Oral-formulaic approaches to Coptic hymnography

From the first Coptic hymn for the twenty-first of the month of Hathyr (30 November), the feast of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, the first person recorded as having had a vision of the Virgin Mary (MacCoull 1999). It is sung to the tune called "Adam," a simple melody for three-stress quatrains (the other principal melody being called "The Burning Bush," already alluded to in this hymn's imagery). What a creative way to elaborate the Old Testament theophany image of what is termed the "Philoxenia of Abraham,"2 with, as the hymnographer will proceed to do, New Testament imagery (Paul caught up to the "third heaven") and patristic testimonia. Every strophe begins with the letter gamma, which is the Greek and Coptic numeral 3. Exegetical, narrative, and, as I will show, folk elements are combined into a simple work that everyone could understand.Not

The Era of the Martyrs

Papyrologie in contex

The Eras of Diocletian and the Martyrs: Addenda & Corrigenda

Papyrologie in contex