Introduction

Sahidica

Sahidic was a dialect of Coptic. Coptic was the final form of the ancient Egyptian language. The Coptic dialects were written using Greek characters, along with a few additional characters adapted from Egyptian Demotic Script. Sahidica is a new edition of the New Testament in the Sahidic dialect, as it existed in early Christian Egypt (c. 200– 600 CE).

The text of Sahidica was originally based, by permission, on a database text from the Packard Humanities Institute. However, the text has undergone extensive manuscript collation, textual standardizations, and other changes. The result is an entirely new edition of the New Testament in the Sahidic dialect. It is therefore based primarily on the best manuscripts available at the time of its creation, and edited following modern practices established for standard Greek texts.

At the same time however, Sahidica is not static. It is an ongoing project. Therefore it should be considered neither complete nor perfect. For more information on our process, goals, and future plans, please visit our website.

Bohairica

This is a new edition of the New Testament in the Bohairic dialect of the Coptic language. It is based on the edition by Horner. However, like my Sahidica edition, it has been standardized for easy comparison with modern editions of the Koine Greek in the following ways:

• The nomina sacra forms have been expanded.
• Section and paragraph breaks correspond to the USB and Nestle-Aland Greek texts.
• Punctuation has been standardized and aligned with the Sahidica text.

Note also, the punctuation is aligned with that found in my “New Testament According to the Egyptian Greek Texts” (NTAEG) edition.

J. WarrenWells —Editor 18th February 2009