CHAPTER TWO

COPTIC G67 AND THE RÔLE OF BEZAE AS A WESTERN WITNESS IN ACTS

Father T. C. Petersen’s English translation of numerous passages in 197 the newly discovered Coptic manuscript of Acts,1 containing :1–15:3 and now designated as G67 in the Glazier Collection in the Pierpont Morgan Library,2 will be appreciated by all who con- cern themselves with the textual tradition of Acts or with the so- called Western text of the in general. The late fourth- or early fifth-century date3 of this manuscript makes it the earliest nonfragmentary Western manuscript of the text of Acts, and, since it antedates Codex Bezae by a century,4 this new manuscript will have considerable significance, not only for the general question of the Western text in Acts, but also for such questions as the accu- racy and individuality of the scribe of Codex Bezae (and perhaps of his immediately preceding ancestors), for the broader, related prob- lem of recent textual strata in D, and for the question of the extent to which the Western element in D has been contaminated by con- formation to other text-types. In short, the rôle of Codex Bezae as a Western witness can be re-evaluated and clarified in several ways with the aid of this new discovery. In addition to its early date, the obvious affinity of the text of copG67 with that of previously recognized leading Western witnesses

1 T. C. Petersen, “An Early Coptic Manuscript of Acts: An Unrevised Version of the Ancient So-Called Western Text,” CBQ 26 (1964) 225–41. 2 This designation was communicated in a letter dated Nov. 9, 1964, from John H. Plummer, curator of mediaeval and renaissance in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City. Other abbreviations used below which may be unfamiliar are: cod.ard = Codex Ardmachanus (vgD); dutch = Mediaeval Dutch [Klijn, NTS, 1 (1954/55), pp. 51–56]; l = León Palimpsest (see below); minn = two or more minuscules; symsK = Christian-Palestinian fragment from Khirbet Mird (see below). 3 See Petersen, “Early Coptic Manuscript of Acts,” 225 and n. 3. [On a revised date for G67, see “Added Notes, 2004” below.] 4 Unless H. J. Frede, Altlateinische Paulus-Handschriften (VLAGLB 4; Freiburg: Herder, 1964) 18 and n. 4, is correct that Codex Bezae should be dated in the fourth cen- tury! [On the current dating of Codex Bezae, see “Added Notes, 2004” below.] 16 chapter two

gives assurance that this manuscript itself must now be numbered among those few leading or “pure” Western witnesses to the text of Acts. This preliminary judgment on the purity of its Western char- acter will without doubt be more clearly and finally demonstrated when the manuscript is fully published (which Fr. Petersen hopes to do soon), but the nearly 140 passages—containing some 250 variation- 198 units—that he presents already indicate in a striking fashion the valid- ity of this judgment. Moreover, a full assessment of copG67 should shed at least some light on the long-standing question of homogeneity in the Western text. Although this new manuscript contains only the first half of Acts, its nonfragmentary character is of special significance, for the study of the Western text has long been plagued by fragmentary witnesses, to say nothing of the problem of mixed witnesses. Of the best or pure Western witnesses in Acts, only Codex Bezae previously has offered a more or less continuous text of a substantially Western character, while the Old Codex h in eight fragments contains parts of thirteen chapters, totaling about one-fifth of Acts; and , , Augustine, , Ephrem, and the marginal notes to and asterisked portions of the Harclean Syriac offer passages here and there, often with distinctly Western readings. Now copG67 is extant for some 520 verses of Acts (out of just over 1000),5 and of these 520, D has all but 68 (8:29–10:14), but h con- tains only 142. In the same portion of Acts, syhmg and syh* together have noted some 138 variants (not verses), while some 120 verses are quoted by Irenaeus, some 37 by Augustine from a Cyprianic text, some 28 by Cyprian, and some 20 by Tertullian. These figures show at once the very great importance of the new Coptic manu- script for the study of the Western text of Acts 1:1–15:3. Add to this its relative purity as a Western witness (as the variants given below indicate) and it is justifiable to say that the discovery of copG67 may well represent the most significant development of our century as far as the investigation of the Western text of Acts is concerned. It has long been argued, and quite correctly, that Codex Bezae, the , and the Old Syriac (especially where they agree)

5 Petersen, “Early Coptic Manuscript of Acts,” 226, n. 4, reports that in terms of lines of script, copG67 stops at the exact middle of Acts.