Josep Rius-Camps, «The Variant Readings of the Western Text of the Acts of the Apostles (XX) (Acts 13:44-52)», Vol. 21 (2008) 139-146
In Acts 13:44-52, Luke narrates the events in Antioch of Pisidia that follow his speech in the synagogue. A series of critical variant readings arise in the text of Codex Bezae that alter significantly the perspective of the narrative. While the Alexandrian text presents the incidents, and the response of Paul and Barnabas to them, as being of local relevance and importance, Codex Bezae indicates that they also relate to a wider dimension involving the whole history of Israel, and their relationship as a people with God and with the Gentiles. Indeed, in the face of the hostile reaction of the Jews to their message about Jesus, Paul and Barnabas declare that the time has come for the gifts that had hitherto been their privilege to be shared on a universal scale with non-Jews. Thus, this passage is a key text for understanding the on-going relationship between Paul and the Jews throughout the rest of his mission.
144 Josep Rius-Camps and Jenny Read-Heimerdinger
were the first for whom it was possible … to be spoken’, which is taken as
an allusion to the well-attested Jewish traditions concerning the reasons
for the giving of the Torah to Israel in preference to the other nations.
13.47 (οὕτως γὰÏ) á¼Î½Ï„έταλται ἡμῖν á½ (– )) κύÏιος B P74 ) rell, manda-
tum dedit nobis dominus d | á¼Î½Ï„έλλεται ἡμ ὠκύ. 81. 1175 pc || á¼Î½Ï„έταλκεν
ὠκύ. D* (1838) pc; Cyr (Cyp).
The reading of B03 is personalized, with regard to the speaker by
means of the middle voice of á¼Î½Ï„έλλομαι and with regard to the hearer by
means of the first person pronoun: the declaration refers to the command
of Jesus to Paul and Barnabas. The reading of D05, in contrast, is more
formal and impersonal: the declaration refers to the command of YHWH
given, in the active voice (‘possible en bon grec’, Delebecque, Les deux
Actes, p. 275), as a prophetic proclamation.
Τέθεικά σε εἰς φῶς á¼Î¸Î½á¿¶Î½ B P74 ) rell || ᾿Ιδού φ. τέθ. σε τοῖς ἔθνεσιν D*
(φῶς τεθ. σε Ds.m.), Ecce lumen posui te super gentibus d; Cyp | ᾿Ιδου. τέθ.
σε εἰς φ. á¼Î¸Î½á¿¶Î½ E 104.
The variations in the first line of the citation of Isaiah’s prophecy (Isa.
49.6) reflect the differing applications made of it. The LXX reads ᾿Ιδού
τέθεικά σε εἰς διαθήκην γένους εἰς φῶς á¼Î¸Î½á¿¶Î½, which is then completed
with the second line as given, without variant, in the text of Acts. It is
uncertain to what εἰς διαθήκην γένους refers (cf. 42.6 where it seems
to refer to Israel but see Jewish Study Bible, p. 867, n. b-b), or what is
the effect of removing the phrase from the citation. It is also debatable
whether in the original prophecy, σε refers to Isaiah himself or to Israel
(Jewish Study Bible, p. 883). Whatever the case, B03, which reads the LXX
text apart except for the initial ᾿Ιδού, has Paul and Barnabas claim that
Jesus applied the prophecy to themselves, given its reading of the first li-
ne of 13.47. D05 modifies the LXX text, apart from the opening ᾿Ιδού; the
combined effect of conserving ᾿Ιδού and altering the word order to place
φῶς before the verb, is to focus on the light as the subject, rather than on
the addressee σε. The mention of the Gentiles balances the reference to
the light by being placed after the verb. In D05, the pronoun σε may well
apply to Israel, in line with the tradition alluded to in the opening senten-
ce of the speech, namely that the Jews were given the Torah in order that
they might ultimately enlighten the nations. This is the first indication
Luke gives that Paul has any awareness of the Jewish mission to the Genti-
les, but without acknowledging yet that it had been specifically entrusted
to him by Jesus (compare 9.15 with 22.15 and esp. 26.17-18). For the time
being, it remains a general principle, better grasped by Barnabas than
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