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 clauses that identify Ananias’s lie to the Holy Ghost as a lie to God are common to Scrivener, SBLGNT, and NA28.
Variant class
Addition / omission
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
to lie to the Holy Ghost … thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God
Authorized Version
“But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.” — Acts 5:3–4
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
the same indictment with minor article and pronoun differences
Translation or explanation
the same indictment with minor article and pronoun differences
Metzger’s report of the UBS committee
Metzger reports the UBS4 committee's treatment of 5 variation units within this record's range. The notes ground the relevant decisions in a proposed mechanism of accidental omission, the likelihood that the competing form is a scribal correction or emendation, the likelihood of scribal or liturgical expansion; 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 Acts 5:3, 5:3, 5:4–5, 5:4, 5:4
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
Weakening of explicit biblical testimony
Exact proposition affected
The identity and divine sonship of Jesus Christ.
Doctrinal analysis
One critical form adds an article before Satan, while Byzantine forms add a pronoun after ‘keep back’; neither alters Peter’s theological equation. Present Acts 5:3–4 as a strong agreement control for the personality and deity of the Holy Ghost.
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At Acts 5:3–4, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. Passage: Acts 5:3–4 Received reading: to lie to the Holy Ghost … thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God Principal competing reading: the same indictment with minor article and pronoun differences Issue class: Agreement / Minor Variation Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. One critical form adds an article before Satan, while Byzantine forms add a pronoun after ‘keep back’; neither alters Peter’s theological equation. Agreement at Acts 5:3–4 is not filler in a complete survey: it establishes that the focal claim remains available in both governing Greek controls and tests any allegation that modern editions weaken this particular passage; here they do not.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Acts 5:3–4 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
Weakening of explicit biblical testimony: One critical form adds an article before Satan, while Byzantine forms add a pronoun after ‘keep back’; neither alters Peter’s theological equation. Present Acts 5:3–4 as a strong agreement control for the personality and deity of the Holy Ghost.
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 5:3–4. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894), Acts 5:3–4.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
A source-level internal and transcriptional synopsis remains open; consult the full essay.
Reception and ecclesiastical use
The received reading and its ecclesiastical use require passage-specific documentation; the age of a witness and the age of a reading must not be confused.
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at Acts 5:3–4. 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 5:3–4 Received reading: to lie to the Holy Ghost … thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God Principal competing reading: the same indictment with minor article and pronoun differences Issue class: Agreement / Minor Variation Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. One critical form adds an article before Satan, while Byzantine forms add a pronoun after ‘keep back’; neither alters Peter’s theological equation. Agreement at Acts 5:3–4 is not filler in a complete survey: it establishes that the focal claim remains available in both governing Greek controls and tests any allegation that modern editions weaken this particular passage; here they do not.
Conclusion
Agreement at Acts 5:3–4 is not filler in a complete survey: it establishes that the focal claim remains available in both governing Greek controls and tests any allegation that modern editions weaken this particular passage; here they do not.
Present Acts 5:3–4 as a strong agreement control for the personality and deity of the Holy Ghost.
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 Acts 5:3–4, the received text reads “to lie to the Holy Ghost … thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God” and its Authorized Version representation reads “But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.” — Acts 5:3–4”. The assessed critical reading is “the same indictment with minor article and pronoun differences”. The immediate consequence is that the critical text no longer states the received wording at this locus. The card classifies the change as a weakening of explicit biblical testimony, not by itself as a formal denial of the larger doctrine.
Necessary reasoning chain
- At Acts 5:3–4, the received Hebrew/Greek form is “to lie to the Holy Ghost … thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God”; the Authorized Version represents it as “But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart?…”. The assessed critical form is “the same indictment with minor article and pronoun differences”.
- 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 5:3–4, the received text reads “to lie to the Holy Ghost … thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God” and its Authorized Version representation reads “But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.” — Acts 5:3–4”. The assessed critical reading is “the same indictment with minor article and pronoun differences”. The immediate consequence is that the critical text no longer states the received wording at this locus. The card classifies the change as a weakening of explicit biblical testimony, not by itself as a formal denial of the larger doctrine.
- 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 5:3–4Current critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
- German Bible Society — UBS6 publications and relation to NA29Current critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
- 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: Acts 5:3–4
Received reading: to lie to the Holy Ghost … thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God
Principal competing reading: the same indictment with minor article and pronoun differences
Issue class: Agreement / Minor Variation
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
The question at Acts 5:3–4 is limited, but it is real.
“But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to
the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles
it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in
thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou
hast not lied unto men, but unto God.” — Acts 5:3–4
The clauses that identify Ananias’s lie to the Holy Ghost as a lie to
God are common to Scrivener, SBLGNT, and NA28. One critical form adds an
article before Satan, while Byzantine forms add a pronoun after ‘keep
back’; neither alters Peter’s theological equation.
For Acts 5:3–4, the received side may be summarized as “to lie to the
Holy Ghost … thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.” Its principal
rival is “the same indictment with minor article and pronoun
differences.”
Agreement at Acts 5:3–4 is not filler in a complete survey: it
establishes that the focal claim remains available in both governing
Greek controls and tests any allegation that modern editions weaken this
particular passage; here they do not.
Present Acts 5:3–4 as a strong agreement control for the personality
and deity of the Holy Ghost.
Sources and further reading
- The Holy Bible, Authorized Version, Acts 5:3–4.
- F. H. A. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek
according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894),
Acts 5:3–4. - Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL
Edition, Acts 5:3–4 and apparatus.
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-2220
- 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.
- 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 5:3–4 — Lying to the Holy Ghost and Lying to God: Variants in Peter’s Indictment,” VAR-2220, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas