Complete textual-variant dossier
No adverse entailment · agrees with the received text
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
At Acts 20:21, UBS6/intended NA29 changes the NA28 main text from “Ἰησοῦν” to “Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν”; this dossier compares both forms with the TR, the Authorized Version, and the canonical context.
Variant class
Orthography / numerical notation
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
διαμαρτυρόμενος Ἰουδαίοις τε καὶ Ἕλλησι τὴν εἰς τὸν Θεὸν μετάνοιαν, καὶ πίστιν τὴν εἰς τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν.
Authorized Version
“Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” — Acts 20:21, Authorized Version
Edition note
The full verse is supplied from the project’s Scrivener 1894 received-text source. Each edition-change row separately records whether its exact unit agrees with NA28, UBS6/intended NA29, neither form, or requires address-level review.
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
NA29-021: Ἰησοῦν
Translation or explanation
The NA28 baseline contains 1 controlled unit at this verse. Square brackets and “om.” reproduce the project workbook; no bracket is silently converted into an unqualified printed reading.
Metzger’s report of the UBS committee
Metzger's second-edition commentary contains 1 earlier UBS4 note at Acts 20:21. The discussion invokes possible expansion. The entry displays confidence rating {B}. Because Metzger predates the ECM/UBS6 revision, it supplies earlier committee context rather than the reason for the new decision.
Locator: Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed., note at Acts 20:21
ECM / CBGM evidence and editors
INTF states that all 52 Acts main-text changes are discussed in its online Text-Critical Commentary and linked through the digital ECM. H. A. G. Houghton's current UBS6 commentary also covers every UBS6 apparatus unit. This record links the exact passage and the current commentary, but it does not reproduce a passage-specific editorial synopsis that was not independently extracted. CBGM calculates coherence relationships from editorially defined data; human editors establish local stemmata and make the textual and philological decision.
4UBS6 and intended NA29 revision
1 controlled main-text change row affects this verse. Relative to the TR: 1 agrees with the TR in the UBS6/intended-NA29 form. UBS6 is published as the intended NA29 main text; the complete NA29 volume and apparatus remain forthcoming.
| Unit | NA28 baseline | Published UBS6 / intended NA29 main text | Source and verification |
|---|---|---|---|
| NA29-021 | Ἰησοῦν | Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν | A1 A1 §3 — Workbook-transcribed; printed NA29 collation pending. TR comparison: The UBS6/intended-NA29 form agrees with the TR at this unit. |
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
Saving faith is directed toward the Lord Jesus Christ.
Doctrinal analysis
NA28 lacks “Christ,” while UBS6/intended NA29 restores the full title represented by the TR. The shorter wording remains orthodox, but the fuller received form makes the messianic identity explicit in Paul’s summary of his ministry.
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 20:21
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. 65–66
Textual wording marked in the source
Received/NKJV side: Christ
Critical/ESV side: NOTE
Westminster doctrines and propositions supported
WCF 15.1 — Of Repentance unto Life
Portion identified in the source as supported by this proof text:
- the doctrine whereof is to be preached by every minister of the Gospel, as well as that of faith in Christ.
WLC 153 — What doth God require of us, that we may escape his wrath and curse due to us by reason of the transgression of the law?
Portion identified in the source as supported by this proof text:
- That we may escape the wrath and curse of God due to us by reason of the transgression of the law, he requireth of us repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ,
WSC 85 — What doth God require of us, that we may escape his wrath and curse, due to us for sin?
Portion identified in the source as supported by this proof text:
- To escape the wrath and curse of God, due to us for sin, God requireth of us faith in Jesus Christ, repentance unto life,
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 20:21, the critical decision avoids arbitrariness only if the local witnesses, editorially proposed stemma, transcriptional account, intrinsic fit, and inferential step are made public. Naming the ECM or CBGM does not by itself supply that argument. The current controlled comparison is: 1 agrees with the TR in the UBS6/intended-NA29 form.
Inconsistency
The same canons must be applied at Acts 20:21 and at comparable units. A Byzantine or TR-aligned reading cannot be dismissed merely for being Byzantine when the ECM itself repeatedly adopts such readings, nor can “shorter,” “harder,” age, or coherence function as an unexplained trump only when convenient.
Consequences
Weakening of explicit biblical testimony: NA28 lacks “Christ,” while UBS6/intended NA29 restores the full title represented by the TR. The shorter wording remains orthodox, but the fuller received form makes the messianic identity explicit in Paul’s summary of his ministry. Canonical and doctrinal consequence is evidence to explain, not a shortcut that permits the desired theology to dictate the wording.
Preconditions of intelligibility
The analysis presupposes stable authorship, meaningful language, objective logic, transmissible evidence, and an identifiable canon capable of judging later reconstructions. A method that treats the text as indefinitely revisable must still explain how its appeals to authorial meaning, Scripture-wide coherence, and ecclesiastical use remain intelligible.
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
This package does not claim a fresh witness-by-witness collation for Acts 20:21. The ECM/digital ECM apparatus and commentary remain the controlling sources for the critical edition’s external evidence. The TR’s broad ecclesiastical reception is relevant evidence, but it is not used as a substitute for identifying manuscripts, versions, corrections, and genealogical relationships at the unit.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
At Acts 20:21, compare authorial morphology, agreement, spelling conventions, and ordinary scribal normalization. The analysis distinguishes a formal change from a change in propositional content.
Reception and ecclesiastical use
The Authorized Version publicly represents the received Greek text at Acts 20:21. Its long ecclesiastical use is relevant to reception and intelligibility, but this record does not turn reception into a bare majority-vote rule or exempt the verse from source-level examination.
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is treated as the confessional context for an identifiable text received in the church, not as permission to ignore variants. At Acts 20:21, the TR/AV is evaluated against the controlled edition rows, the passage, the rest of Scripture, and the available historical evidence.
Canonical coherence with the rest of Scripture
The Authorized Version’s “our Lord Jesus Christ” coheres with the recurring Pauline and Lukan apostolic title and balances “repentance toward God” with explicit faith toward Christ. UBS6/intended NA29 now restores that canonical and rhetorical fullness against the shorter NA28 form.
Canonical-coherence verdict
Authorized Version / TR coherent; the published UBS6 text now converges with it. The earlier NA28 difference no longer represents the current critical main text at Acts 20:21.
Response to the principal critical argument
The editorial outcome is recorded exactly, but the argument is not allowed to collapse into an edition label or an unexplained coherence score. At Acts 20:21, the current comparison is: 1 agrees with the TR in the UBS6/intended-NA29 form. A complete critical case must disclose the local witnesses, the proposed local stemma, the transcriptional and intrinsic reasons, and the move from those premises to the selected reading. Where that passage-specific argument has not been extracted, the record says so instead of imputing a motive.
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. 65–66
At Acts 20:21, it compares the NKJV/TR-oriented wording “Testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”” with the ESV/critical-text wording “Testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of 64 faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” [NOTE: The word “Christ” is not present in the CT, though it is included in the ESV.]” and associates the passage with WCF 15.1, WLC 153, WSC 85.
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
Retain the Authorized Version at Acts 20:21. The AV is correct at this locus because it faithfully represents the TR and that reading is coherent with the immediate context and the rest of Scripture. The published UBS6/intended-NA29 revision now agrees with the TR at the substantive unit on this card, so the current critical text is correct here precisely insofar as it has moved into that same coherent reading. The convergence should be acknowledged rather than treating NA28 as permanently synonymous with the critical text.
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.
No adverse entailment: agrees with the received text.
Necessary reasoning chain
- The current critical main-text reading assessed at Acts 20:21 agrees with the received Hebrew/Greek reading at the variation unit governed by this card.
- An adverse preservation entailment at this locus would require the current critical form to displace a different received reading.
- Because no such displacement occurs at the assessed locus, no adverse preservation consequence follows here.
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
- INTF — Online Tools for the ECM (52 Acts changes and commentary)Current 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. 65–66 — Westminster proof-text and translation comparison
- Digital ECM — Acts 20:21Current critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
Read the full research essay and its sources
Passage: Acts 20:21
Received reading: faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ
Principal competing reading: faith in our Lord Jesus
Issue class: Textual Variant
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
Scrivener includes Χριστόν along with two articles that make the
repentance-and-faith balance more explicit. SBLGNT and NA28 omit
‘Christ’; the SBL apparatus also shows that printed editions divide,
with Tregelles retaining the title. Paul pairs this faith with
repentance toward God as the twofold substance of his public and
house-to-house testimony.
“Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance
toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” — Acts 20:21
Scrivener’s received text underlies the reading “faith toward our
Lord Jesus Christ.” The principal competing form is “faith in our Lord
Jesus.”
The variation at Acts 20:21 changes emphasis or explicitness within
an otherwise recognizable account; shared words should be acknowledged
before the distinct reading is defended, and the difference should not
be enlarged beyond the clause that carries it.
The immediate sequence gives Acts 20:21 a concrete setting: Acts
20:20 says, “And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you,
but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to
house,.” Acts 20:22 says, “And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit
unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there.”
Keep the full received name in Paul’s summary of his ministry.
Sources and further reading
- The Holy Bible, Authorized Version, Acts 20:21.
- F. H. A. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek
according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894),
Acts 20:21. - Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL
Edition, Acts 20:21 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-2281
- Status
- Preliminary
- Version
- 1.2-na29-complete
- 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
- All 169 edition-change rows were reconciled to the controlled workbook and grouped into 154 canonical verse cards. TR and Authorized Version full-verse texts were attached from the project’s Scrivener/KJV sources. Row-level TR alignment is machine-assisted and manually overridden where the unit was known to require address-level judgment; printed NA29-apparatus review and independent witness collation remain open. Metzger notes are exact-verse matches to his earlier UBS4 commentary and are not represented as explanations of later ECM decisions. 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; short biblical and edition readings are cited for scholarly comparison. Source editions, photographs, and linked resources retain their stated rights.
- Known limitations
- Staging synthesis. The package records all edition changes, but it is not a new collation of every witness. A passage-specific ECM rationale is stated only when an identified official explanation was extracted; otherwise the linked commentary/apparatus remains the source to consult. Canonical coherence is asserted proportionately and no doctrinal conflict is manufactured for orthographic or equivalent forms.
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 20:21 — “Faith toward Our Lord Jesus Christ”: Does “Christ” Belong?,” VAR-2281, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.2-na29-complete.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas