Which biblical books constitute the Coptic Orthodox biblical canon and how was it historically transmitted?
By CopticBot.ai (Coptic Space Inc.) · Last reviewed 2026-11-05
Early Coptic Translations and Monastic Transmission
As Coptic Language - Coptic Orthodox Church explains, the historical diffusion of the Coptic translation of the Scriptures can be traced directly through the biographies of formative monastic figures such as Saint Anthony and Saint Pachomius. Saint Anthony, who was unacquainted with the Greek language, heard the Gospel proclaimed in Coptic during the celebration of the divine liturgy when he encountered the exhortation: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” Furthermore, in the communal regulations formulated around the year 321 A.D., Saint Pachomius explicitly directed his monastic disciples to read the Scriptures in the Coptic tongue, confirming the essential role of vernacular biblical reading in the monastic movement from its inception.
The development of this scriptural heritage occurred within the broader life of the Egyptian monastic movement and the wider church. As The_Coptic_Canon explains, the Sahidic standard translation served as the holy Bible of the Copts, emerging as a foundational monument of Coptic literature. Its authority expanded markedly because it was embraced as the Bible of the anti-Chalcedonian Egyptian Christians, who viewed this Sahidic version as authorized and inspired by Saint Athanasius and Saint Shenoute. Monks and monastic leaders actively fostered this biblical tradition, guiding the scriptural consciousness of the faithful without recourse to synods convened among Coptic-speaking Egyptians for the formal demarcation of a biblical canon.
The Septuagint Basis and the Scope of the Early Canon
Regarding the scope of the Old Testament writings, The_Coptic_Canon confirms that surviving fourth- and fifth-century Coptic manuscripts followed the canon of the Septuagint. The Coptic Old Testament comprised the corpus preserved in the comprehensive Greek pandect Bibles of that era, represented in its most complete manifestation by Codex Alexandrinus (LXXA). Consequently, the earliest Coptic Old Testament incorporated the deuterocanonical books that were not part of the Hebrew Bible.
As The_Coptic_Canon emphasizes, the category of deutero-canonicity was completely alien to Coptic-speaking Egyptian Christians, presenting a direct parallel to the textual perspectives of the Syriac and Ethiopic traditions. The biblical books inherited from the Septuagint were received without internal qualitative differentiation or secondary canonical status. Rather than relying on rigid legislative pronouncements, the early Egyptian church in the fourth and fifth centuries preserved and read these expansive biblical collections as an integral part of its received Greek and Coptic scriptural inheritance.
Historical Framework and Textual Preservation (Fifth to Eighth Centuries)
The broader trajectory of Coptic biblical transmission is structured across three historical epochs outlined in The_Coptic_Canon. The initial period encompasses the fourth- and fifth-century Egyptian Church and the earliest Coptic translations. The second period corresponds to the emergence of the anti-Chalcedonian Coptic Orthodox Church following the Council of Chalcedon and the subsequent flourishing of Coptic literature between 451 and circa 800 C.E. The third phase marks the transformation of the Coptic Orthodox Church into an Arabic-speaking Christian community living under Islamic governance.
Examining the transmission of biblical texts during the late Byzantine and early Islamic periods, The_Coptic_Canon notes that modern textual analysis is conditioned by the dispersal and fragmentation of manuscripts and the complexities of paleographical dating. Nevertheless, historical continuity is substantiated by book lists and library catalogues inscribed on ostraca, as well as distinct manuscript groupings of verifiable provenance. In particular, a well-defined collection of biblical manuscripts can be securely attributed to the prominent Monastery of Apa Jeremiah at Saqqara.
Linguistic Transitions and Arabic Biblical Translations
As the living use of spoken Coptic began to decline among the faithful, the church implemented official linguistic measures to safeguard its liturgical and scriptural life. According to Coptic Language - Coptic Orthodox Church, the Bohairic dialect was formally legalized as the official language of the church during the eleventh-century reign of Pope Christodoulos, the sixty-sixth patriarch. This period also witnessed the introduction of specialized Coptic grammar books and dictionaries to sustain the dialect, which the church continues to preserve. In parallel, Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity observes that bilingual liturgical manuscripts in Bohairic and Arabic were produced, making Arabic biblical translations imperative.
The transmission of the Scriptures into Arabic drew from multiple textual streams. Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity records that for the prophetic books, the Coptic Church adopted the tenth-century Egyptian Melkite recension of al-'Alam, which encompassed all the Prophets and was translated from the Septuagint. For the Gospels, the tenth-century Alexandrian or Egyptian Vulgate was translated from a Bohairic base, while the thirteenth century saw an improved linguistic translation rendered by al-As'ad Abu al-Farag Hibat Allah. The epistolary corpus was likewise translated from Bohairic, including a noteworthy thirteenth-century collection of the Pauline epistles compiled by al-Wagih, though the complete New Testament canon was not fully translated into Arabic much before the sixteenth century.
Modern Canonical Deliberations and Old Testament Listing
In later ecclesiastical history, the boundaries of the Old Testament canon became the subject of renewed deliberation within the Coptic Orthodox Church. Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity records that under Cyril V, the 112th patriarch, a formal order was issued removing several specific books from the canon. The volumes removed under this patriarchal decree were Tobit, Judith, the Complement of Esther, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, the Epistle of Jeremiah, Baruch, the Complement of Daniel (comprising Susanna and the three youths in the fire), and the Books of Maccabees. The New Testament canon, by contrast, remained entirely unchanged.
The resulting canonical configuration of the twentieth century was presented in modern pedagogical texts. As Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity documents, Habib Girgis published his Catechism for Youth in 1928, setting forth a canonical listing of Old Testament books. This listing enumerates the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, and the four major and twelve minor Prophets.
Sources
- The_Coptic_Canon
- The_Coptic_Canon
- The_Coptic_Canon
- The_Coptic_Canon
- The_Coptic_Canon
- The_Coptic_Canon
- two thousand years of coptic christianity 1nbsped 9774247574 9789774247576
- two thousand years of coptic christianity 1nbsped 9774247574 9789774247576
- Coptic Language - Coptic Orthodox Church