A New Coptic Anaphora Fragment with Quotations from Didache 9 (London, British Library, Or. 6877)

Abstract

This article presents the first edition of an otherwise unknown, fragmentary Sahidic anaphora with translation, philological, and liturgical commentary. The manuscript, London, British Library, Or. 6877, described and partially transcribed by Bentley Layton in 1987, consists of two parchment double leaves and can be dated to the sixth or seventh centuries on palaeographical grounds. The extant text consists of the last two fruits of communion and the doxology of an anaphora, followed by Didache 9,3, 9,4, and 9,2 (the ‘bread’, ‘gathering’, and ‘chalice’ prayers), and an intercession for the deceased, which breaks off in the middle. The fruits of communion and the doxology bear close resemblance to the so-called ‘anaphora of Barcelona’. The quotes from Didache are near verbatim, even the doxologies of the prayers are kept. The intercession derives from a so-called ‘independent intercession’ of the oratio universalis. The anaphora is thus a veritable bricolage: to the end of an anaphora a compiler appended the prayers from the Didache 9 and an intercession. His purpose must have been to update an older formulary with units he considered essential in order to bring it in conformity with the usage of his place and time. As I argue, this compilation can be dated to the fourth or fifth centuries. This fragment is therefore a further witness to redactional activity on anaphoras in that period.