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 Greek words are substantially undisputed; the question is whether “what came into being” closes verse 3 or begins a sentence that runs into verse 4.
Variant class
Punctuation
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
“Without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life.”
Authorized Version
“All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life.” — John 1:3–4
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
“Apart from him not one thing came to be. What came to be in him was life.”
Translation or explanation
“Apart from him not one thing came to be. What came to be in him was life.”
Metzger’s report of the UBS committee
Metzger reports the UBS4 committee's treatment of 2 variation units within this record's range. The notes ground the relevant decisions in the weight and distribution of external attestation, scribal harmonization to a parallel passage, the likelihood of scribal or liturgical expansion, the comparative difficulty of the readings; the printed confidence ratings represented here are {C}, {A}. 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 John 1:3–4, 1:4
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
UBS6 retains the NA28 / UBS5 Greek main-text wording in John, so no main-text change is shown for this passage. The separate project ledger covers Acts, Mark, and Revelation.
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
“What came into being in him was life” requires the reader to decide whether created life, the totality of creation, or a theological category is meant. The doctrinal boundary is important.
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At John 1:3–4, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. Some critical presentations punctuate after “not one thing,” producing, “What came into being in him was life.”
Inconsistency
The criteria used at John 1:3–4 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: “What came into being in him was life” requires the reader to decide whether created life, the totality of creation, or a theological category is meant. The doctrinal boundary is important.
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
Ancient copies were written without the punctuation expected by a modern reader, and the relative clause ὃ γέγονεν —“what has come into being”—can be joined backward to verse 3 or forward to verse 4. The Authorized Version follows the former: nothing created came into existence apart from the Word. The rival punctuation has ancient support and cannot be dismissed as a modern invention.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
A source-level internal and transcriptional synopsis remains open; consult the full essay.
Reception and ecclesiastical use
Early Christian writers sometimes used the construction in debates about the Son, which shows that punctuation traditions existed long before printed editions.
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at John 1:3–4. 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
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. Some critical presentations punctuate after “not one thing,” producing, “What came into being in him was life.”
Conclusion
The rival punctuation has ancient support and cannot be dismissed as a modern invention. Yet it produces a difficult expression. “What came into being in him was life” requires the reader to decide whether created life, the totality of creation, or a theological category is meant. Early Christian writers sometimes used the construction in debates about the Son, which shows that punctuation traditions existed long before printed editions. Patristic use, however, is not uniform enough to settle the line by itself.
The doctrinal boundary is important. Neither punctuation makes the Word a creature; verse 3 excludes that conclusion in either form. The question is which division best expresses John’s syntax and progression. The received punctuation preserves the double assertion about creation and allows “in him was life” to open a new declaration. It should remain.
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 John 1:3–4, the received text reads “Without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life.” and its Authorized Version representation reads “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life.” — John 1:3–4”. The assessed critical reading is “Apart from him not one thing came to be. What came to be in him was life.”. 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 John 1:3–4, the received Hebrew/Greek form is “Without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life.”; the Authorized Version represents it as “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life.” — John 1:3–4”. The assessed critical form is “Apart from him not one thing came to be. What came to be in him was life.”.
- 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 John 1:3–4, the received text reads “Without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life.” and its Authorized Version representation reads “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life.” — John 1:3–4”. The assessed critical reading is “Apart from him not one thing came to be. What came to be in him was life.”. 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
- 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
- INTF — Online Tools for the ECMCurrent critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
Read the full research essay and its sources
Passage: John 1:3–4
Received reading: “Without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life.”
Principal competing reading: “Apart from him not one thing came to be. What came to be in him was life.”
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
“All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made
that was made. In him was life.” — John 1:3–4
No word has to be added or removed to change the shape of these
sentences. Ancient copies were written without the punctuation expected
by a modern reader, and the relative clause ὃ γέγονεν—“what has
come into being”—can be joined backward to verse 3 or forward to verse
4. The Authorized Version follows the former: nothing created came into
existence apart from the Word. Some critical presentations punctuate
after “not one thing,” producing, “What came into being in him was
life.”
Creation without exception
The received division gives the relative clause a clear function.
John first affirms positively that all things were made through the
Word; he then excludes every possible exception. Whatever belongs to the
class of made things was not made without him. Verse 4 turns from
creation at large to life in the Word. The movement is compact and
balanced.
The rival punctuation has ancient support and cannot be dismissed as
a modern invention. Yet it produces a difficult expression. “What came
into being in him was life” requires the reader to decide whether
created life, the totality of creation, or a theological category is
meant. Early Christian writers sometimes used the construction in
debates about the Son, which shows that punctuation traditions existed
long before printed editions. Patristic use, however, is not uniform
enough to settle the line by itself.
The doctrinal boundary is important. Neither punctuation makes the
Word a creature; verse 3 excludes that conclusion in either form. The
question is which division best expresses John’s syntax and progression.
The received punctuation preserves the double assertion about creation
and allows “in him was life” to open a new declaration. It should
remain.
Sources and further reading
- John 1:1–5; Colossians 1:16–17; Hebrews 1:2–3.
- F. H. A. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek
according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894),
John 1:3–4. - Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL
Edition, John 1:3–4 and apparatus.
7Related materials
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- Record
- VAR-2131
- 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, principal readings, and stated editorial comparison checked against Scrivener’s received Greek text and the current SBLGNT text and 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. Biblical readings are short scholarly quotations; cited editions and digital witnesses retain their stated rights and access conditions.
- Known limitations
- This staging record summarizes the principal variation unit and representative evidence. It is not a fresh collation of every extant manuscript, version, lectionary, or patristic citation.
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, “John 1:3–4 — “Without Him Was Not Anything Made That Was Made”: Where Should the Sentence Break?,” VAR-2131, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas