the long text of acts was variants in the nt text to the moderator i posted this about a week ago but it never showed up locally on the net if this has already actually been posted please fill free to flush this copy n from db n andrew cmu edu d andrew byler does anyone now where an english translation of the long recension of the acts of the apostles can be found a english translation of this can be found in the acts of the apostles translated from the codex bezae with an introduction on its lucan origin and importance j m wilson london another work that might be useful is the acts of the apostles a critical edition with introduction and notes on selected passages albert c clark oxford reprinted this is an edition of text of acts that makes the assumption that the text in codex bezae is the more authentic i don t know if it actually contains an english translation or not another useful that discusses many of the variants in detail is the theological tendency of the codex bezae cantabrigiensis in acts eldon j epp cambridge the most recent reference i found was an edition in french from the early s i can supply the reference if anyone s interested now many of the works are going to be difficult to find so if you re interested in examining the differences in the long recension an excellent and easily obtainable discussion can be found in a textual commentary on the greek nt bruce metzger united bible society metzger s book serves as a companion volume to the ubs rd edition of the greek nt it contains a discussion on the reasoning that went behind the decisions on each of the variant readings included in the ubs furthermore notes on an addition readings are included in atcotgnt the majority of these occur in acts in particular in the introduction to the section on acts metzger writes an attempt was made to set before the reader a more or less full report with an english translation of the several additions and other modifications that are attested by western witnesses since many of these have no corresponding apparatus in the text volume care was taken to supply an adequate conspectus of the evidence that supports the divergent readings p i understand that one of the early codexes vaticanus and siniaticus has this version of acts it would be interesting to know what the differences are between the long and the short forms most of the copies of the text of acts that we have including the ones in vaticanus and siniaticus adher pretty closely to the shorter or alexandrian version the longer version to which you refer is usually called the western version and its main witness is the codex bezae althought there are a few other rather fragmentary sources as far as size the difference is that in clark s edition mentioned above the book of acts contains words whereas the text edited by westcott and hort a typical alexandrian text contains words i e a difference of about to answer the obvious questions no there are no major revelations in the longer text nor major omissions in the shorter text the main difference seems to expansion of detail in the western text or if you prefer contractions in the alexandrian the western text seems to be given to more detail there are some interesting specific cases but this probably not the place to go into it in detail the discussion over the years as to which of these versions is the more authentic has been hot and heavy if there is anything approaching a modern consensus it is i that neither text represents purely the authentic version ii each variant reading has to be examined on its own merits however iii the variant in the alexandrian text is the better more often than not n
