Acts 10:19 "three men", "two men" or just "some men"?

[brandplucked]

Acts 10:19 ?three men?, ?two men? or just ? some men??

Further textual confusion both by Westcott-Hort and the two so called ?oldest and best? manuscripts is further seen in Acts 10:19. In the King James Bible we read: ?While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, THREE men seek thee.? The three men refers back to verses 10:7-8 where we read that Cornelius ?called TWO of his household servants, AND a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually...he sent THEM to Joppa.? Thus there were three men altogether who went to find Peter.

The reading of "THREE men" is again confirmed in chapter eleven verse eleven where Peter is rehearsing the events that previously occurred in chapter ten. There Peter relates: "And, behold, immediately there were THREE men already come unto the house where I was, sent from Caesarea unto me."

THREE men (andres treis) is the reading found in the TR, Stephanus, Beza, Elziever, Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus, C, E, many Old Latin copies, Coptic Sahidic, Boharic, Syriac, Georgian, Vulgate and the Ethiopian ancient versions. It is also the reading of Spanish Reina Valera and the Modern Greek N.T.

THREE men is also the reading found in Wycliffe 1395, Bishops? bible 1568, the Geneva Bible 1599, Revised Version 1881, ASV 1901, RSV, NRSV, ESV, NASB, NKJV, NIV and the Holman Standard.

Quite a few manuscripts completely omit any number here and simply say ?Men seek thee?. Among these are D, L, P and a few Old Latin copies. Among those versions that omit any number at all are Tyndale 1525, Coverdale 1535 and the New English Bible 1970.

However where the real confusion comes in is when we look at the Vaticanus manuscript and the early Westcott-Hort, Nestle Aland critical texts. ONLY the Vaticanus copy reads TWO men (andres duo) and Westcott and Hort as well as the Nestle 4th edition 1934 and the Nestle-Aland 1962 editions read ?TWO men seek thee?, all based solely on the Vaticanus mss.

Later on the Nestle-Aland crtical text once again changed their previous reading and the current one now reads ?THREE men?, and so too do the NASB, NIV, RSV, ESV and Holman Standard.

There are only two bible translations I have found so far that actually contain the Vaticanus reading of ?two men?. One is Rotherham?s 1902 Emphasized bible that says: ?Behold, TWO men seek thee.?, and the other one is the Catholic New American Bible St. Joseph 1970 which reads: ?There are TWO men in search of you.?

The Catholic versions present us with the usual hodge-podge of confusion, with the previous Douay 1950 correctly reading ?three men?, then the 1968 Jerusalem bible came out with the reading ?SOME men?. Then in 1970 the St. Joseph NAB 1970 went with the Vaticanus reading of ?TWO men?, but now the latest Catholic bible, the New Jerusalem bible of 1985, has come out and it just omits the number altogether and once again reads: ?SOME men have come to see you.?

This is the fickle nature of the so called ?oldest and best manuscripts? and the men who support them.

Stick with the infallible King James Bible; you will never go wrong.

Will K

[Evan57]

Amen!!

Evan57