Josep Rius-Camps - Jenny Read-Heimerdinger, «The Variant Readings of the Western Text of the Acts of the Apostles (XXIII) (Acts 16:1–40)», Vol. 24 (2011) 135-164
In Acts 16, Paul sets out again on his missionary journey but without Barnabas, Instead he is accompanied by Silas and Timothy, and in part by a group of companions referred to by Luke in the 1st person. His itinerary follows the leading given by successive divine interventions designed to move him westwards, towards Rome. Most of the action takes place in Philippi, his first stopping place after leaving Asia where he had worked previously. On his arrival there, Paul first seeks out the Jewish community. However, a conflictual encounter with local people leads to his imprisonment, when the jailor provides him with the opportunity to speak about the gospel to Gentiles. Paul’s failure to make the most of this opportunity occasions implicit ciriticism from the narrator of Codex Bezae.
156 Josep Rius-Camps and Jenny Read-Heimerdinger
(no article), describing them as numerous (πολύς) and referring to them
in the plural (συνεπέστησαν ... κράζοντες) in keeping with the reference
to their number. The D05 reading πολὺς ὄχλος συνεπέστησαν is attested
by a Malkite liturgical text in Palestinian Syriac (M. Black [ed.], Rituale
Melchitarum, pp. 17–18). The agitation of the crowd is intensified in D05
by the participle κράζοντες.
καὶ (οἱ στρατηγοί) B P74 אDH rell || τότε D*, tunc d syp.
With καί, B03 continues to present the scene as one continuous move-
ment (cf. on 16:19, and the previous variant); with τότε, D05 introduces
the following scene as a response to the accusations of the owners of the
slave girl.
16:23 (πολλὰς) δέ B 6. 81. 181. 1175. 2147. 2495 pc e bo || τε D P74 אrell.
D05 uses τε to link together closely the various steps in the punish-
ment dealt by the magistrates, having started a new development in the
narrative with the previous clause (see above variant). B03, which had not
made such a break there, makes it here instead. From the point of view of
the narrative flow, the D05 sequence is more coherent.
(ἀσφαλῶς) τηρεῖν B P74 אrell || -ρεῖσθαι D, servari d.
For the aorist passive infinitive of D05, cf. 24:23; 25:4.21. The passive
maintains Paul and Silas as the subject (as below, see next variant).
16:24 ὃς (παραγγελίαν) B P74 אrell || ὁ δέ D, qui d syp sa bomss.— (τοὺς
πόδας) ἠσφαλίσατο αὐτῶν εἰς τὸν ξύλον B P74 אC* 33. 81 | αὐ. ἠσφ. εἰς
τ. ξύλον C2 E H L P Ψ 049. 056. 614. 1739 M || αὐ. ἠσφαλίσαντο ἐν τῷ
ξύλῳ D* (-σατο Ds.m., pedes eorum conclusit in ligno d gig vg; Lcf).
As the jailor becomes the new subject (having been the indirect object
of the previous clause, 16:23), B03 refers to him with the nominative
relative pronoun, and he continues to remain in focus as the subject of
the two finite verbs (ἔβαλεν ... ἠσφαλίσατο). D05 marks a new develop-
ment (δέ) and also switches focus to the jailor with the article ὁ standing
for the noun; the switch is only temporary, however, for with the plural
verb ἠσφαλίσαντο it moves back once more to Paul and Silas, in keep-
ing with the concern shown in the previous variant. Here, ἀσφαλίζω,
a semi-deponent verb, is used in a passive sense (L-S-J, ἀσφαλίζω, 1, a:
‘some of these tenses are used in pass. sense’); the τοὺς πόδας αὐτῶν is
the subject, in the accusative because it represents a part of the overall
subject, Paul and Silas (cf. Winer, Grammar, p. 287: ‘the accusative came
to be used with passive verbs, in general, to indicate the more remote
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