Revelation Ch 15 verse 6

Here is an interesting Greek textual variant in Revelation 15:6, “and out of the temple came the seven angels who had the seven plagues, dressed in clean bright linen and gird around the chest with golden sashes.” Some major manuscripts read “stone” instead of linen, λιθον instead of λινον. The Tyndale House GNT even has a diamond with the λιθον reading.

The “anointed cherub who covers” in Ezekiel 28:13, also known as Satan, was dressed in stones. Oecumenius comments that the lower ranking angels were dressed in linen and the higher angels in
stones of increasing value. (Note that Oecumenius says for Romans 13:14, “Put ye on our STONE, Jesus Christ”! So maybe he had a stone-dress obsession.)

The reading λιθον is certainly the more difficult. And the word λινον here is found with rather varying accents and grammatical cases. Furthermore, the other instances of linen in Revelation are the word βυσσινος, and in the gospels, σινδων and not λινον. The word λινον is used once in the gospels (Mt
12:20), but for “wick,” as in “a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.”

λίνον 91 1006 1734 1841 1888txt 2074 2081 2814 vg-cle TR AN HF BG RP SBL TH♦ECM NA28 {B} ‖
λινον P 051 792 syr-ph,h cop-bo arm eth Tyc Prim Andr Areth ‖ λινὸν 93 469 922 1424 2065 2070txt ‖ λῖνον 1611 1778txt 1888com 2070com ‖ λϊνον 1678 ‖ λἴνον or λΐνον 2846 ‖ λινουν 𝔓⁴⁷ 046 1828 it-ar,gig,(h) (Leviticus 6 in LXX) ‖ λινους ℵ lat-C ‖ λινου 2329 ‖ λιθον A C 1778mg* 2053 2062 2080 vg-am,fu,demid,tol,lipss Rheims syr-h-mg slav-b ps-Ambr Andr Oec Bede WH TH♦ ‖ neither cop-sa eth Cass ‖ lac 𝔓¹¹⁵ 2050 2351.

Download Revelation with notes about this here.

Revelation 19;6 Variant

Rev. 19:6b txt κυριος ο θεος ημων ℵ² P 046 91 93 469 1424 1611 1854 1888 2053 2062 2065 2074 2329 2344 𝔐Κ it-ar,c,dem,div,(gig),haf vg-am,fu syr-h cop-sa> geo arab-e Oec Apr Beat ps-Ambr Tyc2 TR-Compl HF BG RP TH ECM NA28 [ημων] {C} ‖
κυριος ο θεος A 792 911 1006 1734 1841 2070 2846 it-t vg-ms syr-phc cop-sams,bo Cypr TR-Scriv,Elz,Bez,Steph,Eras4,5 AN SBL ‖
ο θεος ημων 051 2081 arab-s Andr ‖ ο θεος ο κυριος ημων ℵ* 2080 ‖
ο θεος ο κυριος 1778 ‖
ο θεος 1678 2814 eth TR-Eras1,2,3,Ald,Col ‖
κυριος ημων Prim ‖
κυριος syr-ph* cop-boms ‖
lac C 0229 1828 2050 2351.

This is one of the most difficult variants for me to decide.  The NA28 has [ημων] in square brackets and for good reason.  Family 052 is split 3 ways.  The TR editions are split 3 ways.  The Latin, Syriac and Coptic versions are split.

Even though I highly esteem MSS A and 2846, I decided to go with the RP/TH reading with ημων not in square brackets, for 3 reasons.

1.) The phrase κυριος ο θεος ο παντοκρατωρ without ημων, as found here in A 2846 and the KJV, is also in 4:8, 11:17, 15:3, 16:7, and 21:22. Since this phrase is common and familiar in the Apocalypse, scribes might tend to write it unconsciously automatically, rather than the phrase with ημων added.

2.) MS 1734 is almost always found backing the RP text, not as here. This makes me suspect that the MSS without ημων are random scattered ones that accidentally omitted it, and not according to their usual clusters.

