Jesus flatly rejects the claim of the Eleven to restore the circle of the Twelve apostles

Abstract

In the Editio Critica Maior, Die Apostelgeschichte (4 vols., Stuttgart 2017) there is no mention in the main volume (Teil 1.1) of a variant reading in Codex Bezae, ???????C?????C ??C (Acts 1.6), which completely changes the meaning of the sentence. The lack of indication is due to the editors’ decision (Teil 2) that the preposition ??C was no more than an occurrence of diplography. In fact, the Bezan reading is fully justified because, unlike the question asked by the apostles in the familiar text, in this text the question was: “Lord, is this when you are going to restore to the Kingdom of Israel...?” Jesus cuts short their question, leaving unfinished the question of the Eleven who appear to have intended to ask about the restoration of the tribes to Israel, now that the death of Judas had reduced the apostles, whom Jesus had designated as representing the tribes, to Eleven. In the 26 verses of Acts 1, there are some 22 variants with the Alexandrian text, which function together to explain the harsh response of Jesus and his refusal to replace Judas as the twelfth apostle before leaving the earth. Accordingly, at the end of the chapter, Matthias is seen as being elected to exist alongside the original Twelve apostles, and not, as in the Alexandrian text, as a new and fully integrated member of the group.