Psalm 151
Psalm 151 is read in Coptic during the psalmody of the Holy Saturday service and is also attested in Arabic Psalter manuscripts.[^1][^3][^4]
Liturgical use
Psalm 151 is read during the psalmody of the Holy Saturday service. The chief priest, wearing white vestments and facing east, reads its Coptic version.1
The opening words are given in English as:
I was small among my brethren, and a youth in the house of my Father.1
Following the reading, the rest of the clergy and deacons process around the church with the Psalter wrapped in white silk and with lighted candles, singing in Coptic, “Let us give thanks to Christ and God.” They then sit facing one another in two rows.2
Manuscript witnesses
Psalm 151 appears in an Arabic Psalter copied in Cairo in 1242 by Agathun ibn Fasih al-Tursini, who belonged to the Melchite community of Egypt. The manuscript is identified as Sinai Arabic 55, folios 1–172; the psalm in this manuscript is “apocryphal.”3
Another witness is Sinai Arabic 59, copied in Cairo by the Melchite priest Mikha’il ibn Ghazi and completed in 1696. It contains the Psalter, including Psalm 151, together with the biblical odes and the Kathismata.4
References
Sources
- 1.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 4 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 619)
The Service of Holy Saturday Starting on Saturday eve, this service comprises the following main parts: The Psalmody. Wearing white vestments and facing east, the chief priest reads the Coptic version of Psalm 151 (Muses, 1954), "I was small among my brethren, and a youth in the house of my Father."
- 2.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 4 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 619)
Then, with the psalter book wrapped in white silk and holding lighted candles, the rest of the clergy and deacons make a procession around the church, singing in Coptic, "Let us give thanks to Christ and God." They then sit down facing each other in two rows.
- 3.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 182)
AGATHUN IBN FASIH AL-TURSINI, a monk of the monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai, if the nisbah (place of origin) refers to him. It is possible that he was the son of a monk of Sinai, if the nisbah refers to his father. He belonged to the Melchite community of Egypt. In 1242 he copied in Cairo a Psalter, which he called zabur, which also contains the apocryphal Psalm 151 (Sinai Arabic 55, fols. 1-172).
- 4.The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5 — Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 683)
MIKHA’IL IBN GHAZI, Melchite priest known only from the manuscript he copied in Cairo and completed on 12 February 7204 of Adam/A.D. 1696 under the Melchite patriarch of Alexandria, Gerasimus II Palladas (1688-1710). The manuscript he copied is now the Sinai Arabic 59, which contains the Psalter including Psalm 151, the biblical odes, and the Kathismata.
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This article was drafted from the sources listed above with AI assistance and reviewed by an editor before publication.