The GALaCSy Project

GALaCSy is an Anglo-German project funded by the AHRC and DFG to investigate the earliest translations of the Epistles of the Apostle Paul.

These translations into Gothic, Aethiopic, Latin, Coptic and Syriac were made between the second and fourth centuries CE. Not only do they derive from Greek manuscripts which have not been preserved, thereby providing valuable evidence for the early history of the Greek text, but they also stand at the head of important ecclesiastical communities and traditions.

The project is running between 2022 and 2025 in Birmingham, Göttingen, and Münster, and is initially focussed on the Epistles to the Galatians and Ephesians. The Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing (ITSEE), University of Birmingham, will be examining the Old Latin tradition of Galatians which preceded the Latin Vulgate. Team members at the Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen (ADWG) and the Institut für neutestamentliche Textforschung, Münster (INTF) will be working on the earliest Coptic translations of the Pauline Epistles, producing complete electronic transcriptions of the surviving manuscripts. Partners in Italy and Texas will contribute information from the Gothic and Aethiopic traditions. This will feed into the Novum Testamentum Graecum Editio Critica Maior (ECM) of these Epistles which is currently in preparation by members of the INTF and the International Greek New Testament Project (IGNTP). The GALaCSy project is co-ordinating its work with that of the Flanders Research Organisation (FWO) 1COR project on the text and translations of 1 Corinthians led by Prof. Dr. Dr. Christina Kreinecker at KU Leuven.

In addition to presentations at the SBL Annual Meeting and other scholarly gatherings during the course of the research, the project also plans to hold its own conference on the importance of early translations for the biblical text. This will be held in Birmingham in early 2025.

ITSEE, University of Birmingham

• Professor HAG Houghton (Principal Investigator)
• Dr CJ Smith (Technical Lead)
• Dr AC Myshrall (Transcriptions and Citations)
• Dr Oliver Norris (Research Fellow: Old Latin Versions)

Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen

• Dr Frank Feder (Principal Investigator)
• Dr Julien Delhez (Research Fellow: Coptic Versions)

INTF, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster

• Professor Dr. Holger Strutwolf (Principal Investigator)
• Dr Samuel Moawad (Research Fellow: Coptic Versions)
• Katharina Sandmeier (Coptic Advisor)
• Dr Peter Juhás (Syriac Advisor)

Project partners

• Profssa. Carla Falluomini (University of Perugia: Gothic Advisor)
• Prof. Curt Niccum (Abilene Christian University, Texas: Ethiopic Advisor)

The following list gives details of current resources on the early translations of the Pauline Epistles and their relation to the Greek tradition.

Please contact the team if you notice any omissions.

