Acts 8:37 MSS support?

[nate]

I'm writing a short essay on Acts 8:37 and why it should not be included in our Bibles according to mss support and other evidence. I went to a persons site and he claimed that Acts 8:37 has this Greek mss support:

"It is found in the Greek texts of Stephanus 1550, Beza, and Elzevir. It is in manuscripts E, 4, 36, 88, 97, 103, 104, 242, 257, 307, 322, 323, 385, 429, 453, 464, 467, 629, 630, 913, 945, 1522, 1739, 1765, 1877, 1891, and others."

I know it's in the TR mss but my question is on another site only came up with three mss: E,945, and 1739, Old Latin, later Vulgate, and 1 Coptic. Was my source this wrong? Thanks for your guys help.
Nate

[Hope of Glory]

This site might help you:

Bible Research

[Bluefalcon]

Codex E says something a little different: "And Phillip said to him, 'If you believe with all your heart, you may be saved;' then he answered and said, 'I believe in Christ the Son of God.'"

The only other Greek MSS that add the verse are minuscules from the 10th or later centuries, i.e., 36 307 453 610 945 1678 1739 1891, and also lectionaries 592 and 1178. They read: "And he said to him, 'If you believe with all your heart, you may;' then he answered and said, 'I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.'"

The other manuscript numbers in the OP are not accurate representatives of Greek MS support for the verse, although they may be referring to Latin MSS (?); I doubt this to be the case, however.

[Askjo]

I'm writing a short essay on Acts 8:37 and why it should not be included in our Bibles according to mss support and other evidence.

Three earliest Church fathers prior to 3rd Century citied Acts 8:37. According to Dr. Jack Moorman, he wrote: "J. A. Alexander suggested that the verse was omitted by many scribes as unfriendly to the practice of delaying baptism, which had become common, if not prevalent, before the end of the 3rd century."

Those translators of modern versions are wrong to omit this verse because of their uncertainity.

[nate]

But askjo look at the mss evidence! 36 307 453 610 945 1678 1739 1891, that's 8. Not very many. This verse requires, just as with the Comma, that a reading can practically disappear from the Greek.

[John of Japan]

Zane Hodges omits it in his Majority Text NT. (I only have the 1st edition.) Robinson-Pierpoint's Byzantine NT omits it. UBS 3 (as you would expect) omits it. However, even Metzger agrees that the tradition is from the 2nd century, as Askjo has pointed out. Also, contra Bluefalcon, Metzger says that the earliest mss that has it is 6th century.

"Although the earliest known New Testament manuscript which contains the words dates from the sixth century (ms. E), the tradition of the Ethiopian's confession of faith in Christ was current as early as the latter part of the second century, for Irenaeus quotes part of it (Against Heresies, III.xii.8). Although the passage does not appear in the late medieval manuscript on which Erasmus chiefly depended for his edition (ms. 2), it stands in the martin of another (ms. 4), from which he inserted it into his text because he 'judged that it had been omitted by the carelessness of scribes (arbitror omissum librariorum incuria).'" (A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Bruce Metzger, 360)

Meself? I'd like to have it in there in brackets, anyway! It's so preachable!

God bless!

[nate]

Thank you Bro. John and everyone I appreciate the info. I have one question for instance we don't have many copies of 1 John but there are many mss that include Acts correct?

[Bluefalcon]

One of my professors has the complete collation information in the Text und Textwert editions published by Aland and her Institute for NT Textual Studies.

The results for Acts 8:37 are as follows:

Omit verse = 417 MSS (87%)

Include verse in various forms (many variations, some only contain a small portion of the verse):

E/08 88c 94 103 180 221mg 296 307 322 323
385 429 452c 453 455 464 467 522 606 607
610 628c 629 630 636 641 876 913 945 1104
1501 1509 1609 1610 1642 1678 1704 1735 1739 1751
1765 1780 1830 1832 1851 1853 1869 1877c 1883 1884
1891 1892c 1903 2200 2298 2473 2488 2494 2544c 2619
2737 2805 2816c 2818 = Total 64 MSS (13%)

Here "c" means a corrector of the MS; "mg" means it is included only in the margin of the MS.

Of course the tradition is old, so Metzger, and perhaps it even happened as Acts 8:37 says. But that is not the question. The question is whether or not Acts 8:37 is authoritative, inspired, original. How does one determine if it is original? That is the science of textual criticism.

The transmissional indications are that Luke did not originally include it.

[John of Japan]

Originally posted by Bluefalcon:
One of my professors has the complete collation information in the Text und Textwert editions published by Aland and her Institute for NT Textual Studies.

The results for Acts 8:37 are as follows:

Omit verse = 417 MSS (87%)

Include verse in various forms (many variations, some only contain a small portion of the verse):

E/08 88c 94 103 180 221mg 296 307 322 323
385 429 452c 453 455 464 467 522 606 607
610 628c 629 630 636 641 876 913 945 1104
1501 1509 1609 1610 1642 1678 1704 1735 1739 1751
1765 1780 1830 1832 1851 1853 1869 1877c 1883 1884
1891 1892c 1903 2200 2298 2473 2488 2494 2544c 2619
2737 2805 2816c 2818 = Total 64 MSS (13%)

Here "c" means a corrector of the MS; "mg" means it is included only in the margin of the MS.

Of course the tradition is old, so Metzger, and perhaps it even happened as Acts 8:37 says. But that is not the question. The question is whether or not Acts 8:37 is authoritative, inspired, original. How does one determine if it is original? That is the science of textual criticism.

The transmissional indications are that Luke did not originally include it.

Fascinating, Bluefalcon. Thanks.

I do disagree that textual criticism is a science, though--not even close. It is a very subjective scholarly discipline.

[Boanerges]

Keeping in mind of course, that Metzger is still just a man. Wasn't Bart Ehrman once an assistant to Metzger?