John 1:34 — the Son of God, or the Chosen One?
John 1:34 has both “this is the Son of God” and “this is God's Chosen One” among its readings. The split turns on whether the Baptist's testimony calls Jesus the Son or the Chosen One.
What the APB prints.
Every witness, on the record.
What a blind committee did here.
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. Whatever it did at this verse, it did on the language alone — and its record is public.
The committee's printed APB text at John 1:34 reads, “And I have seen and have testified that this is the Chosen One of God.” It therefore presents Chosen One in the site's translation.
The case for each reading.
If “Chosen One”
Reading A is ὁ ἐκλεκτός, rendered the Chosen One. P5 ℵ*, dated 3rd-4th century A.D., supports it, and Holmes prints ἐκλεκτὸς. The supplied witness note characterizes these as early Egyptian witnesses and says that harmonization would erase Chosen One. The apparatus sets ἐκλεκτὸς with Holmes and WHmarg against υἱὸς. On this account, the less expected title in the Baptist's testimony is central to the case: harmonization toward Son could account for the replacement. The APB likewise prints Chosen One of God at John 1:34.
If “Son”
Reading B is ὁ υἱός, rendered the Son. NA28, a critical edition, 2012, supports υἱὸς. The apparatus records υἱὸς with WH, Treg, NA28, and RP, in contrast to ἐκλεκτὸς with Holmes and WHmarg. The case for Son rests on this printed apparatus support and on the title's place in the Baptist's climactic testimony. The packet describes Son as the title every scribe expected, while identifying Chosen One as one almost none would invent. That description frames the question without settling how the competing forms entered the transmission.
Whether ὁ ἐκλεκτός or ὁ υἱός stood in the wording remains unresolved here: the supplied evidence supports both. The change concerns the title in the Baptist's testimony; this packet supplies no wider doctrinal conclusion.
More places where the manuscripts argue.
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. Nothing on this page declares a winner — the evidence is the point.
Weigh it yourself.
The registry doesn't tell you which reading is true. It puts every witness on one page, shows what a blind committee did with the same language, and leaves the verdict where it belongs — with the reader.