Acts 1:1

Acts 1:1 o` VIhsou/j

Against all other witnesses B and D omit o` before VIhsou/j, a reading adopted by Tregelles, Westcott-Hort, and A. C. Clark. These scholars were probably impressed by the nature of the external evidence as well as by the circumstance that this is the first instance of VIhsou/j in the book of Acts, and therefore, according to Attic Greek standards, would not call for the use of the article.

On the other hand, Luke may well have wished, by the presence of the article, to bring to the reader’s mind the content of the Gospel narrative in his first volume. ⁴³ The absence of the article in two manuscripts may be accounted for by assuming either that by inadvertence in transcription o` was, so to speak, swallowed up by the preceding o-sound of h;rxato, <sup>44</sup> or that the scribes of B and D, observing that this is the first occurrence of VIhsou/j in Acts, decided to omit o`.

⁴³ So B. Weiss, “Der Gebrauch des Artikels bei den Eigennamen,” Theologische Studien and Kritiken, LXVIII (1913), p. 355, and Blass-Debrunner-Funk, § 260 (1).

⁴⁴ So B. Weiss, Der Codex D, p. 107; compare H. von Soden, Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments, I, ii (Berlin, 1907), p. 1408.