Acts 16:36-38

Acts 16:36-38

Leaving nothing to the imagination of the reader, in ver. Acts 16:36 codex Bezae reads kai. eivselqw.n o` desmofu,lax avph,ggeilen, while syr<sup>p</sup>, still more circumstantial, reads kai. avkou,saj o` desmofu,lax eivselqw.n avph,ggeilen. Similarly in ver. Acts 16:38 codex Bezae is extremely pleonastic in reading avph,ggeilan de. auvtoi/soi [sic] strathgoi/j oi` r`abdou/coi ta. r`h,mata tau/ta ta. r`hqe,nta pro.j tou.j strathgou,j…(“And the police reported to the magistrates themselves these words which were spoken for the magistrates …”).

In order to emphasize the innocence of Paul and Silas, and the desire of the magistrates to avoid an unpleasant case, in ver. Acts 16:37 the Western reviser (D syr^p) substitutes avnaiti,ouj (“innocent”) for the unusual word avkatakri,touj (“uncondemned”), found only here and in Acts 22:25.