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
Scrivener closes James’s citation with a complete sentence affirming God’s eternal knowledge of all his works.
Variant class
Omission / addition
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world
Authorized Version
“After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.” — Acts 15:16–18
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 Lord, who makes these things known from of old
Translation or explanation
the Lord, who makes these things known from of old
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, the likelihood that the competing form is a scribal correction or emendation, the likelihood of scribal or liturgical expansion, authorial usage, grammar, or immediate context; 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 15:16, 15:18
ECM / CBGM evidence and editors
The controlled ledger records an ECM-derived change now present in the published UBS6 text and intended NA29 main text. A passage-specific reason must come from an identified editorial commentary or the local ECM evidence; none is inferred here. In the CBGM workflow, editors define the variation units and local stemmata, while the tools calculate pre-genealogical, genealogical, and stemmatic coherence. Editors then make the textual and philological judgment.
4UBS6 and intended NA29 revision
1 ECM-derived main-text change is recorded for this passage in the controlled 169-change ledger. The published UBS6 Greek text is the intended NA29 main text.
| Unit | NA28 baseline | Published UBS6 / intended NA29 main text | Source and verification |
|---|---|---|---|
| NA29-041 | om. | ὁ | A1 A1 §4 — Workbook-transcribed; printed NA29 collation pending |
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
— Acts 15:16–18 The omission at Acts 15:16–18 must be measured by its actual extent: it changes a stated detail in the episode although broader doctrines may remain elsewhere, a distinction that neither minimizes the missing words nor assigns them consequences they cannot carry.
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 listActs 15:18
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. 63
Textual wording marked in the source
Received/NKJV side: Known to God from eternity are all His works
Westminster doctrines and propositions supported
WCF 2.2 — Of God, and of the Holy Trinity
Portion identified in the source as supported by this proof text:
- so as nothing is to Him contingent, or uncertain.
WCF 3.2 — Of God's Eternal Decree
Portion identified in the source as supported by this proof text:
- Although God knows whatsoever may or can come to pass upon all supposed conditions
WCF 5.1 — Of Providence
Portion identified in the source as supported by this proof text:
- according to His infallible foreknowledge
WLC 6 — What do the Scriptures make known of God?
Portion identified in the source as supported by this proof text:
- What do the Scriptures make known of God?
- his decrees Source marks this portion as relying only on this cited proof text
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 Acts 15:16–18, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. Passage: Acts 15:16–18 Received reading: Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world Principal competing reading: the Lord, who makes these things known from of old Issue class: Sentence Omission Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Acts 15:16–18 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: — Acts 15:16–18 The omission at Acts 15:16–18 must be measured by its actual extent: it changes a stated detail in the episode although broader doctrines may remain elsewhere, a distinction that neither minimizes the missing words nor assigns them consequences they cannot carry.
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 15:16–18. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894), Acts 15:16–18.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
Passage: Acts 15:16–18 Received reading: Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world Principal competing reading: the Lord, who makes these things known from of old Issue class: Sentence Omission Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. — Acts 15:16–18 The omission at Acts 15:16–18 must be measured by its actual extent: it changes a stated detail in the episode although broader doctrines may remain elsewhere, a distinction that neither minimizes the missing words nor assigns them consequences they cannot carry.
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 15:16–18. 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 15:16–18 Received reading: Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world Principal competing reading: the Lord, who makes these things known from of old Issue class: Sentence Omission Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
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. 63
At Acts 15:18, it compares the NKJV/TR-oriented wording “Known to God from eternity are all His works.”” with the ESV/critical-text wording “known from of old.”” and associates the passage with WCF 2.2, WLC 6.
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
The neighboring verses keep the Acts 15:16–18 question tied to the episode: Acts 15:15 says, “And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,.” Acts 15:19 says, “Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God.”
Retain the received sentence; it gives a fitting providential ground for recognizing the Gentile mission as no surprise to God.
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 15:16–18, the current critical revision is —: UBS6/intended NA29 “ὁ”; NA28 “om.”. At least one resulting unit does not agree with the received text. 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 15:16–18, the received Hebrew/Greek form is “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world”; the Authorized Version represents it as “After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these…”. The assessed critical form is “—: UBS6/intended NA29 “ὁ”; NA28 “om.”.
- 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 15:16–18, the current critical revision is —: UBS6/intended NA29 “ὁ”; NA28 “om.”. At least one resulting unit does not agree with the received text. 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 15:16–18Current 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. 63 — 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 15:16–18
Received reading: Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world
Principal competing reading: the Lord, who makes these things known from of old
Issue class: Sentence Omission
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
Scrivener closes James’s citation with a complete sentence affirming
God’s eternal knowledge of all his works. SBLGNT and NA28 omit ἐστιν τῷ
θεῷ πάντα τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ and attach ‘known from of old’ to the Lord’s act
in the preceding line.
For Acts 15:16–18, the received side may be summarized as “Known unto
God are all his works from the beginning of the world.” Its principal
rival is “the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.”
“After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of
David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof,
and I will set it up: That the residue of men might seek after the Lord,
and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who
doeth all these things. Known unto God are all his works from the
beginning of the world.” — Acts 15:16–18
The omission at Acts 15:16–18 must be measured by its actual extent:
it changes a stated detail in the episode although broader doctrines may
remain elsewhere, a distinction that neither minimizes the missing words
nor assigns them consequences they cannot carry.
The neighboring verses keep the Acts 15:16–18 question tied to the
episode: Acts 15:15 says, “And to this agree the words of the prophets;
as it is written,.” Acts 15:19 says, “Wherefore my sentence is, that we
trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God.”
Retain the received sentence; it gives a fitting providential ground
for recognizing the Gentile mission as no surprise to God.
Sources and further reading
- The Holy Bible, Authorized Version, Acts 15:16–18.
- F. H. A. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek
according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894),
Acts 15:16–18. - Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL
Edition, Acts 15:16–18 and apparatus. - Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New
Testament, discussion at Acts 15:16–18.
7Related materials
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- Record
- VAR-2260
- 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 15:16–18 — “Known unto God Are All His Works”: Is the Closing Sentence Authentic?,” VAR-2260, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas