Luke 4:44, preaching in the synagogues of… which region?
Luke 4:44 has both Judea and Galilee as textual readings; the APB prints Judea. Judea creates a geographical difficulty within a narrative set in Galilee.
The APB text at this verse
The manuscripts, editions, and versions
The committee record at this verse
The APB is translated by a committee of language models that works blind. The translators are never told they are translating the Bible, never given a book name or a verse number, and never shown the witnesses listed above. Where the manuscripts disagree, the choice between readings is made before translation by the same kind of translator working the same way: it sees the competing readings and the witnesses by age and class, but never a reference or a manuscript name. There are 14,877 such places. For APB 4.0 every one was decided again in October 2026. GPT-6.1 Sol decided every one first. Claude Fable 5.1, from another model family, decided 2,483 of them second, including every place where the first translator left the base text. A departure from the base text needs both translators to agree and the first to be at least 0.8 confident. There is no third translator, so the base text stands when the two disagree. APB 4.0 is translated over those decisions. Whatever was done at this verse was done on the language and the evidence alone, and the record is public.
“The base text reads εἰς τὰς συναγωγὰς τῆς Ἰουδαίας. The copies also carry τῆς [greek majuscule; later majority tradition], εἰς τὰς συναγωγὰς τῆς [greek majuscule; early greek manuscript tradition]; the committee kept the base text. Retain the default, judging the alternatives exactly as supplied.”
“The base text reads εἰς τὰς συναγωγὰς. The copies also carry ἐν ταῖς συναγωγαῖς [greek majuscule; later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. Both early attestation across classes and likely smoothing favor the default.”
“The base text reads Ἰουδαίας. The copies also carry Γαλιλαίας [greek majuscule; early greek manuscript tradition; later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. Retain the default chiefly on the stronger early attestation. Geographic smoothing cannot be established from this context alone.”
The APB committee kept Judea, and its printed text reads: "And he was proclaiming in the synagogues of Judea." GPT-6.1 Sol (OpenAI), the first translator, retained the base text. The decision states: "Retain the default chiefly on the stronger early attestation. Geographic smoothing cannot be established from this context alone."
The argument for each reading
If “Judea”
The case for Judea begins with its early attestation. Westcott-Hort and NA28 print Ἰουδαίας, and the APB's textual decision identifies stronger early attestation as its chief reason for retaining this reading. Judea also creates a geographical difficulty because the surrounding narrative sits in Galilee. A copyist could have changed the regional name to make the sentence fit that setting more readily. That possibility gives the awkward reading a plausible explanation for how the alternative arose. The committee nevertheless cautions that geographic smoothing cannot be established from this context alone.
If “Galilee”
The case for Galilee begins with the surrounding narrative's location. Reading Γαλιλαίας makes the region named in Luke 4:44 agree directly with that setting. Tregelles prints this reading, and the apparatus also places RP on its side. The APB's textual note identifies Galilee among both an early Greek manuscript tradition and a later majority tradition. Its geographical fit therefore accompanies textual support. That fit permits two explanations: Galilee could preserve the regional name at this point, or it could reflect a change that eased the difficulty of Judea. Geographical consistency alone cannot settle that choice.
The uncertainty concerns the regional name and the reason the two readings arose. Judea's geographical difficulty allows a smoothing explanation, but the committee expressly stops short of establishing it from this context. Both readings describe Jesus proclaiming in synagogues. His stated purpose in Luke 4:43, announcing the good news of the kingdom of God to other cities, remains unchanged by this variant.
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 from the sources linked above.