Was there a Lost 29th Chapter of Acts?

Was there a Lost 29th Chapter of Acts?
By
Edgar J. Goodspeed

[Editor’s Note: It has become necessary to republish Goodspeed’s definitive work on this subject, because this alleged lost 29th chapter of Acts has reared itself up again, in the Two House and Hebrew Roots movements, even being added to the text of Acts in such volumes as the Restoration Scriptures (Published by the Polygamist Cult “Your Arms to Israel”) and the Cepher. I have omitted two opening paragraphs, which did not discuss the immediate topic of the supposed lost 29th chapter of Acts, but gave an introduction to the background of the British-Israel movement. Edger J. Goodspeed (1871-1962) was a well known scholar of Greek and the New Testament. He taught for many years at the University of Chicago, whose collection of New Testament manuscripts he enriched by his searches. The University’s collection is now named in his honor. -James Trimm]

This “long-lost” chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, containing the account of Paul’s journey in Spain and Britain” is said by a recent [Recent in 1933] publisher of it, Mr. T. G. Cole, to have been translated by the oriental traveler, C. S. Sonnini, from a “Greek manuscript found in the Archives at Constantinople, and presented to him by the Sultan Abdoul Achmet.” Sonnini’s translation, we are further informed, “was found interleaved in a copy of Sonnini’s Travels in Turkey and Greece, and purchased at the sale of the library and effects of the late Right Hon. Sir John Newport, Bart., in Ireland, . . . . in whose possession it had been for more than thirty years, with a copy of the firman of the Sultan of Turkey, granting to C. S. Sonnini permission to travel in all parts of the Ottoman dominions.”

The copy of Sonnini’s Travels in which it was found was an English translation, printed in London in 1801, under the title, Travels in Turkey and Greece Undertaken by Order of Louis XVI, and with the Authority of the Ottoman Court. The original French edition appeared in Paris in 1799, but contains no allusion to any such gift from the Sultan. The English text of the new chapter of Acts was published by Stevenson in London in 1871. I have found no earlier date given for it.

The disposition of the British-Israel group to find theology, chronology, and prophecy in the dimensions and passages of the Great Pyramid recalls the efforts in that direction made by the British astronomer Charles Piazzi Smyth, who published Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid in 1864, and Life and Work at the Great Pyramid in 1867. The association of his views with the British-Israel movement makes it natural to connect the composition of this additional chapter of Acts with that time.

The chapter continues the narrative of the Acts with an account of how Paul departed from Rome (his imprisonment seems to create no difficulty) for Spain and Britain, “for he had heard in Phoenicia that certain of the children of Israel, about the time of the Assyrian captivity, had escaped by sea to the isles afar off, as spoken by the prophet, and called by the Romans Britain.” Paul accordingly visits Spain, and preaches there with much |89 success. He then proceeds to Britain, landing at Raphinus (believed to be Sandwich in Kent). He preaches on Mount Lud (the future site of St. Paul’s Cathedral) and confers with the Druids, who reveal their descent from the Jews “who escaped from bondage in the land of Egypt.” He then travels through Gaul and preaches to the Belgians. In Switzerland he visits Mount Pontius Pilate, where Pilate “dashed himself down headlong and so miserably perished.” He goes on, by way of “Mount Julius” (the Julian Alps between Italy and Austria), to Illyricum, on his way to Macedonia and Asia–with the evident intention of writing the Pastoral letters, Timothy and Titus.

