The article reacts to L. Török’s book Transfigurations of Hellenism (2005), which includes a discussion on the dating of the well-known wooden lintel from the Church of the Holy Virgin Mary, surnamed al-Mu‘allaqa, in Old Cairo (now in the Coptic Museum under inv. no. 753). Previously, it was dated beyond reasonable doubt to a.d. 734/735 on the basis of a Greek inscription, but on account of the Hellenistic style, Török assumes that it must be older and questions the reading of the text. Shocked by the “remarkable contempt for the epigraphic evidence”, the author confirms that the lintel is to be assigned to the year 735 and to the episcopacy of Theodore, a well-documented bishop of Old Cairo.

First published in: ECA 4 (2007), 77–80.