Acts 10:30

Acts 10:30 th.n evna,thn {B}

The Textus Receptus, supported by a diversified and respectable array of witnesses, appears to be clear and straightforward: VApo. teta,rthj h`me,raj me,cri tau,thj th/j w[raj h;mhn nhsteu,wn( kai. th.n evna,thn w[ran proseuco,menoj evn tw|/ oi;kw| mou, which ought to mean, “From the fourth day until this hour I was fasting, and while keeping the ninth hour of prayer in my house” (the reading in D avpo. th/j tri,thj h`me,raj may have arisen when the scribe counted the three instances of evpau,rion in verses Acts 10:9, Acts 10:23, and Acts 10:24). The superficial impression, however, that Cornelius had been fasting for the immediately preceding four days is clearly erroneous, for the terminus of the fasting was the sudden appearance of a man in bright clothing who told him to send to Joppa, etc. Instead, therefore, of counting forward four days (or three, according to D), we must take avpo. teta,rthj h`me,raj to mean “four days ago.” ¹⁹³

Great difficulty arises with me,cri tau,thj th/j w[raj, which ought to be “until this (very) hour” (the variant reading in D me,cri th/j a;rti w[raj has substantially the same sense), but which, since the preceding avpo, cannot signify “from,” must mean either “at this (very) hour” or “about this (very) hour.”

Since, however, it is highly questionable whether me,cri can bear either of these meanings, several scholars have proposed conjectural emendations in order to remove the word from the text. Lake and Cadbury, for example, think it possible that either “the author or a scribe was misled by the suggestion of avpo, to write its usual correlative me,cri.” ¹⁹⁴ Blass and Schmiedel rewrite the passage, getting rid of both avpo, and me,cri. The former conjectures teta,rthn h`me,ran tau,thn h;mhn, <sup>195</sup> and the latter proposes pro. teta,rthj h`me,raj avpo. tau,thj th/j w[raj h;mhn. ¹⁹⁶

Since, however, it is just possible that the Greek may be explained as colloquial koine or as Semitized Greek, ¹⁹⁷ the Committee decided to retain both the avpo, and the me,cri phrases.

Although the words nhsteu,wn kai, may have been deleted in some copies because nothing is said in the previous account of Cornelius’s fasting, it is more probable that they were added to the text by those who thought that fasting should precede baptism (compare Acts 9:9 and Didache 7:4 keleu,seij de. nhsteu/sai to.n baptizo,menon pro. mia/j h' du,o).

¹⁹³ For this use of avpo,, see Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich-Danker, s.v. (II:2.a)

¹⁹⁴ The Beginnings of Christianity, vol. IV, p. 118. Haenchen adopts the view that a scribe was the culprit who erroneously introduced me,cri (The Acts of the Apostles, ad loc.).

¹⁹⁵ Theologische Studien und Kritiken, LXIX (1896), pp. 463 f., and Acta apostolorum…secundum formam quae videtur Romanam (Leipzig. 1896), ad loc.

¹⁹⁶ P. W. Schmiedel, “Ein Paar Konjekturen zum Text des Neuen Testamentes,” Festgabe Adolf Kaegi von Schülern und Freunden…(Frauenfeld, 1919), pp. 179—181.

¹⁹⁷ For the latter explanation, see C. C. Torrey, The Composition and Date of Acts, pp. 34 f., who supposes the Greek to represent ad" at'[;X; d[; ay"['ybir> am'wy !mi.