The Coptic Version of the Acta Phileae

In 2010 two distinct but almost identical papers by Gesa Schenke have contributed to extend the evidence for the already very substantial dossier of the hagiography and martyrdom of the Egyptian bishop Phileas of Thmuis (d. 305 CE), with the discovery, identification and publication of a previously unknown Coptic version of the Acta Phileae (Co) from P. Köln 492 = Inv. 20838e. The Coptic text consequently matches closely the Ethiopic text – that probably goes back directly to a Greek Vorlage and is therefore decisive for a correct understanding of the Coptic, probably also based upon a Greek Vorlage – and should be translated as suggested in this note.