historical perspectives: from the hasmoneans to bar kokhba in light ...

148 JUSTIN TAYLOR
a) In v. 44, the WT reads literally: "And all those believing were
" This Greek expression is used frequently in the LXX
to translate the Hebrew ~irp and This expression has a special,
quasi-technical significance in the Qumran literature, where it is one
of the ways in which the community names itself. It has been pointed
out that the expression "to be to the is used in 1QS 5:2 in the
sense of "to belong to the community." 2 If this expression underlies
the Greek the opening words of this verse, in the
WT, might be translated: "All the believers belonged to the community."
3
This emphasis on a radical community of life in the primitive text
of 2:44 is matched by the statement, "they had all things in common"
which deserves to be taken in its literal
sense. 4 Living together, they pooled all their resources. The Qumran
Community Rule lays particular stress on forming a community not
only of life but also of possessions (1QS 1:1 If. and 5:2). The gospels
seem to suggest that Jesus and the Twelve formed such a community
(cf. Matt. 15:21, 27, 29 and par.; John 12:6, 13:29); the early
chapters of Acts portray the disciples as continuing to live in this
way after the Ascension.
V. 45 (WT) goes on to describe what this community of goods
meant in practice: "as many as had properties or possessions used
to sell 5 (them) and they used to divide the price among
those who had need." It is not said when they used to sell their
goods, but if we suppose that "all the believers" lived together and
had all things in common, then we must suppose that this was done
upon entering the community. 7
2 M. Wilcox, The Semitisms in Acts (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965), 96.
3 Thus B. J. Capper, "Community of Goods in the Early Jerusalem Church,"
ANRW 11.26.2 (1995): 1730-74, esp. 1739f.
4 For the expression in Greek literature, see the discussion below
on 4:32.
5 The AT has simply "they used to sell. . .": the expression in the WT can be
regarded as a precision.
6 Thus the revised Western Text of Boismard. It could well represent an attempt
to explain the more difficult which Boismard originally read in the Western,
as well as in the Alexandrian Text (cf. also in 4:34).
7 Those commentators who suppose that 2:44-45 describes the same practice
as that in 4:32, 34-35 take the verb, formulated in the imperfect tense, as meaning
that from time to time, as there was need, they used to sell their goods; thus
K. Lake and H. J. Cadbury, Beginnings of Christianity, vol. 4 (London: Macmillan, 1933),
29; F. F. Bruce, The Acts of the Apostles: The Greek Text with Introduction and Commentary.,