New publication: The Ancient Armenian Text of the Acts of the Apostles

Joseph M. Alexanian, retreated teacher of Abilene Christian University, who has also been a pastor of an (Armenian, I suppose) Evangelical Church, has written a book about the Armenian version of the Acts of the Apostles. This book has just been published by Peeters in Louvain, Belgium, in the CSCO series (vol. 643, Scriptores Armeniaci 31, 2012). This publication aims at giving the earliest attainable Armenian text of the Acts of the Apostles, so that the Armenian version can be used in the critical apparatus of the forthcoming Editio maior of the Greek text of Acts by INTF Muenster. This new edition is far better than Zohrab's antiquated Venice edition (1805). In his critical apparatus, Alexanian gives the variants of 9 Armenian manuscripts which he considers the best representatives of the 9 groups of manuscripts of the Armenian Acts. This work is the first visible fruit of the IPTA project (International Project on the Text of Acts) launched about twenty years ago. Work on the Ethiopic and Georgian versions of Acts is in progress, by C. Niccum and J.W. Childers.

Those of can read French will learn more about Alexanians'book in a more complete recension of this book I have prepared for Le Muséon (forthcoming).

J.-L. Simonet

From the Peeter's web-site:
Summary:
The purpose of this eclectic critical edition of the ancient Armenian text of the Acts of the Apostles is to provide the earliest attainable text of Acts found in the extant Armenian manuscripts. It is meant to assist the Institute for New Testament Textual Research at the University of Münster in Münster, Germany, in preparing Volume II of the Editio Critica Maior, a complete and accurate critical edition of the Greek text of Acts. In the past, scholars have used the text of Acts in Zohrapian for text critical purposes. It is now clear that Zohrapian’s text represents the text of Acts from the Cilician Period. Our edition represents the pre-Cilician text of Acts. The text of Acts presents a challenge for New Testament textual critics. The Greek manuscripts, early versions, and patristic sources fall into two groups, the Alexandrian text-type and the Western text-type. The Armenian text is most closely aligned with the Alexandrian text-type. Agreement with the Western text is very weak.