Primary source · Greek original; complete in Latin
The Acts of the Disputation with Manes
Hegemonius (attributed) · c. AD 330–348
What this text is
The church's founding dossier against Manichaeism — a staged debate between bishop Archelaus and Mani himself, source of most later Christian knowledge of the sect.
Profile of Archelaus of Carrhae →
Public-domain translations
S. D. F. Salmond (ANF, 1886)
This Manes… wore a many-coloured cloak and carried an ebony staff; a Babylonian book was under his left arm. He proclaimed himself the Paraclete promised by Jesus — and the disputation showed him neither prophet nor victor.
Manuscript witnesses
Latin version (complete)
medieval copies of a 4th–5th c. translationThe Greek survives only in Epiphanius's extracts; the whole disputation in Latin.
Provenance
Syria-Mesopotamia, c. AD 330–348 — the anti-Manichaean disputation
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- Acta Archelai (GCS 16)Charles Henry Beeson, 1906The critical edition.
- Manichaean Texts from the Roman EmpireIain Gardner & Samuel N. C. Lieu, 2004Translated dossier with the Acta in context.