John 5:4, the angel who troubled the water
Modern Bibles differ because some print the angel-and-water explanation as reading B, while others end verse 3 without it as reading A. The question is whether the explanation belongs in John 5:3-4.
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.
John 5:4: set in brackets as a disputed passage, wording kept.
“The base text reads (nothing). The copies also carry πολὺ [greek majuscule; later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. Default wording chosen; evidence is not decisive enough to reach 0.8.”
“The base text reads (nothing). The copies also carry ἐκδεχομένων τὴν τοῦ ὕδατος κίνησιν. [greek majuscule; later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The default wording has substantially stronger early and diverse support, and the longer alternative has the character of a secondary clarification.”
“The base text reads πλῆθος. The copies also carry πολὺ [later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. Retain the default. The evidence does not establish the independence of every early witness, but the contrast in date and breadth of support is substantial.”
“The base text reads ξηρῶν. The copies also carry ἐκδεχομένων τὴν τοῦ ὕδατος κίνησιν. 4 ἄγγελος γὰρ κατὰ καιρὸν κατέβαινεν ἐν τῇ κολυμβήθρᾳ, καὶ ἐτάρασσεν τὸ ὕδωρ· ὁ οὖν πρῶτος ἐμβὰς μετὰ τὴν ταραχὴν τοῦ ὕδατος, ὑγιὴς ἐγίνετο, ᾧ δήποτε κατείχετο νοσήματι. [later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. default wording chosen”
“This passage is not in the earliest copies of the text. The committee judged it a later addition and keeps it in brackets rather than removing it. The external evidence strongly favors absence, and the longer wording has the character of an explanatory addition.”
“Included from the Faithlife/SBLGNT apparatus at John 5:3 as a traditional verse addition. Witnesses: RP.”
The APB 3.5 decision sets John 5:4 in brackets as a disputed passage and keeps its wording. Its note states: “This passage is not in the earliest copies of the text. The committee judged it a later addition and keeps it in brackets rather than removing it.” The committee’s own record labels the item “Textual supplement: John 5:4” and records the pericope audit verdict as “clean.”
The argument for each reading
If the angel is a gloss
Reading A ends the text after the description of those who were blind, lame, and paralyzed. NA28 supports this form, and the apparatus likewise sets ξηρῶν against the longer wording preserved by RP. On this reading, the narrative leaves the pool’s reported movement unexplained at this point. Verse 7 still contains the paralytic’s reference to the water being stirred, so the reader encounters his words without the longer explanation being part of verses 3b-4. The stated difference identifies a possible account of the longer form: the paralytic’s words may assume a legend already known, and a scribe may have supplied that explanation in the text. That account explains why the addition is expansive, including both the angel’s action and the healing of the first person into the water.
If the verse belongs
Reading B retains the account that an angel went down into the pool and stirred the water. RP supports this reading, and its witness description says that the Byzantine text carries verses 3b-4 in full. The apparatus presents the longer material after ξηρῶν, beginning with ἐκδεχομένων τὴν τοῦ ὕδατος κίνησιν and continuing through the explanation of the first person entering after the water’s stirring. In this form, John 5:3-4 supplies the background for the paralytic’s words in verse 7: people wait for the movement of the water, and the first to enter is healed. The longer reading therefore makes explicit the pool tradition assumed by the scene rather than leaving that tradition to verse 7 alone.
The surviving packet presents two printed forms and describes competing explanations for their relationship, but it does not remove uncertainty about the passage’s history. The variant changes whether John 5:3-4 explicitly explains the stirred water and the reported healing. It does not change the paralytic’s words in verse 7, which refer to the water’s stirring in either form. No doctrinal conclusion is supplied by this variant alone; doctrines, where relevant, rest on many passages.
Common questions
Why do some Bibles put John 5:4 in brackets?
The APB 3.5 decision prints the passage in brackets as disputed while retaining its wording. Its note says the committee judged the passage a later addition and kept it rather than removing it.
What does the longer reading of John 5:4 say?
It explains that an angel went down into the pool from time to time, stirred the water, and that the first person entering afterward became well.
Does removing John 5:4 remove the reference to stirred water?
No. The paralytic’s words in verse 7 still refer to the water being stirred. The difference is whether verses 3b-4 provide the longer explanation of that reference.
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.