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 received text repeats the council’s ruling with an explicit negative: Gentile believers need observe no such law-keeping demand, except the stated prohibitions.
Variant class
Omission / addition
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves
Authorized Version
“As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.” — Acts 21:25
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
we sent our judgment that they keep themselves
Translation or explanation
we sent our judgment that they keep themselves
Metzger’s report of the UBS committee
Metzger reports the UBS4 committee's treatment of 3 variation units within this record's range. The notes ground the relevant decisions in the weight and distribution of external attestation, the likelihood of scribal or liturgical expansion, the comparative difficulty of the readings; 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 21:25, 21:25, 21:25
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
The omission at Acts 21:25 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.
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At Acts 21:25, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. Passage: Acts 21:25 Received reading: we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves Principal competing reading: we sent our judgment that they keep themselves Issue class: Clause Omission Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. In the competing textual or editorial form, the line is “we sent our judgment that they keep themselves.”
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Acts 21:25 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: The omission at Acts 21:25 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
— Acts 21:25 The Authorized Version presents Acts 21:25 as “we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves.” Sources and further reading The Holy Bible, Authorized Version, Acts 21:25. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894), Acts 21:25.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
Passage: Acts 21:25 Received reading: we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves Principal competing reading: we sent our judgment that they keep themselves Issue class: Clause Omission Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. The omission at Acts 21:25 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 text repeats the council’s ruling with an explicit negative: Gentile believers need observe no such law-keeping demand, except the stated prohibitions.
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at Acts 21:25. 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 21:25 Received reading: we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves Principal competing reading: we sent our judgment that they keep themselves Issue class: Clause Omission Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. In the competing textual or editorial form, the line is “we sent our judgment that they keep themselves.”
Conclusion
Read in place, Acts 21:25 stands beside stable narrative statements: Acts 21:24 says, “Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; ….” Acts 21:26 says, “Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for ….”
Keep the received contrast because it distinguishes freedom from the ceremonial yoke from obedience to the council’s necessary restrictions.
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 21:25, the received text reads “we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves” and its Authorized Version representation reads “As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.” — Acts 21:25”. The assessed critical reading is “we sent our judgment that they keep themselves”. 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 21:25, the received Hebrew/Greek form is “we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves”; the Authorized Version represents it as “As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.” — Acts 21:25”. The assessed critical form is “we sent our judgment that they keep themselves”.
- 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 21:25, the received text reads “we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves” and its Authorized Version representation reads “As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.” — Acts 21:25”. The assessed critical reading is “we sent our judgment that they keep themselves”. 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 21:25Current 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 21:25
Received reading: we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves
Principal competing reading: we sent our judgment that they keep themselves
Issue class: Clause Omission
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
The received text repeats the council’s ruling with an explicit
negative: Gentile believers need observe no such law-keeping demand,
except the stated prohibitions. SBLGNT and NA28 omit that explanatory
clause and proceed directly to the list.
“As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and
concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep
themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from
strangled, and from fornication.” — Acts 21:25
The Authorized Version presents Acts 21:25 as “we have written and
concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep
themselves.” In the competing textual or editorial form, the line is “we
sent our judgment that they keep themselves.”
The omission at Acts 21:25 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.
Read in place, Acts 21:25 stands beside stable narrative statements:
Acts 21:24 says, “Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at
charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know
that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are
nothing; ….” Acts 21:26 says, “Then Paul took the men, and the next day
purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the
accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering
should be offered for ….”
Keep the received contrast because it distinguishes freedom from the
ceremonial yoke from obedience to the council’s necessary
restrictions.
Sources and further reading
- The Holy Bible, Authorized Version, Acts 21:25.
- F. H. A. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek
according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894),
Acts 21:25. - Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL
Edition, Acts 21:25 and apparatus. - Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New
Testament, discussion at Acts 21:25.
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-2287
- 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 21:25 — The Apostolic Decree Repeated: Which Prohibitions Belong?,” VAR-2287, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas