9.7.1 Background and Manuscript Evidence¹

In the Coptic language, the book of Judith can only be read in the Sahidic dialect of Upper Egypt. The Sahidic version is extant in three sources known to the author. The first is Cop^Sa 19 a parchment palimpsest codex, Syriac written on two columns of Coptic. It inhabits the British Library in London under the name Add. 17183,² having been brought from the Wadī al-Natrun in Egypt, between modern-day Cairo and Alexa…