Complete textual-variant dossier
Adverse entailment established
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 includes ὅρα, ‘see’ or ‘take heed,’ before the centurion’s question.
Variant class
Omission / addition
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman
Authorized Version
“When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman.” — Acts 22:26
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
What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman
Translation or explanation
What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman
Metzger’s report of the UBS committee
Metzger reports the UBS4 committee's treatment of 2 variation units within this record's range. The notes ground the relevant decisions in the likelihood of scribal or liturgical expansion; the printed confidence rating represented here is {B}. This is a controlled synopsis rather than a quotation.
Locator: Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed., notes on Acts 22:26, 22:26
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
No single doctrinal proposition is directly changed; the principal consequence is exegetical, historical, or cumulative.
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 22:26, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. For this man is a Roman Issue class: Textual Variant Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Acts 22:26 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: No single doctrinal proposition is directly changed; the principal consequence is exegetical, historical, or cumulative.
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
Sources and further reading The Holy Bible, Authorized Version, Acts 22:26. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894), Acts 22:26.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
The warning and Paul’s Roman citizenship survive, but the received text carries an additional cautionary imperative.
Reception and ecclesiastical use
The warning and Paul’s Roman citizenship survive, but the received text carries an additional cautionary imperative.
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at Acts 22:26. 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
For this man is a Roman Issue class: Textual Variant Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
Conclusion
Luke does not leave Acts 22:26 isolated from its setting. Just outside the selected unit, Acts 22:25 says, “And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?” Acts 22:27 says, “Then the chief captain came, and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman? He said, Yea.”
Retain ‘Take heed,’ which suits the centurion’s urgent report to the chief captain.
Logical entailment
The Authorized Version serves as the faithful English representation. The preservation claim applies immediately to the authentic Hebrew and Greek texts—not to an English translation as though it were the inspired source.
Status: Established
Immediate textual or doctrinal consequence
At Acts 22:26, the received text reads “Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman” and its Authorized Version representation reads “When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman.” — Acts 22:26”. The assessed critical reading is “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman”. The immediate consequence is that the critical text no longer states the received wording at this locus. The immediate local effect is exegetical or interpretive; this argument does not claim that a distinct Christian doctrine disappears from the verse.
Necessary reasoning chain
- At Acts 22:26, the received Hebrew/Greek form is “Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman”; the Authorized Version represents it as “When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman.” — Acts 22:26”. The assessed critical form is “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman”.
- The received and critical forms are not the same at this locus. Therefore, if the competing critical form is original, the received form is secondary rather than the authentic wording at this place. The immediate consequence is: At Acts 22:26, the received text reads “Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman” and its Authorized Version representation reads “When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman.” — Acts 22:26”. The assessed critical reading is “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman”. The immediate consequence is that the critical text no longer states the received wording at this locus. The immediate local effect is exegetical or interpretive; this argument does not claim that a distinct Christian doctrine disappears from the verse.
- If the received form at this place is secondary rather than original, then the authentic Hebrew/Greek text was not kept pure at this place in the received textual tradition; therefore the unqualified confessional preservation claim must be denied or redefined.
Ultimate preservation consequence
If the competing reading is original and the received reading is secondary, then God did not preserve and keep pure the authentic text at this place in the received textual tradition. The unqualified confessional claim that Scripture was kept pure in all ages must therefore be denied or redefined.
Sources
- Westminster Confession of Faith (1647)Chapter 1, section 8 — Governing confessional preservation claim
- F. H. A. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text followed in the Authorized VersionReceived Greek reading
- Digital ECM — Acts 22:26Current critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
- German Bible Society — UBS6 publications and relation to NA29Current critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
- German Bible Society — The Sixth Edition of the Greek New TestamentCurrent critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
Read the full research essay and its sources
Passage: Acts 22:26
Received reading: Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman
Principal competing reading: What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman
Issue class: Textual Variant
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
Scrivener includes ὅρα, ‘see’ or ‘take heed,’ before the centurion’s
question. SBLGNT and NA28 omit it and begin directly with τί, ‘what?’
The warning and Paul’s Roman citizenship survive, but the received text
carries an additional cautionary imperative. That imperative fits the
legal peril created by binding an uncondemned Roman for scourging.
For Acts 22:26, the received side may be summarized as “Take heed
what thou doest: for this man is a Roman.” Its principal rival is “What
are you about to do? For this man is a Roman.”
“When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain,
saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman.” — Acts
22:26
The variation at Acts 22:26 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.
Luke does not leave Acts 22:26 isolated from its setting. Just
outside the selected unit, Acts 22:25 says, “And as they bound him with
thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you
to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?” Acts 22:27 says,
“Then the chief captain came, and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a
Roman? He said, Yea.”
Retain ‘Take heed,’ which suits the centurion’s urgent report to the
chief captain.
Sources and further reading
- The Holy Bible, Authorized Version, Acts 22:26.
- F. H. A. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek
according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894),
Acts 22:26. - Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL
Edition, Acts 22:26 and apparatus.
7Related materials
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- Record
- VAR-2290
- 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 22:26 — “Take Heed What Thou Doest”: Is the Centurion’s Warning Authentic?,” VAR-2290, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas