An annotated translation of part of the Coptic Acts of the synod of Ephesus – by Anthony Alcock

Now here is an interesting one!  Dr Alcock writes:

I attach an annotated translation of the ‘fictional’ part of the Coptic acts of the Synod of Ephesus. I am currently preparing an annotated translation of a short Syriac text about Nestorius, which of course contains a different perspective (or ‘take’, as people say nowadays).

Here it is:

Pboou is one of the Pachomian monasteries.  The Egyptian text has suffered from the attention of hagiographers, who have introduced fictional sections like this one.  So the story is not of historical value (although genuine documents from the synod are embedded in the text).

All this material is useful to have online in English.  We could do with much more synodical material accessible in this way.  Who of us has ever read the Acts of Ephesus, or Chalcedon?

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2 thoughts on “An annotated translation of part of the Coptic Acts of the synod of Ephesus – by Anthony Alcock

  1. Fascinating – many thanks ot both of you for this!

    “Who of us has ever read the Acts of Ephesus, or Chalcedon?”

    I ran into a 1909 publication of Perceval Landon’s 1893 second edition of Edward H. Landon’s 1845 Manual of the Councils of the Holy Catholic Church (2 vols.), 32 years ago last month, and that is always my first ‘point of reference’.

    The scans of a Robarts Library copy have been in the Internet Archive for the past 12 years, last month, if anyone else might find that convenient:

    https://archive.org/details/amanualofcouncil01landuoft

    https://archive.org/details/amanualofcouncil02landuoft

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