• Abraha, Tedros (2001). La lettera ai Romani: testo e commentari della versione etiopica. Aethiopistische Forschungen 57. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
• Abraha, Tedros (2004). The Ethiopic Version of the Letter to the Hebrews. Studi e testi 419. Città del Vaticano: Biblioteca apostolica vaticana.
• Abraha, Tedros (2014). The Ethiopic Version of 1 and 2 Corinthians. Rome: n.p..
• Aland, Barbara, et al. (1991, 1995, 2001). Das Neue Testament in Syrische Überlieferung. Band 2. Die Paulinischen Briefe. Teil 1. Römer- und 1. Korintherbrief; Teil 2. 2. Korintherbrief, Galaterbrief, Epheserbrief, Philipperbrief und Kolosserbrief. Teil 3. 1./2. Thessalonicherbrief, 1./2. Timotheusbrief, Titusbrief, Philemonbrief und Hebräerbrief. ANTF 14, 23, 32. Berlin: De Gruyter.
• Aland, Kurt, ed. (1972). Die alten Übersetzungen des Neuen Testaments, die Kirchenväterzitate und Lektionare, ANTF 5. Berlin: De Gruyter.
• Behlmer, Heike, and Frank Feder (2017). ‘The Complete Digital Edition and Translation of the Coptic Sahidic Old Testament. A New Research Project at the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities,’ Early Christianity 8: 97–107.
• Falluomini, Carla (2015). The Gothic Version of the Gospels and Pauline Epistles. Cultural Background, Transmission and Character. ANTF 46. Berlin: De Gruyter.
• Feder, Frank (2004). ‘Der Einfluß des Griechischen auf das Ägyptische in ptolemäisch-römischer Zeit,’ in T. Schneider et al. (eds.), Das Ägyptische und die Sprachen Vorderasiens, Nordafrikas und der Ägäis. Alter Orient und Altes Testament 310; Münster: Ugarit, 509–521.
• Feder, Frank (2007). ‘Die Koptische Übersetzung des Alten und Neuen Testaments im 4. Jh.,’ in J. Tubach and S. G. Vashalomidze (eds.), Stabilisierung und Profilierung der koptischen Kirche im 4. Jahrhundert: Beiträge zur X. internationalen Koptologentagung 2006. Hallesche Beiträge zur Orientwissenschaft 44; Halle: Universität Halle-Wittenberg, 65–93.
• Horner, George (1905). The Coptic version of the New Testament in the northern dialect, otherwise called Memphitic and Bohairic. 3. The Epistles of Saint Paul. Oxford: Clarendon.
• Horner, George (1920). The Coptic version of the New Testament in the Southern dialect otherwise called Sahidic and Thebaic. 4–5. The Epistles of Saint Paul. Oxford: Clarendon.
• Houghton, H. A. G. (2016). The Latin New Testament. A Guide to its Early History, Texts, and Manuscripts. Oxford: OUP.
• Houghton, H. A. G. (2019). ‘An Initial Selection of Manuscripts for the of the Pauline Epistles,’ in Houghton, Parker and Strutwolf (2019): 343–359. 
• Houghton, H. A. G., and Peter Montoro, ed. (2020) At One Remove: The Text of the New Testament in Early Translations and Quotations. Texts and Studies 3.24. Piscataway NJ: Gorgias.
• Houghton, H. A. G. , D. C. Parker, P. M. Robinson, K. Wachtel, (2020). ‘The Editio Critica Maior of the Greek New Testament: Twenty Years of Digital Collaboration,’ Early Christianity 11: 97–117.
• Houghton, H. A. G., D. C. Parker and Holger Strutwolf, ed. (2019). The New Testament in Antiquity and Byzantium. Traditional and Digital Approaches to its Texts and Editing. ANTF 52. Berlin: De Gruyter.
• Houghton, H. A. G., C. M. Kreinecker, R. F. MacLachlan and C. J. Smith (2019). The Principal Pauline Epistles: A Collation of Old Latin Witnesses. NTTSD 59. Leiden: Brill.
• Houghton, H. A. G. and C. J. Smith (2016). ‘Digital Editing and the Greek New Testament,’ in Claire Clivaz, Paul Dilley and David Hamidović, ed., Ancient Worlds in Digital Culture, Digital Biblical Studies 1. Leiden: Brill, 110–127.
• International Greek New Testament Project (2014–2022). Electronic Resources for the Textual Tradition of the Epistles of Paul. 
• Metzger, Bruce M. (1977). The Early Versions of the New Testament: Their Origin, Transmission, and Limitations. Oxford: Clarendon.
• Miroshnikov, Ivan (2019). ‘A New Witness to the Paleo-Bohairic Version of the Bible: A Fragmentary Manuscript of the Epistle to the Hebrews in Early Bohairic.’ Journal of Coptic Studies 21: 173–208.
• Miroshnikov, Ivan (2022). ‘A New Witness to the Fayyūmic Version of First Corinthians (P.MorganLib. 265).’ New Testament Studies 68: 89–104, 206–230.
