The Holy Workshop of Virtue

The Holy Workshop of Virtue CISTERCIAN STUDIES SERIES NUMBER TWO HUNDRED THIRTY-FOUR The Holy Workshop of Virtue The Life of John the Little by Zacharias of Sakhå Translated from Bohairic Coptic, Sahidic Coptic, and Syriac With Newly Edited Coptic Texts Edited by Maged S. A. Mikhail and Tim Vivian Translations by Rowan A. Greer, Maged S. A. Mikhail, and Tim Vivian Introduction by Tim Vivian and Maged S. A. Mikhail Cistercian Publications www.cistercianpublications.org LITURGICAL PRESS Collegeville, Minnesota www.litpress.org A Cistercian Publications title published by Liturgical Press Cistercian Publications Editorial Offices Abbey of Gethsemani 3642 Monks Road Trappist, Kentucky 40051 www.cistercianpublications.org © 2010 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, microfilm, microfiche, mechanical recording, photocopying, translation, or by any other means, known or yet unknown, for any purpose except brief quotations in reviews, without the previous written permission of Liturgical Press, Saint John’s Abbey, P.O. Box 7500, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7500. Printed in the United States of America. 123456789 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Zacharias, of Sakha, 8th cent. The holy workshop of virtue : the life of John the Little / by Zacharias of Sakha ; translated from Bohairic Coptic, Sahidic Coptic, and Syriac with newly edited Coptic texts ; edited by Maged S.A. Mikhail and Tim Vivian ; translations by Rowan A. Greer, Maged S.A. Mikhail, and Tim Vivian ; introduction by Tim Vivian and Maged S.A. Mikhail. p. cm. — (Cistercian studies series ; no. 234) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-87907-234-6 — ISBN 978-0-87907-935-2 (e-book) 1. John, the Little, Saint, ca. 339–409. 2. Christian saints—Egypt— Biography. I. Mikhail, Maged S. A. II. Vivian, Tim. III. Title. IV. Series. BR1720.J595Z595 2010 270.2092—dc22 [B] 2010017132 In Memoriam BASTIAAN VAN ELDEREN December 29, 1924–August 1, 2004 Principal Investigator at Wadi al-Natrun Archaeological Excavation 1995, 1996, 1999 . af] mpefpna enenjij mp[c . ouoh naf,/ . qen vouwini nte n/ etonq etqen t,wra n]metaymou . je aujemf efmpsa mvr/] nounoub efqen ouma nouwth mvr/] nou[lil nte ousouswousi afsopf erof nje v]. he gave his spirit into the hands of the Lord . and now he was . in the light of those living in the land of immortality . for he was found worthy, like pure gold in a melting pot, like a burnt offering and a sacrifice acceptable to God. —Life of John the Little 79 Contents Foreword ix Preface xi Introduction 1 I. Zacharias and His Text 1 II. Historia (Story) 5 John, the Apophthegmata, and Zacharias 6 John’s Many Faces: Writing and Rewriting Ancient Texts 10 Historia: Zacharias as Inheritor 13 Zacharias as Redactor: Sources and Seams 16 Table I: A Synoptic View 16 Table II: Material without Parallels 19 Zacharias and the Life of John the Little: A Guided Tour 21 Table III: Zacharias as Redactor 21 III. Bios (Life) 37 IV. Politeia (Way of Life) 41 Aret∑: The Holy Workshop of Virtue 41 Kenøsis: Obedience, Humility, and Compassion 44 V. The Arabic Life 48 VI. The Syriac Life 53 A Room with Multiple Views: The Expansion of Texts 53 The Ties that Bind: Editorial Sutures 55 vii viii The Holy Workshop of Virtue Sense, Sensibility, and Amelioration 56 The Storyteller’s Storyteller: The Creative Nature of Narrative 57 The Bohairic Coptic Life of John the Little 61 Translation 63 Text 137 The Syriac Life of Abba John the Little 201 Translation 203 Appendix 1: The Life of John the Little, Amélineau’s text, and Codex Vat. Copt. LXVIII 258 Appendix 2: Sahidic Fragments Concerning Abba John’s Trip to Babylon (Bohairic Life ¶75) 270 Appendix 3: Alphabetical Apophthegmata John Colobos 24 and 32 and MS. Karakallou 251 284 Appendix 4: Chapter [73] of the Syriac Version of the Lausiac History of Palladius: Eucarpios 286 Appendix 5: Synaxarium Entries for Abba John the Little 289 Bibliography 300 Scripture Index 307 Word Index 310 Foreword Borrowing from the Life edited and translated in this volume, Coptic hymnology has described Apa John the Little as the man who “suspended the desert of Shiet [Scetis, Wadi al-Natrun] from his fingertip.” This unusual and vivid description of how the monks of his age clung to the saint’s every word and deed can only point to the reverence this monastic figure has enjoyed. His fame is fur- ther attested in the propagation of his Life throughout the Christian Orient in Coptic, Arabic, Syriac, and Ge’ez (Ethiopic). In Coptic manuscripts, we find evidence that hisLife circulated in the Sahidic dialect of the South as well as in the northern, Bohairic, dialect of the Wadi al-Natrun (ancient Scetis), where he spent most of his monastic career. The Sahidic fragments edited and translated in this volume probably once