No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Chance discoveries have been among the ‘uncovenanted blessings’ that have fallen to the study of new testament times and the early church. The finding of the Isaiah scroll by a shepherd boy in the judaean desert in 1947 led to the greatest discovery in biblical studies of all time, that of the Dead Sea scrolls and the essene monastery of Kharbet Q’mran. Similarly, the recovery of the gnostic library of 48 separate books from a Christian cemetery at Nag-Hammadi, not far from Luxor, in 1946, has thrown a wholly unexpected light on the complex of beliefs and attitudes of orthodox Christianity’s great rival during the second and early third centuries, gnosticism. Recently, professor Morton Smith has made the boldest claims on behalf of a ‘secret Gospel of Mark’ used apparently in Alexandria in the second century AD. An extract from this gospel he found in the library of the monastery of Mar Saba near Jerusalem, quoted in a letter which may be attributed correctly to Clement of Alexandria circa 190 AD.
1 Smith, H.M., The Secret Gospel, (New York/San Francisco 1973)Google Scholar, Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark (Harvard 1973).
2 John of Ephesus, HE, ed Brooks, E.W., CSCO, SS, 3 (1924) III, iv, pp 6–8, 45-53Google Scholar.
3 See Kirwan, L.P., ‘Prelude to Nubian Christianity’, Mélanges offerts à Michalowski, K. (Warsaw 1966) p 126 Google Scholar, and Adams, [W. Y.], [‘Post-Pharaonic Nubia in the light of Archaeology’], 2, J[ournal of] E[gyptian] A[rchaeology,] 51 (Cairo 1966) p 172 Google Scholar. Theodore’s influence is demonstrated by a Coptic text in the temple of Dendur in which the priest, Abraham, states that he set up a cross there which he received from Theodore. Abraham stresses that he did this on the orders of thenubian king Eirpanome. The date is either 22 January 5590 or 574.
4 Silko attributed his victory to ‘God’ (θεός) while the defeated Blemmys had to swear on their idols (εϊδωλα) to keep the peace. For the inscription see CIG 3, 5072 and Bury, J. B., History of the Later Roman Empire (London 1923) 2, p 330 Google Scholar, note 1. Silko cooperated with the byzantine general Narses, and the date could be as early as 539, when the byzantine treaty with the nubians was abrogated. This had left open the temple at Philae for annual celebrations by the pagan nubians.
5 Published in PO 1, 5 and 10.
6 History of the Patriarchs, ed Evetts, B.T., I, cap xviii, PO, i, p 144 Google Scholar.
7 Ibid 1, cap xx, PO, 10, pp 505-7. See Vantini, G., ‘Le Roi Kirki (Georgios) de Nubie a Bagdad: un ou deux voyages?’, in K[unst und] G[eschichte] N[ubiens in christlicher Zeit], ed Dinkier, E.H. (Recklinghausen 1970) pp 41–9 Google Scholar. The journey is authenticated also in the contemporary chronicle of Dionysius of Tell Mahre: Chronique de Michel le Syrien, ed Chabot, J.B. (Paris 1903) 3, pp 90–4 Google Scholar. The wealth and magnificence of the nubian embassy was a matter of wonder.
8 Saleh, Abu, [Churches and Monasteries in Egypt and some neighbouring countries], ed and trans Butler, A.J. and Evetts, B.T. (Oxford 1895) p 295.Google Scholar
9 Abil-Fazail, Mufazzal ibn, Histoire des sultans mamelouks, ed Blochet, E., PO 10, p 375.Google Scholar
10 See Adams, 3, JEA 52 (1966) p 152 Google Scholar. The information that the ‘church’ was the royal palace I owe to professor K. Michalowski.
11 Thus, Shinnie, P.L., Medieval Nubia (Khartoum 1954) p 7.Google Scholar
12 Griffith, F.LI., ‘Nubian Texts of the Christian period’, in AKPAW, Phil. Hist. Klasse 8 (Berlin 1913)Google Scholar and in a British Academy lecture, ‘Christian Documents from Nubia’, PBA 14, (1928) especially p 14.Google Scholar
13 Junker, H., ‘Die christliche Grabsteine Nubiens’, Zeitschrift für agyptische Sprache, 60 (1925) pp 111–48 Google Scholar, and Oates, j.F. ‘A Christian Inscription in Greek from Armerina in Nubia’, JEA 49 (1963) pp 161 Google Scholar et seq, and his conclusion that in the eleventh and twelfth centuries ‘Greek was alive and widespread’ in Nubia, p 171.
14 Thus, Abu Saleh, p 272.
15 See de Villard, U. Monneret, Storia delia Nubia Cristiana (Rome 1938) cap 20Google Scholar, and the writer’s ‘Nubia as an outpost of Byzantine cultural influence’ Byzantino-Slavka, 18 (Prague 1968) pp 319-27.
