Complete textual-variant dossier
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 lexical question concerns συναλιζόμενος.
Variant class
Punctuation
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
being assembled together with them
Authorized Version
“And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.” — Acts 1:4
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.
3NA28 baseline and critical-text rationale
NA28 baseline reading
the same verb without ‘with them’; the verb has also been rendered ‘eating with them’
Translation or explanation
the same verb without ‘with them’; the verb has also been rendered ‘eating with them’
Metzger’s report of the UBS committee
Metzger reports the UBS4 committee's treatment of 8 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 rating represented here is {B}. 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 1:4, 1:4, 1:4, 1:4, 1:4, 1:4, 1:4, 1:4
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
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 1:4, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. Passage: Acts 1:4 Received reading: being assembled together with them Principal competing reading: the same verb without ‘with them’; the verb has also been rendered ‘eating with them’ Issue class: Translation / Lexical Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Acts 1:4 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
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
For Acts 1:4, a textual conclusion cannot by itself settle every English or syntactical choice: the Greek form and its possible constructions must first be identified, and the eventual rendering must be defended from grammar and context rather than counted as a manuscript omission. Retain the Authorized Version’s contextual rendering and the received phrase without pretending that a different Greek verb stands behind ‘eating.’ Sources and further reading The Holy Bible, Authorized Version, Acts 1:4.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
Its ordinary contextual force is gathering or associating together; the received addition ‘with them’ makes that relation explicit, whereas the culinary proposal depends on a disputed etymological association with salt. For Acts 1:4, a textual conclusion cannot by itself settle every English or syntactical choice: the Greek form and its possible constructions must first be identified, and the eventual rendering must be defended from grammar and context rather than counted as a manuscript omission. Retain the Authorized Version’s contextual rendering and the received phrase without pretending that a different Greek verb stands behind ‘eating.’
Reception and ecclesiastical use
Scrivener’s received text underlies the reading “being assembled together with them.”
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at Acts 1:4. 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 1:4 Received reading: being assembled together with them Principal competing reading: the same verb without ‘with them’; the verb has also been rendered ‘eating with them’ Issue class: Translation / Lexical Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
Conclusion
The immediate sequence gives Acts 1:4 a concrete setting: Acts 1:3 says, “To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” Acts 1:5 says, “For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.”
Retain the Authorized Version’s contextual rendering and the received phrase without pretending that a different Greek verb stands behind ‘eating.’
Read the full research essay and its sources
Passage: Acts 1:4
Received reading: being assembled together with them
Principal competing reading: the same verb without ‘with them’; the verb has also been rendered ‘eating with them’
Issue class: Translation / Lexical
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
“And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they
should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the
Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.” — Acts 1:4
The lexical question concerns συναλιζόμενος. Its ordinary contextual
force is gathering or associating together; the received addition ‘with
them’ makes that relation explicit, whereas the culinary proposal
depends on a disputed etymological association with salt.
Scrivener’s received text underlies the reading “being assembled
together with them.” The principal competing form is “the same verb
without ‘with them’; the verb has also been rendered ‘eating with
them’.”
For Acts 1:4, a textual conclusion cannot by itself settle every
English or syntactical choice: the Greek form and its possible
constructions must first be identified, and the eventual rendering must
be defended from grammar and context rather than counted as a manuscript
omission.
The immediate sequence gives Acts 1:4 a concrete setting: Acts 1:3
says, “To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many
infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the
things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” Acts 1:5 says, “For John truly
baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not
many days hence.”
Retain the Authorized Version’s contextual rendering and the received
phrase without pretending that a different Greek verb stands behind
‘eating.’
Sources and further reading
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-2201
- 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 1:4 — Assembled with Them or Eating with Them? The Meaning of *Synalizomenos*,” VAR-2201, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas