John 3:13, the Son of Man… who is in heaven?
Reading A ends John 3:13 without “who is in heaven”; Reading B includes it. The clause places the Son of Man in heaven while he speaks on earth.
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 ὁ ὢν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ. [greek majuscule; early greek manuscript tradition; later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. default chosen because external weight favors the omission and internal probability supports omission over addition”
“The base text reads ἀνθρώπου. The copies also carry ὁ ὢν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ [greek majuscule; early greek manuscript tradition; later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The early and independent attestation for ἀνθρώπου outweighs the later support for ὁ ὢν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, and the shorter wording is the one from which the longer one is more easily derived.”
The committee’s decision was to keep the base text in its printed text, which ends the verse with the Son of Man. The blind readers had only class and date categories. The decision note states, “the committee kept the base text.” The pericope audit verdict is “clean”; no matching rationale note is recorded.
The argument for each reading
If the clause entered later
Reading A ends John 3:13 after “the Son of Man.” Westcott-Hort reads ἀνθρώπου with the clause absent, and the apparatus places WH and NA28 on that side. The supplied difference describes the clause as absent from the oldest witnesses. The textual decision gives a stated rationale for retaining this ending: external weight favors omission, and its note considers the shorter wording a possible source from which the longer wording arose. This case therefore treats the added words as a later entry, while leaving the rival attestation visible.
If the paradox is original
Reading B retains ὁ ὢν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, yielding “who is in heaven.” Robinson-Pierpont prints this clause, and the raw apparatus records Treg and RP with it. The supplied difference says it is present in the mass of manuscripts; the witness record also says the Byzantine text keeps the paradoxical clause. On this reading, the verse explicitly places the Son of Man in heaven while he speaks on earth. The stated stake is whether that paradox belongs to the wording itself, rather than whether the surrounding passage remains.
The evidence supplied here does not settle for every reader how the clause entered the transmission. The variation changes an explicit statement about the Son of Man being in heaven while speaking on earth. It does not remove the Son of Man from the verse or alter the printed wording of John 3:12 and John 3:14. Broader doctrinal claims should not rest on this clause alone; most doctrines draw on many passages.
Common questions
Does the committee's printed text include who is in heaven?
No. Its printed John 3:13 ends with the Son of Man, while its decision note says the copies also carry ὁ ὢν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ.
Which supplied witness supports the added clause?
Robinson-Pierpont supports it and prints ὁ ὢν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ. The raw apparatus also lists Treg and RP with the clause.
What changes if the clause is included?
The verse then explicitly says that the Son of Man is in heaven while speaking on earth. Without it, the verse ends after the Son of Man.
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.