andrew
Crislip, who went on in Classics and Early Christian Studies respectively,
proved particularly capable and generated interesting insights into the text.
Brent Arehart, Jennifer Hendricks, and Clelia LaMonica worked on the
indices and proof read copies of the manuscript.
Preface ix
Financial support from the National Endowment for the Humanities in
1993 and 2002–03 and from the University of Mary Washington on
numerous occasions facilitated the acquisition of photographs, travel to
various libraries and museums in Europe and America, and most impor-
tantly the time necessary for uninterrupted work on the project.
Finally, scholarship does not arise in a vacuum. Mine is grounded in a
broader world of family, friends, nature, and pets. They form the ground
from which my scholarship grows and to which I return constantly for
stability and nourishment. Conversations over dinner, a glass of wine
shared on our deck, birding, canoeing, hiking, and camping offer the
respite from the demands of research and writing that for me make it
possible. Nature resuscitates me; it is my “desert.” Through it all, Linda
has been there with me. Her unflinching support has nourished me through
the long process of this book’s production. She is my escape, and I cannot
imagine accomplishing what I do without her. For these reasons and more,
I dedicate this book to her.
Finally, I must take note of Mieze and Cleo, who have been a constant
presence in our lives these last few years. Mieze, in particular, was
intimately involved in my project. Each morning when I headed up the
stairs to my office, her feline form raced past me to my desk. As I sat
down to write, she was there, brushing up against the computer screen,
demanding attention. Only after the appropriate amount of petting, defined
by her of course, did she settle down on her desktop cushion, allowing my
work to begin; and then, as I worked, she occasionally caught my
attention, glancing up in a fetching manner that demands acknowledge-
ment (another welcome respite in the day). She, like Linda, made the work
easier.

Fredericksburg, Virginia 2012 James E. Goehring