DWThe Direct WitnessAccount

The evidence beneath the English

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John, Mark, Matthew, and Luke were developed through direct Greek analysis, lexical work, and manuscript comparison. Where surviving witnesses materially disagree, the competing Greek readings and their effect on English remain open to the reader.

1,738

chapter-level decision records generated from the live translation registry

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public provenance schema, designed to remain machine-readable and auditable

SBLGNT

standardized inspectable Greek reference edition

Textual basis

SBL Greek New Testament

Edited by Michael W. Holmes. The project's standardized, publicly inspectable Greek reference edition. It is not presented as retroactive proof that every existing chapter originated from one uniform printed edition.

This is an honest reference claim, not a retroactive claim that all completed work began from one uniform printed edition. Material manuscript forks remain independently documented at the reading they affect.

SBLGNT project · Text and apparatus · License

Translation record

Matthew 5

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matthew.5.mt5Exceed

ἐὰν μὴ περισσεύσῃ ... ἡ δικαιοσύνη

GRAMMARETHICSTRANSLATIONhigh confidence

How must the disciples’ righteousness relate to that of the scribes and Pharisees?

Perisseuō means abound, overflow, or exceed. The comparison concerns a righteousness greater in kind and extent.

Why this default

‘Unless your righteousness exceeds’ is default because perisseusē expresses surpassing abundance and keeps righteousness as the grammatical subject. ‘Abounds beyond’ preserves overflow imagery but is awkward, while ‘practice of righteousness is greater’ interprets the noun specifically as conduct.

Evidence

ExternalNo separate external-evidence note is recorded for this stable-text decision.

InternalThe decision record relies on the stated lexical, grammatical, or translation rationale.

Project defaultunless your righteousness exceeds

Project default · comparison

Alternativeunless your righteousness abounds beyond

Overflow image

Alternativeunless your practice of righteousness is greater than

Conduct explicit

Reference roleStandardized inspectable reference; manuscript forks are independently reopened.

Revision historyNo decision-level revision has been recorded since the provenance ledger was introduced.

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Record integrity

One registry drives both the reader and this record.

The manifest is regenerated from the translation source before every production build. Its source digest is 450adc54c1fc782fbae5e9ed6a640a2ae0e3be080722ac134c84e1248c2a312a.

Decision-level revision history begins with this ledger. Earlier development is not reconstructed into false precision; future material changes can be appended to the relevant record with their reason and date.