851. Apocryphal Acts.

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5.3 x 18 cm. Fifth or Sixth Century.
The following small fragment of a papyrus codex, which clearly contained the Acts of some apostle or saint, we have not succeeded in identifying with any of the Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha edited by Lipsius and Bonnet. It consists of the lower portion of a leaf, written with brown ink in a large round calligraphic uncial hand which is certainly not later than the sixth century and may belong to the fifth. θέος is contracted as usual, but not ἄνθρωπος, nor perhaps κύριος. The recto begins just after the commencement of a new chapter which is indicated by the paragraphus and by a vertical way line in the margin, apparently the bottom of a flourish. [Not included in this digital version.] If our restoration ηγε]μων in l. 1 (cf. l. 5) is correct, a praefect is apparently giving orders for some one to be exposed to wild beasts. The verso contains part of a protest made to the praefect, defending some one (no doubt the apostle concerned in these Acts) from the charge of being a magician. Whether the recto or the verso comes first is quite uncertain. Some points of connexion with the Acts of Paul and Thecla, in which a similar scene occurs, suggest that the fragment may belong either to a different version of those Acts or to one of the lost sections of the Acts of Paul (cf. p. 9), but does not correspond to any of the new Coptic fragments of that work.

Recto.

.       .       .       .       .       .
ειπεν ως βουλη ποιει ο δε ηγε
μων ειπεν προς τους αρχικυ
νηγους αγετε μοι ωδε ζωνθαν

Verso.

.       .       .       .       .       .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ορ . .
κυριε ηγεμων ουτος ο αν
θρωπος ουκ εστιν  μαγος
αλλα ταχα ο θ̄ς̄  αυτου μεγας εστιν
[Recto:] '. . . said "Do as you wish". The praefect said to the chief huntsmen, "Bring to me here . . .

[Verso:] "O lord praefect, this man is not a magician, but perhaps his god is great . . ."'

2. αρχικυνηγους : this word does not seem to occur in Lipsius and Bonnet's Acta Apost. Apocr., but cf. Acts of Paul and Thecla, ed. Lipsius, p. 257.4 αὐτὸς γὰρ ἑδίδου τὰ κυνήγια ἡγεμών (cf. l. 5) is also the word used in those Acts for the Roman governor, while πραίφεκτος is used in the Acts of Peter and ἀνθύπατος in the Acts of John.

3. The letter after ζω, if not ν, must be μ or possibly π and the next letter seems to be a round one, but much narrow than the scribe's θ or ο elsewhere. Possibly he began to write ζωντα and corrected it to ζωσαν, but though the supposed ν may have been crossed through the next letter is not like σ or τ corrected into σ. Or perhaps a proper name is intended. ζωγριαν cannot be read.

5-6. Cf. Acts of Paul and Thecla, p. 249. 1-2 ὁ δὲ ὄχλος προσαχθέντος πάλιν τοῦ Παύλου περισσοτέρος ἐβόα, μάγος ἐστίν, αἶρε αὐτόν.