Text-Critical Witnesses and Methodology for Isolating a Distinctive D-Text in Acts
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Within the past decade, a few leading New Testament textual critics have challenged two major, long-standing convictions by urging that we should speak no longer (1) of “text-types” or (2) of two textual streams in the Acts of the Apostles. Certainly the term “type” is too rigid and definitive to describe our textual groups, and “textual clusters” is more appropriate. The present essay concerns whether dual texts can be identified certifiably in Acts, thereby distinguishing a “D-Textual Cluster” from an alternate cluster headed by Codex Vaticanus (B) and Codex Sinaiticus ( א). It is clear that all D-Text Primary witnesses are mixed texts that, over time in various ways, have been conformed and assimilated to the increasingly dominant B-Cluster, as well as to the ascending Byzantine text.
A fresh method, however, is proposed and illustrated at length (1) to identify a tightly cohesive group of Primary witnesses to a D-Textual Cluster, which (2) reveals that these D-Text readings virtually always are opposed by the א-B-Cluster. The result is a strong testimony to the early existence of dual textual streams in Acts that stand firmly over against one another.
The fresh aspect of the method involves, for each variation -unit, (1) identifying the Primary witnesses available for a given reading; (2) counting the number supporting a presumptive D-Text reading; (3) counting those that do not; and (4) calculating the percentages of witnesses agreeing and not agreeing to the readings in question. Three or more Primary witnesses must be present in a variation-unit to be included. The global figures show that available Primary D-Text witnesses agree with one another 88% of the time on readings in 425 variation-units, while 97% of the time these readings are opposed by both א and B together.
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Kurt Aland (ed), Text und Textwert der griechischen Handschriften des Neuen Testaments: Die Apostelgeschichte, Band 1 , (De Gruyter , Berlin 1993 ).
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Aland Kurt & Aland Barbara , The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism , (Eerdmans , Grand Rapids, MI 1989 ).
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Aland Barbara & Aland Kurt et al. , Novum Testamentum Graece , (2012 ).
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Aland Barbara & Aland Kurt et al. , United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament , (2014 ).
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Berger Samuel , Le palimpseste de Fleury: Fragments du Nouveau Testament en Latin , (Fischbacher , Parus 1889 ) [Edition of Old Latin h] .
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Blass Friedrich , Acta apostolorum sive Lucae ad Theophilum liber alter: Editio philologica , (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht , Göttingen 1895 ) [Commentary, in Latin, with a critical apparatus by a major scholar of the late 19th/early 20th century.] .
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Boismard M.-É. O.P. & Lamouille A. , Les texte occidental des Actes des Apôtres: Reconstitution et réhabilitation: Tome I: Introduction et textes; Tome II: Apparat critique, Index des caractéristiques stylistiques, Index des citations patristiques , (Éditions Recherche sur les Civilisations , Paris 1984 ) 2 vols [Valuable critical apparatus.] .
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Boismard M.-É. O.P. , Le texte occidental des Actes des Apôtres , (Gabalda , Paris 2000 ) [Valuable critical apparatus.] .
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Clark Albert C. , The Acts of the Apostles: A Critical Edition with Introduction and Notes on Selected Passages , (Clarendon Press , Oxford 1933 ) [Transcription: P38, 220-25; Marginalia of syhmg: 226-33; Notes on Old Latin h: 247-55; Passages in Augustine: 256-62; Passages in Ephrem: 293-96; Marked passages in syh*: 309-19.] .
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Elliott J. Keith , '“Codex Bezae and the Earliest Greek Papyri” ', in D.C. Parker & C.-B. Amphoux (eds), Codex Bezae: Studies from the Lunel Colloquium, June 1994 , (Brill , Leiden 1996 ) 161 -182 [Comparison with Codex D of all papyri earlier than the 5th century.] .
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Epp Eldon Jay , '“Coptic Manuscript G67 and the Role of Codex Bezae as a Western Witness in Acts” ' (1966 ) 85 Journal of Biblical Literature : 197 -212 Repr. in idem, Perspectives on New Testament Textual Criticism: Collected Essays, 1962-2004(NovTSup 116; Leiden: Brill, 2005) 15-39 [Revised version] .
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Epp Eldon Jay , The Theological Tendency of Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis in Acts , (Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 1966 ).
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Fischer Bonifatius , '“Ein neuer Zeuge zum westlichen Text der Apostelgeschichte” ', in J. Neville Birdsall & Robert W. Thomson (eds), Biblical and Patristic Studies in Memory of Robert Pierce Casey , (Herder , Freiburg/New York 1963 ) 33 -63 [Edition of Old Latin l] .
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Gäbel Georg , '“The Text of P127 (P.Oxy. 4968) and Its Relationship with the Text of Codex Bezae” ' (2011 ) 53 NovT : 107 -152 [Meticulous analysis of P127.] .
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Grenfell B.P. & Hunt A.S. , (1919 ) XIII (1597 ) The Oxyrhynchus Papyri : 10 -12 [Edition of P.Oxy. 1597 = P29] .
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Gryson Roger , Altlateinische Handschriften: Manuscrits vieux latins: Répertoire descriptif: Première partie: Mss 1-275 , (Herder , Freiberg im Breisgau 1999 ) [Includes for each Old Latin manuscript, the content, edition, type of text, selective bibliography.] .
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Münster Institute for New Testament Textual Research “A Critical Apparatus for Acts 10:32-12:9; 15:29-17:10” 135 Online http://intf.uni-muenster.de/P127/ [Preliminary excerpt of the critical apparatus of the Editio Critica Maior of the text of Acts extant in P127]
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Parker David C. & Pickering S.R. , ' “4968. Acta Apostolorum 10-12, 15-17” ' (2009 ) Volume LXXIV The Oxyrhynchus Papyri : 1 -45 [Edition of P.Oxy. 4968 = P127.] .
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Parker David C. , Codex Bezae: An Early Christian Manuscript and Its Text , (Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 1992 ) [The definitive work on Codex D.] .
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Perrot Charles , '“Un fragment christo-palestinien déouvert à Khirbet Mird (Actes des Apôtres, x, 28-29; 32-41)” ' (1963 ) 70 rb : 506 -555 [Edition of SymsK.] .
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Pervo Richard I. , Acts: A Commentary , (Fortress Press , Minneapolis, MN 2009 ) [Extensive display and discussion of D-Text readings.] .
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Porter Stanley E. , '“Developments in the Text of Acts before the Major Codices” ', in Tobias Nicklas & Michael Tilly (eds), The Book of Acts as Church History: Text, Textual Traditions and Ancient Interpretations/Apostelgeschichte als Kirchengeschichte: Text, Texttraditionen und antike Auslegungen , (de Gruyter , Berlin/New York 2003 ) 31 -67 [Analysis of readings in papyri and majuscules earlier than א, B, and D.] .
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Rius-Camps J. & Read-Heimerdinger Jenny , The Message of Acts in Codex Bezae: A Comparison with the Alexandrian Tradition , (T&T Clark , London 2004-2009 ) 4 volumes; Library of New Testament Studies 257, 302, 365, 415; [Meticulous apparatus for nearly all Dd variants; precise discussions of differing significance of the variants.] .
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Ropes James Hardy , 'Beginnings of Christianity, Part i: The Acts of the Apostles ', in F.J. Foakes Jackson & K. Lake (eds), The Text of Acts , (Macmillan , London 1926 ) [Pp. 2-255: Greek and Latin texts of Codex Bezae given in full; Latin text of h in full; passages from syh* and syhmg; texts of citations by Irenaeus, Cyprian, Tertullian, Augustine; Latin translation of Ephrem’s Armenian commentary; English translation of Catena fragments, by F.C. Conybeare: 373-453.] .
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Sanders Henry A. , '“A Papyrus Fragment of Acts in the Michigan Collection” ' (1927 ) 20 htr : 1 19 +2 pls. [Edition of P.Mich. 138 = P38] .
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Sanders Henry A. , '“Biblical Fragments” ', in J.G. Winter (ed), Papyri in the University of Michigan Collection: Miscellaneous Papyri , (University of Michigan Press , Ann Arbor, MI 1936 ) 14 -19 [P38: transcription] .
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Hans-Martin Schenke (ed), Apostelgeschichte 1,1-15,3 im mittelägyptischen Dialekt des Koptischen (Codex Glazier) , (Akademie Verlag , Berlin 1991 ) [Edition of copG67.] .
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Scrivener F.H. , Bezae Codex Cantabrigiensis , (Deighton, Bell , Cambridge 1864 ) [Edition of Dd in ordinary Greek/Latin type.] .
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Strange W.A. , The Problem of the Text of Acts , (Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 1992 ) [Helpful apparatus; details of patristic references employed, 198-204.] .
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Vitelli G. & Mercati G. , Papiri greci e latini , (Ariani , Florence 1932 ) 112 -118 [Edition of psi 1165 (from Oxyrhynchus) = P48.] .
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Wordsworth J. & White H.J. , Nouum Testamentum Domini Nostri Iesu Christi Latine: Actus Apostolorum , (Clarendon Press , Oxford 1905 ) Part 3, Fascicle 1 Republished 1954 [An older, standard work on the Latin Acts.] .
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Zahn Theodor , Die Ausgabe der Apostelgeschichte des Lucas , (A. Deichertsche Verlagsbuchhandlung , Leipzig 1916 ) [A venerable critical edition.] .
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1
David C. Parker, An Introduction to the New Testament Manuscripts and Their Texts (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008) 174: “… it is now possible to move on, abandoning the concept of the text-type and, with the new tools and methods now available, retelling the history of the text”: see 165-74; 286-301. On abandoning the dual text concept, 297-298; d.c. Parker and S.R. Pickering (eds.), “4968. Acta Apostolorum 10-12. 15-17,” The Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Volume lxxiv (Graeco-Roman Memoirs, 95; London: Egypt Exploration Society; British Academy, 2009) 6-8. Cf. Eldon Jay Epp, “Textual Clusters: Their Past and Future in New Testament Textual Criticism,” The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis (ed. B.D. Ehrman and M.W. Holmes; 2nd ed.; nttsd 42; Leiden: Brill, 2013) 556-58. Earlier suggestions to abandon text-types came from Holger Strutwolf and Klaus Wachtel: Wachtel, “Towards a Redefinition of External Criteria: The Role of Coherence in Assessing the Origin of Variants,” Textual Variation: Theological and Social Tendencies? Papers from the Fifth Birmingham Colloquium on the Textual Criticism of the New Testament (ed. D.C. Parker and H.A.G. Houghton; ts, Third Series 5; Piscataway, nj: Gorgias, 2008) 114: “The decisive change that is brought about by the cbgm [Coherence Based Genealogical Method at the Münster Institute for New Testament Textual Research] relates to the external criteria, because we now are no longer dependent on descriptions which use the old terminology of text-types . . .”; Strutwolf in two unpublished papers: one from the 2006 sbl Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., “Alexandrian, Western, Byzantine? The Theory of Local Text Types—A Plea for a Paradigm Shift in New Testament Text Research”; the other from the 2009 sbl Meeting in New Orleans, “The Making of the Text-Type Theory,” which called for abandoning the “text type paradigm.”
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3
Semler, in 1765 and 1767, renamed J.A. Bengel’s African Family the “Western” or “Egypto-Palestinian” Family: Casper René Gregory, Textkritik des Neuen Testamentes (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909) 909, 1,002.
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J. Keith Elliott, “Codex Bezae and the Earliest Greek Papyri,” in Codex Bezae: Studies from the Lunel Colloquium, June 1994 (ed. D.C. Parker and C.-B. Amphoux; ntts 42; Leiden: Brill, 1996) 161-182, who, in this valuable study, compares all papyri earlier than the 5th century to Codex D only, though occasionally including additional witnesses. He is well aware that the Old Latin, Old Syriac, and Irenaeus’s citations are important for any assessment of the D text-type, but that was not congenial to his purpose in that study (161). Stanley E. Porter, “Developments in the Text of Acts before the Major Codices,” The Book of Acts as Church History: Text, Textual Traditions and Ancient Interpretations / Apostelgeschichte als Kirchengeschichte: Text, Texttraditionen und antike Auslegungen (ed. T. Nicklas and M. Tilly; bznw 120; Berlin; New York: de Gruyter, 2003) 31-67, offers an important analysis of readings in P8, P29, P38, P45, P48, P53, P91, 057, and 0189, all dating before א, B, and D, where D is taken as “the major true representative of that [i.e., Western] tradition” (37).
