“You Are the Pillar of Light That Supports the Whole World”: A Letter to Pesynthios of Koptos, Late Antique Concepts of a “Pillar of Light” and New Evidence for the Christian Redaction of the History of the Captivity in Babylon

Abstract

Abstract This article provides the join and re-edition of two previously edited Coptic ostraca which can now be identified as another letter to the famous 7th-century Egyptian bishop Pesynthios of Koptos, found like the rest of his correspondence at the Monastery of Epiphanius in Western Thebes. It is outstanding in its use of hagiographical language even within an archive notorious for such tendencies. In particular, the article explores the enigmatic title and theological concept “Pillar of Light.”