belonged to the famed library of the White Monastery of St. Shenoute the Archimandrite in modern-day Sohag, and possibly came from a Sahidic Life of the saint. Demon- strably, the fame of Apa John was widespread in both Upper and Lower Egypt. This edition is of particular importance since it includes a thor- oughly revised Coptic Bohairic text based on a new reading of the manuscript first edited and published by E. C. Amélineau in 1894. While the academic community still owes Amélineau a great debt of gratitude for publishing Apa John’s vita and bringing it to our attention, this current edition has resolved many of the inaccuracies in that earlier publication. I applaud the editors and publisher for including the Bohairic Coptic text in this volume. Together with the accompanying English translations of the Bohairic and Syriac recensions of Apa John’s vita, this volume will prove an essential resource for all those interested in monastic history and spirituality, Coptic literature, and the study of the Bohairic dialect. ix x The Holy Workshop of Virtue During this time of wars, crises of faith, and economic turmoil, it is edifying for readers to be introduced to the saintly figure of Apa John the Little. Though little in his physical stature, his virtue- filled life has promoted him to a towering figure among Christian monastics, Coptic Orthodox Christians, and Christians worldwide. His simplicity, obedience, and forbearance are reminders of how Christians should behave, whether they live in the world or in the desert. Hany N. Takla, President St. Shenouda the Archimandrite Coptic Society Preface This book began many years ago, in 1996, at the excavation of the Monastery of John the Little in Wadi al-Natrun, Egypt, spon- sored by The Scriptorium Institute for Christian Antiquities. On that excavation, the late Prof. Bastiaan Van Elderen, to whom we dedicate this volume in gratitude, was the head archeologist while we served as both teachers and novice diggers. Being at the probable site of John’s long-abandoned monastery led us first to friendship and later to work together to publish the first English translation of the Life of John the Little: “Life of Saint John the Little,” Coptic Church Review 18, no. 1–2 (1997): 1–64. That edition was based on E. Amélineau’s 1894 text, which was kindly provided for us by Mr. Hany N. Takla, president of the Saint Shenoute the Archiman- drite Coptic Society in Los Angeles, to whom we are also thankful for supplying a digital file of the Sahidic fragments, and for agree- ing to write the foreword to this volume. Our efforts would have been much more arduous without Mr. Takla’s many kindnesses. Over the years numerous other projects engaged us—a disserta- tion, books, teaching, children—but eventually we returned to John’s Life. Based on a microfiche copy of the manuscript (Cod. Vat. Copt. 68, fol. 53-104), which was provided by Mr. Takla, Prof. Vivian reedited the Bohairic Coptic text and Prof. Mikhail checked the reediting; Amélineau’s text contains numerous errors and we now publish the corrections in appendix 1 of this volume and have in- corporated them in our edition of the Coptic text and much-revised translation. A few years ago Dr. E. Rozanne Elder, former editorial director of Cistercian Publications, accepted our proposal that, since we now had in hand the best critical edition of the unique Bohairic xi xii The Holy Workshop of Virtue manuscript, Cistercian Publications publish both our new translation and the Bohairic text. We were happy when, with the merger of Cistercian Publications with Liturgical Press, the new executive editor, Fr. Mark Scott, OCSO, agreed to support and continue the project. We wish to thank Dr. Elder and Fr. Mark for supporting this work intended for both scholars and nonscholars. At Liturgical Press we also wish to thank Colleen Stiller and Mark Warzecha. We wish also to thank Prof. Antonio Loprieno, who offered many suggestions for paragraph 1 of the translation, and Prof. Jeffrey Russell, who read the entire manuscript for the Coptic Church Review publication and made many helpful suggestions. Their efforts have much improved our work. We wish also to thank Prof. Stephen J. Davis for his willingness to originally publish his translation of the Arabic Life with us and, when that didn’t work out, for the publication of his text and translation, “The Arabic Life of St. John the Little by Zacharias of Sakhå (MS Göttingen Arabic 114),” Coptica 7 (2008), 1–185, which has aided us in our efforts. The Rev. Dr. Rowan Greer translated the Syriac Life and appendix 4; Professors Mikhail and Vivian, both individually and together, translated all the other material and wrote the sections of the introduction, then reviewed and emended each other’s work many times.

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