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 counsel contains lexical and grammatical alternatives—‘refrain’ versus ‘keep away,’ present versus future ability to overthrow, and singular versus plural objects.
Variant class
Punctuation
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
Refrain from these men, and let them alone … lest ye be found even to fight against God
Authorized Version
“Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space; … And said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men. … But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.” — Acts 5:34–39
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
Keep away from these men and let them go … lest you be found fighting against God
Translation or explanation
Keep away from these men and let them go … lest you be found fighting against God
Metzger’s report of the UBS committee
Metzger reports the UBS4 committee's treatment of 8 variation units within this record's range. The notes ground the relevant decisions in a proposed mechanism of accidental omission, the likelihood of scribal or liturgical expansion. 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 5:34, 5:35, 5:36, 5:36, 5:36, 5:38, 5:38, 5:39
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 5:34–39, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. Passage: Acts 5:34–39 Received reading: Refrain from these men, and let them alone … lest ye be found even to fight against God Principal competing reading: Keep away from these men and let them go … lest you be found fighting against God Issue class: Clustered Variant Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. The warning about fighting against God remains in the principal received and critical forms.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Acts 5:34–39 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
— Acts 5:34–39 Not every difficulty attached to Acts 5:34–39 is a manuscript difference. Sources and further reading The Holy Bible, Authorized Version, Acts 5:34–39. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894), Acts 5:34–39.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
Let the passage’s actual cluster be seen without turning Gamaliel’s famous final warning into a disputed omission.
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 5:34–39. 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 5:34–39 Received reading: Refrain from these men, and let them alone … lest ye be found even to fight against God Principal competing reading: Keep away from these men and let them go … lest you be found fighting against God Issue class: Clustered Variant Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. The warning about fighting against God remains in the principal received and critical forms.
Conclusion
Because Acts 5:34–39 contains more than one subreading, the unit cannot be reduced to a single longer-versus-shorter slogan: each change belongs to its own clause, and a conclusion about one cannot simply be transferred to the whole paragraph.
Let the passage’s actual cluster be seen without turning Gamaliel’s famous final warning into a disputed omission.
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 5:34–39, the received text reads “Refrain from these men, and let them alone … lest ye be found even to fight against God” and its Authorized Version representation reads “Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space; … And said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men.…”. The assessed critical reading is “Keep away from these men and let them go … lest you be found fighting against God”. 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 5:34–39, the received Hebrew/Greek form is “Refrain from these men, and let them alone … lest ye be found even to fight against God”; the Authorized Version represents it as “Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space; … And said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men.…”. The assessed critical form is “Keep away from these men and let them go … lest you be found fighting against God”.
- 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 5:34–39, the received text reads “Refrain from these men, and let them alone … lest ye be found even to fight against God” and its Authorized Version representation reads “Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space; … And said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men.…”. The assessed critical reading is “Keep away from these men and let them go … lest you be found fighting against God”. 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 5:34–39Current 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 5:34–39
Received reading: Refrain from these men, and let them alone … lest ye be found even to fight against God
Principal competing reading: Keep away from these men and let them go … lest you be found fighting against God
Issue class: Clustered Variant
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
“Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel,
a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and
commanded to put the apostles forth a little space; … And said unto
them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as
touching these men. … But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest
haply ye be found even to fight against God.” — Acts 5:34–39
Not every difficulty attached to Acts 5:34–39 is a manuscript
difference.
The counsel contains lexical and grammatical alternatives—‘refrain’
versus ‘keep away,’ present versus future ability to overthrow, and
singular versus plural objects. The warning about fighting against God
remains in the principal received and critical forms.
The comparison is concrete: the received reading gives “Refrain from
these men, and let them alone … lest ye be found even to fight against
God”; the alternative gives “Keep away from these men and let them go …
lest you be found fighting against God.”
Because Acts 5:34–39 contains more than one subreading, the unit
cannot be reduced to a single longer-versus-shorter slogan: each change
belongs to its own clause, and a conclusion about one cannot simply be
transferred to the whole paragraph.
Let the passage’s actual cluster be seen without turning Gamaliel’s
famous final warning into a disputed omission.
Sources and further reading
- The Holy Bible, Authorized Version, Acts 5:34–39.
- F. H. A. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek
according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894),
Acts 5:34–39. - Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL
Edition, Acts 5:34–39 and apparatus. - Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New
Testament, discussion at Acts 5:34–39.
7Related materials
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- Record
- VAR-2223
- 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 5:34–39 — Gamaliel’s Counsel: “Refrain,” “Let Them Alone,” and Fighting against God,” VAR-2223, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas