Week 38 Acts 8:37
Philip met an Ethiopian and told him about Jesus. The man believed. The story goes on to say:
36 …they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?”
37 [And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”]
38 And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water…and he baptized him.
There are square brackets around verse-37. I’m reading a New American Standard Version bible published in 1977 and it has a note in margin: ‘many manuscripts do not contain this verse’.
Hmm. I check a 2020 edition of the NASB:
36 …they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?”
38 And he ordered that the chariot stop; and they both went down into the water…and he baptized him.
Very interesting! The text jumps straight from 8:36 to 8:38. There’s no 8:37. It is there in 1977 and then forty-three years later it’s gone. (Not absolutely gone. NASB 2020 slides 8:37 over into the margin and says: ‘late manuscripts add (it) as v 37’.)
Other versions also marginalize 8:37 and tell me:
‘Some manuscripts add all or most of verse 37’
Or: ‘early manuscripts omit this v’
Or: ‘a few later manuscripts add…’.
Manuscripts are a problem that I’ll have to think about for a bit. See what I can ferret-out.
Note: quotes from Acts 8:36-38 (NASB ESV LSB NET)