The Variant Readings of the Western Text of the Acts of the Apostles 155 dual existence as something to be expected. The difference probably reflects two different ways of reading the account of Peter’s escape from prison, either as a literal escape (B03) or as a metaphorical one (D05). ( ξελθ ντε ) κατ βησαν το ·ζ· βαθμο D d (p mae) ‖ om. B P74 ) rell. The seven steps mentioned by D05 are commonly supposed to reflect the scribe’s local knowledge of the Jerusalem prison in the first century26, despite the fact that for most of the text the Bezan scribe is assumed to be a Gentile from a later century! The detail is more likely to have a theological purpose, echoing the description of the eschatological Temple seen in Ezekiel’s vision (cf. Ezek. 40:22.26) which the Lord is causing Peter to leave. Ropes claims that the reference to seven steps in Ezekiel’s Temple ‘furnishes no satisfactory explanation’27 for their mention in Acts 12 D05. The explanation becomes satisfactory once the other pointers to Ezekiel in Acts 12 are taken into account and once the symbolic nature of the episode is recognized. προ λθον B P74 ) A E H P Ψ 049. 056. 33. 1739 M | προσ- L 104*. 209. 618 ‖ κα προσ λθαν D d. The connective in D05 is necessary because of the supplementary verb in the previous clause (see variant above). προ ρχομαι in B03 is the easier reading, meaning that ‘they carried on, went further’28, with the accusative μην μ αν expressing the distance covered, ‘for one street’. προσ ρχομαι in D05 means ‘approach’29, where again the accusative fol- lowing can express the distance (the dative would be used to express the object approached). What is odd is the use of the verb in an absolute sense – what or whom did Peter and the angel approach? The explanation will become apparent as Peter’s story continues when it emerges that the angel of the Lord had in mind the house of Mary, the church that was free from Ierousalem, as the goal of Peter’s journey out of his spiritual prison. 11 α τ B* ‖ ν αυτ D d B2 P74 ) rell sy; Chr. B03 is alone in reading the weaker reflexive form of the pronoun in the simple dative without a preposition. The variant is comparable to that found at 10:17 where B03 again reads the weaker pronoun and D05 26 Cf. F.F. Bruce, The Acts of the Apostles. The Greek Text with Introduction and Commentary (London 1951) 246; A.C. Clark, The Acts of the Apostles (Oxford 1933; repr. 1970) 348–49; Metzger, Commentary, 347–48. 27 Ropes, Text, 111. 28 B-A-G, προ ρχομαι, 1. 29 B-A-G, προσ ρχομαι, 1.