Within his general interest in Semitic languages, and especially in syntax, Syriac always occupied a significant place.He is the author of many authoritative publications in the field of Syriac syntax and grammar.

Interpreting the Bible and Aristotle in late antiquity. The Alexandrian commentary tradition between Rome and Baghdad. Edited by Joseph Lössl and John W. Watt. Pp. xv+343 incl. 2 figs. Farnham–Burlington, Vt: Ashgate, 2011. £70. 978 1 4094 1007 2 - Volume 64 Issue 2

This momentous two-volume publication deals with the Christian history of Iraq. The collection of ca. 600 inscriptions reflects in multiple ways the history of the Christian communities from the early days under the Parthians and the Sassanians, through the Islamic and Ottoman period, until the present day. Throughout their history Iraqi Christians have lived as minorities in a non-Christian and non-Syriac environment. They have had to respond, therefore, to the challenges and opportunities t...

Tappouni in 1963, a chorbishop of the Syrian-

In response to an invitation by the General Editor, the paper reflects on the present state of Syriac studies as well as on the opportunities and challenges of the future.In addition to a brief discussion of the geographical changes in the worldwide presence of Syriac Christians and Syriac scholars, some suggestions are offered for work to be carried out in the coming years.The paper closes with some thoughts on the academic study of Syriac.

The Netherlands, at the age of 87.Present-day Syriac scholars will not have seen new publications by Professor Jansma in the last thirty years or so, but several of his Syriac publications that appeared between 1949 and the mid-seventies have proven to be of such lasting significance that there is reason, in a journal devoted to Syriac studies, to reflect briefly on the work of this eminent scholar. 1 [2] Taeke Jansma was born in Almelo, in the province of Overijssel, in the east of The Netherlands, in 1919.In 1938, he went to Leiden to study theology and Semitics.Under the supervision of Professor P.A.H. de Boer (d.1989) he wrote his dissertation, Inquiry into the Hebrew Text and the Ancient Versions of Zechariah IX-XIV (no.1), with which he earned his Ph.D. in 1949.Chapters are devoted to the Targum, the Peshitta, and the Septuagint, while Syriac readings are used and referred to throughout the dissertation.Moreover, several of the additional theses, short statements that in the Dutch tradition accompany the dissertation, deal with Syriac.Already during his student years, therefore, Syriac must have been emerging as an important focus of his scholarly interests.Jansma acquired additional expertise in the Aramaic languages of Late Antiquity including Syriac, Jewish Aramaic, and Samaritan Aramaic during a period of study spent in Leeds and Oxford in 1949-50.[3] In 1950, Leiden University appointed him full professor of "Hebrew language and literature, Israelite Antiquities, and Aramaic," thus putting on his shoulder a heavy teaching load, which seemed to leave only a little room for Syriac.For nearly a quarter of a century Jansma's teaching covered the whole field that had been entrusted to him.Syllabi and student notes that continued to circulate in Leiden

[1] Professor Michel van Esbroeck died in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, on Friday morning, November 21, 2003, suddenly and prematurely.1 He just had come back from a trip to Rome, driving through the night, as was his wont. The news of his death reached his American colleagues and friends as they gathered in Atlanta, Georgia, for the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Academy of Religion. It was received with disbelief and shock. Michel van Esbroeck was a truly remarkable scholar in the field of Eastern Christian studies. While the main focus of his work was on Georgian and Armenian Christian literature, his interest and competence covered other fields as well, and he had a number of fine publications in the field of Syriac. [2] Michel was born on June 17, 1934 in Malines (Mechelen), a Belgian town well known to Syriac scholars for the publication of Ephrem’s works by Thomas J. Lamy (Malines, 1882-1902). Michel often jokingly described himself as “flamand francophone” (“French speaking Flemish”), thus indicating the inadequacies of our linguistic and cultural categorizations. He himself was in fact a man of culture without borders, who did not fit into ready-made categories and who mastered an extraordinary number of languages, both ancient and modern. [3] He entered the Society of Jesus in 1953 and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1970. Since 1962 he was associated with the Museum Bollandianum, the Brussels headquarters of the Bollandists, a group of Jesuit Fathers engaged in the scholarly study of Christian hagiography. In the early sixties he studied Armenian and Georgian with Gérard Garitte at the Catholic University of Louvain and spent some time at the Université St.-Joseph in Beirut, where he

This paper focuses on two theological works by Philoxenus of Mabbog (d.523) in which the author considers Ephrem's theological views.One is an early work, the Mêmrê against Habbib (482-484); the other is the Letter to the monks of Senoun, which may be dated to 521.In the early work, quotations from Ephrem's work occupy a prominent position, but in the later work only a very few quotations are found and the author criticizes the imprecision of Ephrem's language.This change in attitude between the earlier and the later work is symptomatic of the transition through which Syriac Christianity passed around the year 500.Syriac theological thought was reconfigured along the lines of Greek patristic theology and the legacy of Ephrem, "our Syrian teacher," caused some discomfort. 2

A first description is given of a bunch of papyrus fragments that came to light in the Monastery of the Syrians in 1998. They are the remnants of a papyrus codex containing ascetical-monastic texts. On the basis of their writing, a date in the ninth century is plausible. It may be assumed that the codex belonged to the library of the Monastery, whose history can be traced back to the beginning of the ninth century. The new discovery would constitute the first evidence that papyrus codices were in use in that library. 94 Fr. Bigoul El-Souriany, Lucas Van Rompay [1] The papyrus fragments briefly presented here have come to light during reconstruction work in the keep, or qasr, of the Monastery of the Syrians in the course of 1998. They were found in a hall on the first floor that is known as the “oil cellar.” From here a doorway gives direct access to the place that in earlier days very likely served as the library, while the “oil cellar” itself contained a number of fragments of Syriac manuscripts when Evelyn White visited the Monastery in 1920 and 1921 (Evelyn White, III, 1933, 176–7 and Plate LI). [2] At the moment of their discovery, the fragments were stuck together and had the appearance of a wooden block of c. 11 cm. height, 8/9 cm. breadth (writing direction) and less than one cm. of thickness. The shape of the block was very irregular. Along the horizontal middle line so much damage had occurred and so much material had disappeared that the block was divided into an upper and a lower part, held together in the centre only by a few fibres of py pa rus. [3] In the months following the discovery, Father Bigoul ElSouriany and Dr. Wafika Noshy, of the Faculty of Antiquity of the University of Cairo, were able to detach the fragments one from another. In this process, however, the upper part of each leaf became unavoidably disconnected from the lower part. Moreover, only twelve fragments (representing either the upper or the lower part) remained intact; the others were broken into two or more pieces. All fragments turned out to contain Syriac text on both sides. [4] In April 2000, Father Bigoul showed the fragments to David Jacobs (British Library, London) and Lucas Van Rompay (then University of Leiden). The latter was allowed to transcribe and study the Syriac text of six of the bigger fragments. To prevent further damage and loss, it was decided to place all fragments between glass plates, work which was meticulously carried out by David Jacobs. The fragments are presently between thirty double glass plates. Twelve plates have only one fragment (see the examples in Figs. 1–2, 4, and 5); nine have two fragments; the others have three or more (up to fourteen tiny) fragments. All plates have been photographed on both sides by Lucas Van Rompay. It should be noted that the original order of the fragments is not known and that the fragments brought together under one glass plate do not necessarily belong to the same leaf. At Syriac Papyrus Fragments Recently Discovered 95 present the 83 papyrus fragments are like many pieces of a doublesided jigsaw puzzle. It is only the study of the content of the text which might eventually allow us to restore the pieces to their original order. [5] We most likely are dealing with the remnants of a papyrus codex rather than of a roll. On all edges damage has occurred: nowhere can the margins be seen and not a single line of text is preserved in its entirety. Since all the edges of the leaves have disappeared and no bifolio has survived, we have no information on the make-up of the quires. We obviously can distinguish between writing surfaces with horizontally and vertically running fibres, but this distinction does not help us to establish what the original “recto” and “verso” sides were. [6] The papyrus seems to be of very good quality and the ink has mostly remained black and clearly visible. In a few cases fibres have become detached and have taken with them part of the text, as can be seen in Fig. 3. [7] The writing of the fragments is a rather cursive, informal and slightly irregular Serto. Although the fragments exhibit some differences in the writing style and in the shape of the letters, we are inclined to think that the same hand wrote all the text. The left end and upper strokes of many letters are often very high (not only lomad and mim, but also pe and yud) and so is the final unattached nun, which hangs in the air. These extended letters, pointing upwards to the left, contrast and often intersect with the ‘olaf or taw, which mostly incline to the right. See e.g. Fig. 4, line 3: mawtar (mim and taw). Such criss-cross intersections give the writing a somewhat irregular appearance. The shin, hastily written in three strokes (right, top, and left), often has a rectangular rather than a triangular (inverted pyramid) shape, and in some instances its base is open. [8] Although no exact parallels to this writing can be found, many of its characteristics appear in manuscripts of the second half of the ninth century, cf. the plates CIV (ms. British Library, Add. 14,580, AD 866) and CX (ms. British Library, Add. 17,194, AD 885/86) in Paine Hatch’s Album (Paine Hatch 1946). Some similarities may even be found in manuscripts of the early tenth century, cf. the plates CXIII (ms. British Library, Or. 5021, AD 902/3), CXIV (ms. British Library, Add. 17,111, AD 927), and CXV (British Library, Add. 17,174, AD 929), the latter three 96 Fr. Bigoul El-Souriany, Lucas Van Rompay manuscripts having been written in Egypt (on ms. Or. 5021, see Brock 1995a, 74–6). Konrad Jenner drew our attention to the similarity which the fragments exhibit with the writing of the biblical manuscript Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Orientali 58, a manuscript of unknown place and date which is dated by most scholars to the ninth century, although an earlier date cannot be ruled out (Jenner 1993, 262–4). The general appearance of the writing in this manuscript and the shape of many individual letters indeed closely resemble the writing of the fragments. [9] On the basis of these data, one would be inclined to date the new fragments to the ninth century. However, some caution should be called for. Paine Hatch already pointed to the existence from the sixth century onwards of “a minuscule hand, more rapidly and less carefully written,” which had its impact on the development of the Serto script and there is reason to believe that Serto even has much older origins (Healey 2000; cf. Jenner 1993, 264). Given the cursive and rather informal character of the writing of the new fragments, the possibility of a date (slightly) earlier than e th ninth century should be left open. [10] It should be noted that Syriac papyrus fragments recently studied by Sauget and Brock have been attributed, on the basis of their writing, to the 9th/10th and to the 10th century—although with some hesitation (Sauget 1985, 2–3; Brock 1995b, 10–1 and 18). There can be no doubt that papyrus was still available at such a late date, as can be seen from the many preserved Arabic fragments (cf., e.g., Harrauer—Horak 1993). On the other hand, the study of Syriac papyri is only in its beginning (Brashear 1998; Brock 1999) and more precise dating criteria still need to be worked out. [11] The text contained in our papyrus fragments has not yet been identified. We are obviously dealing with an ascetical text, which speaks about God and virtuous life and which has references and allusions to the Bible. The names of Jesus, Isaiah (probably the Old Testament prophet), and John (the evangelist) occur in it. The terminology of one fragment is reminiscent of the Preface to the Gospel of John. The use of the standard vocabulary and imagery of Syriac ascetical literature would lead us to the writings of such authors as Isaiah of Scetis, Nilus, John the Solitary or Evagrius of Pontus, but other, less well-known authors are possible candidates as well. It cannot be ascertained whether we are dealing with one Syriac Papyrus Fragments Recently Discovered 97 work or with a collection of different works. Whatever the case may be, there are indications that there is a division into sections. One fragment has the following phrase: “now and always and for eternity. Amen” (Fig. 5, line 7), which seems to indicate the end of a section, identical to the ending of Logos XII in Draguet’s edition of Abba Isaiah’s Asceticon (Draguet 1968, I, text: 174,9; translation: 215). Another fragment has “to you is the glory for eternity of eternity ...”, which is very similar to the end of Logos XVIII in the same work (Draguet 1968 II, text: 287,7–9; translation: 356). One piece of ornamentation, preserved on a tiny isolated fragment, may have served to indicate the end of a chapter or book (Fig. 6). In some places there seem to be references to other sections or treatises of the same (?) work; letters are written with their numerical value, with a horizontal line on top of them. The clearest example is in a fragment which has: men mimro d-L... (the rest is missing), “from mimro 3[..].” Other examples involve the numbers 26 and 22 (Fig. 7, line 6: men haw d-KB). [12] Much more work remains to be done in order to ascertain whether these fragments present a text that is also known from other sources or whether we are dealing with a unique—albeit very incomplete—witness. Whatever the result of these future investigations may be, the new fragments constitute an important addition to the fairly modest corpus of Syriac papyri. Moreover, on the basis of this new discovery one may venture the supposition that the library of Deir al-Surian, whose history can be traced back to the beginning of the ninth century (Innemée—Van Rompay 1998, 182–4, with further references) contained books not only of parchment and paper, but also of papyrus.

Whereas Syriac literature is generally seen as the whole corpus of preserved texts as it is presently known to us, the present paper's aim is to gain insight into the various ways Syriac literary tradition was viewed at specific moments in history.First, the letters of Jacob of Edessa (c.700) and Timothy Catholicos (c.800) are studied.Second, some relevant data are drawn from what we know about libraries and manuscript collections.Third, the period of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries leads to a few general observations on the development of Syriac literary tradition in the later period.

Inspired by and in response to Stephen J. Davis' recent book on The Cult of St. Thecla (2001), this paper is a first exploration of the evidence on Thecla in Syriac Christianity.The relatively extensive Syriac manuscript tradition of the Acts of Paul and Thecla is briefly surveyed and placed within its wider literary and cultural contexts.

This reports contains the edition and translation of a Syriac inscription recently discovered on an isolated beam of wood which was reused in a later door of the qasr of the Monastery of the Syrians. It mentions the names of the patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria (Mor Igna ios and Mor Yu annon respectively) and is dated to the year 1597 of the Greeks, i.e., AD 1285/86. The original context of the inscription is not known. [1] The keep or qasr of the Monastery of the Syrians is presently undergoing considerable reconstruction work which affects all the floors of this historic square building. During our stay in the Monastery in December 2000, Abouna Bulus El-Suriany, who is responsible for the work, was kind enough to give us some insight in the work and to inform us about its progress. On the third floor of the qasr, the northern side is occupied by the Church of St. 110 Lucas Van Rompay, Andrea B. Schmidt Michael. Separated from it by a corridor, there is, on the eastern side, a room that served as a small library. While the qasr itself may date back to the ninth century, the Church of St. Michael is of a much later date. Evelyn White suggests the period around the year 1480, without however ruling out the possibility of a date as late as about 1700 [Evelyn White, III, 1933, 178]. [2] A few months ago, a wooden door was removed from its place in the church and it turned out to contain a Syriac inscription. Abouna Bulus allowed us to take photographs of this inscription and, after consultation with Abouna Bigoul El-Souriany, His Grace ish B op Mattaos granted us permission to publish it. [3] The door is c. 182 cm. in length and c. 107 cm. in width. It is made up of pieces of different origin. One of these is a beam that now has the same length as the door (182 cm.). Originally, it must have been longer, as part of it had been cut or sawn off in order to allow it to be used in the new door. This beam seems to be much older than the rest of the door. A bit more than half of it (97 cm.) is covered with a Syriac inscription, of which the beginning is missing due to its having been trimmed. Although the text must have remained visible to the beholder, it may be safely assumed that the beam was reused without any attention being paid to the content of the Syriac inscription, which in this door is completely out of place. [4] The Syriac text, incised in the wood, is written in one line. The writing is a clearly, but somewhat clumsily written Estrangelo, which can be read easily [Fig. 1 shows the whole inscription, while Figs. 2, 3, and 4 show in greater detail the first, central, and final parts respectively].

In the period October 2001-January 2002 conservation work and research continued in the church of the Holy Virgin in Deir alSurian (Wadi al-Natrun, Egypt).1 As in previous seasons, eighteenth-century plaster was removed from a number of walls, revealing mural paintings and inscriptions. The first part of this report will be devoted to the description of the wall-paintings and to some observations on the architecture of the church. In the second part the new Syriac texts will briefly be presented. I. WALL PAINTINGS BY KAREL C. INNEMÉE [1] During the recent campaign a number of paintings and inscriptions were uncovered belonging to what we call now layers 2 and 3 of the stratigraphy of mural paintings. Layer 2 is supposed to belong to the period before the arrival of the first Syrian monks (most probably around 800 A.D.), while layer 3 has clear symptoms of Syrian influence or authorship. 1 For reports on earlier campaigns see Hugoye 1/2 (July 1998), 2/2 (July 1999), 3/2 (July 2000), and 4/2 (July 2001). 246 Innemée & Van Rompay [2] During this campaign work was carried out in the khurus, the part of a Coptic church that corresponds more or less to the transept in western church architecture. Within this part of the church, the focus was on the northern part of the khurus and on the upper part of its eastern wall, just under the dome (Fig. 1). 1. PAINTINGS ON LAYER 2. [3] The paintings on the northern wall of the khurus have a layout that corresponds to that of the previously treated southern wall: a lower zone with dado-decoration, imitating columns and marble inlay work. Over this 2 metre high zone there is a level with two blocked windows. Flanking these windows there are three panels of muralpainting. Over this level there is a painted half-dome, now showing the scene of the Dormition of the Virgin, belonging to the fourth layer of painting (13th century). Apart from the dado, which has been done in tempera, all the other paintings on layer 2 uncovered now, have been executed in the encaustic technique. 1.1. DADO-DECORATION. [4] As in the southern khurus, the lower part of the walls in the northern khurus is decorated with a painted pattern of columns, imitation of marble inlay and an architrave covered with a red-andwhite pattern of triangles. This dado continues on the western wall, which has no figurative paintings on the higher parts of the wall. After layer 1 (mostly crosses in red ochre) had been whitewashed over, this dado-decoration must have been one of the first parts of the new and more monumental decoration. After that the halfdome was painted, judging from the drops of paint that have fallen down and that were found under the painting in between. 1.2. PISENTIOS AND APAKIR (FIG. 2). [5] On the left part of the northern wall saints Pisentios and Apakir are represented. Their identity can be established by the inscriptions on either side of their heads and by their attributes. [6] The left saint is dressed as a bishop, wearing an omophorion with both ends in front. The inscription on either side of his head is still well legible. ABB[...]ICENTI is written left of his head, right of his head TCINTI. This must be St. Pisentios, whose name is followed by his epitheton ornans (TCINTI means “the foundation”; it Deir al-Surian (Egypt): New Discoveries 2001-2002 247 also is the name of the community close to Deir al-Bahari, where he lived). He was born around 568 and consecrated as bishop of Koptos in 598. [7] Left of the other saint there is the inscription О АГІОС, right the letters АПАК[...]. He carries the attributes of a doctor, a medicine box and a scalpel, similar to those of Cosmas and Damian on the opposite side of the church. This must be St. Apakir, a martyr from the time of Diocletian who had a reputation as a doctor. 1.3. “DAMIANOS” (FIG. 3). [8] In the middle of the northern wall there is painting representing a standing bishop or patriarch. He has a youthful face with a short dark beard. He is dressed in full episcopal garments and holds a book in front of him with both hands. A red cloth is draped over his hands. On either sides of the person there are representations of architecture. On the left a tower-like structure that may be a church; a ladder is standing against it, giving access to the first floor. On the right there is a walled building with a gate. It is not yet clear what the nature and the meaning of these buildings are. The identification of the person poses some problems, too. Next to his head there is the barely legible inscription O AΓIOC [...]ANOC. The way he holds the book in front of him, a red cloth on his hands, reminds of the icon of St. Mark (6th-7th cent.), now in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris [Grabar 1980, fig 186]. Judging from his dress, which is more elaborate than that of a normal bishop, and from his youthful appearance, he may be Damianos, 35th patriarch of Alexandria (578-605), who was consecrated at a rather young age [Evetts 1904, 473-478]. There may also be a connection with the painting of St. Pisentios, who was consecrated by Damianos. Furthermore we know that Damianos was a monk in Wadi al-Natrun before becoming a patriarch. He was of Syrian origin, but considering the likelihood that this painting was done prior to the arrival of the first Syrian monks, this should most probably not be counted as a reason to depict him here. 1.4. LUKE AND BARNABAS (FIG. 4). [9] The panel to the right has the representations of St. Luke