Revelation 5:9-10, did the elders sing “you purchased us”?
Revelation 5:9 has both readings: some editions say the Lamb purchased people for God without naming the singers; others add “us”. The wording in verse 10 also varies between a kingdom and kings.
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 αὐτοὺς. The copies also carry the omission [later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The extensive early support decisively favors retention.”
“The base text reads βασιλείαν. The copies also carry the omission [greek majuscule; later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. Retain the default. Early support and the harder construction outweigh the general tendency to add.”
“The base text reads βασιλεύσουσιν. The copies also carry the omission [greek majuscule; early greek manuscript tradition; later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The evidence does not genuinely displace the default.”
“The base text reads βασιλείαν. The copies also carry βασιλεῖς [later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The default best explains the later wording.”
“The base text reads βασιλεύουσιν. The copies also carry βασιλεύσουσιν [greek majuscule; early greek manuscript tradition; later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text.”
“The base text reads θεῷ. The copies also carry θεῷ ἡμᾶς [early greek manuscript tradition; later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The objectless verb is the harder reading and agrees with the third person that follows, though the early support for θεῷ is not large.”
The committee retained the wording without the added pronoun in Revelation 5:9. Its note says: “The objectless verb is the harder reading and agrees with the third person that follows, though the early support for θεῷ is not large.” GPT-6.1 Sol (OpenAI) served as the first translator; Claude Fable 5.1 (Anthropic) served as the second translator. The APB prints “purchased for God those from every tribe and language and people and nation.” In Revelation 5:10, the committee retained a kingdom over kings, and its printed text says “you made them a kingdom and priests for our God”.
The argument for each reading
If the song names others
Without the pronoun, the song describes people purchased for God from every tribe, language, people, and nation. Westcott-Hort and Nestle-Aland 28 print this reading. The singers do not explicitly include themselves among those purchased. The third person in the following verse gives this wording a connected sense: the song continues by describing what the Lamb made of those people. Westcott-Hort reads a kingdom in verse 10. The committee's textual note also connects the absent object with the third person that follows, while acknowledging that early support for this reading is not large. This reading leaves the singers' relationship to the purchased people unstated.
If the choir sings “us”
The added pronoun makes the song an explicit statement about its singers: the Lamb purchased them for God. Tregelles and Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Textform both include it. Its presence in Tregelles shows that support extends beyond the Byzantine majority edition. Robinson-Pierpont also reads kings in verse 10, carrying the song forward as a declaration about the singers' own status. These choices need separate attention, however: the apparatus places Tregelles with the kingdom reading in verse 10. Support for the pronoun therefore does not require support for kings. The case for this wording rests on its attested inclusion and the direct connection it creates between the choir and the purchase.
The wording without the pronoun does not establish that the singers are outside the purchased people; it leaves their inclusion unstated. The added pronoun makes that inclusion explicit. The editions also combine the choices differently, so the variants in the two verses should not be treated as a single fixed pair. Both forms describe the Lamb's purchase for God. The uncertainty concerns whom the choir names within that purchase.
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.