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
Across Judas’s death and Matthias’s appointment, most differences are case, order, or vocabulary.
Variant class
Substitution or composite variation
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
the lot of this ministry and apostleship; he was numbered with the eleven
Authorized Version
“Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. … And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood. … And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.” — Acts 1:18–26
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 place in this ministry and apostleship; he was counted with the eleven
Translation or explanation
the place in this ministry and apostleship; he was counted with the eleven
Metzger’s report of the UBS committee
Metzger reports the UBS4 committee's treatment of 23 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, scribal harmonization to a parallel passage, the likelihood that the competing form is a scribal correction or emendation; the printed confidence ratings represented here are {A}, {B}, {D}, {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 1:18, 1:19, 1:19, 1:21, 1:23, 1:25, 1:26, 1:26, 1:18, 1:24, 1:18, 1:20, 1:18, 1:19, 1:20, 1:20, 1:22, 1:19, 1:19–20, 1:22, 1:24, 1:20, 1:21
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| NA29-002 | αὐτοῖς | αὐτῶν | A1 A1 §3 — 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
Exegetical or interpretive consequence. The record does not establish that the variant by itself removes an entire Christian doctrine; explicit wording, exegesis, and cumulative testimony must be distinguished.
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At Acts 1:18–26, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. Passage: Acts 1:18–26 Received reading: the lot of this ministry and apostleship; he was numbered with the eleven Principal competing reading: the place in this ministry and apostleship; he was counted with the eleven Issue class: Clustered Variant Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Acts 1:18–26 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: No single doctrinal proposition is directly changed; the principal consequence is exegetical, historical, or cumulative.
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 1:18–26. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894), Acts 1:18–26.
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 1:18–26. 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 1:18–26 Received reading: the lot of this ministry and apostleship; he was numbered with the eleven Principal competing reading: the place in this ministry and apostleship; he was counted with the eleven Issue class: Clustered Variant Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
Conclusion
Because Acts 1:18–26 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 account should remain whole, with the ‘lot’ wording fitting the actual means by which Matthias was designated.
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 1:18–26, the current critical revision is —: UBS6/intended NA29 “αὐτῶν”; NA28 “αὐτοῖς”. 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 1:18–26, the received Hebrew/Greek form is “the lot of this ministry and apostleship; he was numbered with the eleven”; the Authorized Version represents it as “Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. … And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of…”. The assessed critical form is “—: UBS6/intended NA29 “αὐτῶν”; NA28 “αὐτοῖς”.
- 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 1:18–26, the current critical revision is —: UBS6/intended NA29 “αὐτῶν”; NA28 “αὐτοῖς”. 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 1:18–26Current 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 1:18–26
Received reading: the lot of this ministry and apostleship; he was numbered with the eleven
Principal competing reading: the place in this ministry and apostleship; he was counted with the eleven
Issue class: Clustered Variant
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
“Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and
falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels
gushed out. … And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem;
insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that
is to say, The field of blood. … And they gave forth their lots; and the
lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.” —
Acts 1:18–26
At Acts 1:18–26, the disputed unit is smaller than the surrounding
episode.
Across Judas’s death and Matthias’s appointment, most differences are
case, order, or vocabulary. The sharpest is κλῆρον, ‘lot’ or allotted
share, against τόπον, ‘place,’ at verse 25; both accounts still place
Matthias among the eleven after prayer and casting lots.
For Acts 1:18–26, the received side may be summarized as “the lot of
this ministry and apostleship; he was numbered with the eleven.” Its
principal rival is “the place in this ministry and apostleship; he was
counted with the eleven.”
Because Acts 1:18–26 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 account should remain whole, with the ‘lot’ wording
fitting the actual means by which Matthias was designated.
Sources and further reading
- The Holy Bible, Authorized Version, Acts 1:18–26.
- F. H. A. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek
according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894),
Acts 1:18–26. - Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL
Edition, Acts 1:18–26 and apparatus. - Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New
Testament, discussion at Acts 1:18–26.
7Related materials
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- Record
- VAR-2205
- 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 1:18–26 — Judas’s Fall, His Vacant Office, and the Numbering of Matthias,” VAR-2205, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas