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 divine title is ‘Lord’ in Scrivener and ‘God’ in SBLGNT and NA28.
Variant class
Substitution or composite variation
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
they glorified the Lord … how many thousands of Jews there are which believe
Authorized Version
“And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:” — Acts 21:20
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
they glorified God … how many thousands there are among the Jews who believe
Translation or explanation
they glorified God … how many thousands there are among the Jews who believe
Metzger’s report of the UBS committee
Metzger reports the UBS4 committee's treatment of the variation unit. The note grounds the relevant decision in a proposed mechanism of accidental omission, 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., note on Acts 21:20
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 21:20, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. Passage: Acts 21:20 Received reading: they glorified the Lord … how many thousands of Jews there are which believe Principal competing reading: they glorified God … how many thousands there are among the Jews who believe Issue class: Textual Variant Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. Retain the received wording while avoiding the claim that the critical form diminishes the number of converts.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Acts 21:20 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 21:20. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894), Acts 21:20.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
A source-level internal and transcriptional synopsis remains open; consult the full essay.
Reception and ecclesiastical use
Scrivener’s received text underlies the reading “they glorified the Lord … how many thousands of Jews there are which believe.”
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at Acts 21:20. 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 21:20 Received reading: they glorified the Lord … how many thousands of Jews there are which believe Principal competing reading: they glorified God … how many thousands there are among the Jews who believe Issue class: Textual Variant Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. Retain the received wording while avoiding the claim that the critical form diminishes the number of converts.
Conclusion
Luke does not leave Acts 21:20 isolated from its setting. Just outside the selected unit, Acts 21:19 says, “And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.” Acts 21:21 says, “And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the ….”
Retain the received wording while avoiding the claim that the critical form diminishes the number of converts.
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.
Status: Established
Immediate textual or doctrinal consequence
At Acts 21:20, the received text reads “they glorified the Lord … how many thousands of Jews there are which believe” and its Authorized Version representation reads “And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:” — Acts 21:20”. The assessed critical reading is “they glorified God … how many thousands there are among the Jews who believe”. The immediate consequence is that the critical text no longer states the received wording at this locus. 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 21:20, the received Hebrew/Greek form is “they glorified the Lord … how many thousands of Jews there are which believe”; the Authorized Version represents it as “And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:” — Acts 21:20”. The assessed critical form is “they glorified God … how many thousands there are among the Jews who believe”.
- 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 21:20, the received text reads “they glorified the Lord … how many thousands of Jews there are which believe” and its Authorized Version representation reads “And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:” — Acts 21:20”. The assessed critical reading is “they glorified God … how many thousands there are among the Jews who believe”. The immediate consequence is that the critical text no longer states the received wording at this locus. 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 21:20Current 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 21:20
Received reading: they glorified the Lord … how many thousands of Jews there are which believe
Principal competing reading: they glorified God … how many thousands there are among the Jews who believe
Issue class: Textual Variant
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
Acts 21:20 belongs in this survey because a familiar expression
changes between editions.
“And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him,
Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe;
and they are all zealous of the law:” — Acts 21:20
The divine title is ‘Lord’ in Scrivener and ‘God’ in SBLGNT and NA28.
A second change replaces the received genitive ‘thousands of Jews’ with
a prepositional expression, ‘thousands among the Jews.’ Both forms
emphasize the remarkable scale of Jewish belief.
Scrivener’s received text underlies the reading “they glorified the
Lord … how many thousands of Jews there are which believe.” The
principal competing form is “they glorified God … how many thousands
there are among the Jews who believe.”
The variation at Acts 21:20 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.
Luke does not leave Acts 21:20 isolated from its setting. Just
outside the selected unit, Acts 21:19 says, “And when he had saluted
them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the
Gentiles by his ministry.” Acts 21:21 says, “And they are informed of
thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to
forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children,
neither to walk after the ….”
Retain the received wording while avoiding the claim that the
critical form diminishes the number of converts.
Sources and further reading
- The Holy Bible, Authorized Version, Acts 21:20.
- F. H. A. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek
according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894),
Acts 21:20. - Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL
Edition, Acts 21:20 and apparatus.
7Related materials
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- Record
- VAR-2286
- 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 21:20 — “How Many Thousands of Jews There Are Which Believe”,” VAR-2286, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas