Acts 6:3

Codex Bezae and codex Vaticanus have each altered the opening words of the verse in accord with the predilections of its scribe. The former (supported by ith and copG67) prefaces the suggestion made by the apostles with an introductory interrogative phrase, ti, ou=n evstin( avdelfoi,; which lends a colloquial touch to the narrative (compare also the Western readings mentioned at Acts 2:37 and Acts 5:8). The phrase seems to have come to the present passage from Acts 21:22.

The unique reading evpiskeyw,meqa in codex Vaticanus, as Ropes remarks, is probably “due to the desire not to exclude the apostles from a share in the selection of the Seven. It is clearly inconsistent with vs. Acts 6:6 in the usual text. Perhaps the ‘Western’ ou-toi evsta,qhsan in the latter verse has arisen from the same motive.” 147


147 J. H. Ropes, The Text of Acts, p. 56.

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Old Testament