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 aorist and present forms of “believe” have been used to argue for evangelistic or confirmatory purposes, but aspect alone cannot identify John’s entire intended audience.
Variant class
Addition / omission
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
Aorist subjunctive: “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.”
Authorized Version
“But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” — John 20:31
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
Present subjunctive: “that you may continue believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.”
Translation or explanation
Present subjunctive: “that you may continue believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.”
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 comparative difficulty of the readings; the printed confidence rating represented here is {C}. 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 20:31
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 identity and divine sonship of Jesus Christ.
Doctrinal analysis
Weakening of explicit biblical testimony. 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 John 20:31, 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. The critical present preserves the same object and result of faith; the textual difference concerns how the believing is viewed.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at John 20:31 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 identity and divine sonship of Jesus Christ.
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
Commentators often map the aorist onto conversion—“that you may come to believe”—and the present onto perseverance—“that you may keep believing.”
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 John 20:31. 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. The critical present preserves the same object and result of faith; the textual difference concerns how the believing is viewed.
Conclusion
The received aorist fits the climactic encounter with Thomas. He moves from refusal to the confession “My Lord and my God,” and the narrator turns from that scene to readers who have not seen. They are called to the whole response of faith on the basis of written testimony.
The aorist should remain, but it should not be recruited to prove that no Christian reader was contemplated. Literary purpose is established by the Gospel’s full rhetoric, audience, and use, not by assigning an English slogan to one aspect. The critical present preserves the same object and result of faith; the textual difference concerns how the believing is viewed.
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 John 20:31, the received text reads “Aorist subjunctive: “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” and its Authorized Version representation reads “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” — John 20:31”. The assessed critical reading is “Present subjunctive: “that you may continue believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.”. The immediate consequence is that the critical text no longer states the received wording at this locus. The card classifies the change as a weakening of explicit biblical testimony, not by itself as a formal denial of the larger doctrine.
Necessary reasoning chain
- At John 20:31, the received Hebrew/Greek form is “Aorist subjunctive: “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.”; the Authorized Version represents it as “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” — John 20:31”. The assessed critical form is “Present subjunctive: “that you may continue believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of 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 John 20:31, the received text reads “Aorist subjunctive: “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” and its Authorized Version representation reads “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” — John 20:31”. The assessed critical reading is “Present subjunctive: “that you may continue believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.”. The immediate consequence is that the critical text no longer states the received wording at this locus. The card classifies the change as a weakening of explicit biblical testimony, not by itself as a formal denial of the larger doctrine.
- 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 20:31
Received reading: Aorist subjunctive: “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.”
Principal competing reading: Present subjunctive: “that you may continue believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.”
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
“But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through
his name.” — John 20:31
The received verb is aorist subjunctive, pisteusēte. The
SBLGNT prints the present subjunctive pisteuēte. Because the
forms differ by one vowel sound in later Greek pronunciation and by a
small written change, interchange was easy. The same variation appears
in John 19:35.
Commentators often map the aorist onto conversion—“that you may come
to believe”—and the present onto perseverance—“that you may keep
believing.” Aspect can support those nuances, but it does not bear them
as fixed lexical definitions. An aorist purpose can address existing
believers with a decisive presentation of Christ, and a present can call
unbelievers into an ongoing life of faith.
The statement itself is broad enough for both pastoral effects. John
selected signs so that readers confess Jesus as the Messiah and Son of
God, and through believing have life in his name. Those who do not yet
believe are summoned; those who already confess him are confirmed in the
life that faith receives.
The received aorist fits the climactic encounter with Thomas. He
moves from refusal to the confession “My Lord and my God,” and the
narrator turns from that scene to readers who have not seen. They are
called to the whole response of faith on the basis of written
testimony.
The aorist should remain, but it should not be recruited to prove
that no Christian reader was contemplated. Literary purpose is
established by the Gospel’s full rhetoric, audience, and use, not by
assigning an English slogan to one aspect. The critical present
preserves the same object and result of faith; the textual difference
concerns how the believing is viewed.
Sources and further reading
- John 1:7, 12; 3:15–18; 19:35; 20:24–31; 1 John 5:13.
- Scrivener, John 20:31.
- SBLGNT apparatus at John 20:31.
7Related materials
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- Record
- VAR-2199
- 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 20:31 — “That Ye Might Believe” or “Might Continue Believing”? The Gospel’s Purpose,” VAR-2199, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas