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 narrates Jesus passing through the hostile crowd after hiding himself; the critical text ends more abruptly with his departure from the temple.
Variant class
Omission / addition
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
Jesus hid himself, went out of the temple, passed through their midst, and went on in that manner.
Authorized Version
“Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.” — John 8:59
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
Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
Translation or explanation
Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
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 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 8:59
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
Its language is not a doctrinal embellishment. The theological point is supplied by the context, not by speculation about mechanics.
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At John 8:59, 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. Major critical apparatuses on the final clause of John 8:59.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at John 8:59 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: Its language is not a doctrinal embellishment. The theological point is supplied by the context, not by speculation about mechanics.
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 shorter form is strongly represented among early surviving Greek witnesses. The shorter reading still bears witness to Christ’s departure; the longer preserves the full movement known to the church.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
— John 8:59 The received ending contains two additional participial movements: Jesus goes through their midst and proceeds on his way. Both forms preserve his escape; the longer form describes how completely the hostile action fails. That resemblance supplies the standard internal objection: a scribe could expand John with familiar synoptic language.
Reception and ecclesiastical use
The longer clause has extensive later Greek and ecclesiastical support and was received in the printed text. The shorter reading still bears witness to Christ’s departure; the longer preserves the full movement known to the church.
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at John 8:59. 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. Major critical apparatuses on the final clause of John 8:59.
Conclusion
One should not infer an invisible miracle more precisely than John states. The action may have involved sovereign restraint of the crowd, ordinary movement amid confusion, or both. The theological point is supplied by the context, not by speculation about mechanics. They cannot stone the one whose hour is governed by the Father.
The probability of harmonization must be weighed, but verbal similarity alone cannot convict the received clause. Johannine recurrence, broad reception, and a coherent sequence support retaining it. The shorter reading still bears witness to Christ’s departure; the longer preserves the full movement known to the church.
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 8:59, the received text reads “Jesus hid himself, went out of the temple, passed through their midst, and went on in that manner.” and its Authorized Version representation reads “Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.” — John 8:59”. The assessed critical reading is “Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”. 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 8:59, the received Hebrew/Greek form is “Jesus hid himself, went out of the temple, passed through their midst, and went on in that manner.”; the Authorized Version represents it as “Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.” — John 8:59”. The assessed critical form is “Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”.
- 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 8:59, the received text reads “Jesus hid himself, went out of the temple, passed through their midst, and went on in that manner.” and its Authorized Version representation reads “Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.” — John 8:59”. The assessed critical reading is “Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”. 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 8:59
Received reading: Jesus hid himself, went out of the temple, passed through their midst, and went on in that manner.
Principal competing reading: Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
“Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and
went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed
by.” — John 8:59
The received ending contains two additional participial movements:
Jesus goes through their midst and proceeds on his way. The SBLGNT and
NA28 stop after “he went out of the temple.” Both forms preserve his
escape; the longer form describes how completely the hostile action
fails.
The added words resemble escape notices in Luke 4:30 and, more
broadly, other Gospel scenes where Jesus passes beyond an attempt to
seize him. That resemblance supplies the standard internal objection: a
scribe could expand John with familiar synoptic language. It also fits
John’s own pattern. Officers fail to take Jesus in chapter 7, no one
lays hands on him in the treasury because his hour has not come, and
later he escapes another stoning attempt in chapter 10.
The shorter form is strongly represented among early surviving Greek
witnesses. The longer clause has extensive later Greek and
ecclesiastical support and was received in the printed text. Its
language is not a doctrinal embellishment. Nor is it narratively clumsy:
hiding may describe concealment from immediate sight, while passing
through the midst tells how he left the dangerous space.
One should not infer an invisible miracle more precisely than John
states. The action may have involved sovereign restraint of the crowd,
ordinary movement amid confusion, or both. The theological point is
supplied by the context, not by speculation about mechanics. They cannot
stone the one whose hour is governed by the Father.
The probability of harmonization must be weighed, but verbal
similarity alone cannot convict the received clause. Johannine
recurrence, broad reception, and a coherent sequence support retaining
it. The shorter reading still bears witness to Christ’s departure; the
longer preserves the full movement known to the church.
Sources and further reading
- Luke 4:28–30; John 7:30, 44–46; 8:20, 59; 10:31, 39.
- Scrivener and SBLGNT at John 8:59.
- Major critical apparatuses on the final clause of John 8:59.
7Related materials
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- Record
- VAR-2169
- 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 8:59 — “Going through the Midst of Them, and So Passed By”: Is the Escape Clause Authentic?,” VAR-2169, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas