Josep Rius-Camps - Jenny Read-Heimerdinger, «The variant readings of the western text of the acts of the Apostles (XV) (Acts 9:1-30)», Vol. 16 (2003) 133-145
The present section deals with the events following the conversion of
Saul (Acts 9:1-30). Since the Greek pages of Codex Bezae are missing from
8:29–10:14 and the Latin ones from 8:20b–10:4, we have noted in the Critical
Apparatus the variants of other witnesses that differ from the Alexandrian
text but at no time consider that a single text, equivalent in its uniformity
to the Alexandrian one, can be reconstructed from these readings. The differences
among the so-called ‘Western’ witnesses are considerable, and it is
almost certain that there were readings of Codex Bezae that are represented
by none of them and that cannot therefore be retrieved.
144 Josep Rius-Camps and Jenny Read-Heimerdinger
Saul’s action of preaching as soon as (εá½Î¸á½³Ï‰Ï›) he stayed with the disciples.
The aorist of the WT means much the same but views the two actions glob-
ally. In addition, Luke uses the expression ‘with (all) boldness’ that was
used in earlier chapters to evaluate the freedom with which the apostles
preached the message of Jesus (cf. 4:13.29.31); the more attenuated com-
ment in mae, however, suggests that Saul’s preaching was not yet totally
free. What Saul proclaimed is limited in B03 to Jesus being the Son of God,
while the WT couples this term with that of the Messiah – both terms carry
the article in the Greek witnesses because they are in apposition.
22 (á¼Î½ÎµÎ´Ï…ναμοῦτο) á¼Î½ (- C) Ï„á¿· λόγῳ C E pc h l p (mae) || om. B P74 ℵ A
rell.
The ‘Western’ reading is a rare use in Acts of ὠλόγοϛ on its own,
without the qualification of either τοῦ θεοῦ or τοῦ κυÏίου. The reference
would seem to be to the contents of Saul’s preaching in a general sense,
rather than the specific message of Jesus which Saul/Paul is not presented
in Acts as announcing until 13:5 D05; 15:35 B03.8
(ΧÏιστόϛ) + in quo deus bene sensit (retroversion: á¼Î½ ᾧ ὠθεὸϛ εá½Î´á½¹ÎºÎ·ÏƒÎµÎ½)
gig (h) l p mae || om. B P74 ℵ A rell.
The explanation that the additional words are a ‘scribal gloss derived
from either Mt 3:17 or Lk 3:22’9 is unsatisfactory, for the Gospel context
is the baptism of Jesus and scribes would not typically add in words from
another context.10 Furthermore, the D05 reading of Lk. 3:22 does not have
these words but a citation from Ps. 2:7. If the words are Luke’s, however,
it is entirely possible that, having omitted them from his reporting of
Mark’s baptism scene (Mk 1:11) according to the Bezan text of Lk. 3:22,
he then introduces them into the first accounts of proclamation to the
Jews that the Son of God and the Messiah was Jesus (cf. 9:2).
25 οἱ μαθηταὶ αá½Ï„οῦ (αá½Ï„όν 69. 81*) B P74 ℵ A C 6. 81c. 88. 1175. 1646
pc vgst.ww; Dion | αá½Ï„ὸν οἱ μαθ. E H L P Ψ 056. 33vid. 1739 M a c gig l p vgcl
syp.h sa bo arm || ‘the brethren’ (οἱ ἀδελφοί) mae.
The idea that Saul already had disciples in Damascus is anachronistic.
30 (εἰϛ ΚαισάÏειαν) διὰ νυκτόϛ E (614. 1611. 2412 pc) p (gig vgmss) syp.
sa mae || om. B P74ℵ rell.
h**
See Read-Heimerdinger, The Bezan Text, 297-310.
8
B.M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (Stuttgart 1994)
9
321.
A point made by Lake and Cadbury, Translation and Commentary, 105, cited by
10
Metzger, ibid.
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