The Westcott/Hort Nine
Luke 24:3b

Text

24:2. But [the woman at the Tomb] found the stone had been rolled away from the tomb.

24:3. And having entered they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus

24:4. And it came about, while they were uncertain about this, behold, two men stood by them . . .

Commentary

The addition adds nothing of substance; it is merely reverential. Metzger Commentary 157 notes that in this instance "the majority [of the Committee] . . . regarded the reading of [Bezae] as influenced by v23, and the omission of kuriou in a few witnesses as due to assimilation to Mt 27:58 or Mk 15:43. The expression "the Lord Jesus" is used of the risen Lord in Ac 1;21, 4:33, 8:16."

But, as this remark only serves to point out, it is never so used in Luke, of either the risen or the unrisen Jesus. It cannot be taken for granted that Acts is by the same author, or at any rate by the same author at the same time, as the Gospel of Luke. As for Lk 24:23, describing the Women at the Tomb who were there early in the morning "and did not find his body," this merely establishes the Lukan precedent, with which the shorter version of 24:3 is consistent.

There are no "Lord Jesus" variants to 24:23 in any of the manuscripts collated by Swanson. The "his body" reading is therefore firm, while the "body of the Lord Jesus" reading in 24:3 is less so. The weight of Lukan evidence thus favors the shorter reading in 24:3.

Conclusion

Omit as a later emollient and reverential addition.

25 May 2006 / Contact The Project / Exit to Biblica Page