Week 38 Acts 8:37
Some bibles have Acts 8:37. And some don’t. So that’s a problem.
The book of Acts that Luke wrote was a hand-written document that he sent to a man named Theophilus.
That first copy was the single & pristine & original & only book of Acts. I’ll call it Acts #1.
Even though from-there-on-out no one knows exactly what happened it’s safe to say that Theophilus – or one of his friends – copied his pristine original Acts #1. So then there was Acts #1 plus a hand-copied version of Acts #1 – I’ll call it Acts Copy #1.
Public demand meant that more copies would be copied. Some copies were likely copies of the original Acts #1. Others were copies of Acts Copy #1 or copies of Acts Copy #2 or Acts Copy #3. Copies of copies of copies.
The best case for accuracy would be that all copiers were careful & focused & exacting. But let’s say one careless error was made in Acts Copy #345. Now there’s an inexact copy. If a copier then copies inexact Acts Copy #345 carefully & exactly then Acts Copy #346 is wrong – just like Acts Copy #345. One of the problems with hand-copied copies is that an error can get baked-in.
Anyway it’s a different problem in Acts 8:37. There it’s not a typographical error. In verse-37 a copier stopped being a copier and decided to add a fictional quote: I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
The quote might be correct and the man could have said it. But it looks like Luke didn’t say it in Acts #1.