182 Josep Rius-Camps and Jenny Read-Heimerdinger μεγάλως C 6. 257. 383. 614. 1108. 1611. 1704. 1799. 2147. 2412, excepti sunt mire d syh** sa; Amb Cass || παρεδόθησαν μέγως (παρεδέχθησαν μεγάλως DB) D*.— ἀπὸ (τῆς ἐκκλησίας) B C 36. 431. 453. 1175 pc || ὑπό D ) P45vid.74 A E H L P Ψ 049. 056. 33. 1739 M. In this one sentence there are several differences between B03 and D05: the verb παρεδέχθησαν or παρεδόθησαν; the presence of the adverb μέγως; and the preposition ἀπὸ or ὑπό. The D05 reading has its own coherence (pace Delebecque, Les deux Actes, p. 95, who believes it to be a copyist’s error). The verb read by B03, παραδέχομαι, meaning to ‘receive, welcome’, is not common in the New Testament, and when it is used elsewhere the object is always a thing, not a person (cf. Mk 4:20; Acts 16:21; 22:18; 1 Tim. 5:19), except for Heb. 12:6 (citing Prov. 3:12) and here at 15:4 B03. When it is a question of receiving persons, Luke always uses the alternative ἀποδέχομαι, a verb only used by him in the New Testament (Lk. x 2; Acts x 5 + 1 D05), except at Acts 2:41 )01/B03 (οἱ ... ἀποδεξάμενοι τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ; D05: οἱ ... πιστεύσαντες τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ). The aorist passive of παραδίδωμι read by D05* means that the brethren from Antioch were ‘handed over’ to the church in Ierousalem, in a negative sense (cf. Lk. 9:44; 18:32; 21:16; 22:22; 24:7; Acts 28:17) rather than a positive one (cf. Lk. 4:6; 10:22; Acts 14:26; 15:40), so that they were placed under its authority – which is consistent with the purpose of the visit to Ierousalem according to 15:2b D05, namely that those who were not insisting on circumcision should be judged by the apostles and the elders there. For this understanding, ὑπό is the proper preposition, indicating ‘under’ the authority of the Ierousalem church. With the verb παρεδέχθησαν, ὑπό has the alternative sense of ‘by’, introducing the agent of the passive verb, a sense that is conveyed by ἀπό in B03. As the preposition introducing the agent of a passive verb, ἀπό represents a later development that Luke does not generally adopt (see Read-Heimerdinger, The Bezan Text, pp. 184-187). It is irrelevant to compare it with the Semitic construction (cf. Metzger, Commentary, p. 378), since the change from ὑπό to ἀπό following passive verbs was taking place in Hellenistic Greek outside the biblical texts, until ὑπό ceased to be used altogether to introduce the agent. The reading μέγως in D05* is not a contraction of μεγάλως, but is an adverb formed from the root of an ‘old noun (μέγn) μέγα = greatness’ (Moulton and Howard, II, p. 160). The adjectival form from the same noun (μέγας, μέγα, μέγαν) is found at Jn. 21:11 D05* (μέγων). ἀνήγγειλάν τε (– )* | δὲ 614. 2412) B P74 )2 A C E H L P Ψ 049. 056. 33. 1739 M || ἀπ<α>γγείλαντες D* P45vid vg | ἀπήγγειλάν τε Ds.m. 323,