Acts 20:3,4

Acts 20:3-4

Codex Bezae, supported in part by syr^hmg and Ephraem, presents the following text of verses Acts 20:3 and Acts 20:4: poih,saj de. mh/naj g kai. genhqei,sÉhjË auvtw|/ evpiboulh/j u`po. tw/n VIoudai,wn hvqe,lhsen avnacqh/nai eivj Suri,an( ei=pen de. to. pneu/ma auvtw|/ u`postre,fein dia. th/j Makedoni,aj) (4) me,llontoj ou=n evxeie,nai auvtou/ [+ sunei,ponto auvtw|/ syr^hmg] me,cri th/j VAsi,aj Sw,patroj Pu,rrou Beroiai/oj [ms.: Beruiaoj], Qessalonike,wn de. VAri,starcoj kai. Sekou/ndoj( kai. Ga,i?oj Doub@e,#rioj kai. Timo,qeoj( VEqe,sioi de. Eu;tucoj kai. Tro,fimoj (“And when he had spent three months there, and when a plot was made against him by the Jews, he wished to sail for Syria, but the Spirit told him to return through Macedonia. (4) Therefore when he was about to leave, Sopater of Beroea, the son of Pyrrhus, and of the Thessalonians Aristarchus and Secundus, and Gaius of Douberios, and Timothy, went with him as far as Asia; but the Ephesians Eutychus and Trophimus …”).

According to the generally received text Paul was intending to go to Syria in order to carry the collection for the poor of Jerusalem; the Western reviser, however, ascribes the reason for the journey to the Jews’ plot. Furthermore, in characteristic fashion (cf. Acts 19:1) the Western text introduces the prompting of the Spirit to account for Paul’s going by a land route rather than by sea, as the apostle had formerly planned to do.

In ver. Acts 20:4 Bezae’s identification of Paul’s companions as Ephesians rather than Asians (the Harclean Syriac margin conflates the two, ex Asia Ephesii) may suggest that the Western reviser belonged to, or was closely connected with Ephesus. The substitution of Eu;tucoj for Tuciko,j may be an emendation based on ver. Acts 20:9.