Acts of Archelaus (Acta Archelai)

XVI

...is assumed to be the first half of the fourth century; Harnack is inclined to decide in favor of the post-Nicene period and to seek the home of the text in Syria.

The city in which the disputation allegedly took place cannot be determined. The assumption that Carrhae is meant finds no support in the Acta. Zacagni incorrectly utilizes a reading from his manuscript charram (p. 4, 4) as proof of this, but the new manuscript has carcaram at this point—admittedly not the same form as on p. 1, 2, but still an easily explainable reading that is understandable in connection with the form handed down in Greek.

3. The Latin Translation.

Even if opinions have always differed on the question of the language in which the Acta were first composed, no one has ever doubted that the Latin text is a translation from the Greek. Zacagni had already drawn attention to the confusion of anēr man and aēr air (p. 13, 11. 25), of limos hunger and loimos plague (p. 15, 2. 17), and to the explanation of Greek words by corresponding Latin ones (e.g., original: "cubum quod nomen est aleae" cube, which is the name for dice, p. 93, 20) and apocrusin rejection, detrimentum loss (p. 13, 19). One only needs to compare a few lines of the text handed down in Greek by Epiphanius and in Latin in the Acta to clearly recognize the situation. The translation can generally be described as quite faithful. The Greek text is for the most part translated word-for-word, whereby the spirit of the Latin language is often violated. The translator's knowledge of the language was not very great; he often did not understand the Greek and translated it incorrectly,1 but the difficulty of the subject matter and the lack of clarity in the style excuse his errors to some extent. One may also assume that there was no shortage of textual corruptions in his source that complicated his task.

The Latinity of the translation generally shows the same traits as other translations of that time. For the details of the linguistic usage, I refer to the Latin index of words at the end of the present volume.

The method of translation can be recognized quite well from a comparison with the citations of Epiphanius. The errors and...

1) This point should not be overlooked in the textual criticism of the Acta. Many errors that one might want to explain as textual corruptions should rather be viewed as incorrect translations. I have indicated some of these in the apparatus.