L’édition de la recension grecque ancienne des Actes de Pilate. Perspectives méthodologiques

Abstract

The weaknesses of C. von Tischendorf’s edition of the A form of the Greek Acts of Pilate (first published in 1853) are well known, but it is easier to criticize that edition than to replace it. The AELAC team working on the Acts of Pilate has been trying since the 1980s to find a way of dealing with the textual tradition of the oldest Greek recension and yet the goal still remains elusive. Since the beginning, the team has been reluctant to create an eclectic text, as Tischendorf did, or to reconstruct the Ur-Text on the basis of Greek and other old versions. What the team really wants is to edit forms of the text actually attested in the manuscript tradition. The current draft of the edition gives a good picture of the state of the textual tradition of the Greek Acts of Pilate, comprising two main late reworkings of the text. With the help of other Greek witnesses, direct and indirect, of Latin and Oriental versions, the modern historian will be allowed to get a glimpse of the ancient history of the text...