[The Gospels in Coptic and Arabic]

1829

Shoults Eb 1829 B

London: British and Foreign Bible Society

Coptic and Arabic languages sit side by side in this edition of the Gospels, published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in London in 1829. It is based on the first edition of the Coptic New Testament of 1716, compiled by the Prussian-born David Wilkins (1685–1745), who became Lord Almoner’s Professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge in 1724. Wilkins not only had Coptic and Arabic, but he was also versed in Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Armenian. Anglo-Saxon was added to the language list, with some reservation by one biographer: ‘with a certain want of accuracy’.