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 principal received and critical Greek texts agree at the heart of Luke 1:35. The apparent phrase “of thee” belongs chiefly to English syntax and a secondary Greek expansion, not to a modern omission from the Textus Receptus.
Variant class
Addition / omission
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
The Holy One being born shall be called the Son of God; the Authorized Version supplies “of thee” to express the context naturally.
Authorized Version
“Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” — Luke 1:35
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
A secondary Greek form explicitly adds “of thee” (ἐκ σοῦ); the principal critical text does not remove words found in Scrivener’s received text here.
Translation or explanation
A secondary Greek form explicitly adds “of thee” (ἐκ σοῦ); the principal critical text does not remove words found in Scrivener’s received text here.
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 likelihood of scribal or liturgical expansion; 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 Luke 1:35
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 Luke, 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 virginal conception and birth of Jesus Christ.
Doctrinal analysis
No responsible defense of the virgin conception should claim that NA28 has deleted “of thee” from the Textus Receptus. The principal Greek editions share the words that carry the doctrine.
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At Luke 1:35, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. Principal competing reading: A secondary Greek form explicitly adds “of thee” (ἐκ σοῦ); the principal critical text does not remove words found in Scrivener’s received text here. Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. Luke 1:35 is sometimes placed on lists of verses supposedly weakened by modern textual criticism.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Luke 1:35 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: No responsible defense of the virgin conception should claim that NA28 has deleted “of thee” from the Textus Receptus. The principal Greek editions share the words that carry the doctrine.
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
Passage: Luke 1:35 Received reading: The Holy One being born shall be called the Son of God; the Authorized Version supplies “of thee” to express the context naturally. — Luke 1:35 The Authorized Version says “that holy thing which shall be born of thee.” Some witnesses do add the words ek sou, “from thee,” but those words are not part of the principal received form reconstructed by Scrivener.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
Passage: Luke 1:35 Received reading: The Holy One being born shall be called the Son of God; the Authorized Version supplies “of thee” to express the context naturally. Luke has already called him the Son of the Highest and described an everlasting Davidic reign. The Authorized Version faithfully expresses the contextual relation, while its English supplementation should be acknowledged rather than turned into a nonexistent manuscript victory.
Reception and ecclesiastical use
Principal competing reading: A secondary Greek form explicitly adds “of thee” (ἐκ σοῦ); the principal critical text does not remove words found in Scrivener’s received text here. Scrivener’s received text and the principal modern critical text both read, in substance, “therefore also the holy thing being born shall be called the Son of God.” No responsible defense of the virgin conception should claim that NA28 has deleted “of thee” from the Textus Receptus.
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at Luke 1:35. 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
Principal competing reading: A secondary Greek form explicitly adds “of thee” (ἐκ σοῦ); the principal critical text does not remove words found in Scrivener’s received text here. Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. Luke 1:35 is sometimes placed on lists of verses supposedly weakened by modern textual criticism.
Conclusion
This article therefore ends with an agreement, not a contest. No responsible defense of the virgin conception should claim that NA28 has deleted “of thee” from the Textus Receptus. The principal Greek editions share the words that carry the doctrine. The Authorized Version faithfully expresses the contextual relation, while its English supplementation should be acknowledged rather than turned into a nonexistent manuscript victory.
Textual precision strengthens the passage. Luke does not rest Christ’s identity upon a disputed pronoun. He locates the conception in the sovereign act of the Holy Ghost and names the child without hesitation: holy, David’s heir, and the Son of God.
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.
No adverse entailment: agrees with the received text.
Necessary reasoning chain
- The current critical main-text reading assessed at Luke 1:35 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: Luke 1:35
Received reading: The Holy One being born shall be called the Son of God; the Authorized Version supplies “of thee” to express the context naturally.
Principal competing reading: A secondary Greek form explicitly adds “of thee” (ἐκ σοῦ); the principal critical text does not remove words found in Scrivener’s received text here.
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
Luke 1:35 is sometimes placed on lists of verses supposedly weakened by modern textual criticism. That description is mistaken. Scrivener’s received text and the principal modern critical text both read, in substance, “therefore also the holy thing being born shall be called the Son of God.” The difference a reader notices arises chiefly from translation.
“Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” — Luke 1:35
The Authorized Version says “that holy thing which shall be born of thee.” Its supplied words make the English relative clause explicit. Mary is the woman addressed, and verse 31 has already said that she will conceive in her womb and bear a son. Greek can leave that relation unexpressed without leaving it uncertain. Some witnesses do add the words ek sou, “from thee,” but those words are not part of the principal received form reconstructed by Scrivener.
The verse joins the Holy Ghost’s coming upon Mary, the Highest’s overshadowing power, the holiness of the child, and his identity as the Son of God. “Therefore” does not mean that Jesus becomes the Son only at conception. Luke has already called him the Son of the Highest and described an everlasting Davidic reign. The conception reveals the supernatural manner in which the eternal Son assumes true humanity.
The neuter expression translated “that holy thing” does not depersonalize Christ. It agrees grammatically with what is being born and is followed immediately by the personal title “Son of God.” English idiom sounds colder than Luke’s construction. “The holy one to be born” conveys the sense without suggesting an impersonal object.
This article therefore ends with an agreement, not a contest. No responsible defense of the virgin conception should claim that NA28 has deleted “of thee” from the Textus Receptus. The principal Greek editions share the words that carry the doctrine. The Authorized Version faithfully expresses the contextual relation, while its English supplementation should be acknowledged rather than turned into a nonexistent manuscript victory.
Textual precision strengthens the passage. Luke does not rest Christ’s identity upon a disputed pronoun. He locates the conception in the sovereign act of the Holy Ghost and names the child without hesitation: holy, David’s heir, and the Son of God.
Sources and further reading
7Related materials
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- Record
- VAR-2062
- 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 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
- The principal issue is translation and a secondary expansion, not a received-versus-critical omission.
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, “Luke 1:35 — “That Holy Thing Which Shall Be Born of Thee”: The Text of the Virgin Conception,” VAR-2062, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas