Two Short Greek Writings from Roman Egypt
Channel: Galen Currah
Date: 2019-01-19

Two Short Greek Writings from Roman Egypt
wordwatchers.currah.us 2019

Greek was an important language spoken in Egypt between the 3rd century BCE and the 2nd CE. In 332 BCE, Greek king Alexander the Great conquered Egypt and made himself Pharaoh, king of Egypt. 

Following Alexander’s death, a Greek military general Ptolemy I Soter founded Egypt’s final dynasty. 

Under five centuries of “Greco-Roman rule, Egypt hosted several Greek settlements, mostly concentrated in Alexandria, but also in a few other cities, where Greek settlers lived alongside some seven to ten million native Egyptians.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeks_in_Egypt

It was probably in Alexandria, in the mid 3rd century BCE, that the resident Jewish community translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek, including the version commonly called the Septuagint.

For this reason, several generations of young Jews, Greeks and Egyptians had to learn to read and to write the common Greek language called koine. 

Two samples of texts from Egypt written by novice Greek writers have recently appeared in international news outlets, one a secular text, the other a biblical text.

A wax tablet displaying an Egyptian child’s Greek homework from 1,800 years ago is to be put on show at the British Library between April 26 and August 27, 2019.

Discovered some 40 years ago, this is writing lesson of a primary school pupil in second century AD in Egypt, etched in wax in a wooden tablet, which is about the size of an iPad mini.

The top two lines were written by a teacher in an adult hand. A child of between 8 and 9 years of age copied the text twice at bottom, forgetting the first letter of the first word, both times.

The Greek text reads: ΣΟΦΟΥ ΠΑΡ’ΑNΔΡOΣ ΠΡΟΣΔΕΧΟΥ ΣΥΜΒΟΥΛΙAΝ, ΜΗ ΠΑΣΙΝ ΕΙΚΗ ΤΟΙΣ ΦΙΛΟΙΣ ΠΙΣΤΕYΕΤΑΙ which can be translated: “From a wise man receive counsel; do not casually entrust thyself to all thy friends.”

A similar thought can be found in the Hebrew Bible at Ecclesiastes 7:5, “It is better to listen to a wise man's reproof than to listen to the praise of fools,” or, according to the Septuagint: “AΓΑΘOΝ ΤO AΚΟYΣΑΙ EΠΙΤIΜΗΣΙΝ ΣΟΦΟY UΠEΡ AΝΔΡΑ AΚΟYΟΝΤΑ AΣΜΑ AΦΡOΝΩΝ.”

In 1899, papyrologists Grenfell and Hunt published a 25.1 by 19.9 cm papyrus fragment that they had discovered at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt. Designated Oxyrhynchus papyrus 209 and later as 𝔓10, the manuscript contains the Epistle to the Romans, chaper 1, verses 1-7, a book of the New Testament of the Holy Bible.

The manuscript has been date paleographically to the early 4th century, and “was found tied up with a contract dated in 316 A.D., and other documents of the same period.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papyrus_10).

A schoolchild or an apprentice scribe may have copied the manuscript carelessly or from memory. A part of verse 6 is omitted (εν οις εστε και υμεις κλητοι, “who are called to belong to”). The divine names (nomina sacra) are written in an abbreviated way.

Nevertheless, 𝔓10 represents an early form of the text of Paul’s Letter to the Romans, and so is cited in critical editions of the Greek New Testament, along side of the better known Codex Vaticanus (copied between the years 300 and 325) and Codex Sinaiticus (copied between the years (330 and 360).

The New Testament part of the Holy Bible remains the most read book in history as much as in modern times. How well do you know it?