The text as published in London (by the Covenant Publishing Company), and also in Toronto, has a curious interest:

1. And Paul, full of the blessings of Christ, and abounding in the spirit, departed out of Rome, determining to go into Spain, for he had a long time purposed to journey thitherward, and was minded also to go from thence into Britain.
2. For he had heard in Phoenicia that certain of the children of Israel, about the time of the Assyrian captivity, had escaped by sea to the “isles afar off,” as |90 spoken by the prophet, and called by the Romans Britain.
3. And the Lord commanded the gospel to be preached far hence to the Gentiles, and to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
4. And no man hindered Paul; for he testified boldly of Jesus before the tribunes and among the people; and he took with him certain of the brethren which abode with him at Rome, and they took shipping at Ostium, and having the winds fair were brought safely into an haven of Spain.
5. And much people were gathered together from the towns and villages, and the hill country, for they had heard of the conversion of the apostle, and the many miracles which he had wrought.
6. And Paul preached mightily in Spain, and great multitudes believed and were converted, for they perceived he was an apostle sent from God.
7. And they departed out of Spain, and Paul and his company finding a ship in Armorica sailing unto Britain, they went therein, and passing along the South coast they reached a port called Raphinus.
8. Now when it was noised abroad that the apostle had landed on their coast, great multitudes of the inhabitants met him, and they treated Paul courteously, and he entered in at the east gate of their city, and lodged in the house of an Hebrew and one of his own nation.
9. And on the morrow he came and stood upon Mount Lud; and the people thronged at the gate, and assembled in the Broadway, and he preached Christ |91 unto them, and many believed the word and the testimony of Jesus.
10. And at even the Holy Ghost fell upon Paul, and he prophesied, saying Behold, in the last days the God of peace shall dwell in the cities, and the inhabitants thereof shall be numbered; and in the seventh numbering of the people, their eyes shall be opened, and the glory of their inheritance shine forth before them. And nations shall come up to worship on the mount that testifieth of the patience and long suffering of a servant of the Lord.
11. And in the latter days new tidings of the gospel shall issue forth out of Jerusalem, and the hearts of the people shall rejoice, and behold fountains shall be opened, and there shall be no more plague.
12. In those days there shall be wars and rumors of wars; and a king shall rise up, and his sword shall be for the healing of the nations, and his peacemaking shall abide, and the glory of his kingdom a wonder among princes.
13. And it came to pass that certain of the Druids came unto Paul privately, and showed by their rites and ceremonies they were descended from the Jews which escaped from bondage in the land of Egypt, and the apostle believed these things, and he gave them the kiss of peace.
14. And Paul abode in his lodgings three months, confirming in the faith and preaching Christ continually.
15. And after these things Paul and his brethren departed from Raphinus and sailed unto Atium in Gaul.
16. And Paul preached in the Roman garrisons and among the people, exhorting all men to repent and confess their sins.
17. And there came to him certain of the Belgae to inquire of him of the new doctrine and of the man Jesus; and Paul opened his heart unto them, and told them all things that had befallen him, how be it that Christ came into the world to save sinners; and they departed, pondering among themselves upon the things which they had heard.
18. And after much preaching and toil, Paul and his fellow labourers passed into Helvetia, and came unto Mount Pontius Pilate, where he who condemned the Lord Jesus dashed himself down headlong, and so miserably perished.
19. And immediately a torrent gushed out of the mountain, and washed his body broken in pieces into a lake.
20. And Paul stretched forth his hands upon the water, and prayed unto the Lord, saying, O Lord God, give a sign unto all nations that here Pontius Pilate, which condemned thine only-begotten Son, plunged down headlong into the pit.
21. And while Paul was yet speaking, behold there came a great earthquake, and the face of the waters was changed, and the form of the lake like unto the Son of Man hanging in an agony upon the cross.
22. And a voice came out of heaven saying, Even Pilate hath escaped the wrath to come, for he washed his hands before the multitude at the bloodshedding of the Lord Jesus.
23. When therefore Paul and those that were with him saw the earthquake, and heard the voice of the angel, they glorified God, and were mightily strengthened in the spirit.
24. And they journeyed and came to Mount Julius, where stood two pillars, one on the right hand and one on the left hand, erected by Caesar Augustus.
25. And Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, stood up between the two pillars, saying, Men and brethren, these stones which ye see this day shall testify of my journey hence; and verily I say, they shall remain until the outpouring of the spirit upon all nations, neither shall the way be hindered throughout all generations.
26. And they went forth and came unto Illyricum, intending to go by Macedonia into Asia, and grace was found in all the churches; and they prospered and had peace. Amen.

