The text of Romans 8:28.

Romans 8: 28 is one of the best-known and best-loved verses in the New Testament. The several ways of reading the verse reflect a much discussed textual crux interpretum. In the King James Version the verse reads, 'All things work together for good ...' This translation depends on the Greek text found in the majority of manuscripts in which [Greek Text Omitted] is usually taken as the subject of [Greek Text Omitted]. Some who continue to favour this reading give the sense of 'co-operate' to the verb. This way of reading the text still commends itself to a number of modern commentators including Michel, Kasemann, Barrett, Cranfield, Dunn, and Fitzmyer.

The Revised Standard Version and the New International Version make 'God' the subject, i.e. 'In all things God works ...' This is the reading found in some of the oldest manuscripts including P46 (which reads [Greek Text Omitted]), Codex Vaticanus (B), and Codex Alexandrinus (A), where the word 'God' ([Greek Text Omitted]) follows the verb 'works'. It was printed in brackets by Westcott and Hort in their 1881 edition of the Greek New Testament. Sanday and Headlam championed this reading in their 1898 commentary. They have been followed in this century by Barth, Goodspeed, and Moffatt. It is interesting to note that the New Revised Standard Version does not follow its predecessor, but reads, 'All things work ...' Most would follow Kasemann in dubbing the reading 'God' 'an edifying …