Josep Rius-Camps - Jenny Read-Heimerdinger, «The Variant Readings of the Western Text of the Acts of the Apostles (XX) (Acts 14:1-27)», Vol. 22 (2009) 107-132
Acts 14:1-27 continues the story of the mission of Paul and Barnabas among the Gentiles, illustrating what happened when they had decided to turn from the Jews (cf. 13.46-47) to devote their attention to the Gentiles. Following an account of Paul's initial struggle with this decision, brought out more clearly in Codex Bezae, Luke describes the mitigated success of his first deliberate attempts to talk with the Gentiles about the gospel. The establishment of the first churches as a result of the missionary work of Paul and Barnabas is described as the passage concludes by bringing the missionaries back to Antioch of Syria, where Luke is careful to maintain the focus on the Gentiles.
130 Josep Rius-Camps and Jenny Read-Heimerdinger
(Ἀττάλειαν) εὐαγγελιζόμενοι αὐτούϛ D, evangelizantes eos d 257. 383.
614. 1799. 2147. 2412 pc syh** mae || om. B P74 ) rell.
Attalia, the sea port, had not been mentioned on the outward journey,
so again this is the first mention of any preaching there.
14.26 (κἀκεῖθεν) ἀπέπλευσαν D B2 P74 ) A C E L P 049. 056. 1739 M ||
ἀνέπλ- H Ψ || om. B*.
The omission of the verb in B03* treats the travel from Perga through
Attalia and on to Antioch as one stage in the journey. The absence of
the participial clause εὐαγγελιζόμενοι αὐτούϛ (see above) makes this
possible. In contrast, D05 treats the two places, Perga and Attalia, as
quite separate.
14.27 (καὶ) συναγαγόντεϛ B P74 ) rell || συνάξαντεϛ D.
B03 uses the classical, 2nd aorist form of ἄγω, whereas D05 has the
later, 1st aorist form (Delebecque, Les deux Actes, p. 94).
ἀνήγγελλον B P74 ) A C Ψ 81. 1175. 1739. 1837. 1891 || ἀνήγγειλον D,
renuntiaverunt d H L P 049. 056. 614 M || ἀπήγγειλαν E 242. 323. 927.
1270. 2492 pc gig vg; Chr.— (ὅσα) ἐποίησεν ὁ θεόϛ B A C E H P L Ψ
049. 056. 81. 1175 M || ὁ θ. ἐπ. D, deus fecit d P74 ) 36. 104. 242. 257.
431. 453. 457. 522. 614. 618. 913. 945. 1108. 1505. 1518. 1611. 1739. 1799.
1891. 2138. 2298. 2412. 2495.— μετ’ αὐτῶν B P74 ) rell || αὐτοῖϛ (– Ds.m.)
μετὰ τῶν ψυχῶν αὐτῶν D*, illis cun animabus eorum d (gig).
The announcement by Paul and Barnabas is presented differently in
the two texts. B03, with the imperfect, portrays it as something going
on over a period of time; then, in the contents of the announcement, the
action carried out by God is set alongside the collaboration of Paul and
Barnabas by virtue of the word order that places ὁ θεόϛ next to μετ’
αὐτῶν. In D05, the focus is on the fact of announcing (aorist aspect)
rather than the duration (imperfect); and the juxtaposition of αὐτοῖϛ and
μετὰ τῶν ψυχῶν αὐτῶν places Paul and Barnabas in the spotlight: God
did things for them and with their collaboration (see Commentary for a
discussion of the term ψυχῶν). The phrase μετὰ τῶν ψυχῶν αὐτῶν is
generally considered to be Semitic ‘and is linguistically equivalent to μετ’
αὐτῶν in the usual text. The preceding αὐτοῖϛ is less easy to account
for, but it probably represents the Aramaic proleptic pronoun, which is
superfluous in Greek’ (Metzger, Commentary, p. 338). As Delebecque
points out (Les deux Actes, p. 94), if the words in D05 simply mean ‘with
them’, it may be asked why it was necessary to introduce a Semitism at
this point. Concerning αὐτοῖϛ, the dative is used elsewhere to refer to the
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