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
Scrivener explicitly names ‘those around Paul’ and uses a third-person verb before the narration returns to ‘we.’ The critical form omits the identifying clause and keeps the journey consistently in the first person plural.
Variant class
Omission / addition
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
the next day we that were of Paul’s company departed, and came unto Caesarea
Authorized Version
“And the next day we that were of Paul’s company departed, and came unto Caesarea: and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven; and abode with him.” — Acts 21:8
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 next day we departed and came to Caesarea
Translation or explanation
the next day we departed and came to Caesarea
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 the weight and distribution of external attestation, the likelihood of scribal or liturgical expansion; the printed confidence rating represented here is {A}. 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 21:8
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
Acts 21:9 says, “And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.”
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At Acts 21:8, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. Passage: Acts 21:8 Received reading: the next day we that were of Paul’s company departed, and came unto Caesarea Principal competing reading: the next day we departed and came to Caesarea Issue class: Textual Variant Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. The critical form omits the identifying clause and keeps the journey consistently in the first person plural.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Acts 21:8 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: Acts 21:9 says, “And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.”
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 21:8. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894), Acts 21:8.
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 21:8. 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 21:8 Received reading: the next day we that were of Paul’s company departed, and came unto Caesarea Principal competing reading: the next day we departed and came to Caesarea Issue class: Textual Variant Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. The critical form omits the identifying clause and keeps the journey consistently in the first person plural.
Conclusion
The immediate sequence gives Acts 21:8 a concrete setting: Acts 21:7 says, “And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren, and abode with them one day.” Acts 21:9 says, “And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.”
Preserve the received identification; its shift of person is understandable as Luke naming the traveling company before including himself within it.
Read the full research essay and its sources
Passage: Acts 21:8
Received reading: the next day we that were of Paul’s company departed, and came unto Caesarea
Principal competing reading: the next day we departed and came to Caesarea
Issue class: Textual Variant
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
“And the next day we that were of Paul’s company departed, and came
unto Caesarea: and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist,
which was one of the seven; and abode with him.” — Acts 21:8
Scrivener explicitly names ‘those around Paul’ and uses a
third-person verb before the narration returns to ‘we.’ The critical
form omits the identifying clause and keeps the journey consistently in
the first person plural.
For Acts 21:8, the received side may be summarized as “the next day
we that were of Paul’s company departed, and came unto Caesarea.” Its
principal rival is “the next day we departed and came to Caesarea.”
The variation at Acts 21:8 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 21:8 a concrete setting: Acts 21:7
says, “And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to
Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren, and abode with them one day.” Acts
21:9 says, “And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did
prophesy.”
Preserve the received identification; its shift of person is
understandable as Luke naming the traveling company before including
himself within it.
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-2285
- 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 21:8 — “We That Were of Paul’s Company”: Does the Identifying Clause Belong?,” VAR-2285, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas