Description du projet
Étudier le développement et l’utilisation des apocryphes coptes dans les monastères égyptiens
Les manuscrits coptes datant du 4e au 12e siècle englobent une multitude de textes et de traditions apocryphes, généralement attribués aux apôtres ou à d’autres premières figures chrétiennes importantes, et souvent intégrés aux homélies pseudépigraphiques. Le projet APOCRYPHA, financé par l’UE, étudiera les contenus, développements et fonctions des apocryphes, qui ont été copiés, adaptés et utilisés dans des contextes socioreligieux évolutifs au fil du temps. La période couverte par le projet, soit lorsque le copte était utilisé comme langue littéraire, a été témoin de changements drastiques dans le paysage religieux d’Égypte, le christianisme étant la religion dominante au début de cette période, avant d’être de plus en plus marginalisé par rapport à l’islam à la suite de la conquête arabe de l’Égypte au 7e siècle. Le projet étudiera la manière dont ces contextes évolutifs sont reflétés dans l’apocryphe copte, qui a été copié et utilisé dans les monastères égyptiens tout au long de la période à l’étude.
Objectif
This project proposes the first systematic study of Coptic apocrypha covering the entire timespan of Coptic literary production, and it aims to do so with unprecedented methodological sophistication. Apocrypha is here defined as (1) texts and traditions that develop or expand upon characters and events of the biblical storyworld; (2) and/or contain a claim to authorship by a character from that storyworld or a direct witness to it. A great number of such apocryphal texts and traditions has been preserved in Coptic manuscripts from the fourth to the twelfth centuries. Most of these texts are attributed to apostles or other important early Christian figures, and over time such materials were also increasingly embedded in pseudepigraphical frames, such as in homilies attributed to later, but still early, heroes of the Church. The manuscripts in which this literature has been preserved were almost exclusively produced and used in Egyptian monasteries. Although the use of such apocrypha were at times controversial, the evidence clearly indicates the widespread use of such literature in Coptic monasteries over centuries, and this project will investigate the contents, development, and functions of apocrypha over time, as they were copied, adapted, and used in changing socio-religious contexts over time. The period covered by the project saw drastic changes in the religious landscape of Egypt, from its Christianity having a dominant position in the fourth century, through the marginalization of Egyptian Christianity in relation to the imperial Chalcedonian Church after 451, to a period of increasing marginalization in relation to Islam following the Arab conquest of Egypt in the mid-seventh century. The project will investigate how these changing contexts are reflected in the Coptic apocrypha that were copied and used in Egyptian monasteries, and what functions they had for their users throughout the period under investigation.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantInstitution d’accueil
0313 Oslo
Norvège