The Promises Fulfilled for Whose Children? The Problem of the Text of Acts 13:33 in Contemporary Debate

For over a century, commentators have puzzled over the text of Acts 13:33, in which God fulfills his promises to "children" (τέκνοις), but the manuscript tradition is divided about whose children they are. Most manuscripts, which are late, Byzantine texts, report that God has fulfilled the promises "to their children, us" (τοá¿-ς τέκνοις αá½ τῶν ἡµá¿-ν). This text is adopted in the majority of modern critical editions of the Greek New Testament, translations, and commentaries. The Editio Critica Maior's (ECM) recent critical edition of Acts, however, alters this text to the conjectural "to the children, us" (τοá¿-ς τέκνοις ἡµá¿-ν). This decision was made over against two prominent options: τοá¿-ς τέκνοις αá½ τῶν ἡµá¿-ν and τοá¿-ς τέκνοις ἡµá¿¶ν, "to our children." This second variant, found among the earliest and best manuscripts for Acts, is routinely overlooked in favor of τοá¿-ς τέκνοις αá½ τῶν ἡµá¿-ν in most editions, commentaries, and translations, and now τοá¿-ς τέκνοις ἡµá¿-ν in the ECM. This article makes a case against this tendency, by arguing that τοá¿-ς τέκνοις ἡµá¿¶ν should be adopted in the critical texts and by pointing out the methodological problems of the ECM's emendation.