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
Acts 24:15
Issue
The main critical form omits νεκρῶν, ‘of the dead.’ Resurrection already implies the dead, but Scrivener states the object and then divides that raised company into just and unjust.
Variant class
Omission / addition
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust
Authorized Version
“And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.” — Acts 24:15
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
there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust
Translation or explanation
there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust
Metzger / 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 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 24:15
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
Weakening of explicit biblical testimony
Exact proposition affected
The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Doctrinal analysis
Passage: Acts 24:15 Received reading: there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust Principal competing reading: there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust Issue class: Textual Variant Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. In received form, Luke’s words are represented by “there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.” The critical or alternative presentation reads “there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.”
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At Acts 24:15, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. Passage: Acts 24:15 Received reading: there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust Principal competing reading: there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust Issue class: Textual Variant Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. The critical or alternative presentation reads “there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.” — Acts 24:15 The main critical form omits νεκρῶν, ‘of the dead.’
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Acts 24:15 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
Weakening of explicit biblical testimony: Passage: Acts 24:15 Received reading: there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust Principal competing reading: there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust Issue class: Textual Variant Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. In received form, Luke’s words are represented by “there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.” The critical or alternative presentation reads “there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.”
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 24:15. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894), Acts 24:15.
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 24:15. It supplies the confessional context in which manuscript transmission, broad reception, and the church's actual possession of Scripture are evaluated together.
Response to the principal critical argument
Passage: Acts 24:15 Received reading: there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust Principal competing reading: there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust Issue class: Textual Variant Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. The critical or alternative presentation reads “there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.” — Acts 24:15 The main critical form omits νεκρῶν, ‘of the dead.’
Conclusion
Luke does not leave Acts 24:15 isolated from its setting. Just outside the selected unit, Acts 24:14 says, “But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the ….” Acts 24:16 says, “And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.”
Retain ‘of the dead’ as the received completeness of Paul’s confession before Felix.
Read the full research essay and its sources
Passage: Acts 24:15
Received reading: there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust
Principal competing reading: there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust
Issue class: Textual Variant
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
In received form, Luke’s words are represented by “there shall be a
resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.” The critical or
alternative presentation reads “there will be a resurrection of both the
just and the unjust.”
“And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that
there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.”
— Acts 24:15
The main critical form omits νεκρῶν, ‘of the dead.’ Resurrection
already implies the dead, but Scrivener states the object and then
divides that raised company into just and unjust.
The variation at Acts 24:15 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 24:15 isolated from its setting. Just
outside the selected unit, Acts 24:14 says, “But this I confess unto
thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of
my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the
….” Acts 24:16 says, “And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a
conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.”
Retain ‘of the dead’ as the received completeness of Paul’s
confession before Felix.
Sources and further reading
- The Holy Bible, Authorized Version, Acts 24:15.
- F. H. A. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek
according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894),
Acts 24:15. - Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL
Edition, Acts 24:15 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-2294
- 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 24:15 — “A Resurrection of the Dead, Both of the Just and Unjust”: Does “of the Dead” Belong?,” VAR-2294, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas