John 3:13 — the Son of Man… who is in heaven?
Some witnesses end John 3:13 with the Son of Man alone, while others add who is in heaven. The question is whether the clause belongs at the verse’s end.
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 APB text for John 3:13 reads, “And no one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” Its printed wording ends there, without the added clause.
The case for each reading.
If the clause entered later
Reading A ends the verse after the Son of Man. Westcott-Hort (1881) supports this form, printing ἀνθρώπου without a following clause. The apparatus likewise places WH and NA28 on the shorter side: ἀνθρώπου WH NA28. The packet’s summary describes the clause as absent from the oldest witnesses. On this account, the later wording would be an addition to the shorter ending. The stated stake is therefore whether the clause entered later. The evidence supplied identifies the shorter form and its supporting editions, but does not supply a mechanism or date for such an entry.
If the paradox is original
Reading B retains ὁ ὢν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, who is in heaven, after the Son of Man. Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Textform (2005) supports this wording, and the apparatus records the addition with Treg and RP: + ὁ ὢν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ Treg RP. The packet describes this clause as present in the mass of manuscripts. If it belongs to the verse, the wording places the Son of Man in heaven while he speaks on earth; that is the paradox named by the crux. The supplied evidence establishes that this longer reading has substantial transmission, without settling why the two forms differ.
The supplied evidence shows a real division between a shorter ending and a longer clause, but it does not resolve how or when the difference arose. What changes is whether John 3:13 explicitly says the Son of Man is in heaven while speaking on earth. No doctrine can be decided from this single clause; doctrines rest on many passages.
Asked plainly.
Does John 3:13 include who is in heaven?
It does in reading B, ὁ ὢν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ. Reading A ends with the Son of Man and has no added clause.
Which editions print the shorter ending of John 3:13?
Westcott-Hort (1881) prints the shorter ending. The apparatus also lists WH and NA28 with ἀνθρώπου.
What changes if the longer reading is present?
The longer reading explicitly places the Son of Man in heaven while he speaks on earth. The shorter reading does not contain that clause.
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.