Original Documents of the Coptic Church

Original Documents Of The Coptic Church by Solomon Caesar Malan. This volume publishes the Divine Liturgy of Saint Mark the Evangelist, translated from an old Coptic manuscript and compared with the printed copy edited by Saint Cyril. Malan explains that the Egyptian church used three liturgies—Basil, Gregory the Theologian, and Cyril/Saint Mark—and that the texts were transmitted in Greek, Syriac, Coptic, and Arabic in various forms, with rubrics added over time. He notes great variation among manuscripts and between the Greek originals and the Coptic editions, and questions the claim that the Greek copies are Apostolic. The main text presents the Liturgy of S. Mark with accompanying prayers, creeds, and rubrics, showing where earlier forms were altered by translators or editors. The Preface details the author’s method: printing the original Coptic-Arabic MS narrative in large type, with later additions in smaller type, and dating the MS to the 13th–14th centuries; it also outlines future volumes on ecclesiastical calendars, gospels, and patristics. This edition marks a significant contribution to the study of Coptic liturgy.