I am translating Acts chapter 27. In verse 18 it says that, because of being in a violent storm, they lightened the ship by throwing stuff overboard. Then in verse 19 it says they threw stuff overboard “with their own hands.” But wait, whose hands were doing the ship lightening in verse 18 then?
Was it because of this very problem that the Byz text of verse 19 has the main verb in the 1st person, to differentiate the actors from verse 18? So the Byz text says “WE threw the ship’s equipment overboard with our own hands.”
Who is “we”? Paul, Luke and Aristarchus?
Then again even later, in verse 38, the crew throws cargo overboard to lighten the ship.
Some possibilities I see are:
- The Byz text changed the verb in v. 19 to the 1st person in order to eliminate the seeming nonsense described above.
- The 𝔓⁷⁴ ℵ A B C text wrote the verse 19 verb in the 3rd person by unconscious assimilation to the 3rd person verbs in the preceding verse.
- A long shot, but perhaps the original text in v. 18 had the violent storm itself causing the cargo to fly off the ship, and then in v. 19 the crew starting throwing stuff off with their own hands.
Acts 27:19 txt ερριψαν 𝔓⁷⁴ ℵ A B C 33 181 1175 1739 1891 2464 latt cop SBL TH NA29 {\} ‖ ερριψαμεν L Ψ 049 056 1611 𝔐 syr eth Chrys TR RP ‖ lac 𝔓⁴⁵ 𝔓¹¹² D E H.
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