A Textual Commentary On The Greek NT

Acts 5:39

Acts 5:39 auvtou,j {A}

The expansion in D, ou;te u`mei/j ou;te basilei/j ou;te tu,rannoi\ avpe,cesqe ou=n avpo. tw/n avnqrw,pwn tou,twn (similarly 614 1108 1611 2138 syr^{h with *} cop^G67), doubtless shows the influence of a passage in the Wisdom of Solomon where the writer is dealing with the same problem as in Acts, namely the question whether it is safe to oppose God. The passage ( Wis 12.13 f.) is as follows: ou;te ga.r qeo,j evstin plh.n sou/ … ou;te basileu.j h' tu,rannoj avntofqalmh/sai dunh,setai, soi peri. w-n evko,lasaj (“For neither is there any God besides thee,…nor can any king or tyrant confront thee about those whom thou hast punished”). In E the word tu,rannoi (which is not a New Testament word) is replaced by a;rcontej, but at the expense of the sense, for now Gamaliel seems to refer to the Sanhedrin twice (“neither you…nor rulers”).

The addition of avpe,cesqe ou=n avpo. tw/n avnqrw,pwn tou,twn is, as Weiss characterizes it, “an empty repetition of ver. Acts 5:38; but it serves at the same time as an appropriate connection for the following mh,pote kai,….” ¹⁴⁶

¹⁴⁶ Bernhard Weiss, Der Codex D (Leipzig, 1897), p. 66.

Continues after advertising

BibliaPlus

A Textual Commentary On The Greek NT

Acts 5:39

Old Testament

New Testament