“I Wish to Offer a Sacrifice to God Today”: The Discourse of Idol Destruction in the Coptic Life of Aaron

Abstract

The present article discusses one of the best-known passages in the Life of Aaron. According to this story, Macedonius, freshly appointed by Archbishop Athanasius of Alexandria as first bishop of the temple island of Philae, travels south, enters the temple area incognito, alleges to make a sacrifice to “God” and, instead of offering a sacrifice to the holy falcon worshipped on the island, kills the bird and throws it in the fire as a sacrifice to his own, Christian God. We will discuss the discourse of idol destruction that is used in this passage to describe the murder of the falcon and place it in the larger context of idol destruction in Coptic literature. It will become clear that our text conforms entirely to the language commonly used in contemporary literature, while at the same time adding specific local elements.