Bible translations into Coptic

Several different versions were made in the ancient world, with different editions of the Old and New Testament in five of the dialects of Coptic: Bohairic (northern), Fayyumic, Sahidic (southern), Akhmimic and Mesokemic (middle).

A considerable number of apocryphal texts also survive in Coptic, most notably the Gnostic Nag Hammadi library.

[1] In Sahidic, some Biblical books survived with complete text, as well as a large number of extant fragments representing most of the canonical books and certain of the deutero-canonical (the two Wisdoms, the Epistle of Jeremiah, and the Greek additions to Daniel).

The collection of manuscripts of Sahidic translations is often designated by copsa in academic writing and critical apparatus ("Sa" for "versio Sahidica" in BHS).

The first translation into the Sahidic dialect was made at the end of the 2nd century in Upper Egypt, where Greek was less well understood.

In 1778 Woide issued a prospectus in which he announced his intention of publishing from Oxford manuscripts the fragments of the New Testament "iuxta interpretationem dialecti Superioris Aegypti, quae Thebaidica seu Sahidica appellantur".

[7] Omitted verses: Omitted or not included phrases: In Luke 4:17 it has textual variant "and opened the book" together with the Greek manuscripts A, B, L, W, Ξ, 33, 892, 1195, 1241, ℓ 547, syrs, h, pal, copbo, against variant "and unrolled the book" supported by א, Dc, K, Δ, Θ, Π, Ψ, f1, f13, 28, 565, 700, 1009, 1010 and many other manuscripts.

[12] This reading has also Greek manuscript Papyrus 75 and two Greek minuscule manuscripts 36 and 37, have a scholion of uncertain date ευρον δε τινες και του πλουσιου εν τισιν αντιγραφοις τουνομα Νινευης λεγομενον.

The Bohairic translation was influenced by several variables, including the other dialects, primarily Sahidic and Fayyumic.

[citation needed] When the patriarchate moved from Alexandria to Cairo in the 11th century, Bohairic was the dominant language of the Coptic church.

[20] The only surviving witnesses of an Akhmimic, and an Fayyumic Versions are in a fragmentary pieces (designated by copakh, and copfay).