Complete textual-variant dossier
Adverse entailment established
Sections distinguish readings, edition history, evidence, theological consequences, and the Research Center's evaluation. CBGM is an analytical tool; editorial committees—not the software—make textual decisions.
1Passage and issue
Passage
Issue
The received prayer speaks of persons given to the Son and of those who shall believe; the critical forms can make the Father’s name the gift and use a present participle for future believers.
Variant class
Substitution or composite variation
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
“Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me … them that thou gavest me I have kept … them also which shall believe.”
Authorized Version
The Authorized Version rendering has not yet been entered in the structured field.
Edition note
The Research Center uses the received Greek text underlying the Authorized Version as its baseline; edition-specific differences are recorded when the variation unit requires them.
Historical annotation witness
Erasmus’s Annotationes
Erasmus’s printed Greek text, his Latin annotation, and the Research Center’s evaluation are distinct evidence. Each edition remains separately identified because Erasmus revised the Annotationes across his five editions.
Not yet assessed. No inference about Erasmus’s silence has been made. A Latin annotation and translation will appear here only after an edition and exact locus have been verified.
The Erasmus annotation audit has not yet been completed for this locus. Do not infer from this status that Erasmus was silent.
Westminster and Dutch annotation witnesses
Westminster Annotations
Not yet assessed. No inference from silence is made.
Dutch Annotations
Not yet assessed. No inference from silence is made.
3NA28 baseline and critical-text rationale
NA28 baseline reading
“Keep them in your name, which you have given me … those who believe through their word.”
Translation or explanation
“Keep them in your name, which you have given me … those who believe through their word.”
Metzger’s report of the UBS committee
Metzger reports the UBS4 committee's treatment of 2 variation units within this record's range. The notes ground the relevant decisions in the weight and distribution of external attestation, a proposed mechanism of accidental omission, the likelihood that the competing form is a scribal correction or emendation, the comparative difficulty of the readings; the printed confidence rating represented here is {C}. This is a controlled synopsis rather than a quotation.
Locator: Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed., notes on John 17:11, 17:12
ECM / CBGM evidence and editors
No passage-specific ECM/CBGM editorial explanation is attached to this record. Official method sources describe the CBGM as a set of coherence procedures, not a decision-maker: editors define variation units and local stemmata and evaluate pre-genealogical, genealogical, and stemmatic coherence together with transcriptional, intrinsic, and other philological evidence.
4UBS6 and intended NA29 revision
UBS6 retains the NA28 / UBS5 Greek main-text wording in John, so no main-text change is shown for this passage. The separate project ledger covers Acts, Mark, and Revelation.
No change row is attached to this passage.
UBS6 is published, and the German Bible Society identifies its Greek main text as identical to the intended NA29 main text. The complete NA29 volume and its apparatus remain forthcoming. Project-ledger rows retain their source and verification statements until they are checked against the published UBS6 text and, when available, the NA29 apparatus.
5Doctrinal and four-point analysis
Effect class
Exegetical or interpretive consequence
Exact proposition affected
No single doctrinal proposition is directly changed; the principal consequence is exegetical, historical, or cumulative.
Doctrinal analysis
Neither can be rejected merely because its theology is unfamiliar.
Controlled source-list matches
Doctrinal significance and Westminster use
This passage is listed in one or both controlling research files. Their claims are reported with exact source identity and confessional use; list membership does not by itself establish the original reading or the Research Center’s final entailment.
Westminster proof-text listJohn 17:11
A List of Omissions and Changes Found in the Critical Text to Verses Used as Proof Texts in the Westminster Standards
Seth Stark — supplied source file pp. 53
Textual wording marked in the source
Received/NKJV side: those whom
Critical/ESV side: which
Westminster doctrines and propositions supported
WCF 17.2 — Of the Perseverance of the Saints
Portion identified in the source as supported by this proof text:
- upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ
Editorial qualification: This establishes a confessional proof-text and reception connection. It does not by itself establish the original reading, and its English-version comparison must be checked against the Greek variation unit.
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At John 17:11–12, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. The critical wording emphasizes the revealed divine name within which they are guarded.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at John 17:11–12 must be applied to comparable readings as well. A principle such as age, difficulty, brevity, or coherence cannot be decisive here and quietly reversed elsewhere merely to escape a historical, grammatical, or theological difficulty.
Consequences
Exegetical or interpretive consequence: Neither can be rejected merely because its theology is unfamiliar.
Preconditions of intelligibility
The argument presupposes stable authorship, meaningful language, objective logical norms, transmissible evidence, and a coherent account of how Scripture can be received and identified by the church. The analysis tests whether the method can make those conditions intelligible without reducing the text to an indefinitely revisable editorial construct.
This framework examines an argument and its conditions; it does not claim to read an editor's private motives.
6Argument for the received reading
External and historical evidence
A source-level external-evidence synopsis remains open; consult the full essay and cited apparatus.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
In verses 11 and 12, one letter and one grammatical number change the object described as given. Yet difficulty may arise from confusion between short relative forms, and the surrounding references to the given disciples can draw a copyist toward the plural. The SBLGNT has a present participle, literally “those believing,” which can still denote the class of future believers in context.
Reception and ecclesiastical use
The received text has the plural relative hous: “those whom thou hast given me.”
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at John 17:11–12. It supplies the confessional context in which manuscript transmission, broad reception, and the church's actual possession of Scripture are evaluated together.
Canonical coherence with the rest of Scripture
Canonical coherence remains an explicit test: a proposed reading must make grammatical and theological sense within the immediate context and the rest of Scripture. No conflict is asserted merely because two editions differ; the claimed incoherence must be demonstrated at this passage.
Canonical-coherence verdict
The Authorized Version is retained where its representation of the TR forms a coherent reading within the immediate context and the rest of Scripture. Any competing form must demonstrate an equal or better canonical fit rather than merely invoke an edition or method label.
Response to the principal critical argument
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. The critical wording emphasizes the revealed divine name within which they are guarded.
Passage-specific evidence from consulted works
Core 0.6.3 supplied-source audit complete: 1 passage-specific note attached. Incidental citations and global-method sources are retained in the audit report rather than presented as local textual evidence.
A List of Omissions and Changes Found in the Critical Text to Verses Used as Proof Texts in the Westminster StandardsWestminster proof-text and translation comparison
Seth Stark — supplied PDF pp. 53
At John 17:11, it compares the NKJV/TR-oriented wording “Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.”” with the ESV/critical-text wording “And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.”” and associates the passage with WCF 17.2.
Editorial use: This establishes a confessional proof-text and reception connection. It does not by itself establish the original reading, and its English-version comparison must be checked against the Greek variation unit.
Conclusion
Verse 20 widens the prayer. Scrivener uses a future participle, “those who shall believe on me through their word.” The SBLGNT has a present participle, literally “those believing,” which can still denote the class of future believers in context. The difference in aspect should not be turned into a dispute over whether later Christians are included; Jesus expressly looks beyond the immediate circle in either form.
The received cluster should be preserved. It keeps the personal gift explicit in verses 11–12 and marks the future reach of apostolic testimony in verse 20. The prayer’s unity is not abstract: the Father guards people given to the Son, and their inspired word becomes the means by which others come to faith.
Logical entailment
The Authorized Version serves as the faithful English representation. The preservation claim applies immediately to the authentic Hebrew and Greek texts—not to an English translation as though it were the inspired source.
Canonical-status rule: Physical printing is not canonical inclusion. If an edition prints a passage in double brackets while judging it secondary or non-original, it disagrees with the received text concerning the identity and extent of inspired Scripture.
Status: Established
Immediate textual or doctrinal consequence
At John 17:11–12, the received text reads “Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me … them that thou gavest me I have kept … them also which shall believe.” and its Authorized Version representation reads . The assessed critical reading is “Keep them in your name, which you have given me … those who believe through their word.”. The immediate consequence is that the critical text no longer states the received wording at this locus. The immediate local effect is exegetical or interpretive; this argument does not claim that a distinct Christian doctrine disappears from the verse.
Necessary reasoning chain
- At John 17:11–12, the received Hebrew/Greek form is “Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me … them that thou gavest me I have kept … them also which shall believe.”; the Authorized Version represents it as . The assessed critical form is “Keep them in your name, which you have given me … those who believe through their word.”.
- The received and critical forms are not the same at this locus. Therefore, if the competing critical form is original, the received form is secondary rather than the authentic wording at this place. The immediate consequence is: At John 17:11–12, the received text reads “Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me … them that thou gavest me I have kept … them also which shall believe.” and its Authorized Version representation reads . The assessed critical reading is “Keep them in your name, which you have given me … those who believe through their word.”. The immediate consequence is that the critical text no longer states the received wording at this locus. The immediate local effect is exegetical or interpretive; this argument does not claim that a distinct Christian doctrine disappears from the verse.
- If the received form at this place is secondary rather than original, then the authentic Hebrew/Greek text was not kept pure at this place in the received textual tradition; therefore the unqualified confessional preservation claim must be denied or redefined.
Ultimate preservation consequence
If the competing reading is original and the received reading is secondary, then God did not preserve and keep pure the authentic text at this place in the received textual tradition. The unqualified confessional claim that Scripture was kept pure in all ages must therefore be denied or redefined.
Sources
- Westminster Confession of Faith (1647)Chapter 1, section 8 — Governing confessional preservation claim
- F. H. A. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text followed in the Authorized VersionReceived Greek reading
- German Bible Society — UBS6 publications and relation to NA29Current critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
- A List of Omissions and Changes Found in the Critical Text to Verses Used as Proof Texts in the Westminster Standardssupplied PDF pp. 53 — Westminster proof-text and translation comparison
- German Bible Society — The Sixth Edition of the Greek New TestamentCurrent critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
Read the full research essay and its sources
Passage: John 17:11–12, 20
Received reading: “Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me … them that thou gavest me I have kept … them also which shall believe.”
Principal competing reading: “Keep them in your name, which you have given me … those who believe through their word.”
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
In verses 11 and 12, one letter and one grammatical number change the
object described as given. The received text has the plural relative
hous: “those whom thou hast given me.” The SBLGNT reads the
singular neuter or dative form hō, naturally attached to
“name”: “keep them in your name, which you have given me.”
Both ideas occur in John. The Father repeatedly gives people to the
Son, and the Son manifests the Father’s name. The received wording
emphasizes the disciples as the Father’s gift and Christ’s keeping of
them. The critical wording emphasizes the revealed divine name within
which they are guarded. Neither can be rejected merely because its
theology is unfamiliar.
The plural enjoys an immediate chain of personal pronouns: “keep them
… those whom thou hast given me … I kept them … none of them is lost.”
The singular construction is more difficult and could have been
smoothed. Yet difficulty may arise from confusion between short relative
forms, and the surrounding references to the given disciples can draw a
copyist toward the plural.
Verse 20 widens the prayer. Scrivener uses a future participle,
“those who shall believe on me through their word.” The SBLGNT has a
present participle, literally “those believing,” which can still denote
the class of future believers in context. The difference in aspect
should not be turned into a dispute over whether later Christians are
included; Jesus expressly looks beyond the immediate circle in either
form.
The received cluster should be preserved. It keeps the personal gift
explicit in verses 11–12 and marks the future reach of apostolic
testimony in verse 20. The prayer’s unity is not abstract: the Father
guards people given to the Son, and their inspired word becomes the
means by which others come to faith.
Sources and further reading
- John 6:37–40; 10:27–30; 17:6–26.
- Scrivener, John 17:11–12, 20.
- SBLGNT apparatus at John 17:11–12 and text at 17:20.
7Related materials
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- Record
- VAR-2194
- Status
- Preliminary
- Version
- 1.1-dossier
- Review
- Level B — Editorial synthesis
- Editor
- Chris Thomas
- Reviewer
- Independent reviewer pending assignment
- First date
- 1st century · Date Range
- Last revised
- 2026-07-22
Evidence and editorial controls
- Verification
- Passage, principal readings, and stated editorial comparison checked against Scrivener’s received Greek text and the current SBLGNT text and apparatus; exhaustive manuscript collation remains open. Metzger commentary entries were matched by exact passage where present; ECM/CBGM rationale is passage-specific only when an official editorial explanation is cited. Ledger rows are identified as UBS6 / intended NA29 data but retain their row-level verification caveats pending direct collation. Supplied-source audit completed in Core 0.6.3. Accepted local notes were matched by canonical passage and manually bounded; source claims remain attributed where current apparatus verification is pending.
- Rights and access
- Original editorial synthesis. Biblical readings are short scholarly quotations; cited editions and digital witnesses retain their stated rights and access conditions.
- Known limitations
- This staging record summarizes the principal variation unit and representative evidence. It is not a fresh collation of every extant manuscript, version, lectionary, or patristic citation.
Links from this record
No public outgoing links are recorded.
Records that cite or connect here
No public backlinks are recorded.
Corrections and evidence submissions
No correction submission is presently attached to this record. Submit evidence or read the correction policy.
Chris Thomas, “John 17:11–12, 20 — Those Given to the Son and Those Who Shall Believe through Their Word,” VAR-2194, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas