Marqus ibn Qunbar (â â¯1208) was a charismatic pastor and erudite interpreter of the Bible. His primary mission was to establish the practice of auricular confession and emphasize its significance for salvation. He employed the allegorical method of exegesis and adapted his penitential theology to accomplish his purpose. Whether we read his works or those of his opponents, we find his central argument that salvation is unattainable without being a disciple of a master, confessing sins frequently, and completing the prescribed penance with humility. Undoubtedly, he influenced the spiritual lives of thousands of Egyptian Christians for nearly fifty years. He eventually joined the Melkite or Byzantine Orthodox Church after facing strong opposition from the prelates of the Coptic Orthodox Church, who found several theological errors in his doctrine and practice. However, his quest to propagate the practice of auricular confession persisted for centuries after his death. Based on historical archives and the writings of his opponents, a number of scholars, including Renaudot, Graf, and Burmester, have investigated his ministry. The Master and the Disciple in Eight Chapters, whose critical version will be offered for the first time in this study, has never before been the subject of intensive research or publication.
Eusèbe Renaudot (ADâ¯1646â1720), a French Orientalist and liturgical scholar, is renowned for his Latin translation and publication of the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria. In his work against the Calvinist Protestants, La perpétuité de la foi de lâÃglise catholique touchant lâeucharistie (Tome 5), he provided evidence of the âperpetuityâ of the sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church, the fundamental claim that her doctrine and practices were unchanged and unchangeable. To consolidate his argument, he presented several references from Syriac and Arabic works as evidence of sacramental confession among Oriental Christians.1 When discussing the medieval Coptic debates regarding auricular confession, he criticized harshly the heads of the Coptic Church of the twelfth century for abolishing the practice of auricular confessionâas if it was a previously established âsacramentââand for maintaining the sufficiency of confessing directly to God. Renaudot presented Marqus as a Coptic reformer who demanded confession from his followers before each communion and maintained an overly strict observance of penance. On the other hand, he ridiculed the arguments of the Coptic metropolitan, Mikhail of Damietta, against auricular confession and considered him a pathetic theologian.2 For Renaudot, Marqus was an astute theologian and pastor who was courageous enough to oppose the negligence of two Coptic patriarchs.3 Similarly, Alexis Salomon, the French scholar, wrote an article in ADâ¯1896 describing Marqus as a competent theologian and reformer who was hindered by the ignorant Coptic prelates of his time. Since Marqus followed the Melkites, Salomon speculated that they were more enlightened than the Copts and more faithful to the traditions of the early church.4 Later, in ADâ¯1927, Charles Beaugé plagiarized the unrecognized work of Salomon and published it under the same title.5
In 1923, Georg Graf, the distinguished German Orientalist and renowned scholar of Arabic Christian literature, wrote his dissertation, titled Ein Reformversuch innerhalb der Koptischen Kirche im zwölften Jahrhundert (An Attempt to Reform the Coptic Church in the Twelfth Century), which he defended at the University of Freiburg in 1918. Graf argued that Marqus was a reformer who reintroduced the practice of auricular confession. He counteracted the total stagnation and stubborn conservatism of the Coptic Church. Marqus challenged the Coptic hierarchy to resistance, and their resistance pushed him to join the Melkites. Graf observed that Marqusâ attempt was a remarkable and instructive episode in the history of the Coptic Church.6 Graf rebutted Renaudotâs constant assertion that the Copts only abolished auricular confession in the twelfth century through the two patriarchs, John V (ADâ¯1146â1166) and Mark ibn ZurÊ¿a (ADâ¯1166â1189). He found that Renaudotâs assumption contradicts Mikhail of Damiettaâs thesis that the Copts never practiced auricular confession. If it had only been abolished at his own time, Mikhail would not have made such a bold statement. Instead, Graf argues that it was abolished many decades before the 12th century as a result of a long and rapid decline in Coptic moral life.7 In evaluating Marqusâ career, Graf relied entirely on the documents of his main theological antagonist, Mikhail of Damietta, in addition to historical resources. He studied thoroughly and translated into German Mikhail of Damiettaâs Usages that Distinguish the Copts (in its two versions), the Letter to Abu âl-Fakhr ibn al-Qunbar, and the Report on the Life and Teachings of Marcus ibn al-Qunbar. He did not have the opportunity to analyze any of Marqusâ works at the time, so he was unable to grasp the big picture. In 1936, Oswald Burmester, the British Coptologist, translated into English the short version of The Special Customs of the Copts, with the title: The Sayings of Michael Metropolitan of Damietta. Burmester considers the events of the twelfth century a âtemporary suspension of auricular confessionâ and, similar to Renaudot, derides Mikhail of Damiettaâs arguments.8
In 1934, a Coptic scholar, Jirjis Philotheos Awad, who likely did not have the opportunity to study Renaudot or Grafâs thesis, offered a different viewpoint. He wrote a book titled The Private Confession (â®
After it had been presumed lost, Ugo Zanetti, the distinguished Coptologist, discovered in the 1980s two manuscripts of The Master and the Disciple in eight chapters and attributed the text to Marqus. The first manuscript was located in St. Macarius Monastery (Theology 16) and the second was discovered in the Cairo Patriarchate Library (Theology 235), wrongly attributed to SÄwÄ«rus ibn al-MuqaffaÊ¿.13 In 2000, Mark Swanson, the erudite scholar of Christian Arabic literature, announced his discovery of another two manuscripts of the same text at the Vatican Library (Arabic 97 and Sbath 15).14 Swanson agrees with Zanetti in attributing this anonymous book to Marqus since it reflects his distinctive teachings and includes the doctrinal errors stated by his opponents. This critical edition of The Master and the Disciple builds upon the diligent and expert work of both Zanetti and Swanson, who discovered and studied the four manuscripts indicated.
In 2007, AthanÄsiyÅ«s al-MaqÄrÄ«, the Coptic liturgist and prolific writer, published a book in Cairo about the development of the sacrament of confession, in which he included an incomplete version of the text under study. He argues, following Renaudot and Graf, that confession was practiced all the way from the early church to medieval times but was abandoned for a short time in the twelfth century due to the spiritual deterioration of the Copts. He criticizes the theology of both Marqus and his antagonist, Mikhail of Damietta, the first for his unorthodox penitential theology and the second for his outright refusal of confession.15 In 2012, he published an Arabic version of Grafâs GCAL, the Arabic literature of the Coptic Orthodox Church, in two volumes, with some updates from recent scholarship.16 Quite recently, in 2017 and 2018, AthanÄsiyÅ«s edited all the surviving writings of Mikhail of Damietta into two books of 1159 pages total. In addition to the three translated works by Graf (mentioned above), AthanÄsiyÅ«s edited the Nomocanon Collection as well as an anonymous Article on Confession which Graf lists as a possible work by the Metropolitan of Damietta.17
Modern scholarship in the history of penance generally agrees that the practice of auricular confession was passed on from Celtic monastic communities to the laity in the sixth century through the proliferation of penitential manuals; from the Celts, it was widespread to the whole west, and by the eighth century, it had reached the Byzantine Church.18 In ADâ¯1215, the âsacramentâ was codified in the canons of the Roman Catholic Church.19 Auricular confession was not a well-established practice in the early church and was not handed down without deviation from generation to generation. Instead, two distinct practices occurred simultaneously in parishes and monasteries: canonical penance for mortal sins administered by episcopal tribunals (exomologesis) and monastic confession managed by spiritual abbots (exagoreusis).20 The primary sources discussed in this research align with modern scholarship and attest that medieval auricular confession did not reach the Coptic Orthodox Church until the high medieval period (12th and 13th centuries), and even then, only through the Melkites.
The present work begins with an introduction to the life and career of Marqus ibn Qunbar in the first chapter. Marqus was a controversial figure, and his ministry and interactions involved not only the heads of the Coptic Orthodox Church but also those of the Melkite Church, the Syrian Jacobite Church, and the Islamic Ayyubid ruler. In the second chapter, the arguments of his principal adversary, Mikhail of Damietta, are investigated, and his canonical, monastic, and liturgical perspectives are extracted from his writings. The medieval penance is contrasted with the canonical penance familiar to Copts through the Arabic Didascalia. Chapter three examines Marqusâ theology from several aspects: trinitarian theology, soteriology, and sacramental theology. Additionally, it determines whether the theological errors highlighted by his opponent are real or misread. The fourth chapter focuses on the controversy he sparked by listening to the opinions of multiple prelates and archons in the decades after Marqusâ death. Contrary to the Protestant Reformers, who rejected medieval penance because it implied that good works, as opposed to pure divine grace, contributed to salvation, the Coptic prelates rejected auricular confession as a foreign custom incompatible with the Coptic tradition, and the Coptic laity rejected it as a monastic practice unsuited to the populace. After the introduction, the critical edition of The Master and the Disciple is presented on parallel pages with an annotated translation.
Among the incidences mentioned by Renaudot to demonstrate the perpetuity of the sacrament of confession is that of the Coptic patriarch, Michael I (ADâ¯744â768), when he was imprisoned by the Islamic ruler Abd al-Malik: âChristians and Muslims, and even Berbers, came to him and confessed their sins which they had committed [â¦] and he consoled them and exhorted them to be patient, saying to them: âIf you vow to God that you will not return to your former deeds, God will receive your repentance and save you before the end of this year.ââ¯â Certainly, this general exhortation to the prisoners is not what we mean by the sacrament of confession. (SÄwÄ«rus Ibn al-MuqaffaÊ¿, History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria. The Copts of Egypt Before and After the Islamic Conquests, vol. 2, edited by B.T.A. Evetts and Hugh Kennedy, New Edition (London: I.B. Tauris, 2017) 133, 134).
Mikhail was the metropolitan of the vital port of Damietta on the Mediterranean Sea.
âCe qui a rapport à notre matière est, quâil se trouva en Egypte un homme assez courageux pour sâopposer seul aux nouveautés de deux patriarches & pour ramener les peuples à lâancien usage: quâil fut suivi dâun très grand nombre dâautres, & quâil leur persuade de renoncer à la superstition de lâencensoir, à confesser leurs peches, & à subir la penitence.â Antoine Arnauld, Pierre Nicole, and Eusèbe Renaudot, Perpétuité De La Foi De LâÃglise Catholique Sur Le Sacraments, Tome 5 (Paris: chez Sigismond dâArnay & Compagnie, 1782), 221.
A.P. Salomon, âUn Reformateur Copte du XIIe Siècle,â Bulletin de lâInstitut Egyptien 3:7 (1896), 167â192.
Charles Beaugé, âUn Réformateur Copte au XIIe siècleâ, Revue des questions historiques 106 (Paris, 1927), pp. 5â34; S.K. Samir, âVie et Åuvre de Marc Ibn al-Qunbarâ, in Christianisme dâÃgypte. Mélanges René-Georges Coquin, CBC 9 (Louvain: Peeters, 1995), 134, 135.
Georg Graf, Ein Reformversuch innerhalb der koptischen Kirche im zwolften Jatrhundert, coll. Collectanea Hierosolymitana 2 (Paderborn: Ferdinand, Schöningh, 1923), 132, 133.
âWir dürfen unbedenklich das Aufhören der früher einmal bestandenen Beichtsitte als das Ergebnis eines mehr oder weniger rasch sich vollziehenden Verfalles ansehen. Es ist m. E. nichts anderes als die Folge des seit Jahrhunderten sich fortsetzenden Niederganges des religiös-sittlichen Lebens in Ãgypten.â Graf, Ein Reformversuch 53.
O.H.E. Burmester, âThe Sayings of Michael, Metropolitan of Damietta,â OCP II, 1â2 (1936), 101â128, 122.
Jirjis Philotheos Awad, al-iÊ¿tirÄf al-Serry (The Private Confession) (Cairo: al-Ahleya Publishing House, 1934).
AbÅ« l-BarakÄt ibn Kabar (â â¯1324) is one of the Coptic theologians Jirjis Awad cites as being opposed to auricular confession; in chapter 24 of his encyclopedic work Miá¹£bÄḥ al-áºulma, he emphasized the significance of the liturgical rite of repentance while censing. (Shams al-RiʾÄsa AbÅ« l-BarakÄt ibn Kabar, Miá¹£bÄḥ al-áºulma fÄ« Ä«á¸Äḥ al-khidma, ed. S.K. Samir (Cairo, 1971), 315).
Georg Graf, âEin Arabischer Pentateuchkommentar des 12. Jahrhunderts,â Biblica 23 (1942), 113â138.
Samir Khalil Samir, âVie et Åuvre de Marc Ibn al-Qunbar,â in Christianisme dâÃgypte. Mélanges René-Georges Coquin, CBC 9 (Louvain, 1995), 123â158.
Ugo Zanetti, âLe livre de Marc Ibn Qanbar sur la confession retrouvé,â OCP 49 (1983), 426â433; âUne seconde copie du livre de Marc Ibn al-Qanbar sur la confession,â OCP 55 (1989), 199â200.
Mark Swanson, âTwo Vatican Manuscripts of âThe Book of the Master and the Discipleâ (Eight Chapters) of Mark ibn al-Qunbar,â OCP 66 (2000), 185â193; Swanson, âTelling (and disputing) the Old, Old Story. A Soteriological Exchange in Late Twelfth-Century Egypt,â Coptica 5 (2006) 69â82.
AthanÄsiyÅ«s al-MaqÄrÄ«, Al-TÄrÄ«kh al-taqsÄ« li-sirr al-tawba wa-l-iÊ¿tirÄf (Liturgical History of the Sacrament of Repentance and Confession) (Cairo, Maá¹ÄbiÊ¿ al-NÅ«bÄr, 2007).
AthanÄsiyÅ«s al-MaqÄrÄ«. Fihris kitÄbÄt ÄbÄʾ kanÄ«sat al-iskandariyyah: al-kitÄbÄt al-Ê¿arabiyyah (Catalogue of Arabic Writings of the Fathers of the Church of Alexandria), 2 vols. (Cairo: Maá¹ÄbiÊ¿ al-NÅ«bÄr, 2012).
AthanÄsiyÅ«s al-MaqÄrÄ«, QawÄnÄ«n Mikhaʾil Mutran Damietta (Canons of Mikhail Metropolitan of Damietta), 2 Vols. (Cairo, Maá¹ÄbiÊ¿ al-NÅ«bÄr, 2017, 2018); In editing the long version of Usages that Distinguish the Copts, AthanÄsiyÅ«s depended on Vat.ar.159, whereas Graf provided a German translation of both Vat.ar.158 and Vat.ar.159, which complement each other.
James Dallen, The Reconciling Community: The Rite of Penance (Collegeville, MT: The Liturgical Press, 1990); Osborne, Kenan Osborne, Reconciliation and Justification: The Sacrament and Its Theology (New York: Paulist Press, 1990); Bernhard Poschmann, Penance and the Anointing of the Sick (New York: Herder & Herder, 1968); Abigail Firey, A New History of Penance. Brillâs Companions to the Christian Tradition, Vol. 14 (Leiden: Brill, 2008).
Canon 21 of the Fourth Lateran Council (ADâ¯1215) requires all adult Christians to confess their sins, perform penance, and receive the Eucharist at least once a year: âAll the faithful of both sexes shall, after they have reached the age of discretion, faithfully confess all their sins at least once a year to their own (parish) priest and perform to the best of their ability the penance imposed, receiving reverently at least at Easter the sacrament of the Eucharist, unless perchance at the advice of their own priest they may for a good reason abstain for a time from its reception; otherwise they shall be cut off from the Church (excommunicated) during life and deprived of Christian burial in death.â H.J. Schroeder, Disciplinary Decrees of the General Councils: Text, Translation and Commentary (St. Louis: B. Herder, 1937), 259, 260.
Michel Foucault, The Politics of Truth, Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents Series (New York: Semiotext(e), 1997), 205; The French philosopher Michel Foucault (â â¯1984) argued that early Christianity developed the idea of âself-knowledgeâ through two processes: exomologesis and exagoreusis; Botros Sadek, âThe Development of Auricular Confession in the Coptic Tradition: A Theological & Historical Study in the Book of Confession by Kyrillus III ibn Laqlaq, Patriarch of Alexandria (d. 1243).â PhD Dissertation (Claremont Graduate University, 2020).