Romans 16:24 NASB
[The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.]
In the King James Version this verse is not put between brackets.
The NASB has a footnote saying that early manuscripts do not contain this verse, and the Revised Version omits this verse completely for the same reason, but mentions it in a footnote, and explains that other ancient manuscripts omitted the same words in verse 20.
This verse occurs twice in the KJV in this chapter; once as the conclusion to verse 20 and again as verse 24, which is the occurrence omitted from modern versions.
The first occurrence, as a part of verse 20, is very well supported by ancient resources, including the Papyrus 46. (The Papyrus 46 is one of the oldest manuscripts of the New Testament known, most likely it originated between AD 175-225), and several ancient versions (although some omit ‘Christ’ and some omit ‘Amen’); its inclusion got a UBS confidence rating of B.
However, its recurrence as verse 24 is not so well supported. It does not occur after verse 23 in the Papyrus 46, several minuscules and some other sources; but it does appear in minuscule 629 (although it ends the Epistle with this verse and does not follow it with verses 25–27).
Several later minuscules; Papyrus and some minuscules do not have it as verse 24 but move it to the very end of the Epistle, after verse 27.
Westcott and Hort said of the recurrence as verse 24, “This last combination, which rests on hardly any authority, and is due to late conflation, was adopted by Erasmus from the Latin and is preserved in the ‘Received Text’.”
The verses immediately before verse 24, the verse 24 itself, and the verses following verse 24 show many variations in the surviving manuscripts. An abbreviated history of the passage is that the conclusion of the Epistle to the Romans was known in several different versions.
About the year 144, Marcion made radical changes in the ending of the Epistle to the Romans, breaking it off with chapter 14.
At about the same time someone else made in other manuscripts the addition of verses 16:24 and 16:25–27 despite the existence of a concluding benediction at 16:20 (whose purpose was obscured by the greetings appended at 16:21–23).
This resulted in a proliferation of readings (at least 15 different permutations among the surviving resources). Because of its absence from the oldest sources and the confusion about its appearance in several of the sources containing it, its omission after verse 23 got a UBS confidence rating of B.
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