Basics of Sahidic Coptic by A. Josiah Chappell is a one-semester introductory textbook. The grammar provides students with essential tools to learn Sahidic Coptic and to get into translation quickly. Sahidic Coptic is the most documented dialect of the Coptic language. Its many extant texts from the first millennium are directly pertinent for textual issues related to the study of both the Old and New Testaments.

The grammar includes thirty accessible chapters, each followed by vocabulary lists and translation exercises. Exercises are taken from actual biblical texts. The grammar is structured around learning the Sahidic noun system (and related topics) and then the verbal system. Chappell also includes a selection of extended readings from biblical, apocryphal, and Gnostic sources, a comprehensive lexicon, and other aids for reference.