1 Thessalonians 2:7, “gentle,” or “little children”?
1 Thessalonians 2:7 has two readings: ἤπιοι, gentle, and νήπιοι, infants or little children. A single nu changes how the apostles’ conduct is pictured in the verse.
The APB text at this verse
The manuscripts, editions, and versions
The committee record at this verse
The APB's translation committee works blind: it is never told it is translating the Bible, never given a book name or a verse number, and it never sees the witnesses above. Since revision 3.5, the places where the manuscripts disagree are decided before translation by three readers, Grok 4.3, GPT-6 Astra, and Claude Fable 5.1, who see the readings and the witnesses by age and class but never a reference or a manuscript name. Whatever was done at this verse was done on the language and the evidence alone, and the record is public.
“The base text reads (nothing). The copies also carry νήπιοι [early greek manuscript tradition]; the committee kept the base text. Default wording chosen; evidence is suggestive but not decisive.”
“The base text reads ἐὰν. The copies also carry the omission [early greek manuscript tradition; later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The evidence is not decisive; another reader might reasonably prefer the omission.”
“The base text reads ἤπιοι. The copies also carry νήπιοι [early greek manuscript tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The external evidence favors ἤπιοι by a modest margin and the internal evidence also supports it, but the difference in attestation is not overwhelming.”
“The base text reads ἐὰν. The copies also carry ἂν [later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. Default wording chosen because the external evidence is early and independent while the internal evidence favors the harder reading.”
The committee’s 3.5 decision kept ἤπιοι as the base text, and the APB printed text consequently says that the apostles became gentle in their midst. Its note states: “The base text reads ἤπιοι. The copies also carry νήπιοι [early greek manuscript tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The external evidence favors ἤπιοι by a modest margin and the internal evidence also supports it, but the difference in attestation is not overwhelming.” The readers saw witnesses only by class and date, without names or a reference. The pericope audit verdict is clean, with no matching rationale note.
The argument for each reading
If “gentle”
The case for ἤπιοι begins with the apparatus line, which places Treg and RP with this reading. Tregelles and Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Textform therefore provide the editions named here for gentle. The wording also fits the verse’s nursing-mother comparison as presented in the APB printed text: a nursing mother cares for her own children, and Tregelles’ row describes gentle as the smoother expression in that setting. The APB 3.5 decision likewise retained ἤπιοι, describing its external support as a modest advantage and its internal support as favorable. Still, the committee’s note expressly says that the difference in attestation is not overwhelming. The one-letter setting also leaves open a copying explanation, since the preceding word ends in ν.
If “infants”
The case for νήπιοι rests on WH and NA28 in the apparatus line. Westcott-Hort presents the more startling sense, with the apostles becoming babies among those addressed. NA28 adopts infants and labels it the harder reading with strong early support. That harder phrasing can account for why another wording might be preferred by a copyist or editor seeking the smoother image of a nursing mother. At the same time, the physical form of the variation supplies another possibility: one nu separates the words, and the preceding word ends in ν. A copyist’s eye could double that letter or drop it. The packet does not resolve which of those copying movements occurred.
What remains uncertain is whether the single nu entered or disappeared in copying, and whether the smoother nursing-mother image or the more startling infants image better explains the variation. The reading changes the verse’s immediate self-description, while the comparison with a nursing mother remains part of the printed wording. No doctrine is decided by this one-letter question; most doctrines rest on many passages. The committee itself describes the attestation difference as not overwhelming.
Common questions
What is the textual variant in 1 Thessalonians 2:7?
The alternatives are ἤπιοι, gentle, and νήπιοι, infants or little children. They differ by one nu.
Why could these two readings be confused?
The word before the variant ends in ν. The packet notes that a copyist’s eye could double the letter or drop it.
Which reading did the APB committee print?
The APB printed gentle and the 3.5 decision kept ἤπιοι as the base text, while describing the difference in attestation as not overwhelming.
Related entries
Witness readings for critical editions are quoted from the SBLGNT apparatus (CC BY 4.0); Hebrew text from the Westminster Leningrad Codex (Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible). Readings of ancient manuscripts and versions are cited as published scholarly fact with their sources linked above. The page does not declare which reading is original.
The registry gives no verdict
The registry does not say which reading is original. Each page lists the witnesses, shows what the committee did with the same text, and leaves the judgment to the reader.