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Document Details :

Title: Pachoms Gebet für drei Menschengruppen und die Irrtümer moderner Übersetzungen
Author(s): JOEST, C.
Journal: Le Muséon
Volume: 118    Issue: 3-4   Date: 2005   
Pages: 321-326
DOI: 10.2143/MUS.118.3.2004466

Abstract :
The omission of a phrase by reason of dittography is a mistake done not only by authors of Antiquity but also by modern translators. Such is the case in a section of the Vita Pachomii, where St. Pachomius is reported to have interceded for three classes of men. The Coptic text characterizes these three classes very clearly: first those who have begun to do what is good, secondly those who likewise have made a beginning in doing good but are unable to complete it, and finally those who do the works of the devil or live in darknes of paganism or heresy. In the translations of this text by L.-Th. Lefort as well as by A. Veilleux, these three groups have turned into only two, the characterization of the first group being omitted. Veilleux noticed the difference between text and translation, but he thinks the reason is that the Coptic author has written some lines of his text twice because of dittography. The contrary is the case. A thourough analysis demonstrates that the section is in fact carefully composed.

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