3.) The general tendency of scribes to more often accidentally drop a small word rather than add one.

If not for the presence of these factors, I would be loathe not to go with the TR phrase, since it is in the famous Hallelujah chorus in G. F. Handel’s oratorio The Messiah.

How various English translations have rendered the aorist verb ἐβασίλευσεν: 

Tyndale reigneth
KJV reigneth
ASV reigneth
NKJV reigns
CSB reigns
ERV rules
ESV reigns
Ehteridge (from Syriac) reigneth
ISV is reigning
NET reigns
NIV reigns
Murdock (from Syriac) reigns
WEB reigns
Mounce reigns
NASB reigns
NRSV reigns

And ones that rendered it non-gnomic:
Wycliffe hath regned
Douay hath reigned
Geneva: hath reigned
EMTV: has begun to reign
CJB has begun to reign
CEV now rules
GW has become king
JB Phillips has come into his kingdom
NAB has established his reign
Young’s reign did

You can download my latest revision of the Apocalypse of John here.

Matthew ch 12 verse 47

Matthew 12:47 is omitted in the English Standard Bible, and bracketed in the New American Standard Bible and the New American Bible. This is because the verse is not found in important early manuscripts such as ℵ* B L it-ff¹,k syr-c,s cop-sa,mae²

However, when you look at the other Greek manuscripts which do contain it, you can see that it is a clear case of parablepsis, where perhaps the scribe who was copying a manuscript, took a break after writing the word λαλησαι, and told himself, “When I get back, I resume after the line that ended with λαλησαι. But, when he got back, he resumed after the second occurrence of λαλησαι in v. 47, and so skipped v. 47 because he thought he had already written that part. (There were no verse numbers then.) This oversight is cause by “homoioteleuton,” that is, same ending.

In the image I made below, you can see what it might have looked like in the first few centuries after Christ:

ECM Revelation

I have been using my printed ECM of Revelation for some time now, and I inform you that you need both the printed and the online editions. For example, a footnote I worked on today is πληρωσωσιν in 6:11. πληρωσωσιν is the Majority and the ECM reading, πληρωθωσιν is the NA28 reading, and the TR reading is πληρωσονται. However, the printed edition does not list the witnesses supporting the majority for this variant, but only those supporting the minority readings. The online edition, however, does list those. The problem is that Hoskier lists GA2256 as supporting the TR, but if you had only the printed edition of the ECM, you would not know that the online edition lists 2256r as supporting πληρωσωσιν. The small letter “r” after a MS number means that though it is misspelled or misformed, it supports the reading it is listed with. I looked at the fine image of 2256 online, and Hoskier is incorrect. GA2256 reads πληρώσοσιν, which most certainly does not support the TR. That leaves the TR reading with support only from 296 and 2049, which are handwritten copies of the TR itself.

But I have also found places where Hoskier was correct and the NA28 apparatus was wrong, like Revelation 5:9, where Hoskier correctly shows that GA2329 omits τω θεω ημας εν τω αιματι σου εκ πασης φυλης και γλωσσης και λαου και εθνους, but the NA28 and UBS5 list it as supporting the Majority.

Download free my critical edition of Revelation as PDF here.

Friberg Explanation

New Upload: A PDF of Timothy Friberg’s paper, A MODEST EXPLANATION FOR THE LAYMAN OF IDEAS RELATED TO DETERMINING THE TEXT OF THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT. Here is the download link.

This paper explains the Byzantine Priority position in Textual Criticism. The PDF is 1.5 MB in size. The document title for download purposes is Modest-Explanation-Friberg.pdf

Please Donate

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David Robert Palmer

Difficult Robinson-Pierpont Readings

I had difficulty translating these first two passages from the Robinson-Pierpont text, so I looked at the WEB version, which is generally a Majority Text translation, and I see that he did not adapt the RP text in these two passages, but the NA28 instead.

In James 2:18,
the EMTV version follows the TR rather than RP, and the WEB follows the NA28 rather than the TR or RP.

