Jesus's Coptic Christian Alphabet

Rosanne

In reading through the Coptic Christianity stories for something totally unrelated to this forum (I was looking for the Walled plantation of Matariyya) and I came across Muhammad al-Bagir's account of the travels of the Holy family in Egypt written in 676; this apparently is exactly identical To the Gospel of Thomas the Israelite written in 140-160 which of course was not included in the Bible, but used extensively by the Coptic Christians.
It says....Mary took him to school in Al-Bahnasa (Jesus) and the teacher said to Jesus,
"Say the Alphabet"
Jesus said "Dost thou know what the words mean?"
Jesus told the teacher to sit on the floor, and he took over the teaching.
The Alif stands for the Good Deeds of God.
The Da stands for the Glory of God. (I presume Bayt)
The Gim stands for the Splendour of God.
The Dal for the Religion of God.
The He for the Abyss of Hell.
Wa for the Misery of the those in Hell, who ask for Forgivness.
Ba/ha? for the remission of sins.(I presume Zayin)
Ka for the Word of God that will never Change. (Khet??)
The Sa is Measure for Measure.(Samek??)
Ta for the Serpents of Hell. (Taw??)

I note there are only 10 words
I just thought it interesting That the Coptic Christians thought 22 Tau? Whom I have called the Fool, the Serpents of Hell. Much like Devils in Orthodox Catholicism if there is such a thing(OC).
~Rosanne
 

Rosanne

Well no wonder it all looked strange this Jesus's Alphabet.
Coptic was the last stage of the ancient Egyptian Language oral script.
I am not very good at this....but the picture of a hand palm up, became Kaph, then in Phoenicean looked liked a chicken foot print and then became our K so in Coptic the hand picture was pronounced KA. Then there was a divergence from that oral sound into written language that looks like stylised ancient Egyptian pictures- still sounds like ancient Hebrew.
Clear as mud?

~Rosanne