EGYPT (OXYRHYNCHITIC) DISLECT.
The oldest Coptic psalter ever - what is called the MUDIL Codex, which is written in Middle Egypt (Oxrhychitic)
dialect, and dates from the fourth century.
Budge's Coptic Psalter is kept in the British Library in London - the Mudil Codex is , however, kept in the Coptic
Museum (MS. 6614), in Old Cairo, ow what is called Cootic Cairo, in Egypt.
This priceless manuscript, as described by the Coptic Coptogist ! Gawdat Gabra, is "The biblical text discovered
in an Egyptian tomb, it was found in the large, poor cemetery of Al-Mudil, 40 kilometres north-east of
Oxrhynchos, a city famous on Graeco-Roman times, in a shallow grave under a (Copric) young girl's head.
Her parents must have been relatively rich to have owned such a valuable volume.
The practice of burying religious texts with the dead dates back to Ancient Egyptian burial customs......
the small peg used to lock the book is shaped like the ancient Egyptian symbol of life."
Unfortunately, no study of this gem has been done in English.
Recently, 20017, the German Coptogist Gregor Emmenegger wrote . The Mudil Codex from the 4th century
contains the Bibical Psalms in Coptic. However, the text differs from familiar versions of the Psalms, giving rise to question of whether we are dealing with an original form of the text.