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The So-Called “Ethiopic Book of the Cock” — Part of an Apocryphal Passion Gospel, The Homily and Teaching of our Fathers the Holy Apostles
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
Extract
Under the title “Le Livre du Coq («Matzḥafa Dorho»)”, M. Chaîne published a short extract from MS. B.N. d'Abbadie 11, a MS. of the Ethiopian Holy Week Lectionary Gabrä ḥamamat (henceforth GḤ). Some citations of Chaîne's article give the impression that (i) the extract is complete in itself, (ii) it is properly entitled Mäṣḥafä dorho, and (iii) catalogue descriptions of MSS of GḤ can simply be cross-referenced to it; Chaîne's introduction does not encourage these assumptions.
Chaîne's extract appears in the printed edition of GḤ2 as part of the first of nine ‘homilies’, each headed dәrsan wätәmhәrt zä'abäwinä ḥawaryat qәddusan zämäharunä …, “homily and teaching of our fathers the holy apostles, which they taught us …”; the first of these “homilies” is additionally headed Mäṣḥafä doroho (sic).
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- Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1985
References
1 Revue sémitique d'épigraphie et d'hisloire ancienne, 13 (1905), 276–81.Google Scholar
2 Ed. Mämhәr Wäldä mika'el Bәrhanä mäsqäl, Addis Ababa, 1942 E.C.
3 E.g. B.L. (Wright) Orient 597–601, EMML 2140, Bible Society (Cowley XXIII) 201.
4 E.g. B.L. (Strelcyn) Orient 2083, EMML 411, 680, 857, 1318, 1878, 2338. s E.g. EMML 1179.
6 E.g. Berlin (Hammerschmidt and Six 156) Ms. orient fol. 3070 (the cataloguers have not noted that their 156.III.6 does appear in the printed version of GḤ (p. 365), and their reference to the work as ‘nach den Synoptikern’ is not supported by the contents); also, apparently, Manchester Rylands (Strelcyn) 18 f.204a–220a.
7 E.g. Berlin (Hammerschmidt and Six 80.I) Ms. or. oct. 1308, EMML 2902, and perhaps B.N. d'Abbadie 168.
8 E.g. EMML 2451, 2454.
9 E.g. EMML 2860 (cf. Ṭanasee (Hammerschmidt) 107), as part of Mäṣḥafä ḥәmamatihu wäzena sәqlätu wäqәtlätu lä'әgzi'әnä otherwise, however, Mäṣḥafä dorho is to be distinguished from this work (EMML 1779, 2041 etc.), and from Dәrsanä maḥyäwi (EMML 2040, and printed edition, Addis Ababa, 1951 E.C.), and Dәrsanä ḥәmamatihu wämotu
(EMML 2040, B.L. (Strelcyn) Orient 8819; cf. printed edition of Dәrsanä maḥyäwi, pp. 250–276).
10 Wright, W., Catalogue of the Ethiopia Manuscripts in the British Museum …., pp. 229 and 215.Google Scholar
11 Non-biblical names are transliterated; biblical names are given in their normal English equivalents.
12 Here Chaîne's fragment commences; James, M. R., The Apocryphal New Testament, Oxford, 1924, p. 150 also has a summary of it.Google Scholar
13 Here Chaîne's fragment ends.
14 Or. 775 lacks this reference to the evangelist's text, and commences wä'әmzә 'argu dābrä zäyt zäsәmu geteseman ….
15 Or. 775 lacks these names.
16 Or. 775 reads ‘Kwәlәsbәs’.
17 Or. 775 reads ‘Kunun and Rusa’.
18 Or. 775 reads ‘Awsibmәn’.
19 Possibly to be understood as ‘Antioch’.
20 Or. 775 reads ‘Sälikinilidaki’.
21 Hennecke, E., (ed.) Schneemelcher, W., (edited in English) Wilson, R. McL., New Testament Apocrypha, Philadelphia, 1963, vol. I, p. 450.Google Scholar
22 Hennecke, , op. cit., I, p. 484.Google Scholar
23 Hennecke, , op. cit., I, p. 459.Google Scholar
24 Printed edition of Dәrsanä maḥyäwi (see note 9 above), p. 32.Google Scholar
25 Pr. ed., p. 49.
26 Pr. ed., p. 101.
27 GḤ, printed edition, p. 337 col. 1.Google Scholar
28 GḤ, printed edition, p. 254 col. 2.Google Scholar
29 Introduction. Ethiopic text and German translation in van den Oudenrijn, M.-A., Gamaliel: äthiopische Texte zur Pilatusliteratur, (Spicilegium Friburgense), Freiburg, 1959Google Scholar. References and outline in Hennecke, , op. cit., I, pp. 508–510. The correspondence of van den Oudenrijn's edition with the printed edition of GḤ is as follows:Google Scholar
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30 E.g., Manchester Rylands (Strelcyn) 18, and EMML 3625 (‘Homily and Teaching’ f. 51a–68a, Laḥa Maryam f. 76a–94a); I am indebted for the latter reference, and for comments on this article, to Dr. Getatchew Haile.
31 Some similar works are noted in Graf, G., Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur, vol. I (Studi e Testi 118), Città del Vaticano, 1944, especially pp. 237–247, but they do not appear to include the one under consideration.Google Scholar
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