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
Scrivener reads πλείους, ‘more,’ and the Authorized Version supplies ‘than ten days’ from the numeral tradition.
Variant class
Punctuation
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
when he had tarried among them more than ten days
Authorized Version
“And when he had tarried among them more than ten days, he went down unto Caesarea; and the next day sitting on the judgment seat commanded Paul to be brought.” — Acts 25:6
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
after staying among them not more than eight or ten days
Translation or explanation
after staying among them not more than eight or ten days
Metzger’s report of the UBS committee
No passage-specific Metzger synopsis has yet passed editorial verification for this record.
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 25:6 The historical control at Acts 25:6 is concrete rather than sensational: names, numbers, routes, and local circumstances bear upon Luke’s precision even when no confessional doctrine depends on the alternative form, so the historical evidence still deserves its own hearing.
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At Acts 25:6, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. Passage: Acts 25:6 Received reading: when he had tarried among them more than ten days Principal competing reading: after staying among them not more than eight or ten days Issue class: Numerical Variant Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. Retain the received duration, but present the critical reading as a genuinely different number and construction, not a mere translation preference.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Acts 25:6 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 25:6 The historical control at Acts 25:6 is concrete rather than sensational: names, numbers, routes, and local circumstances bear upon Luke’s precision even when no confessional doctrine depends on the alternative form, so the historical evidence still deserves its own hearing.
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
Scrivener reads πλείους, ‘more,’ and the Authorized Version supplies ‘than ten days’ from the numeral tradition. Sources and further reading The Holy Bible, Authorized Version, Acts 25:6. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894), Acts 25:6.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
A source-level internal and transcriptional synopsis remains open; consult the full essay.
Reception and ecclesiastical use
Scrivener reads πλείους, ‘more,’ and the Authorized Version supplies ‘than ten days’ from the numeral tradition. Scrivener’s received text underlies the reading “when he had tarried among them more than ten days.”
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at Acts 25:6. 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 25:6 Received reading: when he had tarried among them more than ten days Principal competing reading: after staying among them not more than eight or ten days Issue class: Numerical Variant Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. Retain the received duration, but present the critical reading as a genuinely different number and construction, not a mere translation preference.
Conclusion
The neighboring verses keep the Acts 25:6 question tied to the episode: Acts 25:5 says, “Let them therefore, said he, which among you are able, go down with me, and accuse this man, if there be any wickedness in him.” Acts 25:7 says, “And when he was come, the Jews which came down from Jerusalem stood round about, and laid many and grievous complaints against Paul, which they could not prove.”
Retain the received duration, but present the critical reading as a genuinely different number and construction, not a mere translation preference.
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 25:6, the received text reads “when he had tarried among them more than ten days” and its Authorized Version representation reads “And when he had tarried among them more than ten days, he went down unto Caesarea; and the next day sitting on the judgment seat commanded Paul to be brought.” — Acts 25:6”. The assessed critical reading is “after staying among them not more than eight or ten days”. 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 25:6, the received Hebrew/Greek form is “when he had tarried among them more than ten days”; the Authorized Version represents it as “And when he had tarried among them more than ten days, he went down unto Caesarea; and the next day sitting on the judgment seat commanded Paul to be brought.” — Acts 25:6”. The assessed critical form is “after staying among them not more than eight or ten days”.
- 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 25:6, the received text reads “when he had tarried among them more than ten days” and its Authorized Version representation reads “And when he had tarried among them more than ten days, he went down unto Caesarea; and the next day sitting on the judgment seat commanded Paul to be brought.” — Acts 25:6”. The assessed critical reading is “after staying among them not more than eight or ten days”. 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 25:6Current 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 25:6
Received reading: when he had tarried among them more than ten days
Principal competing reading: after staying among them not more than eight or ten days
Issue class: Numerical Variant
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
Scrivener reads πλείους, ‘more,’ and the Authorized Version supplies
‘than ten days’ from the numeral tradition. SBLGNT and NA28 print οὐ
πλείους ὀκτώ, ‘not more than eight,’ while other forms combine eight and
ten.
Scrivener’s received text underlies the reading “when he had tarried
among them more than ten days.” The principal competing form is “after
staying among them not more than eight or ten days.”
“And when he had tarried among them more than ten days, he went down
unto Caesarea; and the next day sitting on the judgment seat commanded
Paul to be brought.” — Acts 25:6
The historical control at Acts 25:6 is concrete rather than
sensational: names, numbers, routes, and local circumstances bear upon
Luke’s precision even when no confessional doctrine depends on the
alternative form, so the historical evidence still deserves its own
hearing.
The neighboring verses keep the Acts 25:6 question tied to the
episode: Acts 25:5 says, “Let them therefore, said he, which among you
are able, go down with me, and accuse this man, if there be any
wickedness in him.” Acts 25:7 says, “And when he was come, the Jews
which came down from Jerusalem stood round about, and laid many and
grievous complaints against Paul, which they could not prove.”
Retain the received duration, but present the critical reading as a
genuinely different number and construction, not a mere translation
preference.
Sources and further reading
- The Holy Bible, Authorized Version, Acts 25:6.
- F. H. A. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek
according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894),
Acts 25:6. - Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL
Edition, Acts 25:6 and apparatus. - Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New
Testament, discussion at Acts 25:6.
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-2296
- 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 25:6 — More than Ten Days or Eight or Ten Days? Festus’s Stay at Jerusalem,” VAR-2296, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas