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
At Mark 8:35, UBS6/intended NA29 changes the NA28 main text from “ἀπολέσει” to “ἀπολέσῃ”; this dossier compares both forms with the TR, the Authorized Version, and the canonical context.
Variant class
Inflection / grammar
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
ὃς γὰρ ἂν θέλῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ σῶσαι, ἀπολέσει αὐτήν· ὃς δ’ ἂν ἀπολέσῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ καὶ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, οὗτος σώσει αὐτήν.
Authorized Version
“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” — Mark 8:35, Authorized Version
Edition note
The full verse is supplied from the project’s Scrivener 1894 received-text source. Each edition-change row separately records whether its exact unit agrees with NA28, UBS6/intended NA29, neither form, or requires address-level review.
3NA28 baseline and critical-text rationale
NA28 baseline reading
NA29-073 (8:35/28): ἀπολέσει
Translation or explanation
The NA28 baseline contains 1 controlled unit at this verse. Square brackets and “om.” reproduce the project workbook; no bracket is silently converted into an unqualified printed reading.
Metzger’s report of the UBS committee
Metzger's second-edition commentary contains 1 earlier UBS4 note at Mark 8:35. The discussion invokes possible accidental omission, harmonization, grammar, usage, or context, comparative difficulty. The entry displays confidence rating {C}. Because Metzger predates the ECM/UBS6 revision, it supplies earlier committee context rather than the reason for the new decision.
Locator: Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed., note at Mark 8:35
ECM / CBGM evidence and editors
INTF reports 33 Mark changes and provides the digital ECM, CBGM data, and Text-Critical Commentary for passages with a commentary marker. H. A. G. Houghton's current UBS6 commentary covers every UBS6 apparatus unit. No passage-specific explanation beyond an independently extracted official note is invented here. CBGM supplies coherence evidence; the editors define the local stemma and make the final textual and philological judgment.
4UBS6 and intended NA29 revision
1 controlled main-text change row affects this verse. Relative to the TR: 1 agrees with the TR in the NA28 form. UBS6 is published as the intended NA29 main text; the complete NA29 volume and apparatus remain forthcoming.
| Unit | NA28 baseline | Published UBS6 / intended NA29 main text | Source and verification |
|---|---|---|---|
| NA29-073 | ἀπολέσει | ἀπολέσῃ | M1 M1 p.1 — Workbook-transcribed; printed NA29 collation pending. TR comparison: The NA28 form agrees with the TR at this unit. |
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
No meaningful doctrinal effect
Exact proposition affected
No doctrinal proposition changes; the issue concerns form, syntax, or expression.
Doctrinal analysis
The inflection / grammar difference does not change the proposition represented by the Authorized Version. It remains textually worth recording, but it should not be promoted into a doctrinal emergency.
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At Mark 8:35, the critical decision avoids arbitrariness only if the local witnesses, editorially proposed stemma, transcriptional account, intrinsic fit, and inferential step are made public. Naming the ECM or CBGM does not by itself supply that argument. The current controlled comparison is: 1 agrees with the TR in the NA28 form.
Inconsistency
The same canons must be applied at Mark 8:35 and at comparable units. A Byzantine or TR-aligned reading cannot be dismissed merely for being Byzantine when the ECM itself repeatedly adopts such readings, nor can “shorter,” “harder,” age, or coherence function as an unexplained trump only when convenient.
Consequences
No meaningful doctrinal effect: The inflection / grammar difference does not change the proposition represented by the Authorized Version. It remains textually worth recording, but it should not be promoted into a doctrinal emergency. Canonical and doctrinal consequence is evidence to explain, not a shortcut that permits the desired theology to dictate the wording.
Preconditions of intelligibility
The analysis presupposes stable authorship, meaningful language, objective logic, transmissible evidence, and an identifiable canon capable of judging later reconstructions. A method that treats the text as indefinitely revisable must still explain how its appeals to authorial meaning, Scripture-wide coherence, and ecclesiastical use remain intelligible.
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
This package does not claim a fresh witness-by-witness collation for Mark 8:35. The ECM/digital ECM apparatus and commentary remain the controlling sources for the critical edition’s external evidence. The TR’s broad ecclesiastical reception is relevant evidence, but it is not used as a substitute for identifying manuscripts, versions, corrections, and genealogical relationships at the unit.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
At Mark 8:35, compare authorial morphology, agreement, spelling conventions, and ordinary scribal normalization. The analysis distinguishes a formal change from a change in propositional content.
Reception and ecclesiastical use
The Authorized Version publicly represents the received Greek text at Mark 8:35. Its long ecclesiastical use is relevant to reception and intelligibility, but this record does not turn reception into a bare majority-vote rule or exempt the verse from source-level examination.
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is treated as the confessional context for an identifiable text received in the church, not as permission to ignore variants. At Mark 8:35, the TR/AV is evaluated against the controlled edition rows, the passage, the rest of Scripture, and the available historical evidence.
Canonical coherence with the rest of Scripture
At Mark 8:35, the TR agrees with the NA28 side of every substantive unit on this card, while UBS6/intended NA29 moves away. The Authorized Version’s representation remains grammatically and canonically coherent in context. The newer reading must therefore provide a passage-level reason strong enough to displace a received form that creates no demonstrated conflict with the rest of Scripture; an appeal to “the CBGM” by itself is not that reason.
Canonical-coherence verdict
Authorized Version / TR coherent; the UBS6 revision diverges without a demonstrated canonical gain in the evidence presently attached to this record. The critical reading must show an equal or better fit with the immediate passage and the rest of Scripture before displacing the received form.
Response to the principal critical argument
The editorial outcome is recorded exactly, but the argument is not allowed to collapse into an edition label or an unexplained coherence score. At Mark 8:35, the current comparison is: 1 agrees with the TR in the NA28 form. A complete critical case must disclose the local witnesses, the proposed local stemma, the transcriptional and intrinsic reasons, and the move from those premises to the selected reading. Where that passage-specific argument has not been extracted, the record says so instead of imputing a motive.
Conclusion
Retain the Authorized Version at Mark 8:35. The AV is correct at this locus because it faithfully represents the TR and that wording forms a coherent reading within the passage and the rest of Scripture. The newer critical revision moves away from that received form and, on the evidence presently attached to this record, does not demonstrate an equal or better canonical fit. The new form therefore should not displace the coherent received reading until its passage-specific external, internal, and canonical case is stated and answered.
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 Mark 8:35, the current critical revision is 8:35/28: UBS6/intended NA29 “ἀπολέσῃ”; NA28 “ἀπολέσει”; The NA28 form agrees with the TR at this unit.. At least one resulting unit does not agree with the received text. No local Christian doctrine is lost; the immediate effect is confined to this textual difference.
Necessary reasoning chain
- At Mark 8:35, the received Hebrew/Greek form is “ὃς γὰρ ἂν θέλῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ σῶσαι, ἀπολέσει αὐτήν· ὃς δ’ ἂν ἀπολέσῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ καὶ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, οὗτος σώσει αὐτήν.”; the Authorized Version represents it as “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” — Mark 8:35, Authorized Version”. The assessed critical form is “8:35/28: UBS6/intended NA29 “ἀπολέσῃ”; NA28 “ἀπολέσει”; The NA28 form agrees with the TR at this unit.”.
- 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 8:35, the current critical revision is 8:35/28: UBS6/intended NA29 “ἀπολέσῃ”; NA28 “ἀπολέσει”; The NA28 form agrees with the TR at this unit.. At least one resulting unit does not agree with the received text. No local Christian doctrine is lost; the immediate effect is confined to this textual difference.
- 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
- INTF — ECM Mark has Arrived (33 changes)Current critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
- Digital ECM — Mark 8:35Current critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
- German Bible Society — UBS6 publications and relation to NA29Current critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
Read the full research essay and its sources
Passage: Mark 8:35
Received reading: “For my sake and the gospel’s” (ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ καὶ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου).
Principal competing reading: “For my sake,” omitting “and the gospel’s.”
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
“Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” — Mark 8:35
Jesus’ call to take up the cross reaches its paradox in verse 35: the person who loses life “for my sake and the gospel’s” will save it. The Textus Receptus and the leading critical text preserve both objects. Some witnesses have only “for my sake,” the form found in Matthew 16:25 and Luke 9:24.
The shorter parallel gives omission a ready source. A copyist accustomed to Matthew or Luke could stop after “my sake.” The Markan addition is also a compact phrase bounded by repeated genitive endings, so it can disappear without disturbing the sentence.
Christ and his announced good news
The two objects are not competitors. The gospel is the royal news concerning Jesus’ identity, death, and resurrection. Loyalty to Christ cannot be separated from loyalty to his message, and proclamation of the message cannot replace personal allegiance to him.
Mark’s wording suits his book. He opens with “the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ,” records Jesus preaching the gospel, and later promises that the gospel must be preached among all nations. Losing one’s life for the gospel belongs to this evangelist’s sustained vocabulary.
An addition is conceivable. A reader might enlarge “for me” in order to connect the saying with Mark’s theme. Yet that editorial motive is less immediate than harmonization toward the familiar shorter form. The clause’s broad and early support also makes it more than a late ecclesiastical slogan.
The promise does not teach salvation by martyrdom. A lost life does not purchase eternal life as a meritorious price. The saying describes the fruit and cost of union with Christ: refusing him to preserve the present age exposes the soul to loss, while faithful surrender is vindicated by the Son of man when he comes in glory.
The preposition “for” marks cause, not merely association. The disciple loses life because allegiance to Christ and the gospel produces conflict with a hostile age. That prevents voluntary danger from being confused with cross-bearing. Recklessness for its own sake is not promised salvation; faithful loss incurred in obedience to the King and his message is the life Christ vindicates.
Both major printed traditions rightly keep “and the gospel’s.” This agreement should be stated, not buried. The fuller Markan line gives missionaries, confessors, and ordinary disciples the same center: Christ himself and the good news he entrusted to them. What God has joined in the sentence should not be divided by an abbreviated parallel.
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.
- Matthew 16:24–28; Mark 1:1, 14–15; 8:34–38; 13:10; Luke 9:23–27.
7Related materials
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- Record
- VAR-2029
- Status
- Preliminary
- Version
- 1.2-na29-complete
- 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
- All 169 edition-change rows were reconciled to the controlled workbook and grouped into 154 canonical verse cards. TR and Authorized Version full-verse texts were attached from the project’s Scrivener/KJV sources. Row-level TR alignment is machine-assisted and manually overridden where the unit was known to require address-level judgment; printed NA29-apparatus review and independent witness collation remain open. Metzger notes are exact-verse matches to his earlier UBS4 commentary and are not represented as explanations of later ECM decisions.
- Rights and access
- Original editorial synthesis; short biblical and edition readings are cited for scholarly comparison. Source editions, photographs, and linked resources retain their stated rights.
- Known limitations
- Staging synthesis. The package records all edition changes, but it is not a new collation of every witness. A passage-specific ECM rationale is stated only when an identified official explanation was extracted; otherwise the linked commentary/apparatus remains the source to consult. Canonical coherence is asserted proportionately and no doctrinal conflict is manufactured for orthographic or equivalent forms.
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 8:35 — “For My Sake and the Gospel’s”: Is the Gospel Clause Authentic?,” VAR-2029, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.2-na29-complete.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas