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 received text identifies Christ as the object of faith; the critical sentence says only, “he that believeth hath everlasting life.”
Variant class
Omission / addition
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
“He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”
Authorized Version
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” — John 6:47
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
“He that believes has eternal life,” without “on me.”
Translation or explanation
“He that believes has eternal life,” without “on me.”
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 a proposed mechanism of accidental omission, the likelihood of scribal or liturgical expansion; the printed confidence rating represented here is {A}. 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 6:47
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 bread discourse returns to coming, believing, eating, life, and resurrection in overlapping forms. The shorter reading can arise without deliberate theology.
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At John 6:47, 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 shorter critical form retains the participle “the one believing” but moves directly to “has eternal life.” Modern critical editions still teach faith in Christ throughout the chapter.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at John 6:47 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 bread discourse returns to coming, believing, eating, life, and resurrection in overlapping forms. The shorter reading can arise without deliberate theology.
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
A source-level external-evidence synopsis remains open; consult the full essay and cited apparatus.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
Context supplies the object, so no edition teaches that undirected sincerity saves. The case for omission is straightforward. John repeatedly uses “believe in me,” and a scribe could complete a familiar formula.
Reception and ecclesiastical use
The received wording is characteristic, emphatic, and ecclesiastically established.
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at John 6:47. 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 shorter critical form retains the participle “the one believing” but moves directly to “has eternal life.” Modern critical editions still teach faith in Christ throughout the chapter.
Conclusion
The shorter reading can arise without deliberate theology. A brief prepositional phrase may fall out in copying, and the sentence remains polished after its loss. Conversely, addition demands only familiarity with Johannine diction. Since both directions are plausible, the decision must include the broader documentary and received history rather than rest on a single intrinsic slogan.
Nothing should be claimed beyond the variation. Modern critical editions still teach faith in Christ throughout the chapter. The question is whether John wrote the object here. The received wording is characteristic, emphatic, and ecclesiastically established. “On me” should remain part of the verse.
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 6:47, the received text reads “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” and its Authorized Version representation reads “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” — John 6:47”. The assessed critical reading is “He that believes has eternal life,” without “on me.”. 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 6:47, the received Hebrew/Greek form is “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”; the Authorized Version represents it as “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” — John 6:47”. The assessed critical form is “He that believes has eternal life,” without “on me.”.
- 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 6:47, the received text reads “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” and its Authorized Version representation reads “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” — John 6:47”. The assessed critical reading is “He that believes has eternal life,” without “on me.”. 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 6:47
Received reading: “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”
Principal competing reading: “He that believes has eternal life,” without “on me.”
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath
everlasting life.” — John 6:47
The received phrase εἰς ἐμέ makes the object explicit:
saving faith rests in Christ. The shorter critical form retains the
participle “the one believing” but moves directly to “has eternal life.”
Context supplies the object, so no edition teaches that undirected
sincerity saves.
The case for omission is straightforward. John repeatedly uses
“believe in me,” and a scribe could complete a familiar formula. Verse
35 has already said, “he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” The
exact phrase is therefore near enough to influence memory.
Repetition is also John’s own method. The bread discourse returns to
coming, believing, eating, life, and resurrection in overlapping forms.
Verse 47 begins with the solemn double Amen and condenses the saving
promise before the metaphor intensifies. Naming Christ is not redundant
decoration; it is the hinge between the Father’s drawing and the Son’s
gift of life.
The shorter reading can arise without deliberate theology. A brief
prepositional phrase may fall out in copying, and the sentence remains
polished after its loss. Conversely, addition demands only familiarity
with Johannine diction. Since both directions are plausible, the
decision must include the broader documentary and received history
rather than rest on a single intrinsic slogan.
Nothing should be claimed beyond the variation. Modern critical
editions still teach faith in Christ throughout the chapter. The
question is whether John wrote the object here. The received wording is
characteristic, emphatic, and ecclesiastically established. “On me”
should remain part of the verse.
Sources and further reading
- John 3:15–18, 36; 6:35–51.
- Scrivener and SBLGNT apparatus at John 6:47.
7Related materials
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- Record
- VAR-2149
- 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 6:47 — “He That Believeth on Me”: Do the Final Words Belong?,” VAR-2149, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas