Complete textual-variant dossier
No adverse entailment · agrees with the received text
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 received and leading critical texts agree that Jesus asks the Father to glorify his name; “glorify thy Son” belongs to the wider variation record, not the current principal text.
Variant class
Substitution or composite variation
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
“Father, glorify thy name.”
Authorized Version
The Authorized Version rendering has not yet been entered in the structured field.
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
A minority form reads “glorify thy Son,” while SBLGNT and NA28 retain “thy name.”
Translation or explanation
A minority form reads “glorify thy Son,” while SBLGNT and NA28 retain “thy name.”
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 printed confidence rating represented here is {B}. 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 John 12:28
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
Weakening of explicit biblical testimony
Exact proposition affected
The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Doctrinal analysis
The Father’s name has been glorified in the signs and revelation of the Son, and it will be glorified again through the cross, resurrection, and fruit that follows. The heavenly answer repeats the object by pronoun—“I have glorified [it]”—so no missing christological title is needed to complete the thought. Its theological soundness does not make it the wording of this verse.
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At John 12:28, 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. Scrivener and the leading modern critical editions agree on sou to onoma, “thy name.” This is another point where a title derived from a wide apparatus can misdescribe the current editorial choice.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at John 12:28 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: The Father’s name has been glorified in the signs and revelation of the Son, and it will be glorified again through the cross, resurrection, and fruit that follows. The heavenly answer repeats the object by pronoun—“I have glorified [it]”—so no missing christological title is needed to complete the thought. Its theological soundness does not make it the wording of this verse.
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
The variation “thy Son” is ancient enough to record, and it is easily understood in light of John 17:1: “Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son.” The SBLGNT and NA28 have not replaced the Authorized Version’s noun.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
This is another point where a title derived from a wide apparatus can misdescribe the current editorial choice.
Reception and ecclesiastical use
The text received by the church is also the text commonly printed today: the Son seeks the glory of the Father’s name.
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at John 12:28. 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. Scrivener and the leading modern critical editions agree on sou to onoma, “thy name.” This is another point where a title derived from a wide apparatus can misdescribe the current editorial choice.
Conclusion
“Glorify thy Son” would teach a truth John states elsewhere. Its theological soundness does not make it the wording of this verse. Conversely, retaining “thy name” does not place the Father’s glory over against the Son’s; John presents the two as mutually involved in the appointed hour.
This is another point where a title derived from a wide apparatus can misdescribe the current editorial choice. The SBLGNT and NA28 have not replaced the Authorized Version’s noun. A careful account preserves the minority reading, explains its likely attraction, and states the agreement without drama. The text received by the church is also the text commonly printed today: the Son seeks the glory of the Father’s name.
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.
No adverse entailment: agrees with the received text.
Necessary reasoning chain
- The current critical main-text reading assessed at John 12:28 agrees with the received Hebrew/Greek reading at the variation unit governed by this card.
- An adverse preservation entailment at this locus would require the current critical form to displace a different received reading.
- Because no such displacement occurs at the assessed locus, no adverse preservation consequence follows here.
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 12:28
Received reading: “Father, glorify thy name.”
Principal competing reading: A minority form reads “glorify thy Son,” while SBLGNT and NA28 retain “thy name.”
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
Jesus has entered the hour from which he refuses to ask deliverance.
His petition is brief: “Father, glorify thy name.” A voice answers from
heaven, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
Scrivener and the leading modern critical editions agree on sou
to onoma, “thy name.” The variation “thy Son” is ancient enough to
record, and it is easily understood in light of John 17:1: “Father, the
hour is come; glorify thy Son.” That parallel is also a ready source of
assimilation. A reader remembering the later prayer could substitute its
object here.
The received noun makes the exchange exact. The Father’s name has
been glorified in the signs and revelation of the Son, and it will be
glorified again through the cross, resurrection, and fruit that follows.
The heavenly answer repeats the object by pronoun—“I have glorified
[it]”—so no missing christological title is needed to complete the
thought.
“Glorify thy Son” would teach a truth John states elsewhere. Its
theological soundness does not make it the wording of this verse.
Conversely, retaining “thy name” does not place the Father’s glory over
against the Son’s; John presents the two as mutually involved in the
appointed hour.
This is another point where a title derived from a wide apparatus can
misdescribe the current editorial choice. The SBLGNT and NA28 have not
replaced the Authorized Version’s noun. A careful account preserves the
minority reading, explains its likely attraction, and states the
agreement without drama. The text received by the church is also the
text commonly printed today: the Son seeks the glory of the Father’s
name.
Sources and further reading
- John 11:4; 12:23–33; 13:31–32; 17:1–5.
- Scrivener, John 12:28.
- SBLGNT and NA28 at John 12:28.
7Related materials
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- Record
- VAR-2181
- 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 12:28 — “Father, Glorify Thy Name” or “Glorify Thy Son”?,” VAR-2181, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas