Standard abbreviation: Rev. Disc. Jes.
Other titles: Sahidic Miaphysite Christological extract
Clavis numbers: ECCA 350
Category: Revelatory Dialogues, Pseudo-Apostolic Memoirs
Related literature: Gospel of Philip, Coptic Liturgy of Basil
Compiled by Tony Burke, York University, and Charles W. Hedrick
Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burke, Tony and Charles W. Hedrick. “Coptic Fragment on the Fall of the Devil” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/coptic-revelation-discourse-of-jesus/.
Created July 2019. Current as of January 2024.
1. SUMMARY
This unidentified fragment is one of fourteen fragments donated to the Cairo Coptic Museum by an antiquities dealer who obtained them from locals in the area of ancient Antinoopolis, South of El-Minya. It features a portion of a dialogue between Jesus and the apostles (called “my holy fellow members,” a phrase often found in Coptic Pseudo-Apostolic Memoirs). Jesus speaks of himself in Monophysite terminology, quoting expressions from the Coptic liturgy of Saint Basil, particularly the phrase “Truly I believe that His divinity parted not from His humanity for a single moment not a twinkling of an eye” (The Coptic Liturgy of St. Basil. Cairo: St John the Beloved Publishing House, 1993), found also in several other Memoirs: Revelation on the Mount of Olives 40 Days after the Resurrection, the Homily on the Dormition of the Virgin by Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem, the Homily on the Dormition of the Virgin by Pseudo-Evodius, and the History of Joseph the Carpenter (17:17). Since the fragment is so small, a translation can be given here in full (trans. Hedrick): “Rejoice O apostles, my chosen ones, [who] are honored, my fellow holy members, whom my Father has chosen. I am Jesus the son of the Almighty. I have come to this world to save from [death]. My corporeal divinity was not parted from my humanity by a blink of an eye. I am the first word that came from the Father. I exist with my Father before all time. My divinity is within me concealed within my inner part. It was not divided from my humanity by a blink of an eye. It was constant in me, until the Jews lifted me up on a cross. When my [humanity] tastes death [within] me, my divinity [remains] within my [inner] part.”
Named Historical Figures and Characters: Jesus Christ, “Holy Members” (the Apostles).
Geographical Locations: none.
2. RESOURCES
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
3.1 Manuscripts and Editions
3.1.1 Coptic (Sahidic)
Cairo, Coptic Museum, 859 (7th–10th cent.) (PAThs entry; LDAB; TM)
Hedrick, Charles W. “A Revelation Discourse of Jesus.” JCoptS 7 (2005): 13–15 (with plate of the fragment).
3.2 Modern Translations
3.2.1 English
Hedrick, Charles W. “A Revelation Discourse of Jesus.” JCoptS 7 (2005): 13–15.
3.3 General Works
Hedrick, Charles W. “Newly Identified Fragments of Coptic Acts and the Apocalypse.” JCoptS 4 (2002): 127–32, pl. 16.
__________. “Vestiges of an Ancient Coptic Codex containing a Psalms Testimonia and a Gospel Homily.” JCoptS 8 (2006): 1–41 (with 9 plates ).
Lundhaug, Hugo. Images of Rebirth: Cognitive Poetics and Transformational Soteriology in the Gospel of Philip and the Exegesis on the Soul. Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 73. Leiden: Brill 2010 (p. 395–96, with partial English translation).
Suciu, Alin. The Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon: A Coptic Apostolic Memoir. WUNT 370. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017 (p. 73, 110).