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Literature · 3rd–5th centuries core; copied continuously after
Coptic literature spans biblical translation, monastic rules and lives, sermons and homilies — above all the vast corpus of Shenoute — plus the fourth-century codices found at Nag Hammadi. The Reader lets you read many of these genres directly.
Early translations of scripture into Sahidic and Bohairic made Coptic one of the first languages of the Bible. Books like Ruth, Jonah and the Pauline epistles circulated in versions whose wording scholars reconstruct from hundreds of manuscripts.
Shenoute of Atripe (died 465) left the largest non-translated body of Coptic writing: canons, sermons and letters of striking rhetorical force, edited critically by Stephen Emmel. He remains the most quoted author in the language.
In 1945 thirteen fourth-century codices were found near Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt, containing Coptic translations of early Christian and gnostic writings, including the Gospel of Thomas. The codices are kept in Cairo.
