Introduction

Since the beginning of systematic study of the New Testament text, the textual peculiarities of Acts have been the subject of controversy. In the book of Acts, to a greater extent than anywhere else in the New Testament, the so-called Western text gives a large number of variant readings, which amount to virtually an alternative version of the book. The text-critical problem is thus forced upon the reader of Acts so that, to a degree unique in the New Testament, decisions about the text affect conclusions about the work in all its aspects. It is a matter of some consequence for the study of Luke's work to decide whether Acts acquired its textual peculiarities at its origin, or in the course of its transmission. It is also of consequence for the study of Christian literature in an obscure period, the early second century, to discover in what circumstances the book of Acts was transmitted, and how it happened that, as Patristic evidence suggests, Acts already existed in two forms by the last quarter of the second century.

The course of controversy over the text of Acts may be divided into three periods. The first was that before 1939. In this period the nature and scope of the problem became clear, and the main hypotheses were formulated which attempted to give comprehensive explanations of the textual peculiarities of Acts as a whole.