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 includes Jesus’ peace greeting and the act of displaying his hands and feet. These were questioned as Western non-interpolations but are retained by the principal current critical editions.
Variant class
Punctuation
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
Jesus says “Peace be unto you” and then shows the disciples his hands and feet.
Authorized Version
“Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. … He shewed them his hands and his feet.” — Luke 24:36, 40
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
Omit the greeting and/or the whole demonstrative action in the shorter Western form.
Translation or explanation
Omit the greeting and/or the whole demonstrative action in the shorter Western form.
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 {D}. 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 24:36
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 bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Doctrinal analysis
Yet “peace” is a natural Jewish greeting transformed by the resurrection context, and Luke’s own preceding and following words require a bodily demonstration. “Flesh and bones” does not deny blood or define resurrection biology exhaustively; it refutes the disciples’ conclusion that they see a disembodied spirit.
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At Luke 24:36, 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. Later critical editions rejected or softened that exceptional preference. These verses demonstrate a recurrent lesson of Luke 24 without needing a formulaic “lesson” section: older critical omissions do not automatically describe current editions.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Luke 24:36 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
Weakening of explicit biblical testimony: Yet “peace” is a natural Jewish greeting transformed by the resurrection context, and Luke’s own preceding and following words require a bodily demonstration. “Flesh and bones” does not deny blood or define resurrection biology exhaustively; it refutes the disciples’ conclusion that they see a disembodied spirit.
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
From “non-interpolation” to inclusion Westcott and Hort classified these lines among the passages where the shorter Western form might preserve the original against nearly all other Greek witnesses. He establishes peace and then commissions witnesses.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
A harmonization theory therefore exists. Yet “peace” is a natural Jewish greeting transformed by the resurrection context, and Luke’s own preceding and following words require a bodily demonstration. Their omission can reflect Western abbreviation, and their narrative integration is strong.
Reception and ecclesiastical use
The received text gives his greeting, “Peace be unto you.”
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at Luke 24:36. 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. Later critical editions rejected or softened that exceptional preference. These verses demonstrate a recurrent lesson of Luke 24 without needing a formulaic “lesson” section: older critical omissions do not automatically describe current editions.
Passage-specific evidence from consulted works
Core 0.6.3 supplied-source audit complete: 1 passage-specific note attached. Incidental citations and global-method sources are retained in the audit report rather than presented as local textual evidence.
The Revision RevisedPassage-specific traditional-text argument
John William Burgon — supplied PDF pp. 138
Burgon directly discusses Luke 24:36. The local discussion treats Greek manuscript evidence, ancient versions as part of his case for the traditional form and challenges the sufficiency or interpretation of the evidence used for the rival reading.
Editorial use: Burgon’s witness lists and textual judgments are historical source claims. They are useful evidence and argument, but this release does not represent them as a fresh collation against the current ECM/NA apparatus.
Conclusion
Peace is equally concrete. It comes from the one whose death has fulfilled Scripture and whose presence dispels terror. He does not greet the deserters first with accusation. He establishes peace and then commissions witnesses.
These verses demonstrate a recurrent lesson of Luke 24 without needing a formulaic “lesson” section: older critical omissions do not automatically describe current editions. The textual history must be dated. Here contemporary received and critical texts largely agree that the risen Jesus spoke peace and showed the gathered disciples the bodily evidence.
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 Luke 24:36, the received text reads “Jesus says “Peace be unto you” and then shows the disciples his hands and feet.” and its Authorized Version representation reads “Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. … He shewed them his hands and his feet.” — Luke 24:36, 40”. The assessed critical reading is “Omit the greeting and/or the whole demonstrative action in the shorter Western form.”. 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 Luke 24:36, the received Hebrew/Greek form is “Jesus says “Peace be unto you” and then shows the disciples his hands and feet.”; the Authorized Version represents it as “Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. … He shewed them his hands and his feet.” — Luke 24:36, 40”. The assessed critical form is “Omit the greeting and/or the whole demonstrative action in the shorter Western form.”.
- 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 24:36, the received text reads “Jesus says “Peace be unto you” and then shows the disciples his hands and feet.” and its Authorized Version representation reads “Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. … He shewed them his hands and his feet.” — Luke 24:36, 40”. The assessed critical reading is “Omit the greeting and/or the whole demonstrative action in the shorter Western form.”. 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
- The Revision Revisedsupplied PDF pp. 138 — Passage-specific traditional-text argument
- German Bible Society — The Sixth Edition of the Greek New TestamentCurrent critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
Read the full research essay and its sources
Passage: Luke 24:36, 40
Received reading: Jesus says “Peace be unto you” and then shows the disciples his hands and feet.
Principal competing reading: Omit the greeting and/or the whole demonstrative action in the shorter Western form.
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
As the Emmaus travelers report, Jesus stands among the gathered disciples. The received text gives his greeting, “Peace be unto you.” After inviting them to see and touch him, verse 40 says that he shows them his hands and feet. A short Western form lacks the greeting and the entire demonstrative sentence.
“Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. … He shewed them his hands and his feet.” — Luke 24:36, 40
The greeting resembles John 20, and the display resembles that Gospel’s emphasis on wounds. A harmonization theory therefore exists. Yet “peace” is a natural Jewish greeting transformed by the resurrection context, and Luke’s own preceding and following words require a bodily demonstration.
The disciples think they are seeing a spirit. Jesus answers, “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.” The received verse then narrates the action his command anticipates. Removing it leaves no contradiction, but inclusion supplies the expected fulfillment.
From “non-interpolation” to inclusion
Westcott and Hort classified these lines among the passages where the shorter Western form might preserve the original against nearly all other Greek witnesses. Later critical editions rejected or softened that exceptional preference. The greeting and displayed limbs now appear in their text, with the usual apparatus record.
The received units should remain. Their omission can reflect Western abbreviation, and their narrative integration is strong. Agreement with John can arise because the risen Jesus actually greeted and showed himself to the same apostolic circle.
The body displayed is continuous with the body crucified, yet transformed. “Flesh and bones” does not deny blood or define resurrection biology exhaustively; it refutes the disciples’ conclusion that they see a disembodied spirit. The subsequent meal makes the same point through another sense.
Peace is equally concrete. It comes from the one whose death has fulfilled Scripture and whose presence dispels terror. He does not greet the deserters first with accusation. He establishes peace and then commissions witnesses.
These verses demonstrate a recurrent lesson of Luke 24 without needing a formulaic “lesson” section: older critical omissions do not automatically describe current editions. The textual history must be dated. Here contemporary received and critical texts largely agree that the risen Jesus spoke peace and showed the gathered disciples the bodily evidence.
Sources and further reading
- Luke 24:33–49; John 20:19–29; Acts 1:1–9.
- Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort, Notes on Select Readings, Western non-interpolations.
7Related materials
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- Record
- VAR-2128
- 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. Supplied-source audit completed in Core 0.6.3. Accepted local notes were matched by canonical passage and manually bounded; source claims remain attributed where current apparatus verification is pending.
- 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 greeting and verse 40 are distinct units; their grouping here follows the locked article slate, not a claim of identical transmission.
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 24:36, 40 — “Peace Be unto You” and the Displayed Hands and Feet,” VAR-2128, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas