Acts 5:13

Acts 5:13

The ordinarily received text is difficult to interpret because kolla/sqai (meaning “to join”) seems to be inappropriate in the context (contrast ver. Acts 5:14), and because the identity of tw/n loipw/n is not disclosed. Among the attempts to clarify the verse, several conjectures may be mentioned. Pallis emended kolla/sqai auvtoi/j to kwlu/sai auvtou,j, and adopted A. Hilgenfeld’s emendation of loipw/n to Leueitw/n, producing thereby the sentence, “And of the Levites none dared to prevent them [from holding meetings in the Temple precincts].” ¹³³

Torrey conjectured that the original Aramaic was at'Wbyfe, “the elders,” which was misread as at'yrIyve, “the rest,” the meaning being, “of the elders no one dared join himself to them; nevertheless the common people magnified them,…multitudes both of men and women.” ¹³⁴

Without resorting to an Aramaic original, Dibelius conjectured that tw/n de. loipw/n came from tw/n avrco,ntwn. He writes, “The number of letters is the same, and the changes, at least from A to D and from X to L, are easily understood. ‘Of the leaders no one dared join them, but the people made much of them, and more believers than ever were won for the Lord.’ Thus the sentence becomes intelligible.” ¹³⁵ Against this proposal, however, is the disappearance of the connecting particle.

¹³³ Alex. Pallis, Notes on St Luke and the Acts (London, 1928), pp. 54—55.

¹³⁴ C. C. Torrey, Documents of the Primitive Church, p. 96; compare idem, Expository Times, XLVI (1934—35), pp. 428 f.

¹³⁵ M. Dibelius, Studies in the Acts of the Apostles (New York, 1956), p. 91.