• Niccum, Curt (2014). The Bible in Ethiopia: The Book of Acts. Ethiopic Manuscripts, Texts and Studies 19. Eugene: Pickwick.
• Niccum, Curt (2019). ‘An Ethiopic Codex in the Egyptian Desert and the Greek Text of 1 Corinthians,’ in James W. Thompson and Richard A. Wright, ed., Ethics in Contexts: Essays in Honor of Wendell Lee Willis. Eugene: Pickwick, 29–39.
• Parker, D. C. (2008). An Introduction to the Manuscripts and Text of the New Testament. Cambridge: CUP.
• Parker, D. C. (2012). Textual Scholarship and the Making of the New Testament. Oxford: OUP.
• Richter, Siegfried G. and Katharina D. Schröder (2019). ‘Digitale Werkzeuge zur Systematisierung koptischer Handschriften,’ in Houghton, Parker and Strutwolf (2019): 439–448.
• Plisch, Uwe Karsten (1996). ‘Die Apostelin Junia: Das exegetische Problem in Röm 16,7 im Licht von Nestle-Aland²⁷ und der sahidischen Überlieferung,’ New Testament Studies 42: 477–478.
• Schmitz, Franz-Jürgen, ed. (2003). Das Verhältnis der koptischen zur griechischen Überlieferung des Neuen Testaments. Dokumentation und Auswertung der Gesamtmaterialien beider Traditionen zum Jakobusbrief und den beiden Petrusbriefen. ANTF 33. Berlin: De Gruyter.
• Schüssler, Karlheinz, ed. (1995–2012). Biblia Coptica. Die koptischen Bibeltexte. 13 fascicles. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Strutwolf, Holger, (2011a). ‘Original Text and Textual History,’ in Wachtel and Holmes (2011) 23–42.
• Strutwolf, Holger, (2011b). ‘Der “New Testament Virtual Manuscript Room” — eine Online-Plattform zum Studium der neutestamentlichen Textüberlieferung,’ Early Christianity 2: 275–277.
• Strutwolf, Holger, et al., ed. (2012). Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece. 28th edn. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft.
• Strutwolf, Holger, et al., ed. (2013). Novum Testamentum Graecum, Editio Critica Maior. Vol. IV. Die Katholischen Briefe. 2nd edn. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft.
• Strutwolf, Holger, et al., ed. (2017). Novum Testamentum Graecum, Editio Critica Maior. Vol. III. Die Apostelgeschichte. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft.
• Thompson, Henry F. H. (1932). The Coptic version of the acts of the Apostles and the Pauline Epistles in the Sahidic dialect: edited from three mss. in the collection of Mr. Chester Beatty. Cambridge: CUP.
• Uhlig, Siegbert, and Helge Maehlum (1993). Novum Testamentum Aethiopice. 3. Die Gefangenschaftsbriefe. Äthiopistische Forschungen 33; Stuttgart: Steiner.
• Wachtel, Klaus, and Michael W. Holmes, ed. (2011). The Textual History of the Greek New Testament. Changing Views in Contemporary Research. SBL Text-Critical Studies 8. Atlanta: SBL.

Details of project publications will be noted here, with links to online copies, as they become available. For existing publications related to this project, see the Bibliography.

Transcriptions of Latin manuscripts of Galatians are available at www.epistulae.org. This site also hosts the ITSEE Citations Database of quotations of the Pauline Epistles in early Latin and Greek writers, and the initial collation of the Greek manuscripts of Galatians.

Information about Coptic biblical manuscripts may be seen in the Coptic Old Testament Manuscript Room at ADWG. The Schmitz-Mink-Richter (SMR) database of Coptic Manuscripts is hosted by INTF.

The GALaCSy project began at Birmingham on 1 February 2022, and at Göttingen and Münster on 1 April 2022. The first steps included the recruitment of postdoctoral research fellows for the project (Dr Samuel Moawad [INTF], Dr Julien Delhez [ADWG], Dr Oliver Norris [ITSEE]). The project teams are working on establishing an inventory list of Sahidic Coptic manuscripts of the Pauline Epistles, sourcing images, and making full electronic transcriptions of those images.

Further details of the project will be posted here as it progresses. 

Professor Hugh Houghton
Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing
Department of Theology and Religion
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
B15 2TT

• +44 (0)121 415 8341
• itsee@contacts.bham.ac.uk