Posts: 2776
Registered: Feb 2003

posted 11 December 2004 04:03 PM            

---

93.0388
McBRIDE, Daniel R., The Development of Coptic: Late-Pagan Language of Synthesis in Egypt, JSSEA

19 (1989), [1993], 89-111.
Coptic existed as a pagan phenomenon long before its further development in Christianised Egypt. To explain the early stages of this process, a social model is proposed, which is based upon Greek-Egyptian interaction from 650 B.C. to 384 A.D., a period designated here as the Early Coptic Period. Coptic arose out of the needs of a relatively small Graeco-Egyptian social class whose primary concerns were religious. A decisive phase in this development began in 164 B.C., from which date membership in the Egyptian priesthood began to include Greeks. This provided in turn the base for a fusion of Greek and Egyptian philosophical and religious thought. The rise of Coptic is to be associated with Lower Egypt; Demotic became a bastion of the conservative south. W.H.

IP: Logged

All times are GMT (+2)