Coptic translation of Psalm 18 in Afrikaans with Notes


by koot van wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Kyungbook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

conjoint lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

14 December 2009



Coptic is a language that is using Greek letters for its alphabet mostly, but the syntax and verbal system is Egyptian. If one knows Greek, it is easy to learn Coptic provided that one also study Middle Egyptian or Late Egyptian and even Demotic. Like Greek, the language reads from left to right. Another feature is that articles are attached to the front of the nouns, e.g. thelord etc. A good grammar is necessary so W. Till's Koptische Grammatik or his  Koptische Dialektgrammatik (München: C. H. Beck, 1961) is convenient. There is also an old grammar from 1830 by Henry Tattam that can be downloaded from the internet, A Compendium Egyptian Grammar which is actually a Coptic grammar.

Translating Psalm 18 from the Coptic, most scholars made the mistake of saying that it slavishly copied the Byzantine form of the LXX as represented by Codices Sinaiticus [Hebrew aleph], Alexandrinus [A] and Vaticanus [B] but that is not totally correct. We have found examples of deviations that point to a situation where almost two translators were sitting side by side, one translating in Greek after hearing the original Hebrew and another translating in Coptic hearing the same text. The two translated some words different.

Psalm 18 is here translated into Afrikaans with the help of dictionaries and Walter Till's grammar.

Coptic is not an improvement for the Word of God just like the LXX is a corrupt text of the Word of God. We do not have the original LXX but only a reconstructed corrupt and poorly transmitted one. The Hebrew consonantal text of the Masoretic tradition is the very Word of God and thus the standard for these translations. Any translation different is a off-road reading.

God protected His Word very exact through the centuries and  the Daniel text from Cave Four at Qumran compared to Codex Alleppo illustrates that for us.


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