The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-04-04
RE-DISCOVERY OF A PSALM
SUPPOSED PART or a COMPLETE
COPTIC PS1LTER.


Semblapce of Genuineness Scholars Must
Pass Judgment.
old Egyptian sun worship and that of
the Mohammedan conquest of Egypt,
when the Arab swept the land like a
sand storm, arose and flourished the
Coptic church, as sequel of the Son of
Man once having made His abode with
the sons of men. This place of Chris
tianity became powerful communion,
with many churches and monasteries
scattered over that country. Some OF
them stood on the ruins of far more
ancient temples and were made OF
their fragments. A notable case in
point is that of the Temple of Dier-el-
Bahari, at Thebes, or Convent of the
North" where were found, bearing in
the pictured hands on their cerements
the painted symbolism of their chief
sacrament-the head of wheat for the
bread and the red-colored glass for the
wine of the Lords supper. In our time
the Copts ar eweak, comparatively, but
I found that there survive STILL in Cal
TO alone, rather more than thirty OF
their churches, the crypt of one OF
which is connected by tradition with
the Virgin Mary and the flight of the
Holy Family into Egypt
The one hundred and fifty-first
Psalm, which has attracted so much
attention since it's recent re-discoVery
in Egypt, as part of complete Coptic
psalter that was prepared and pre-
served by those scholastics, has yet to
be passed upon by the experts as to its
genuineness. But, whether it shall be
once more decreed by them to be apo
cryphal or not, it bears the semblance
of genuineness in it's newly found con-
nection, and it was certainly received
and protected with much confident de-
votion early in the Christian era.
European students in Oriental learn
ing have been unusually interested in
this remarkable discovery. This early
example of the old art of paper max
ing and pen printing is a model OF
beauty. The best translators have
been at work on it in the British Muse
UNI, that vast and bewildering recepta-
Gle Of old things rare and strange.
In the time of the Savior the Coptic
language was spoken in Egypt by the
descendants or successors of the early
Egyptians. This Coptic work is the
oldest eastern manuscript including
any portion of the Psalter. 1t is the
only known entire Book of Psalms in
scribed in an ancient dialect. For
years there was conflict among eccle-
siastics and historians over this 151st
Psalm, which was finally adjudged not
authentic, so it has not been included
in our canonical scriptures But here
in the oldest Oriental manuscript con-
tanning any portion of the Psalter, we
find the long discussed and the dis
credited 151st Psalm in its entirety
bearing marks of genuineness and OF
having been long honored as authorita-
tive, and showing that, if spurious
those early Christians in Egypt were
sadly deceived. If, in the light of our
latest Investigations, the savants shall
list of apocryphal writings, such action
might lead to it's finding an honored
place at length in our authorized b.
bles, and thus a new psalm of David
would be given to the world. The con-
text indicates him as the writer OF
this brief but bold and forcible descrip-
ton of his valorous and victorious en-
counter with the defiant Goliath OF
Gath. The translation of this work
the Coptic Psalter, has been in the
hands of DR.. Bulge, an eminent Egyp-
tologist, keeper of Assyrian and Egyp-
tan antiquities in the British Museum
The dialect is that of Upper Egypt
DR.. Bulge considers this work as fit
to rank with the greatest of the recent
great finds" in Egypt. 1t was found
in this way: Peasant formers in Up
per Egypt were digging and carrying
off some soil for top dressing from
over the ruins of an old Coptic monas-
tic establishment, when they came
down to stone box containing two
books in strong leather covers, bound
in the European fashion, and wrapped
in coarse linen with tender care.
For hundreds of years, but no man
knoweth just how many, had they lair
untouched, unread, forgotten. 1t
would seem like sacrilege to disturb
them-like interrupting the long and
peaceful rest Of the remains of some
sleeping saint who lay down not to
rise again until the last great day
But these volumes were not in any
body's tomb. They had, without
doubt, been prepared for and used in
the old monastic church here which
they have so long survived. Seeming
ly, during some difficulty perhaps dur
ing the incursions of some interests
foreign to them, these books, as a rare
treasure, were thus hidden away. The
other volume is a book of ten homilies
Cor sermons), and both are wonderful-
ly well kept. The one who thus SO
carefully concealed them, quite likely
a learned churchman of his time, OF
the Monophysite faith-the belief that
Christ had but one nature-doubtless
considered the psalm, and this whole
psalter of which it formed a part, a
most valuable, and most important to
be saved from destruction, perhaps by
merciless invaders holding an alien
faith. DR.. Bulge thinks the work was
written at the end of the sixth century
or in the first half of the seventh. At
one period of its history this book was
repaired and rebound, and the style of
the covers only may indicate the elev-
enth or twelfth century-a much later
date than belongs to the contents
This binding may give clew to the
century when the book was concealed
Some experts in Coptic lore think this
codex is not older than the seventh,