Acts 14:2-7

Acts 14:2-7

The Western text of these verses adds a number of details that serve, among other things, to smooth away what, in the ordinary text, is a seeming lack of coherence between verses Acts 14:2 and Acts 14:3 (where mention is made of the opposition of the Jews: therefore the apostles remained for a long time). According to codex Bezae (with support in part from syr^hmg and cop^G67) the passage runs as follows (italics mark the chief additions and changes): “But the chiefs of the synagogue of the Jews and the rulers of the synagogue [syr^hmg omits “of the synagogue,” thus identifying ‘the rulers’ as those of the previously mentioned Iconians] stirred up for themselves ²⁷⁹ persecution against the righteous (oi` de. avrcisuna,gwgoi tw/n VIoudai,wn kai. oi` a;rcontej th/j sunagwgh/j evph,gagon auvtoi/j diwgmo.n kata. tw/n dikai,wn), and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against the brethren. But the Lord soon gave peace (o` de. ku,rioj e;dwken tacu. eivrh,nhn). (3) So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. (4) But the people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles, cleaving to them on account of the word of God (kollw,menoi dia. to.n lo,gon tou/ qeou/). (5) When an attempt was made [again, so syr<sup>hmg</sup> cop<sup>G67</sup>] by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to molest them [a second time, so syr<sup>hmg</sup> cop<sup>G67</sup>] and to stone them [it<sup>d</sup> and syr<sup>hmg</sup> state that they did stone them], (6) they learned of it and [syr<sup>hmg</sup> cop<sup>G67</sup> om. “learned of it and”] fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the whole (o[lhn is added after peri,cwron) surrounding country; (7) and there they preached the gospel, and the whole multitude was moved by [drew near to, cop<sup>G67</sup>] the reaching. And Paul and Barnabas stayed on in Lystra (kai. evkeinh,qh o[lon to. plh/qoj evpi. th|/ didach|/) o` de. Pau/loj kai. Barnaba/j die,tribon evn Lu,stroij).”

The greater smoothness of the Western text is probably a mark of its secondary character, ²⁸⁰ for all the additions seem to be comments calculated to remedy difficulties in the ordinary text. ²⁸¹

Wendt ²⁸² and Moffatt ²⁸³ secure a smoother text by transposing ver. Acts 14:3 to what they assume to be its original position between verses Acts 14:1 and Acts 14:2. Haenchen takes the aorist verbs in ver. Acts 14:2 as ingressive (Blass-Debrunner-Funk, § 318) and regards the Western text as an unnecessary expansion of what is already expressed in the usual text. ²⁸⁴

²⁷⁹ It is not quite certain how auvtoi/j is to be taken. Normally one would regard it as the object of evpi, in the verb, “stirred up persecution against them,” but the following kata. tw/n dikai,wn seems to render it superfluous. It may represent, as Torrey suggests, the Aramaic ethical dative (Documents of the Primitive Church, pp. 125, 138, 147), and it is taken thus in the translation above. See also the comment on ver. 27.

²⁸⁰ So F. F. Bruce, The Acts of the Apostles, (1951), p. 277.

²⁸¹ So Cadbury and Lake, The Beginnings of Christianity, vol. IV, p. 161.

²⁸² Die Apostelgeschichte, 1913, p. 218, Anm. 2.

²⁸³ The New Testament, a New Translation, in loc.

²⁸⁴ The Acts of the Apostles, ad loc.