A Textual Commentary On The Greek NT

Acts 17:34

The omission in codex Bezae of the words kai. gunh. ovno,mati Da,marij has been taken by some (e.g. Wm. M. Ramsay) to be another indication of the anti-feminist attitude of the scribe (see the comment on ver. 12 above). ³³⁰ It is, however, more likely, as A. C. Clark suggests, ³³¹ that a line in an ancestor of codex Bezae had been accidentally omitted, so that what remains in D is evn oi-j kai. Dionu,sio,j tij VAreopagei,thj euvsch,mwn kai. e[teroi su.n auvtoi/j (“among whom also was a certain Dionysius, an Areopagite of high standing, and others with them”). In either case, however, the concluding phrase su.n auvtoi/j suggests that Luke originally specified more than one person (Dionysius) as among Paul’s converts.

It is curious that codex Bezae reads euvsch,mwn to indicate the high standing of Dionysius, though being an Areopagite would naturally imply his honorable estate without adding the adjective. ³³² Its presence, according to an ingenious explanation proposed by J. Armitage Robinson, ³³³ is to be accounted for as follows. According to Robinson it is significant that in Acts the word euvsch,mwn is used only of women ( Acts 13:50; Acts 17:12). Under the influence of its usage earlier in Acts some gallant scribe added the word after Da,marij. ³³⁴ Later, after the church had taken her stand against the pagan or heretical claims advanced in behalf of her ambitious women, a more orthodox if less chivalrous transcriber deleted the name of Damaris altogether, but left the adjective standing, a witness at once against his own deed and the deed of the scribe who had gone before him.

³³⁰ The Church in the Roman Empire, pp. 161 f.

³³¹ The Acts of the Apostles, p. 367.

³³² Notice that Luke 23:50 does not retain euvsch,mwn of Mark 15:43.

³³³ Reported by W. M. Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire, p. 161.

³³⁴ Ramsay observes that “it was impossible in Athenian society for a woman of respectable position and family to have any opportunity of hearing Paul; and the name Damaris (probably a vulgarism for damalis, heifer) suggests a foreign woman, perhaps one of the class of educated Hetairai, who might very well be in his audience,” St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen, p. 252.

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A Textual Commentary On The Greek NT

Acts 17:34

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