46
LESLIE S.B. MACCOULL
nian church in Egypt, complete with clergy, buildings, exegesis, and
liturgy.24 It is possible that the Mareotic church, a reworked building,25 whose walls depicted Isaiah and Solomon, had been reconsecrated to non-Chalcedonian use from a Chalcedonian origin.26 It
was repainted with decoration showing both Isaiah's one-nature
Christology and the triumph of Constantine, to illustrate the separatists' contention that only they, not the innovating Chalcedonians, remained true to the faith of the 318 Fathers of Nicaea. A
eucharist enacted within this building would, in their view and experience, be real.
Seen through the optic of liturgical history, the ritual for consecration of a church occasionally draws on one other source besides
those for the eucharist and ordination: baptism. While this source
has hitherto been ruled out for the Coptic/Egyptian consecration
rite,27 our papyrus may provide evidence for reconsideration, given
the possible reading of xXPlc (?) in 1 1. 1 coupled with "voice" in 1. 3: a
pairing also often found in the Byzantine rite of initiation28 as well
as its parallels used on the fest of the Epiphany,29 both of which
mention the six-winged30 seraphim.31
24 Cf. D.W. Winkler, Koptische Kirche und Reichskirche (Innsbruck-Vienna
1997) 168-81, and L.S.B. MacCoull, "John Philoponus, On the Pasch (CPG 7267):
The Egyptian Eucharist in the Sixth Century and the Armenian Connection,"
JOB 49 (1999) 1-12, esp. 9-10 with the literature cited there.
25 Witte-Orr, op.cit. (above, n. 21) 8-11, 18. Here we have evidence to oppose
the counter-intuitive view that Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian churches did
not differ in decoration and/or plan, as maintained by, e.g., M. Rassart-Debergh,
"Le programme iconographique des 'eglises' kelliotes," in ead. (ed.), Etudes Coptes
V. CahBiblCopt 10 (Paris-Louvain 1998) 23-44, esp. 29; and by Grillmeier and
Hainthaler, op.cit. (above, n. 7) 11.4, 275-6.
26 See L.S.B. MacCoull, "'A Dwelling Place of Christ, a Healing Place of
Knowledge:' The Non-Chalcedonian Eucharist in Late Antique Egypt and its Setting" (forthcoming).
27 Coquin, "Consecration" (above, n. 14) 166, 172.
28 Parenti and Velkovska, op.cit. (above, n. 11) 111-2.
29 Ibid. 128. Psalm 28:3 (-5, 7-9) is used at Coptic Epiphany; cf. J. CrichtonStuart, Marquess of Bute, and E. Wallis Budge, The Blessing of the Waters on the
Eve of Epiphany (London 1911) 131; L.S.B. MacCoull, "Further Notes on P.Gr.
