Complete textual-variant dossier
Sections distinguish readings, edition history, evidence, theological consequences, and the Research Center's evaluation. CBGM is an analytical tool; editorial committees—not the software—make textual decisions.
1Passage and issue
Passage
Issue
Scrivener names τοῦ κυρίου, ‘the Lord’; SBLGNT and NA28 use the pronoun αὐτοῦ, ‘his.’ The antecedent remains the risen Jesus who appeared to Paul and sent Ananias, but the received form states the title rather than leaving it pronominal.
Variant class
Omission / addition
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord
Authorized Version
“And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” — Acts 22:16
Edition note
The Research Center uses the received Greek text underlying the Authorized Version as its baseline; edition-specific differences are recorded when the variation unit requires them.
3NA28 baseline and critical-text rationale
NA28 baseline reading
wash away your sins, calling on his name
Translation or explanation
wash away your sins, calling on his name
Metzger’s report of the UBS committee
No passage-specific Metzger synopsis has yet passed editorial verification for this record.
ECM / CBGM evidence and editors
No passage-specific ECM/CBGM editorial explanation is attached to this record. Official method sources describe the CBGM as a set of coherence procedures, not a decision-maker: editors define variation units and local stemmata and evaluate pre-genealogical, genealogical, and stemmatic coherence together with transcriptional, intrinsic, and other philological evidence.
4UBS6 and intended NA29 revision
No UBS6 / intended NA29 main-text change is recorded for this passage in the controlled 169-change ledger.
No change row is attached to this passage.
UBS6 is published, and the German Bible Society identifies its Greek main text as identical to the intended NA29 main text. The complete NA29 volume and its apparatus remain forthcoming. Project-ledger rows retain their source and verification statements until they are checked against the published UBS6 text and, when available, the NA29 apparatus.
5Doctrinal and four-point analysis
Effect class
Exegetical or interpretive consequence
Exact proposition affected
The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Doctrinal analysis
Exegetical or interpretive consequence. The record does not establish that the variant by itself removes an entire Christian doctrine; explicit wording, exegesis, and cumulative testimony must be distinguished.
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At Acts 22:16, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. Passage: Acts 22:16 Received reading: wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord Principal competing reading: wash away your sins, calling on his name Issue class: Textual Variant Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. The critical or alternative presentation reads “wash away your sins, calling on his name.”
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Acts 22:16 must be applied to comparable readings as well. A principle such as age, difficulty, brevity, or coherence cannot be decisive here and quietly reversed elsewhere merely to escape a historical, grammatical, or theological difficulty.
Consequences
Exegetical or interpretive consequence: The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Preconditions of intelligibility
The argument presupposes stable authorship, meaningful language, objective logical norms, transmissible evidence, and a coherent account of how Scripture can be received and identified by the church. The analysis tests whether the method can make those conditions intelligible without reducing the text to an indefinitely revisable editorial construct.
This framework examines an argument and its conditions; it does not claim to read an editor's private motives.
6Argument for the received reading
External and historical evidence
The immediate sequence gives Acts 22:16 a concrete setting: Acts 22:15 says, “For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard.” Sources and further reading The Holy Bible, Authorized Version, Acts 22:16. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894), Acts 22:16.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
A source-level internal and transcriptional synopsis remains open; consult the full essay.
Reception and ecclesiastical use
The received reading and its ecclesiastical use require passage-specific documentation; the age of a witness and the age of a reading must not be confused.
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at Acts 22:16. It supplies the confessional context in which manuscript transmission, broad reception, and the church's actual possession of Scripture are evaluated together.
Canonical coherence with the rest of Scripture
Canonical coherence remains an explicit test: a proposed reading must make grammatical and theological sense within the immediate context and the rest of Scripture. No conflict is asserted merely because two editions differ; the claimed incoherence must be demonstrated at this passage.
Canonical-coherence verdict
The Authorized Version is retained where its representation of the TR forms a coherent reading within the immediate context and the rest of Scripture. Any competing form must demonstrate an equal or better canonical fit rather than merely invoke an edition or method label.
Response to the principal critical argument
Passage: Acts 22:16 Received reading: wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord Principal competing reading: wash away your sins, calling on his name Issue class: Textual Variant Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. The critical or alternative presentation reads “wash away your sins, calling on his name.”
Conclusion
The immediate sequence gives Acts 22:16 a concrete setting: Acts 22:15 says, “For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard.” Acts 22:17 says, “And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance.”
Preserve ‘the Lord’ as the explicit object of Paul’s invocation.
Read the full research essay and its sources
Passage: Acts 22:16
Received reading: wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord
Principal competing reading: wash away your sins, calling on his name
Issue class: Textual Variant
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
“And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy
sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” — Acts 22:16
Acts 22:16 contains a textual variant embedded in Luke’s
narrative.
Scrivener names τοῦ κυρίου, ‘the Lord’; SBLGNT and NA28 use the
pronoun αὐτοῦ, ‘his.’ The antecedent remains the risen Jesus who
appeared to Paul and sent Ananias, but the received form states the
title rather than leaving it pronominal.
In received form, Luke’s words are represented by “wash away thy
sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” The critical or alternative
presentation reads “wash away your sins, calling on his name.”
The variation at Acts 22:16 changes emphasis or explicitness within
an otherwise recognizable account; shared words should be acknowledged
before the distinct reading is defended, and the difference should not
be enlarged beyond the clause that carries it.
The immediate sequence gives Acts 22:16 a concrete setting: Acts
22:15 says, “For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou
hast seen and heard.” Acts 22:17 says, “And it came to pass, that, when
I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was
in a trance.”
Preserve ‘the Lord’ as the explicit object of Paul’s invocation.
Sources and further reading
- The Holy Bible, Authorized Version, Acts 22:16.
- F. H. A. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek
according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894),
Acts 22:16. - Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL
Edition, Acts 22:16 and apparatus.
7Related materials
Open a group to follow connected articles, books, biographies, media, research notes, variants, or downloads. Research Center relationships use permanent record IDs; external items retain their actual link.
- Record
- VAR-2289
- Status
- Preliminary
- Version
- 1.1-dossier
- Review
- Level B — Editorial synthesis
- Editor
- Chris Thomas
- Reviewer
- Independent reviewer pending assignment
- First date
- 1st century · Date Range
- Last revised
- 2026-07-22
Evidence and editorial controls
- Verification
- Passage, received reading, principal SBLGNT reading, and reported NA28 alignment checked against Scrivener’s received Greek text and the official SBLGNT text and comparison apparatus; exhaustive manuscript collation remains open. Metzger commentary entries were matched by exact passage where present; ECM/CBGM rationale is passage-specific only when an official editorial explanation is cited. Ledger rows are identified as UBS6 / intended NA29 data but retain their row-level verification caveats pending direct collation.
- Rights and access
- Original editorial synthesis. Authorized Version Scripture is public domain in the United States; cited editions and digital witnesses retain their stated rights and access conditions.
- Known limitations
- This staging record summarizes the defined variation unit and representative edition evidence. It is not a fresh collation of every extant manuscript, version, lectionary, patristic citation, or ECM coherence relation.
Links from this record
No public outgoing links are recorded.
Records that cite or connect here
No public backlinks are recorded.
Corrections and evidence submissions
No correction submission is presently attached to this record. Submit evidence or read the correction policy.
Chris Thomas, “Acts 22:16 — “Calling on the Name of the Lord”: Does the Title Belong?,” VAR-2289, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas