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
Two small clauses are disputed in the chapter: “when they shall rise” after “in the resurrection,” and “with all the soul” in the scribe’s summary of the greatest commandment.
Variant class
Punctuation
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
“In the resurrection, when they shall rise,” and “with all the heart, understanding, soul, and strength.”
Authorized Version
“In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them?” — Mark 12:23
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
Omission or bracketing of “when they shall rise,” and omission of “with all the soul” in verse 33.
Translation or explanation
Omission or bracketing of “when they shall rise,” and omission of “with all the soul” in verse 33.
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, a proposed mechanism of accidental omission, authorial usage, grammar, or immediate context. 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 Mark 12:23
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
No UBS6 / intended NA29 main-text change is recorded for this passage in the controlled 169-change ledger.
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
Passage: Mark 12:23, 33 Received reading: “In the resurrection, when they shall rise,” and “with all the heart, understanding, soul, and strength.” “In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them?” The Sadducees ask, “In the resurrection, when they shall rise,” whose wife the woman will be.
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At Mark 12:23, 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 tradition brackets the first repetition in some editions and omits the soul phrase in verse 33.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Mark 12:23 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: Passage: Mark 12:23, 33 Received reading: “In the resurrection, when they shall rise,” and “with all the heart, understanding, soul, and strength.” “In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them?” The Sadducees ask, “In the resurrection, when they shall rise,” whose wife the woman will be.
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 New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (Cambridge, 1894).
Internal and transcriptional evidence
Principal competing reading: Omission or bracketing of “when they shall rise,” and omission of “with all the soul” in verse 33. Later the scribe speaks of loving God with heart, understanding, soul, and strength. That is the point made for omission: Matthew and Luke ask the question without the repeated clause, so a scribe might expand Mark rather than an author writing economically.
Reception and ecclesiastical use
The critical tradition brackets the first repetition in some editions and omits the soul phrase in verse 33.
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at Mark 12:23. 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 tradition brackets the first repetition in some editions and omits the soul phrase in verse 33.
Conclusion
The phrase “all the soul” may look repetitive beside heart and understanding, yet Deuteronomy’s command is intentionally total. Biblical anthropology does not divide these nouns into sealed compartments; overlapping terms insist that no faculty is withheld. The scribe’s fourfold recital thus functions rhetorically. A shorter list can communicate the same doctrine, but the full list better explains why Jesus recognizes an answer approaching the kingdom.
Both received phrases should stand. The first bears Mark’s characteristic spoken redundancy; the second completes a carefully varied fourfold response. In each case the shorter reading is attractive because nothing essential seems lost. That very smoothness is a credible history of omission.
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 Mark 12:23, the received text reads “In the resurrection, when they shall rise,” and “with all the heart, understanding, soul, and strength.” and its Authorized Version representation reads “In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them?” — Mark 12:23”. The assessed critical reading is “Omission or bracketing of “when they shall rise,” and omission of “with all the soul” in verse 33.”. 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 Mark 12:23, the received Hebrew/Greek form is “In the resurrection, when they shall rise,” and “with all the heart, understanding, soul, and strength.”; the Authorized Version represents it as “In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them?” — Mark 12:23”. The assessed critical form is “Omission or bracketing of “when they shall rise,” and omission of “with all the soul” in verse 33.”.
- 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 Mark 12:23, the received text reads “In the resurrection, when they shall rise,” and “with all the heart, understanding, soul, and strength.” and its Authorized Version representation reads “In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them?” — Mark 12:23”. The assessed critical reading is “Omission or bracketing of “when they shall rise,” and omission of “with all the soul” in verse 33.”. 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
- Digital ECM — Mark 12:23Current critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
- 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
Read the full research essay and its sources
Passage: Mark 12:23, 33
Received reading: “In the resurrection, when they shall rise,” and “with all the heart, understanding, soul, and strength.”
Principal competing reading: Omission or bracketing of “when they shall rise,” and omission of “with all the soul” in verse 33.
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
“In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them?” — Mark 12:23
Mark uses deliberate fullness in two places that shorter texts trim. The Sadducees ask, “In the resurrection, when they shall rise,” whose wife the woman will be. Later the scribe speaks of loving God with heart, understanding, soul, and strength. The critical tradition brackets the first repetition in some editions and omits the soul phrase in verse 33.
“In the resurrection, when they shall rise” sounds redundant. That is the point made for omission: Matthew and Luke ask the question without the repeated clause, so a scribe might expand Mark rather than an author writing economically.
Markan fullness and a scribe’s confession
Mark regularly doubles an idea in slightly different words. The Sadducees’ repetition can imitate spoken insistence or clarify that they mean the supposed future event, not resurrection as a mere doctrine. A copyist pursuing smoother Greek has reason to remove it; a copyist has little reason to add such inelegance.
Verse 33 presents a different kind of list. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy with heart, soul, mind, and strength. The scribe answers with heart, understanding, soul, and strength, then says such love exceeds burnt offerings and sacrifices. Omitting “soul” shortens the recital and may reflect a line skipped between similar “from the whole” phrases.
The scribe does not repeat mechanically. He substitutes “understanding” for “mind” and interprets the command in his own words. Retaining “soul” preserves both his freedom and his comprehensiveness. His insight is that whole-person love and neighbor love are more fundamental than the sacrificial system administered at the nearby temple.
Neither variant changes Jesus’ answer to the Sadducees or his commendation of the scribe. Resurrection is defended from God’s covenant name; love remains greater than offerings. The clauses matter because Mark’s actual texture should not be edited into a uniformly terse style.
The phrase “all the soul” may look repetitive beside heart and understanding, yet Deuteronomy’s command is intentionally total. Biblical anthropology does not divide these nouns into sealed compartments; overlapping terms insist that no faculty is withheld. The scribe’s fourfold recital thus functions rhetorically. A shorter list can communicate the same doctrine, but the full list better explains why Jesus recognizes an answer approaching the kingdom.
Both received phrases should stand. The first bears Mark’s characteristic spoken redundancy; the second completes a carefully varied fourfold response. In each case the shorter reading is attractive because nothing essential seems lost. That very smoothness is a credible history of omission.
Sources and further reading
- F. H. A. Scrivener, ed., The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (Cambridge, 1894).
- Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition (Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010), text and apparatus.
- Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed., notes on the stated passage.
- Deuteronomy 6:4–5; 1 Samuel 15:22; Mark 12:18–34; Matthew 22:23–40; Luke 20:27–40.
7Related materials
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- Record
- VAR-2042
- 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 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, “Mark 12:23, 33 — “When They Shall Rise” and Loving God above Burnt Offerings,” VAR-2042, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas