So, I did more research into the hymn as promised. I found a paper on it, “Coptic Bilingualism and Hymn-Writing: A Study of the Glorification Hymn Agios Istin” by George Ghaly which was published in Coptica Volume 10, 2011 (Coptica is a Journal dedicated to the publishing of scholarly articles in the study of Christianity in Egypt. its publishers are St. Shenouda the Archimandrite Coptic Society and St. Mark Foundation for Coptic History Studies.) www.stshenouda.org/publication/coptica The paper explains the eccentricity of the language of the hymn with: 1-Bohairicization, "a process where a Bohairic text uses a non-standard form of a word usually from a Sahidic predecessor." 2-Bilingualism and code switching. 3-The poetic and linguistic structure of the hymn, as the hymn "has five distinct elements: 1. Trinitarian formula, 2. acrostic framework, the first, second, and third line of each stanza follow the letters of the Greek alphabet in order 3. poetic meter and rhyme, 4. poetic diction and 5. repetition and deliberate deviation from standard bilingual linguistic code to preserve rhyme and meter." Which, according to the author, has led to the hymn exhibiting these features: -A mix of standard/non-standard Coptic and standard/non-standard Greek vocabulary and grammar. -Appearing as Greek, but linguistically exhibiting Coptic as the dominate language in grammar and code-switching. -A high degree of deviations from standard Greek or standard Coptic. Which according to the author is found frequently in late liturgical texts, especially the Glorification Rite corpus, in texts from the seventeenth to the twentieth century when Coptic was only used as a liturgical language. Also, the author explains that a controversy regarding the hymn seemingly attributing Christological doctrine to the wrong person of the Trinity with the hymn repetition of a structured element following the formula "’X’ are you, O Father. ‘Y,’ [who] in the likeness of our lowly state, is ‘Z’ [ and ‘Y’] is of the Holy Spirit. ‘X’ is a divine Trinitarian characteristic describing the first person of the Trinity, God the Father. Every stanza has a different characteristic. Although our hymn-writer doesn't explicitly say it, the subject of the second sentence, ‘Y’, is the second person of the Trinity, the Logos. He describes Christ's incarnation with the phrase ‘in the likeness of our lowly state’ or ‘in a human manner.’ The incarnated Logos ‘Y’ is described with a Christological characteristic ‘Z’. Finally, he reinforces the fundamental Christological expression found in the Nicene Creed: the incarnated Logos ‘Y’ is of the Holy Spirit. In each stanza, only three words change (marked by ‘X’, ‘Y’ and ‘Z’)." So, the hymn always uses allegory to describe the Son. The author believes that the hymn shouldn't be considered wrong or corrupted in light of the above, on the other hand, many people believe that it's a corrupted text and needs to be removed, and you can find articles discussing this online like in www.freeorthodoxmind.org/2012/10/blog-post.html Worth mentioning that this is one of the few hymns that have this eccentricity as mentioned above, most hymns either are standard Coptic or standard Greek or have certain parts in Coptic and others in Greek but separate from each other.
I tried my best in the English and Arabic captions to translate the hymn word by word but this hymn particularly has been really difficult, maybe because it's in (Copticish) Greek. So if you know Coptic or Greek and you find any mistakes in the captions, please tell me. Also I have posted my inquiries about certain parts of the hymn in Coptic language groups and I'll tell you if I modify the captions.
So, I did more research into the hymn as promised. I found a paper on it, “Coptic Bilingualism and Hymn-Writing: A Study of the Glorification Hymn Agios Istin” by George Ghaly which was published in Coptica Volume 10, 2011 (Coptica is a Journal dedicated to the publishing of scholarly articles in the study of Christianity in Egypt. its publishers are St. Shenouda the Archimandrite Coptic Society and St. Mark Foundation for Coptic History Studies.) www.stshenouda.org/publication/coptica The paper explains the eccentricity of the language of the hymn with:
1-Bohairicization, "a process where a Bohairic text uses a non-standard form of a word usually from a Sahidic predecessor."
2-Bilingualism and code switching.
3-The poetic and linguistic structure of the hymn, as the hymn "has five distinct elements: 1. Trinitarian formula, 2. acrostic framework, the first, second, and third line of each stanza follow the letters of the Greek alphabet in order 3. poetic meter and rhyme, 4. poetic diction and 5. repetition and deliberate deviation from standard bilingual linguistic code to preserve rhyme and meter."
Which, according to the author, has led to the hymn exhibiting these features:
-A mix of standard/non-standard Coptic and standard/non-standard Greek vocabulary and grammar.
-Appearing as Greek, but linguistically exhibiting Coptic as the dominate language in grammar and code-switching.
-A high degree of deviations from standard Greek or standard Coptic.
Which according to the author is found frequently in late liturgical texts, especially the Glorification Rite corpus, in texts from the seventeenth to the twentieth century when Coptic was only used as a liturgical language.
Also, the author explains that a controversy regarding the hymn seemingly attributing Christological doctrine to the wrong person of the Trinity with the hymn repetition of a structured element following the formula "’X’ are you, O Father. ‘Y,’ [who] in the likeness of our lowly state, is ‘Z’ [ and ‘Y’] is of the Holy Spirit. ‘X’ is a divine Trinitarian characteristic describing the first person of the Trinity, God the Father. Every stanza has a different characteristic. Although our hymn-writer doesn't explicitly say it, the subject of the second sentence, ‘Y’, is the second person of the Trinity, the Logos. He describes Christ's incarnation with the phrase ‘in the likeness of our lowly state’ or ‘in a human manner.’ The incarnated Logos ‘Y’ is described with a Christological characteristic ‘Z’. Finally, he reinforces the fundamental Christological expression found in the Nicene Creed: the incarnated Logos ‘Y’ is of the Holy Spirit. In each stanza, only three words change (marked by ‘X’, ‘Y’ and ‘Z’)." So, the hymn always uses allegory to describe the Son.
The author believes that the hymn shouldn't be considered wrong or corrupted in light of the above, on the other hand, many people believe that it's a corrupted text and needs to be removed, and you can find articles discussing this online like in www.freeorthodoxmind.org/2012/10/blog-post.html
Worth mentioning that this is one of the few hymns that have this eccentricity as mentioned above, most hymns either are standard Coptic or standard Greek or have certain parts in Coptic and others in Greek but separate from each other.
I tried my best in the English and Arabic captions to translate the hymn word by word but this hymn particularly has been really difficult, maybe because it's in (Copticish) Greek. So if you know Coptic or Greek and you find any mistakes in the captions, please tell me. Also I have posted my inquiries about certain parts of the hymn in Coptic language groups and I'll tell you if I modify the captions.
This hymn was recommended by our viewer Jackson Evans, feel free to recommend any Coptic hymns you want to see on our channel!
Would you try making this one into arabic 😅, It's beautiful people would love it for sure!
Better at 1.25 speed
Bia