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
Acts 28:16
Issue
SBLGNT and NA28 omit the entire notice about the centurion, the prisoners, and the στρατοπεδάρχης, captain of the guard.
Variant class
Omission / addition
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard; but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself
Authorized Version
“And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard: but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him.” — Acts 28:16
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
Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier guarding him
Translation or explanation
Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier guarding him
Metzger / UBS committee
Metzger reports the UBS4 committee's treatment of the variation unit. The note grounds the relevant decision 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., note on Acts 28:16
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 triune identity of the Father, the Son/Word, and the Holy Ghost.
Doctrinal analysis
The omission at Acts 28:16 must be measured by its actual extent: it changes a stated detail in the episode although broader doctrines may remain elsewhere, a distinction that neither minimizes the missing words nor assigns them consequences they cannot carry.
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At Acts 28:16, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. Passage: Acts 28:16 Received reading: the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard; but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself Principal competing reading: Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier guarding him Issue class: Extended Omission Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Acts 28:16 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 omission at Acts 28:16 must be measured by its actual extent: it changes a stated detail in the episode although broader doctrines may remain elsewhere, a distinction that neither minimizes the missing words nor assigns them consequences they cannot carry.
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 28:16. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894), Acts 28:16.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
Passage: Acts 28:16 Received reading: the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard; but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself Principal competing reading: Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier guarding him Issue class: Extended Omission Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending. The omission at Acts 28:16 must be measured by its actual extent: it changes a stated detail in the episode although broader doctrines may remain elsewhere, a distinction that neither minimizes the missing words nor assigns them consequences they cannot carry.
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 28:16. It supplies the confessional context in which manuscript transmission, broad reception, and the church's actual possession of Scripture are evaluated together.
Response to the principal critical argument
Passage: Acts 28:16 Received reading: the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard; but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself Principal competing reading: Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier guarding him Issue class: Extended Omission Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
Conclusion
Read in place, Acts 28:16 stands beside stable narrative statements: Acts 28:15 says, “And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Appii forum, and The three taverns: whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage.” Acts 28:17 says, “And it came to pass, that after three days Paul called the chief of the Jews together: and when they were come together, he said unto them, Men and brethren, though I have committed ….”
Preserve the received administrative detail; it explains the disposition of the other prisoners before Luke turns to Paul’s exceptional custody.
Read the full research essay and its sources
Passage: Acts 28:16
Received reading: the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard; but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself
Principal competing reading: Paul was allowed to stay by himself with the soldier guarding him
Issue class: Extended Omission
Editorial status: Preliminary record accepted for staging; independent review remains pending.
“And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to
the captain of the guard: but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with
a soldier that kept him.” — Acts 28:16
SBLGNT and NA28 omit the entire notice about the centurion, the
prisoners, and the στρατοπεδάρχης, captain of the guard. The shorter
text begins directly with the special permission granted to Paul.
The comparison is concrete: the received reading gives “the centurion
delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard; but Paul was
suffered to dwell by himself”; the alternative gives “Paul was allowed
to stay by himself with the soldier guarding him.”
The omission at Acts 28:16 must be measured by its actual extent: it
changes a stated detail in the episode although broader doctrines may
remain elsewhere, a distinction that neither minimizes the missing words
nor assigns them consequences they cannot carry.
Read in place, Acts 28:16 stands beside stable narrative statements:
Acts 28:15 says, “And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they
came to meet us as far as Appii forum, and The three taverns: whom when
Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage.” Acts 28:17 says, “And it
came to pass, that after three days Paul called the chief of the Jews
together: and when they were come together, he said unto them, Men and
brethren, though I have committed ….”
Preserve the received administrative detail; it explains the
disposition of the other prisoners before Luke turns to Paul’s
exceptional custody.
Sources and further reading
- The Holy Bible, Authorized Version, Acts 28:16.
- F. H. A. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek
according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version (1894),
Acts 28:16. - Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL
Edition, Acts 28:16 and apparatus. - Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New
Testament, discussion at Acts 28:16.
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-2303
- 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 28:16 — The Centurion, the Captain of the Guard, and Paul’s Permission to Dwell Alone,” VAR-2303, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging, last revised 2026-07-22.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas