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
This long unit contains several small differences and two conspicuous shortenings: ‘gladly’ is absent from the critical form, and ‘to the church’ becomes ‘together’ or ‘to their number.’ Repentance, baptism in Jesus Christ’s name, the gift of the Holy Ghost, apostolic doctrine, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayers remain common ground.
Variant class
Omission / addition
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
they that gladly received his word … the Lord added to the church daily
Authorized Version
“Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? … Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. … Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” — Acts 2:37–47
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.
3NA28 baseline and critical-text rationale
NA28 baseline reading
those who received his word … the Lord added daily to their number
Translation or explanation
those who received his word … the Lord added daily to their number
Metzger’s report of the UBS committee
Metzger reports the UBS4 committee's treatment of 7 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 of scribal or liturgical expansion, the comparative difficulty of the readings; the printed confidence ratings represented here are {B}, {C}, {D}. 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 Acts 2:37, 2:38, 2:38, 2:42, 2:43, 2:44, 2:44
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
No UBS6 / intended NA29 main-text change is recorded for this passage in the controlled 169-change ledger.
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
Repentance, baptism in Jesus Christ’s name, the gift of the Holy Ghost, apostolic doctrine, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayers remain common ground.
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At Acts 2:37–47, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. Passage: Acts 2:37–47 Received reading: they that gladly received his word … the Lord added to the church daily Principal competing reading: those who received his word … the Lord added daily to their number Issue class: Clustered Variant Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. This long unit contains several small differences and two conspicuous shortenings: ‘gladly’ is absent from the critical form, and ‘to the church’ becomes ‘together’ or ‘to their number.’
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Acts 2:37–47 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: Repentance, baptism in Jesus Christ’s name, the gift of the Holy Ghost, apostolic doctrine, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayers remain common ground.
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
Sources and further reading The Holy Bible, Authorized Version, Acts 2:37–47. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894), Acts 2:37–47.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
A source-level internal and transcriptional synopsis remains open; consult the full essay.
Reception and ecclesiastical use
Passage: Acts 2:37–47 Received reading: they that gladly received his word … the Lord added to the church daily Principal competing reading: those who received his word … the Lord added daily to their number Issue class: Clustered Variant Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” This long unit contains several small differences and two conspicuous shortenings: ‘gladly’ is absent from the critical form, and ‘to the church’ becomes ‘together’ or ‘to their number.’
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at Acts 2:37–47. 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
Passage: Acts 2:37–47 Received reading: they that gladly received his word … the Lord added to the church daily Principal competing reading: those who received his word … the Lord added daily to their number Issue class: Clustered Variant Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. This long unit contains several small differences and two conspicuous shortenings: ‘gladly’ is absent from the critical form, and ‘to the church’ becomes ‘together’ or ‘to their number.’
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. 55–56, 56–58, 58–60
At Acts 2:41, it compares the NKJV/TR-oriented wording “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.” 54” with the ESV/critical-text wording “So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”” and associates the passage with WCF 28.3, WLC 155. At Acts 2:42, it compares the NKJV/TR-oriented wording “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” [NOTE: The TR is properly translated “and in the breaking of bread”. The NKJV, like the ESV omits the word “and”.]” with the ESV/critical-text wording “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”” and associates the passage with WCF 21.5, WLC 63, WSC 50. At Acts 2:47, it compares the NKJV/TR-oriented wording “Praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”” with the ESV/critical-text wording “Praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” 57” and associates the passage with WCF 25.2, WLC 154, WSC 88.
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
Because Acts 2:37–47 contains more than one subreading, the unit cannot be reduced to a single longer-versus-shorter slogan: each change belongs to its own clause, and a conclusion about one cannot simply be transferred to the whole paragraph.
The received close identifies the growing body as the church and should be preserved without overstating the lesser variations in the paragraph.
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.
Status: Established
Immediate textual or doctrinal consequence
At Acts 2:37–47, the received text reads “they that gladly received his word … the Lord added to the church daily” and its Authorized Version representation reads “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? … Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.…”. The assessed critical reading is “those who received his word … the Lord added daily to their number”. 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 Acts 2:37–47, the received Hebrew/Greek form is “they that gladly received his word … the Lord added to the church daily”; the Authorized Version represents it as “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? … Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the…”. The assessed critical form is “those who received his word … the Lord added daily to their number”.
- 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 Acts 2:37–47, the received text reads “they that gladly received his word … the Lord added to the church daily” and its Authorized Version representation reads “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? … Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.…”. The assessed critical reading is “those who received his word … the Lord added daily to their number”. 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
- Digital ECM — Acts 2:37–47Current 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. 55–56, 56–58, 58–60 — Westminster proof-text and translation comparison
- German Bible Society — UBS6 publications and relation to NA29Current critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
Read the full research essay and its sources
Passage: Acts 2:37–47
Received reading: they that gladly received his word … the Lord added to the church daily
Principal competing reading: those who received his word … the Lord added daily to their number
Issue class: Clustered Variant
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
“Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said
unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall
we do? … Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of
you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. … Praising God, and having favour
with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as
should be saved.” — Acts 2:37–47
Acts 2:37–47 is best examined by separating the shared narrative from
the focal reading.
This long unit contains several small differences and two conspicuous
shortenings: ‘gladly’ is absent from the critical form, and ‘to the
church’ becomes ‘together’ or ‘to their number.’ Repentance, baptism in
Jesus Christ’s name, the gift of the Holy Ghost, apostolic doctrine,
fellowship, breaking bread, and prayers remain common ground.
Scrivener’s received text underlies the reading “they that gladly
received his word … the Lord added to the church daily.” The principal
competing form is “those who received his word … the Lord added daily to
their number.”
Because Acts 2:37–47 contains more than one subreading, the unit
cannot be reduced to a single longer-versus-shorter slogan: each change
belongs to its own clause, and a conclusion about one cannot simply be
transferred to the whole paragraph.
The received close identifies the growing body as the church and
should be preserved without overstating the lesser variations in the
paragraph.
Sources and further reading
- The Holy Bible, Authorized Version, Acts 2:37–47.
- F. H. A. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek
according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894),
Acts 2:37–47. - Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL
Edition, Acts 2:37–47 and apparatus. - Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New
Testament, discussion at Acts 2:37–47.
7Related materials
Open a group to follow connected articles, books, biographies, media, research notes, variants, or downloads. Research Center relationships use permanent record IDs; external items retain their actual link.
- Record
- VAR-2211
- 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, received reading, principal SBLGNT reading, and reported NA28 alignment checked against Scrivener’s received Greek text and the official SBLGNT text and comparison 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. Authorized Version Scripture is public domain in the United States; cited editions and digital witnesses retain their stated rights and access conditions.
- Known limitations
- This staging record summarizes the defined variation unit and representative edition evidence. It is not a fresh collation of every extant manuscript, version, lectionary, patristic citation, or ECM coherence relation.
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, “Acts 2:37–47 — Repentance, Baptism, Fellowship, and Those Added to the Church,” VAR-2211, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas