Manuscript lens · variant unit

John 1:15 — ὃν εἶπον / ὁ εἰπών

John 1:15 · reading in

Ἰωάννης μαρτυρεῖ περὶ αὐτοῦ, καὶ κέκραγεν λέγων, Οὗτος ἦν ὃν εἶπον, Ὁ ὀπίσω μου ἐρχόμενος ἔμπροσθέν μου γέγονεν· ὅτι πρῶτός μου ἦν.

BSB: “John testified concerning Him. He cried out, saying, “This is He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me.’””

Byzantine · RP2018: Maurice A. Robinson and William G. Pierpont, The New Testament in the Original Greek: Byzantine Textform 2018. Public domain (Unlicense). · BSB (public domain)

Printed reading

Οὗτος ἦν ὃν εἶπον

houtos ēn hon eipon

This was he of whom I said

𝔓⁶⁶ · 𝔓⁷⁵ · A · D · L · Θ · Ψ

SBLGNTNA28 🔒︎ByzTR

Alternative 1

Οὗτος ἦν ὁ εἰπών

houtos ēn ho eipōn

This was the one who said (it)

ℵ¹ · B* · C*

Other

Witnesses by century

Witness-dates timeline: pending sourcing. The dates are not yet backed by a sourced witness registry, so the timeline is hidden; the witnesses for each reading are listed above.

Decision

✓ Approved

Printed: Οὗτος ἦν ὃν εἶπον
Confidence: high (team scale)
Significance: minor
Byz / TR: Οὗτος ἦν ὃν εἶπον — open RP2018

Print ὃν εἶπον. This agrees with SBLGNT, Byz, and TR. The record is kept because a major critical edition (WH) printed ὁ εἰπών and the wording affects translation.

Evidence

8 sources

Editions (verified 2026-10-28): the SBLGNT apparatus reads ὃν εἶπον with Treg, NA28, and RP, against ὁ εἰπών in WH. RP 2005 and RP 2018 (byztxt) and Scrivener's TR read ὃν εἶπον. So Byz and TR agree with SBLGNT here, and there is no Byz/TR divergence.

Manuscripts (checked 2026-10-28 in the IGNTP transcriptions of John and in Tischendorf's 8th edition, 1:744): Corrector numbering: is the first hand in every system. ℵ¹ uses Tischendorf's numbering, which NA follows, and each corrector's IGNTP hand label is given in brackets. ὃν εἶπον: 𝔓⁶⁶, 𝔓⁷⁵, A, D, L, Θ, Ψ, and correctors of B (IGNTP: corrector1) and ℵ (IGNTP: hands S2 and cb2). ὁ εἰπών (WH): B and C* (first hands), and ℵ¹ (IGNTP: hand S1). ℵ* omits the clause and adds ὅς after ἐρχόμενος. A corrector of C writes ὃν ἔλεγον (IGNTP: corrector2); a corrector of D adds ὑμῖν (IGNTP: hand B).

Internal: ὁ εἰπών is the harder phrasing and could have been smoothed to ὃν εἶπον under the influence of 1:30 (οὗτός ἐστιν ὑπὲρ οὗ ἐγὼ εἶπον). ὃν εἶπον, however, fits the quotation formula that follows (Ὁ ὀπίσω μου …) and has the earliest papyri.

Effect: the change is small. Either way, John identifies Jesus as the one his earlier saying concerned.

SBLGNT CC BY 4.0 RP2005 public domain RP2018 Unlicense TR (Scrivener 1894) public domain 🔒︎ NA28 Copyrighted IGNTP John CC BY 4.0 Tischendorf⁸ public domain Bible Scholarship & Tool CC BY 4.0