Acts 12:10

Acts 12:10 evxelqo,ntej {A}

The circumstantial detail in codex Bezae, namely that Peter and the angel when coming out of prison “walked down the seven steps” (kate,bhsan tou.j z baqmou.j kai,), has seemed to many scholars to possess a verisimilitude that reflects local knowledge of Jerusalem. It should not be overlooked, however, as Lake and Cadbury remind us, that “we have no knowledge as to (i) where the prison was …, and (ii) whether there really were seven steps.” ²³⁰

A trace of the same reading is preserved in it^p and cop^G67, “they descended (the) steps” (without “seven”). The reading of the Latin side of codex Bezae is slightly expanded, “when they went out they descended (the) seven steps and went on one step, and immediately the angel left him” (…descenderunt septem grados et processerunt gradum unum…).

Other references elsewhere to specified numbers of steps include the mention of seven steps and eight steps in Ezekiel’s vision of the temple ( Ezekiel 40:22, Ezekiel 40:26, Ezekiel 40:31), and the mention of fourteen steps, five steps, and fifteen steps in Josephus’s description of the temple complex (Jewish Wars, v.v:2—3). Later in the book of Acts ( Acts 21:35, Acts 21:40) the author refers to the steps that led from the barracks of Antonia into the temple area, but, as Knowling says, “there is no connection between them and the definite seven steps here, which are evidently presupposed (note the article) to be well known to the reader.” ²³¹

²³⁰ The Beginnings of Christianity, vol. IV, p. 136.

²³¹ R. J. Knowling, The Expositor’s Greek Testament, vol. II, p. 275.