and St. Barnabas. To the left is St. Luke, identified by the inscription О 248 Innemée & Van Rompay АГІ[...] ЛОYKАС. Next to him is Barnabas with the inscription O AГIOC [...]ABAC. In contrast to the other paintings, the figures are represented in a framework of two arches, separated by a column. Also in other respects this painting is different from the others on the northern wall: the painting has been done on a black background with a thick layer of encaustic paint, while the others have a thinner layer of paint on a white ground. The arches, the deep red of the dress of St. Luke, and the triple dots as an ornament on it have a very close parallel in the paintings in the haikal of Benjamin in the neighbouring monastery of St. Macarius, especially in the painting of St. John the Baptist [Leroy 1982, pl. 5]. The similarity is so striking that it might be presumed that both paintings have been done by the same artist. The so-called church of patriarch Benjamin was consecrated by Benjamin himself in 655, but there is no certainty concerning the date of the paintings. Leroy is not explicit on this issue. A closer investigation of the paintings and their stratigraphical context in the monastery of St. Macarius would, therefore, probably be useful for a more precise dating of the paintings in Deir al-Surian. 1.5. ABBA APOLLO (FIG. 5). [10] On the attached half-column on the western wall of the northern khurus a painting has been uncovered that seems to be a counterpart to the standing monk on the column in the southern khurus. It shows a standing monk in a red tunic and a light-blue cloak. Although the painting is heavily damaged it is clear that the characteristics of his costume are those of Upper Egypt. On his shoulders he wears a black hood that has been drawn back. In his right hand he holds a staff diagonally in front of him. Below his waist there is a diagonal line that may be the remainder of a rahtou, the leather apron of Pachomian monks. At the left side of his head there is the inscription ABB[...] ΑΠOΛO, at the other side a remarkably large star has been painted on the blue of the background. The meaning of this detail is unclear so far. It should be a representation of Apollo, the father who founded the monastery in Bawit at the end of the fourth century. He is clearly meant as a counterpart for the painting of the monk on the other side of the khurus, who is not identified by any inscription, but who is dressed in the Lower Egyptian costume. Deir al-Surian (Egypt): New Discoveries 2001-2002 249 1.6. THE NORTHERN HALF-DOME. [11] The 13th century painting of the Dormition of the Virgin (layer 4) in the northern half-dome is in a critical condition. In many places the painted plaster has detached itself from the underlying surface, an earlier painting belonging to layer 2. This earlier painting is also in a bad condition, due to the fact that the masonry of the halfdome has deep cracks. In the near future these two layers will have to be separated in order to save as much of them as possible. In the past season provisional measures have been taken to avoid further deterioration. During this work parts of the lower edge of the older painting became visible. On the right side a pair of feet and three sheep appeared, on the left an inscription reading MELXIOP. This can hardly mean anything else than that the painting depicts the Nativity. This is a confirmation of the hypothesis that the Annunciation, discovered in 1991 in the western half-dome, is the first scene of a christological cycle [Innemée 1995]. Reading these scenes clockwise, one would expect a painting of the Ascension in the east, the place where we find now the domed square sanctuary, constructed in the time of Moses of Nisibis. There are, however reasons to believe that originally the church had an apse, similar in construction to the northern and western endings of the khurus. This would have been a most suitable place for an Ascension in an early Coptic church (compare the first layer in the tri-conch sanctuary of the Red Monastery in Sohag). At the same time it is the before-last theme in the classical early-Christian christological cycles. That would leave the theme of Pentecost for the last halfdome, the one in the southern khurus. This half-dome now shows the Annunciation and the Nativity, the beginning of the 13thcentury cycle. This cycle originally had the Ascension in the western half-dome as its third scene and ended with the Dormition of the Virgin i

This paper is a follow up to an earlier publication in which data related to the Syriac Acts of Thecla and to the cult of Thecla in Syria were provisionally collected and surveyed.Some further data are presented here.They are taken from Syriac literary sources: the letters of Severus of Antioch, a liturgical hymn, and the biography of John of Tella.In addition, the Armenian tradition of the Acts of Thecla is briefly mentioned as a witness to the early Syriac text.In an earlier issue of this periodical we made a first attempt to survey the Syriac manuscript tradition of the Acts of Thecla and to bring together various pieces of information illuminating the popularity of the Acts as well as of the cult of Thecla in Syria [Burris & Van Rompay 2002].By doing so, we intended to pave the way for a more comprehensive study in the future, comparable to Stephen Davis' treatment of the Thecla cult in Egypt [Davis 2001].After the completion of our earlier paper, a few more interesting data