The Variant Readings of the Western Text of the Acts of the Apostles (XVI) 49 name Lydda is without variant. As D05 pays particular attention to the declension of names, the feminine may well reflect the Bezan reading. 34 ΕΙΑΤΑΙ B ‖ ΙΑΤΑΙ P74 ) rell. The form ΕΙΑΤΑΙ could have arisen because of phonetic confusion, ΕΙ not being distinguished from Ι in speech. Although strictly speaking ἴαται is the perfect (ΕΙΑΤΑΙ/ΙΑΤΑΙ in the MSS) of the verb and ἰᾶται is the present (normally written ΙΑΤΑΙ), there are instances in the MSS where the two spellings are interchangeable. The form with Ε is found in the present (Acts 10:38 D05), the perfect (Mk 5:29 B03, D05) and the imperfect (Acts 5:16 D05). Metzger’s argument2 that ΕΙΑΤΑΙ here in B03 must be a perfect because of the identical spelling in Mk 5:29 is therefore not valid. It is rather the sense of the proclamation in which the verb is found that shows that a perfect is intended. Since most MSS read ΙΑΤΑΙ at Mk 5:29 where a perfect is clearly meant, the same could be said of the sentence in question here where ΙΑΤΑΙ is also read by most MSS3. ᾿Ιησοῦϛ Χριστόϛ B* P ) C Ψ 048. 33vid. 440 pc; Didpt | ᾿Ι. ὁ Χρ. B2 E H L P 049. 056. 1739 M; Didpt | ὁ Χρ. 614. 1241. 1505. 1611*. 1646. 2495 ‖ ὁ κύριοϛ ᾿Ι. (+ ὁ A) Χρ. A 36. 94. 181. 307. 441. 1175 pc it vgcl sa mae aeth. In the original hand of B03 neither ᾿Ιησοῦϛ nor Χριστόϛ is preceded by the article. In this reading, both words could be understood as a simple name, but the corrected reading of B03 which is shared by other Greek MSS adds the article before Χριστόϛ thereby giving it the value of ‘the Messiah’ rather than the name ‘Christ’. The combination ᾿Ιησοῦϛ Χριστόϛ is found as a kind of theological formula in the context of healing at 8:12 and 16:18, preceded by ‘in the name of’. There are no other instances in )01, B03 or D05 of ᾿Ιησοῦϛ ὁ Χριστόϛ. In the manuscripts of the ‘Western’ tradition that read ὁ κύριοϛ before the name of Jesus, the whole phrase transmits an established formula: ‘the Lord Jesus Christ’. This full expression is found twice at 11:17 and 15:26 in the text of Acts common to the AT and D05 but there are many more readings of it in the D05 text, always in a liturgical or formal context4. B.M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (Stuttgart 21994) 2 322. See H.J. Cadbury, ‘A Possible Perfect in Acts ix.34’, JTS 49 (1948) 57–58. 3 For fuller information on the titles of Jesus see J. Read-Heimerdinger, The Bezan Text of 4 Acts, A Contribution of Discourse Analysis to Textual Criticism (Sheffield 2002) 254–74, esp. 272–73.