The Gospel of the Lots of Mary is a Coptic writing dating to the fifth or sixth century used for divinationorbibliomancy. It contains 37 answers to questions (lots[A]), though the methods for readers to select an answer are unclear. Its production and retrieval sites are unknown, though it may have been written near AntinoëinUpper Egypt, and it may have an earlier Greek edition from the fourth century.
The Gospel of the Lots of Mary is a small, 75 by 67 millimetres (3.0 in × 2.6 in), manuscript or booklet written in the Coptic language.[2] It contains 37 answers to questions, which unusually begin on the left (rather than right) page when the booklet is opened.[2] The precise purpose of the manuscript is unknown, but because the answers are (inconsistently) numbered 1–37, it is likely a text used for divinationorbibliomancy;[B][4] due to its size, it may have been for personal use.[5] However, some of the answers are so generic that the manuscript may be used for the reader to develop piety.[C] It may have been uniquely popular among women due to its title, though the answers are not exclusive to questions women were likely to ask.[6] Its connection to its namesake, Mary, mother of Jesus, are not clear, though it includes several references to her and the archangel Gabriel.[7]
The most complete text dates to the fifth or sixth century,[2] though there may be an earlier, fourth-century Greek original from the fourth century.[7] While neither its production nor retrieval sites are known, it may have been written near AntinoëinUpper Egypt, which had a cult for Saint Colluthus;[8] seventh-century[9] fragments from oracles found in Antinoë closely match the text of the Gospel of the Lots of Mary.[5] As of 2018, the text is at Harvard's Sackler Library.[10] The first translation was published in 2014 by AnneMarie Luijendijk.[11]
