Acts of Archelaus (Acta Archelai)

The abbreviations are: q, b, ihs, xps (also xpianus), ds, dns, scs, eps, omnps and n̅ (= noster), ni̅, etc. The m-stroke often occurs within the line as well; sometimes it stands for n. The script is generally regular, showing cursive influence in places, e.g., open a, small o, and I longa provided with a closed loop; some ligatures show the same influence, e.g., aet, at, ep, ob, ol, od, ri, ro, st, te; other ligatures are: ae, dns, et, ru, tu, ul, um, up, ur, us, ut; the u often stands above the line.

As punctuation, a dot and comma are used. Larger letters occur very often at the beginning of a sentence and are sometimes moved slightly outside the writing space. The orthography is quite irregular and suggests an ignorant, uneducated, and careless scribe. To show his style and at the same time to relieve the apparatus as much as possible, I let the details of his spelling follow here: ae is mostly retained, thus aegyptum, aegyptii, iudaeus, saeculum, haec, quae (but q stands three times, i.e., que), prae (pre once): on the other hand, always demon, hereditas, heresis, pedagogus, exceco, ledit; irregularly manicaei p. 10, 29; maniceo 5, 13; maniceus 5, 25; manicheo 8, 17; incorrectly aelectis 16, 27; praesbytero 67, 6; quae (for que) 74, 5; dilectissimae 67, 7; adpraehendere 14, 18; iaeiunabit 75, 8. 10; adprimae 23, 10; cotidiae (cottidiae 20, 27) always; dilucidae 9, 10; indiscraetae 6, 30 (but indescretos 6, 24); saed 70, 14.

ae, oe, e: poenas 16, 20; paenis 16, 25; quepit 68, 6; queperunt 74, 11; quaeperunt 74, 13; ceptus est 74, 12.

e, i (the frequent deviations in inflectional endings are noted in the apparatus): debetorem 68, 3; lapidebus 72, 9; dilegens 69, 1; descedebat 9, 7; descutere 74, 18; on the other hand pistilentia (corrected later) 15, 17; princips (corrected later) 14, 25; profitia 73, 26; discendere 69, 4; distruo always; pervinisset 7, 23; praeciperat 70, 7.

o, u: confused in case endings, see apparatus; prodentissimus 23, 6; edocauerat 68, 11; notrire 68, 6; on the other hand introducit 9, 20; prudeest 70, 27.

b, p: always scribtura, scribsi, scribtus etc.

c, ch: arciater 23, 10; archilaus etc. 22, 17. 18. 20; 23, 2; 67, 6; arcilaus etc. 5, 21; 8, 6; 9, 8; catecumenorum 16, 26; cristeanorum 5, 13.

c, g: docma always.

c, qu: see quepit etc.; compare above under ae, oe, e.

t, d: quod (= quot); inquid always; ad (= at) always; adque always; on the other hand aliut 76, 18; illut always; ipsut 18, 21; aput always.

f, ph: ph is almost always replaced by f, thus farao, farisaei, gazofilacium, profeta (prophetis 18, 26; 21, 17); but always spera instead of sphera.