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Split a/c
GC: There is a coherent majority attestation with a broad A-related basis for a. The A-related part of the c-attestation is much smaller, but it comprises the four witnesses most closely related to A (03, P74, 02, 01). If we set IR=?, however, 1739 appears at the top of the TFD for a, while the c attestation shows three strands where the A-related strand is led by 03.
TP: Phrases about the laying on of hands normally have the article in the NT.[1] So there is a trend that may have been picked up by the mainstream tradition at an early stage.[2] The b attestation, however, is incoherent and its most prominent witness, 03, is once again devalued by its known tendency to favor a shorter text.
[1] The phrase occurs at twenty places in the NT, only three of which do not have the article (Mk 16:18, 1Tim 5:22 and now Acts 9:12 where, as in the present passage, the article is in square brackets in NA26-28/UBS3-5).
[2] Where it agrees with A, 1739 usually marks the link of the Byzantine tradition to A. Where 1739 differs from A, it often marks the point where the mainstream diverges from earlier layers of transmission.
