111 THE VARIANT READINGS OF THE WESTERN TEXT OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES (XIII) (ACTS 8:1b-40) JOSEP RIUS-CAMPS and JENNY READ-HEIMERDINGER Josep Rius-Camps continues his series of notes on the readings of Codex Bezae in the text of Acts, in collaboration with Jenny Read-Heimerdinger. The present section deals with the events following Stephen’s death, namely the persecution of the Jesus-believers and the ministry of Philip. Having undertaken a joint project to publish in English a commentary comparing the message of the Bezan text of Acts with that of the Alexan- drian tradition, adopting as a basis the commentary in Catalan of Josep Rius-Camps1, we will continue the series of notes on the Acts of the Apost- les in both our names using the format of the English publication (of which the first volume on Acts 1–5 has recently appeared)2. A translation of the Bezan text is provided alongside the more familiar text. II. The Gestation of a New Church [A] 8:1b-3 Persecution and Dispersion The opening verses of Acts 8 take up the story of the Jesus-believ- ers who had last appeared in the narrative before the sequence involving Stephen, at 6:7. This introductory sequence is extremely dense in the amount of the new information that it transmits, some of it expressed in condensed form by means of verbal tags such as the spellings of names, or opposing statements set side by side. The narrator makes use of these techniques to convey his evaluation of the characters and events and to set the scene for the detailed stories of Philip, Saul and Peter that will follow, 8:4–11:26. 1 J. Rius-Camps, Comentari als Fets dels Apòstols (4 vols.; Barcelona: Facultat de Teologia de Catalunya/Herder, 1991-2000). 2 J. Rius-Camps and J. Read-Heimerdinger, The Message of Acts in Codex Bezae: A Comparison with the Alexandrian Tradition. I. Acts 1:1–5:42 (JSNTSup. 257; London: T&T Clark International, 2004). Filología Neotestamentaria - Vol. XV - 2002, pp. 111-132 Facultad de Filosofía y Letras - Universidad de Córdoba (España)