COPTIC TEXT OF SAINT MARK THE EVANGELIST’S LITURGY AND ITS COMPARATION WITH OTHER TRANSLATIONS

Marika Tchitanava-Lobzhanidze

Marika Tchitanava-Lobzhanidze PhD student of Byzantine Philology, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Ilia Tchavtchavadze Avenue № 1, Georgia, http://orcid.org/0009-0008-6139-2913

Abstract

The liturgy of St. Mark the Evangelist, or, as it is called in another way, the liturgy of St. Cyril of Alexandria, is one of the three church services that are still used in the Coptic Church today. It originated in the early period of Christianity in Egypt.

In the Byzantine traditional version, the mentioned ceremony is famous as the liturgy of St. Mark the Evangelist, which in terms of execution has not lost its relevance in the Orthodox Patriarchates, and as the ancient and local traditional divine service of Eastern Christianity is celebrated on the day of commemoration of the apostle, on April 25/May 8. The liturgical practice that was developed and spread in the northern region of Africa is known as the Alexandrian tradition, and the texts used for the Eucharist belong to the liturgy of St. Mark.

In the early centuries, so-called Western Christianity's Lingua Franca was ancient Greek; that's why the evangelist created the liturgy of St. Mark in this language. It was translated into Coptic for the local population by Saint Cyril of Alexandria in the first half of the fifth century. Thus, it can be said that the Greek version of the mentioned liturgy was called St. Mark's, and its Coptic translation is St. Cyril's Liturgy, despite the fact that the full name of the latter is "The Liturgy of our Holy Father Mark the Apostle, which was established by St. Cyril the High Priest Thrice Blessed".

It should be emphasized that the brevity and specificity of the Alexandrian liturgy led to its wide spread beyond the borders of Egypt and the translation of the liturgical text composed in ancient Greek into many languages. Our goal, for the first time in Georgia, is to introduce and popularize as Mark the Evangelist's liturgy and his translations, as Coptic language and culture to the public, which interested in liturgy and theology in general.

Key words: Mark; the Evangelist; Liturgy; Coptic; Cyril; Alexandria; manuscripts