We have already seen, in discussing The Confession of Pontius Pilate, that the story of his suicide on Mount Pilatus is a late legend. The researches of General Wallace and President Angell at Constantinople [in Goodspeed’s treatment of the Arcko Volume] have shown that no such manuscripts as are here implied are known in the libraries there. On the other hand no manuscript of the Acts in Greek or any other tongue contains the chapter, and the conclusion is unavoidable that it was composed to support the British-Israel movement which circulates it. The testimony of the Druids in verse 13, and Paul’s prophecy of St. Paul’s Cathedral and of the seventh British census of 1861, and the rise of the British-Israel movement soon after, verse 10, show this interest unmistakably.

Clear as the evidence against the chapter is, fresh claims continue to be made for it. J. O. Kinnaman, identified as a professor in Madison College, Tennessee, published in The Defender (Wichita, Kansas) early in 1940 an article on the twenty-ninth chapter. Kinnaman’s article was entitled “British Museum Manuscript No. 3227—Dg9.” In the article, he mentioned a Greek manuscript of the chapter given to the French traveler Sonnini by the Sultan Abdoul Achmet, and said that a translation of this manuscript bears the number 3227—Dg in the British Museum.

The possibility that such a manuscript might exist in that Museum led me to write at once to the distinguished scholar H. I. Bell, Deputy Keeper of the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum. He replied that the number is the designation not of a manuscript but of a printed book, the title page of which he kindly copied out for me, as follows:

“ Never before published/ The long lost chapter/of the/ Acts of the Apostles containing an account of/ The Apostle Paul’s journey into/ Spain and Britain/ and other interesting events/ translated by/C. S. Sonnini/ From an original Greek manuscript found in the archives at/ Constantinople/presented to him by the Sultan Abdoul Achmet/London:/ Geo. J. Stevenson, 54, Paternoster Row./1871/Price 1d.”

“On p. 2,” Bell continues, “is the following note.”

An English translation of the Sonnini manuscript was found interleaved in a copy of Sonnini’s Travels in Greece and Turkey, published by Longman and Rees, Paternoster Row, 1801, and purchased at the sale of the Library and effects of the late Rt. Hon. Sir John Newport, Bart., Chancellor of the Exchequer in Ireland, whose family arms are engraved on the cover of the book. This valuable translation laid [sic] dormant in the hands of the purchaser for more than thirty years, when a copy of it came into the possession of the present holder, A copy of the Firman of the Sultan granting permission to C. S. Sonnini to travel unmolested in all parts of the Ottoman Dominions can also be produced.

The supposed Greek manuscript of the twenty-ninth chapter had clearly disappeared long before; all that remained was a copy, evidently in manuscript, of the above-mentioned English translation of it, which had been found tucked or bound into a copy of the English edition of Sonnini’s Travels, published in 1801. Evidently an English translation of it, which had been found tucked or bound into a copy of the Greek manuscript, supposedly made by Sonnini himself, was found among the leaves of an English copy of his Travels; this seems strange unless the copy had been his personal copy — and even then why would he translate it into English? A copy made from this came, more than thirty years later, into the possession of the anonymous individual who published it in 1871.

Neither the Greek manuscript, then, nor the English manuscript translation of it, nor the present possessor of either, nor the name of the scholar who translated the Greek text into English (for that Sonnini did this is a most improbable conjecture) can now be found. This throws the student back entirely upon the internal evidence of the chapter itself, the weakness of which I have already shown.

