Romans 16:24, the benediction that moves around
Modern Bibles that omit Romans 16:24 follow critical editions without the second grace blessing; the Byzantine reading includes it. The difference reflects the blessing’s changing position at the letter’s end.
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.
Romans 16:24: set in brackets as a disputed passage, wording kept.
“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 blessing is absent from nearly all the early and independent copies and is easily explained as an addition.”
“The base text reads Ἡ χάρις … ὑμῶν; the committee adopted the omission on the evidence of the copies. The second grace blessing is a later repetition at the end of the greetings. Early witnesses do not have it here.”
“The base text reads Ἀμήν here; the committee adopted the wording of the copies that run straight on into verses 25 to 27, which stand in the text under their own numbers. The early copies close with the doxology rather than a bare Amen after the grace. The late ending looks like a conventional close.”
The APB 4.0 committee’s decision sets Romans 16:24 in brackets as a disputed passage and keeps its wording. Its note says: "The committee judged it a later addition and keeps it in brackets rather than removing it." GPT-6.1 Sol (OpenAI) served as the first translator; Claude Fable 5.1 (Anthropic) served as the second translator. After the committee’s run, the chair changed the verse from a bracketed Amen to the full bracketed grace sentence because only its Amen had come through. The chair used the committee’s wording for the same Greek at 16:20. The printed text reads: "[May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.]"
Before: [Amen.]
After: [May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.]
“The verse is the grace sentence of the longer text; only its Amen had come through. Worded as the committee words the same Greek at 16:20.”
The argument for each reading
If verse 24 is an echo
The case for omitting verse 24 begins with the grace blessing already present at verse 20. Westcott-Hort omits the second blessing at verse 24, and the apparatus places WH, Treg, and NA28 together on that omission. In this reading, the greetings lead into the doxology in verses 25 to 27.
The changing position of the grace blessing offers an explanation for the repetition. The blessing appears after verse 20, after verse 23, or after the doxology across the manuscript tradition. Reading A treats verse 24 as an echo of that movement. Its omission leaves both the earlier blessing and the closing doxology in place.
If the benediction belongs
The Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Textform includes the benediction as verse 24. This reading gives the greetings a closing wish that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with everyone, followed by Amen. The Byzantine text preserves the blessing here even though grace has already been spoken at verse 20.
The case for retaining the verse rests on that attested form of the ending. A repeated blessing can serve as a close to the greetings. The doxology follows in a different position in parts of the tradition, so the surrounding arrangement also matters. Reading B preserves the grace sentence at this point in the letter.
The editions show a difference over the presence of verse 24, while the shifting position of the blessing makes the history of the ending harder to settle. These edition readings alone do not establish the sequence of changes. The variant affects whether a second grace blessing stands after the greetings. The earlier blessing at verse 20 remains, so omitting verse 24 does not remove that expression of grace from the letter.
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.