Acts 5:17

Acts 5:17 avnasta.j de, {A}

Instead of avnasta,j it^p has “Annas,” which Dibelius, ¹³⁷ following Blass, ¹³⁸ was inclined to accept as original. But avni,sthmi, which is a favorite Lukan word (out of 107 occurrences in the New Testament, 26 appear in the third Gospel and 45 in Acts), in this passage reflects the usage of Septuagint Greek, where it is often little more than a copula. ¹³⁹ Furthermore, as Lake and Cadbury point out, “no reviser or scribe is likely to have objected to the ascription of the high priesthood to Annas, but avnasta,j may easily have been read accidentally as :Annaj, especially after the phrase in Acts 4:6.” ¹⁴⁰

¹³⁷ M. Dibelius, Studies in the Acts of the Apostles (New York, 1956), p. 91.

¹³⁸ F. Blass, Theologische Studien and Kritiken, LXIX (1896), p. 459.

¹³⁹ Cf. C. C. Torrey, The Composition and Date of Acts, p. 32.

¹⁴⁰ The Beginnings of Christianity, vol. IV, p. 56.