There is therefore no such manuscript in the British Museum or elsewhere, as “ British Museum Manuscript no. 3227-Dg ”; that is the designation of a printed pamphlet, dated 1871.  Kinnaman’s statement in his article in The Defender that an English translation of the manuscript was made in 1801 and printed at Paternoster Row is altogether mistaken, It was first published, as the British Museum pamphlet distinctly states, in 1871. The year 1801 was the date of the publication of Sonnini’s Voyage en Gréce et en Turquie in its English translation, Travels in Greece and Turkey.

In his Defender article Kinnaman further states that the twenty-ninth chapter is contained in the Coptic version of the Acts, though in which of the five Coptic versions it is found he does not say. As a matter of fact, however, it does not appear in any of them. Kinnaman even creates the impression that the twenty-ninth chapter appears in the Syriac text of Acts: “‘ As to the text, reference may be made to the Syriac New Testament translated by Murdoch, published in 1915,[1] or to any Coptic Bible.” But in fact no New Testament or Bible that has ever been found in any language contains the supposed additional chapter.[2]

[Editor’s Note: In fact, having done a great deal of research on Syriac (Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic) manuscripts of the books of the “New Testament” over the last three and a half decades, I can attest that not one of the hundreds of Syriac manuscripts which have been located and cataloged, not one of them contains this supposed lost 29th chapter of Acts. – James Trimm]

The statements of British-Israel writers on the provenance of the supposed Greek manuscript of the twenty-ninth chapter are very loose. “ Davydd” in The Signpost describes Sonnini as “ commissioned by Louis XVI to travel in Turkey and Greece. He thus came into contact with the Sultan Abdoul Achmet in 1801, who gave him a copy of the Greek manuscript . . . of this lost chapter of the Acts of the Apostiles.”[3]  This could hardly be, since Louis XVI was executed in 1793, and Sonnini’s commission from him would be worthless after the downfall of the French monarchy. The Sultan Abdoul Achmet of the title page of the first printing of the letter (1871) reappears frequently on the pages of British Israel writers, and was doubtless the Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid I who reigned from 1773 to 1789.

Sonnini cannot have come into contact with him in 1801, for Abd-ul had died twelve years before, and had been succeeded by Selim III, who reigned from 1789 to 1807. As we have seen, 1801 was the date of the publication of Sonnini’s book in English.

The claim of Sonnini as the translator of the supposed chapter from Greek into English, made on the title page of its first printing in 1871, seems most improbable, for Sonnini wrote his travels in French, and would naturally have translated the Greek manuscript into that tongue.

It is true that Charles-Nicolas-Sigisbert Sonnini de Manoncourt (1751-1812) traveled in Greece and Turkey between 1777 and 1780, and twenty years later published in French an account of those travels. A copy of the English translation of this book may well have formed part of the library of Sir John Newport, Bart.(1756-1843), who was a member of Parliament and was given a D. C. L. by Oxford.

The chapter’s keen interest in the seventh British census of 1861 at once shows the impartial reader that this whole curious chapter was written after the seventh British census of 1861 had been taken and not long before the chapter was first published in 1871.

Yet British-Israel writers, both British and American, seek to push the publication of the chapter back to the year 1801, claiming to find great evidential value in the fact that the rise of the British-Israel movement, which began after 1861, had been predicted at least as far back as that year. “In the seventh numbering of the people,” runs verse 10, ‘their eyes shall be opened, and the glory of their inheritance shine forth before them.”

Following the late Major Samuels, who wrote under the name of “Lumen” in his book Far Hence Unto the Gentiles, Thomas W. Plant says that Sonnini must have published his “Book of Travel” (meaning his Voyage en Gréce et en Turquie)

… somewhere between 1774 and 1793, or at any rate some ten to fifteen years before 1800, and therefore at least ten years before the first national census of the inhabitants of the British Isles, which was taken in 1801. No arrangements had been made, or even proposed, for a national census in Britain when M. Sonnini published his book of travels containing the account of the discovery of this long-lost chapter. Therefore this verse 10 is either true or false, it is either prophecy or a forgery, or a mere guess.[4]

But this writer fails to realize that there is no secret about the date of Sonnini’s well-known book; it was published in French in 1799 — not “ten or fifteen years before 1800,” as ‘‘Lumen” imagined. Nor was the chapter a part of that edition; it was not printed and bound into the French edition; it was an extraneous leaf, found in manuscript in a copy of the English translation of the book, long after Sonnini’s death. Anyone might have slipped it in, or bound it in, at any time prior to its discovery. And in fact it cannot be traced further back than its publication in London in 1871 ten years after the seventh “ numbering of the people.” No one can be found, nor are we told the name of anyone, who ever saw the chapter before that time. Of the choices offered us by Mr. Plant — prophecy, forgery, or guess — we must unhesitatingly take the second. It is safe to say that the twenty-ninth chapter was written very shortly before it was published in 1871, and with an eye to publication.

Its differences from the style of the Gospels and the Acts must strike anyone at all familiar with them. “ Verily I say’ is an expression strictly reserved in the Gospels for utterances of Jesus; it is never used, in the Acts, of Paul or anyone else. The idea that Pilate committed suicide on Mount Pilatus in Switzerland (verse 18) is a late legend. The statement that the Lake of Lucerne assumed its present shape, somewhat like a crucifix, when Paul visited it, is unlike the writer of Acts, especially in the parts of it about Paul. To speak of Pilate as washing his hands at Jesus’ trial (verse 22) would be strange in Acts, for the author of Acts does not speak of it even in his gospel in his account of the trial.

The idea that the Sultan presented the Greek manuscript of this chapter to Sonnini has no support from Sonnini’s “Voyage,” according to which he did not even meet the Sultan, but obtained his travel permit through others. The whole build-up for the chapter is made up of assumptions for which no foundation is offered. The statements of the chapter are never mentioned or reflected in any particular by ancient Christian writers, who were very numerous from the beginning of the second century on. Indeed, there is nowhere any hint of its actual existence until its publication in London in 1871. It may be described as a piece of prophecy after the fact, obviously written and put forth in support of the British-Israel movement, which had recently been launched.

In view therefore of its interest in the British census of 1861, and the popularity given to ideas of this kind by the work of Piazzi Smyth in the sixties of the last century, it is probable that this curious chapter was written not long before its publication in 1871.

[Editor’s Note: I would like to add here some concluding remarks. It is impossible to believe that the book of Acts once had a lost 29th chapter, which was somehow systemically removed from every known manuscript in any known ancient biblical language, and from all of the ancient translations over a broad geographic distribution. Unfortunately the Two House and Hebrew Roots movements have been plagued with this kind of poor scholarship. The so-called lost 29th chapter of Acts is nothing more than a modern forgery, a fact that could be determined with the most basic of serious research on the topic.]

NOTES

[1] G. Murdock first published his translation of the Syriac (Peshito) New Testament in 1851-58. I have examined it and verified my impression that it does not contain a twenty-ninth chapter of Acts.

[2] See J. H. Ropes, The Text of Acts (in The Beginnings of Christianity, Part 1, Vol. 3), pp. 256, 316, 356, 371.

[3]The Signpost (London: Covenant Publishing Company, Ltd., n.d.), p. 77.

[4]Destiny Magazine (Haverhill, Mass.), July 1938, p. 10.

This article appeared originally as a chapter titled “The Twenty-ninth Chapter of Acts” in a copyrighted book (Modern Apocrypha by Edger J. Goodspeed, copyright 1956) (an Earlier, shorter version appeared in “Strange New Gospels, by the same anther in 1933). It is presented here in accordance with the Fair Use provision in that it is presented here for a non-profit, educational purpose, the original work was non-fiction, educational book, the material here comprises only ten pages of the original copyrighted work, and this use has essentially no effect on the potential market for, or value of the original work.

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