The word “Coptic” used to just mean “Egyptian”. However, ever since the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 600s AD, “Coptic” has specifically meant “Egyptian Christians”.
We have records in the New Testament of some of the earliest Christians being from Egypt. For example, Apollos was from Alexandria (Acts 18:24).
And, even today, a large portion of the population of Egypt are “Copts”. Or, in other words, Christians living in Egypt.
Now, back when the New Testament was being written, many of the Copts living in Northern Egypt spoke Greek. So, they were able to read the Scriptures in Greek. But, as you went farther south along the Nile River, fewer people spoke Greek.
In Southern Egypt, you’d find more people speaking Egyptian. To be more specific, they’d be speaking Coptic. Coptic is the name given to the Egyptian language starting around the First or Second Century AD.
So, in Southern Egypt, most people would not have been able to understand the New Testament in Greek. They would need a translation. A translation into Coptic.
The Coptic Translations
That leads us into what early Christians did next.
We don’t have perfect records, but it seems that sometime in the late 100s AD or early 200s AD, someone made the first translation of Scripture into Coptic. Likely, these translations were piecemeal. Someone might have translated the Gospel of Luke, then a few years later someone else might have translated the book of Romans, and so on.
Our oldest surviving copies of the Bible in Coptic date back to around the late 300s or early 400s AD. Some of these are the New Testament, but many are also books of the Old Testament.
There is also something very interesting about these Coptic translations of the Bible. They are the oldest records we have of any writing in the Coptic language!
This has led some scholars to think that the Coptic writing system and alphabet were invented for the purpose of translating the Bible into Coptic! However, it seems more accurate to say that these Bible translations popularized the Coptic alphabet, rather than invented it.
Well, in that case, what is this Coptic alphabet? Remember, Coptic is just the name for Egyptian during this time period. The ancient Egyptian language had hieroglyphics. And there were other writing systems at other points in Egyptian history.
But, the Coptic alphabet was different. Pretty much, it was the Greek alphabet with a few additional letters added on.
So, using this new alphabet, early Christians translated the Old and New Testaments into Coptic.
But, there’s one more fun detail. You see, when we talk about Coptic, we are talking about the Egyptian language from roughly the Second Century AD up to some point in the late Middle Ages, maybe around the year 1000 AD. That’s about the time that Coptic became fully replaced by Arabic. But, like Latin, some people even today speak Coptic in religious and academic settings.
Over that period of time, there were a few different dialects of Coptic.
Specifically, there are two major dialects that give us many of our ancient writings in Coptic: Sahidic and Bohairic.
Sahidic
Sahidic was the main dialect of Coptic in Southern Egypt when people first started translating the Bible into Coptic. And, remember, Southern Egypt was where people most needed a translation.
So, most of our oldest surviving copies of books of the Bible in Coptic were written in Sahidic Coptic.
Bohairic
Bohairic was the main dialect of Coptic in Northern Egypt. After the Muslims conquered Egypt in the 600s AD, Bohairic became the main form of Coptic in all of Egypt.
So, most of our copies of the Bible in Coptic from around the 700s AD and onwards were written in Bohairic Coptic.
Summary
To sum it all up, Coptic was the name of the Egyptian language spoken from around the 200s-1000s AD. When the New Testament was first written, many people living in Southern Egypt only spoke Coptic, so they needed the Bible to be translated. These first translations took place around the year 200 AD (plus or minus several decades) into the Sahidic dialect of Coptic.
This story serves as a good reminder that we need to spread the Good News to all people, even if that means learning a new language or traveling to foreign lands.