16 Griffith, F. Ll., Liverpool Annats of Archaeology and Anthropology, 13 (1926) pp 66–93 Google Scholar, recording discoveries made in four years’ work, 1910-13.
17 See Michalowski, [K.], Faros: [Die Kathedrale aus den Wüstensand] (Zürich 1967)Google Scholar a commendably rapid and fascinating publication of six season’s work.
18 I am accepting this more conservative estimate communciated to me by W.Y. Adams. For a higher figure of ‘about 500 inscriptions, see [Jakobielski, S. ‘La Liste des Eveques de Pachoras’] Travaux [du Centre d’archeologie meditérranéene de l’Academie polonaise des Sciences], 3 (Warsaw 1966) p 152.Google Scholar
19 Jakobielski, [S.] [‘Some new data to the History of Christian Nubia as found in Faras’ Inscriptions’,] Klio, 51 (Berlin/Wiesbaden) p 500.Google Scholar
20 History of the Patriarchs, part i, cap xviii, PO i, p 144.
21 Travaux 3, pp 153-70, at p 154.
22 Jakobielski, p 502.
23 Travaux 3, p 159.
24 See the fine illustrations in Michalowski, Faras, plates 71-90, and Rostkowska, B. ‘Iconographie des personnages historiques sur les peintures de Faras’, Travaux 6 (1972) pp 196–205.Google Scholar
25 See , P. L. and Shirmie, M. ‘New Light on Medieval Nubia’, Journal of African History, 6 (Cambridge 1965) p 270.Google Scholar
26 See Michalowski, Faras, pp 72 et seq.
27 See Adams pp 172 et seq arguing on the basis of the melkite patriarch, Eutychius, c 890, Annales asserting that all Nubia was originally orthodox but transferred its allegiance to monophysitism in c 719 after the suppression of the melkite patriarchate in Alexandria, , PG 111 (1863) col 1122DGoogle Scholar. Supported by Michalowski, Faras pp 91-3, but criticised, to my mind effectively by Krauze, M., ‘Zur Kirche und Theologiegeschichte Nubiens’, KGN pp 71–86 Google Scholar, and van] Moorsel, [P., [‘Die stillende Gottesmutter und die Monophysiten’,] KGN pp 81–91 Google Scholar.
28 Moorsel.
29 See, Soderbergh, T. Save, Late Nubian Sites, Churches and Settlements; the Scandanavian joint expedition to Sudanese Nubia (Stockholm 1973) p 17.Google Scholar
30 Abu Saleh, p 291. The fullest account to date is that by the present writer, in the Abhandlungen des vii Internationalen Kongresses für christliche Archäologie (Trier 1965, publ Rome 1968) pp 531–81 Google Scholar. Also Plumley, J.M., JEA 50 (1964) pp 3–5.Google Scholar
31 Publication is expected in 1974, with commentary by professor Plumley, as an Egypt Exploration Society monograph.
32 To be published by J.M. Plumley and the writer.
33 See Plumley, J.M., ‘The Christian period at Q’Asr Ibrim. Some notes on the MSS finds’, Acts of the Warsaw Colloquium on Nubian studies (1972) ed Dinkier, E.H. (Bonn forthcoming).Google Scholar
34 Ibid
35 Adams, believes that Christianity ‘probably lasted until the end of the fifteenth century on Kulubnarti island, 130 km south of Wadi Halfa’, KGN p 150 Google Scholar, but the churches both there and in other fortified Christian sites in the same area seem to date to the fourteenth century at the latest.
36 Thus Adams, 2, p 175.
37 Cited by J.M. Plumley, The Christian Period at Q’Asr Ibrim, (forthcoming).
38 Ibid
39 See the writer’s ‘Coptic, Greek and Nubian at Q’Asr Ibrim’, Byzantino-Slavica, 32, 2 (1972) pp 224–9.Google Scholar
40 Schneider, Hans D., ‘Abdallah Nirqi—description and chronology of the central church’, KGN pp 87–103.Google Scholar
41 Thus E.H. Dinkier, ‘Die deutsche Ausgrabungen auf den Inseln Sminarti, Tangur und in Kulb’ ibid pp 259-72. For the possible survival, however, of Christianity in the southern kingdom of Alwah, (around Soba near Khartoum) see Shinnie, P.L., Excavations at Soba, Sudan Antiquities Service, Occasional Papers, 3 (Khartoum 1955) pp 12–13 Google Scholar (cites references).
42 Thus Adams, 3, JEA 52 (1966) pp 150–1 Google Scholar, for North Africa, see the writer’s ‘North Africa and Europe in the Early Middle Ages’ TRHS, fifth Series, 5 (1955) pp 61–81.Google Scholar
43 Published as Faras, 3 (Warsaw 1972).
44 I owe this suggestion to professor W.Y. Adams, March 1973, though professor Plumley has since raised objections of some weight to it (July 1974).
45 When found, one of his feet was missing.