James Henry Breasted argued that the Coptos Decree must be read as ordering the demotion of a count and installing his replacement.
[1] Alternatively, Katja Goebs argues that Teti probably had never been the haty-a, since the titles the Coptos Decree stripped him of were purely temple offices.
In his argument, Posener demonstrated that the Egyptian word for enemies, khefetiu, may be used as a euphemism to avoid writing about taboo subjects.
[3] On the basis of this use, scholars of the Hebrew Bible began to argue that a similar construction occurs in the Second Book of Samuel, explaining why the text reads "you have spurned the enemies of the Lord" where the offence is clearly against Yahweh.
[8] While such a use may be established in later texts, Katja Goebs argued in a 2003 article that it is impossible for the crime of stealing the temple idol to be punished merely by stripping the offender of his titles.