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7
Parker and Pickering, “4968. Acta Apostolorum,” 8. They compare P127 with Dd (8-14); then further and mainly with D, but also P45, P74, 01, 02, 03, 04, 1739, some Old Latin manuscripts, vg, syp, syh, syhmg, syh *, copG67, some patristic writings, and profusely with “other [unnamed] witnesses” (31-45). Georg Gäbel, “The Text of P127 (P.Oxy. 4968) and Its Relationship with the Text of Codex Bezae,” NovT 53 (2011) 107-152, where Codex D clearly is central in comparisons with P127; he also brings in majuscules (e.g., 04, 08, 014, 0142), minuscules (especially the 614 group of eight and a few dozen others), some lectionaries, occasional Old Latin manuscripts, and syp, syh *, and syhmg. See also Münster Institute for New Testament Textual Research, “A Critical Apparatus for Acts 10:32-12:9; 15:29-17:10,” Online: http://intf.uni-muenster.de/P127/, 135 pp.
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10
Aland and Aland, Text, 325. Barbara Aland wrote this chapter of the book.
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15
M.-É. Boismard, O.P., Le texte occidental des Actes des Apôtres (new ed.; Étude Bibliques n.s. 40; Paris: Gabalda, 2000) 14; 28-29, lists only four “major witnesses”: Codex Bezae (D Greek and d Latin) Old Latin h; syhmg and syh*; and copG67, though actually they amount to six. He assigns P29, P38, and P48 to his “minor witnesses, though he offers no simple list of major and minor witnesses. P127 was not published until 2009. Ropes, Text of Acts, ccxv-ccxvi, listed three “chief witnesses”: D, syhmg, syh*, and Old (“African”) Latin h, along with Cyprian and Augustine, and “with them” (the three chief witnesses) Ephrem of Syria. As with Boismard, these (including d) amount to five (copG67, of course, was not known).
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19
E.J. Epp, “Early Christian Attitudes toward ‘Things Jewish’ as Narrated by Textual Variants in Acts: A Case Study of the D-Textual Cluster,” Bridging between Sister Religions: Studies of Jewish and Christian Scriptures Offered in Honor of Prof. John T. Townsend (ed. Isaac Kalimi; Brill Reference Library of Judaism; Leiden: Brill, 2016) 141-171. Brill kindly granted permission to reprint in the present article our Tables 1, 2 and 6 (from pages 142-143; 146-147; 168-170 in the original article) with minor revisions, and also to utilize the methodological procedures first developed there.
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21
Bonifatius Fischer, “Ein neuer Zeuge zum westlichen Text der Apostelgeschichte,” Biblical and Patristic Studies in Memory of Robert Pierce Casey (ed. J.N. Birdsall and R.W. Thomson: Freiburg/New York: Herder, 1963) 33-63; see 55: Old Latin: Acts 8:27-11:13; 15:6-12; 15:26-38; Vulgate: Acts 14:21-15:5; 15:13-25; 15:39-17:25.
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Bruce M. Metzger and Bart D. Ehrman, The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration (4th ed.; New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005) 91.
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Text-Critical Witnesses and Methodology for Isolating a Distinctive D-Text in Acts
In: Novum TestamentumSearch for other papers by Eldon Jay Epp in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Within the past decade, a few leading New Testament textual critics have challenged two major, long-standing convictions by urging that we should speak no longer (1) of “text-types” or (2) of two textual streams in the Acts of the Apostles. Certainly the term “type” is too rigid and definitive to describe our textual groups, and “textual clusters” is more appropriate. The present essay concerns whether dual texts can be identified certifiably in Acts, thereby distinguishing a “D-Textual Cluster” from an alternate cluster headed by Codex Vaticanus (B) and Codex Sinaiticus ( א). It is clear that all D-Text Primary witnesses are mixed texts that, over time in various ways, have been conformed and assimilated to the increasingly dominant B-Cluster, as well as to the ascending Byzantine text.
A fresh method, however, is proposed and illustrated at length (1) to identify a tightly cohesive group of Primary witnesses to a D-Textual Cluster, which (2) reveals that these D-Text readings virtually always are opposed by the א-B-Cluster. The result is a strong testimony to the early existence of dual textual streams in Acts that stand firmly over against one another.
The fresh aspect of the method involves, for each variation -unit, (1) identifying the Primary witnesses available for a given reading; (2) counting the number supporting a presumptive D-Text reading; (3) counting those that do not; and (4) calculating the percentages of witnesses agreeing and not agreeing to the readings in question. Three or more Primary witnesses must be present in a variation-unit to be included. The global figures show that available Primary D-Text witnesses agree with one another 88% of the time on readings in 425 variation-units, while 97% of the time these readings are opposed by both א and B together.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 492 | 41 | 2 |
| Full Text Views | 305 | 7 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 148 | 21 | 3 |