RP: εῖξόν μοι τὴν πίστιν σου ἐκ τῶν ἔργων σου, κἀγὼ δείξω σοι ἐκ τῶν ἔργων μου τὴν πίστιν μου.

“Show me your faith by your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”


This completely misses the contrast set by the previous sentence: “You have faith, I have works.”  But here, they both have works by which they demonstrate their faith.  The Textus Receptus and the NA28 text do show the contrast, but the TR has one more σου- “your” in it and an extra μου- “my” in it. 

TR: δεῖξόν μοι τὴν πίστιν σου χωρὶς τῶν ἔργων σου, κἀγὼ δείξω σοι ἐκ τῶν ἔργων μου τὴν πίστιν μου.

“Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

EMTV: Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by means of my works. 

NA28: δεῖξόν μοι τὴν πίστιν σου χωρὶς τῶν ἔργων, κἀγώ σοι

δείξω ἐκ τῶν ἔργων μου τὴν πίστιν

DRP: “Demonstrate to me that faith of yours without works, and I will demonstrate faith to you by means of my works.”

WEB: “Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
The WEB follows the NA28 without the extra “your” found in the TR, because the NA28 text has the clearest teaching of the principle. 

Revelation 3:7

TR: ὁ ἔχων τὴν κλεῖδα τοῦ Δαβίδ, ὁ ἀνοίγων καὶ οὐδεὶς κλείει, καὶ κλείων καὶ οὐδεὶς ἀνοίγει

the one holding the key of David, who opens and no one closes, and closes and no one opens

NA28: ὁ ἔχων τὴν κλεῖν Δαυίδ, ο ανοιγων και ουδεις κλεισει
και κλειων και ουδεις ανοιγει
“the one holding the key of David, who opens and no one closes, and closes and no one opens”

RP: ὁ ἔχων τὴν κλεῖν τοῦ Δαυίδ, ὁ ἀνοίγων καὶ οὐδεὶς κλείσει αὐτὴν, εἴ μὴ ὁ ἀνοίγων: καὶ οὐδεὶς ἀνοίξει.

the one holding the key of David, who opens and no one shall close except the one opening, and no one shall open:

WEB: he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one can shut, and who shuts and no one opens

EMTV: He who has the key of David, He that opens and no man shuts, except He that opens, and no man shall open.”

The EMTV follows the RP text but it inaccurately says “no MAN” shall open, but that is not in the Greek.  The WEB version follows the TR or NA28, which say the same thing as each other with slightly different verb tenses. 

Acts 26:4

RP: τὴν ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς γενομένην ἐν τῷ ἔθνει μου ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις

My manner of life since youth therefore, which took place at first in my own country in Jerusalem

NA28: τὴν ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς γενομένην ἐν τῷ ἔθνει μου ἔν τε Ἱεροσολύμοις
My manner of life since youth therefore, which took place at first in my own country and also in Jerusalem

The problem with translations made from the Byzantine Greek text not containing τε – “and also” – is that they are saying Paul’s life was spent in Jerusalem from the beginning, when in fact his country was Cilicia, in the city of Tarsus. (Acts 9:11; 21:39; 22:3; 23:34).  Under the law, Paul was a citizen of Cilicia, Acts 23:34.  Paul consistently calls Cilicia his “country” and Israel his “nation.”The WEB version, a Majority Text translation, therefore does not follow the TR or Majority text here but follows the NA28 instead.

You can download my translations of James, Revelation, and Acts at these links.

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Updates September 2024

I updated the Gospel of Luke with the Tyndale House diamonded readings, as also the Gospel of John. Luke is also updated in the printed versions on Amazon: Gospel of Luke eclectic; Gospel of Luke Byzantine.

I also updated the Textus Receptus whole Bible on Kindle. The Textus Receptus whole Bible PDF is also updated, as are the eclectic whole Bible, and the Robinson-Pierpont whole Bible.

I am continuing working on Revelation, updating it from the ECM, and also plan to add the Tyndale House diamonded readings in the Gospel of Matthew.