Published in English for the first time, these pages provide an introduction, translation, and transcription of a late-sixth century lecture on Revelation 7–12. Given in an Egyptian monastery by an unknown teacher and written in the Sahidic Coptic dialect, the lecture circulated in the name of Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444). The manuscript copy was discovered in 1910.
Herein titled Encomium, the commentary manuscript likely derived from the scriptorium in the ancient Egyptian city of Touton. It was donated in the year 861 to the monastery of St. Michael the Archangel at Sopehes, which is today the Egyptian village of Hamuli in southwestern Fayum, though the monastery ceased operations in the early tenth century. The Encomium was part of a lecture series on the Apocalypse, most likely by a visiting monk, teacher, or bishop. The text is probably a transcription of the lecture by one of the hearers and the one lecturing appears to use a translation of the Book of Revelation into Sahidic Coptic. The extensive introduction provides readers with important historical, exegetical, and theological background for understanding this remarkable writing on the Book of Revelation and its reception in sixth-century Egypt.
About the author:
Francis X. “Frank” Gumerlock (Ph.D. historical theology, Saint Louis University, 2004) teaches Latin in Colorado. He is the author of nine books, many of which are translations of early and medieval Latin texts on the Book of Revelation and the theology of grace, including Carolingian Commentaries on the Apocalypse by Theodulf and Smaragdus (2019), Tyconius. Exposition of the Apocalypse (2017), and Gottschalk and a Medieval Predestination Controversy: Texts Translated from the Latin (2010). His website containing links to his books and articles is francisgumerlock.
