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 calls disciples to pray that they may be “accounted worthy.” The critical text uses a different verb, “have strength” or “prevail,” shifting from judicial estimation to divinely enabled endurance.
Variant class
Punctuation
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
“Pray … that ye may be accounted worthy to escape.”
Authorized Version
“Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things.” — Luke 21:36
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
“Pray … that you may have strength to escape all these things.”
Translation or explanation
“Pray … that you may have strength to escape all these things.”
Metzger’s report of the UBS committee
No passage-specific Metzger synopsis has yet passed editorial verification for this record.
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
Exegetical or interpretive consequence
Exact proposition affected
No single doctrinal proposition is directly changed; the principal consequence is exegetical, historical, or cumulative.
Doctrinal analysis
Internal theology therefore does not settle the documentary question.
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At Luke 21:36, 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 text says, “that you may have strength to escape.” The critical verb emphasizes prevailing or having strength.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Luke 21:36 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: Internal theology therefore does not settle the documentary question.
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 rival is ancient and coherent, perhaps arising from concern over meritorious overtones or from confusion between similarly formed verbs.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
To be counted worthy may describe God’s favorable judgment upon those who belong to Christ and walk watchfully.
Reception and ecclesiastical use
The received text says, “that ye may be accounted worthy to escape.” Conversely, “accounted worthy” could replace the critical verb under the influence of familiar ecclesiastical language.
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at Luke 21:36. 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 text says, “that you may have strength to escape.” The critical verb emphasizes prevailing or having strength.
Conclusion
Conversely, “accounted worthy” could replace the critical verb under the influence of familiar ecclesiastical language. Internal theology therefore does not settle the documentary question. Both forms exclude careless presumption: one prays for favorable judgment; the other prays for sufficient strength.
The command “watch” does not authorize panic. Jesus warns against hearts weighed down by excess, drunkenness, and the anxieties of life. Watchfulness is sober allegiance in ordinary days. The received wording makes its horizon personal. History does not merely end in events to be escaped; every hearer will stand before the Son of man whose judgment defines true worthiness.
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 Luke 21:36, the received text reads “Pray … that ye may be accounted worthy to escape.” and its Authorized Version representation reads “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things.” — Luke 21:36”. The assessed critical reading is “Pray … that you may have strength to escape all these things.”. 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 Luke 21:36, the received Hebrew/Greek form is “Pray … that ye may be accounted worthy to escape.”; the Authorized Version represents it as “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things.” — Luke 21:36”. The assessed critical form is “Pray … that you may have strength to escape all these things.”.
- 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 Luke 21:36, the received text reads “Pray … that ye may be accounted worthy to escape.” and its Authorized Version representation reads “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things.” — Luke 21:36”. The assessed critical reading is “Pray … that you may have strength to escape all these things.”. 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: Luke 21:36
Received reading: “Pray … that ye may be accounted worthy to escape.”
Principal competing reading: “Pray … that you may have strength to escape all these things.”
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
Jesus’ final public discourse ends with watching and prayer. The received text says, “that ye may be accounted worthy to escape.” The critical text says, “that you may have strength to escape.” The verbs are different, not merely alternate English glosses.
“Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things.” — Luke 21:36
“Accounted worthy” can sound as though escape is earned by merit. Luke’s use of worthiness does not require that conclusion. To be counted worthy may describe God’s favorable judgment upon those who belong to Christ and walk watchfully. The passive leaves the Judge unstated but unmistakable.
The critical verb emphasizes prevailing or having strength. That strength is sought in prayer, so it is not self-generated heroism. Disciples endure because God enables them to stand before the Son of man.
The two halves of the petition interpret one another: escape the coming things and stand before the Son of man. Escape is not a secret departure from all suffering. Luke has already warned of persecution, imprisonment, betrayal, and death. It is preservation through divine judgment so that the disciple is received rather than swept away by the world’s drunkenness and fear.
The received reading should be retained. It fits Luke’s language of persons being counted worthy and places the final evaluation before the returning Son. The rival is ancient and coherent, perhaps arising from concern over meritorious overtones or from confusion between similarly formed verbs.
Conversely, “accounted worthy” could replace the critical verb under the influence of familiar ecclesiastical language. Internal theology therefore does not settle the documentary question. Both forms exclude careless presumption: one prays for favorable judgment; the other prays for sufficient strength.
The command “watch” does not authorize panic. Jesus warns against hearts weighed down by excess, drunkenness, and the anxieties of life. Watchfulness is sober allegiance in ordinary days. The received wording makes its horizon personal. History does not merely end in events to be escaped; every hearer will stand before the Son of man whose judgment defines true worthiness.
Sources and further reading
- Luke 20:35; 21:5–36; Acts 5:41; 2 Thessalonians 1:5.
7Related materials
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- Record
- VAR-2111
- 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
- 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, “Luke 21:36 — “Accounted Worthy to Escape” or “Have Strength to Escape”?,” VAR-2111, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas