TeTra | So Miyagawa "Examining the Apocalypse of Elijah"

TeTra Research Seminar | July 9, 2026 So Miyagawa (University of Tsukuba) •Examining the Apocalypse of Elijah• This paper examines the Coptic Apocalypse of Elijah (Apoc. El.) through its material transmission in Upper Egyptian manuscripts. Its central question is how a para-biblical apocalyptic text circulated in relation to canonical scripture and what this circulation reveals about local Christian communities in Egypt. The evidence points to three different modes of transmission. In British Library Or. 7594 (Sa2), Apoc. El. appears after canonical books, including Deuteronomy, Jonah, and Acts, but its cursive script and absence of a title suggest that it was added secondarily to a biblical codex. In P. Chester Beatty 2018 (Sa3), the text is transmitted independently, with punctuation that seems designed to support oral reading, indicating liturgical or homiletic use. In the Upper Egyptian codices Ach and Sa1, Apoc. El. is copied together with the Apocalypse of Zephaniah, suggesting a more intentional grouping of apocalyptic texts. These different manuscript contexts show that Apoc. El. did not occupy a single stable position in Coptic literary culture. It could be attached to canonical scripture, used independently in performance, or included in an apocalyptic collection. This flexibility suggests that the boundary between canonical and para-biblical literature was not rigid, but was negotiated through scribal practice, monastic use, and local theology. Greek fragments further indicate that multiple forms of the text circulated before or alongside the Coptic versions, while later Coptic works such as the Apocalypse of Shenoute and the History of Joseph the Carpenter show its continued influence on Egyptian Christian eschatology. In this sense, Apoc. El. exemplifies “living literature”: a text whose meaning and authority were shaped by the material and communal settings in which it was copied, read, and reused. https://tsukuba.academia.edu/SoMiyagawa