Is Matthew 23:14 scripture or not?
As you read your Bible you will be aware that it is broken down in chapter and verse. One chapter follows another and one verse follows the previous one. Matthew chapter 1 is followed by Matthew chapter 2 and Matthew chapter 1 verse 1 is followed by Matthew chapter 1 verse 2.
However there are occasions when certain version of the Bible will jump a verse.
One of those occasions can be found at Matthew 23:13. Many modern versions of the Bible will read Matthew 23:13 (I shall use the NIV as an example here)
Mathew 23:13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. NIV
But then they will jump Matthew 23:14 and go straight to Matthew 23:15
Matthew 23:15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.
So what happened to verse 14 ? Why is it not there?
Other versions of the Bible that don’t have this verse include, but are not limited to, ESV, ERV, NASB and ASV. The verse is also not found in the NWT (JW’s Bible)
Here I shall cite Matthew 23:14 from the KJV
Matthew 23:14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
Other versions that do include this verse, are , but again not limited to, KJVJ ISV, Youngs Literal, I will point out that the NASB 1977 1995 both included this verse
The reason that this verse is not found in many modern versions is because it is not in the underlying Greek text, the Nestle Aland/ UBS text, that these versions are based upon.
However, the verse can be found in the Textus receptus Greek text on which the KJV is based.
All English versions of the Bible that preceded the KJV included the verse
This includes the Wycliffe (translated from the Latin Vulgate)
Matthew 23:14 Wo to you, scribis and Farisees, ipocritis, that eten the housis of widowis, and preien bi longe preier; for this thing ye schulen take more doom.
The Coverdale Bible, Tyndale Bible, Matthews Bible, Great Bible, Geneva Bible and the Bishops Bible which are all translated from Greek all have this verse.
We now need to ask, should the verse be part of the text or not? Which versions are correct, the ones that skip the verse or the ones that include it?
We do find the parallel verse in both of the other synoptic gospels.
Mark 12:40 Which devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation.
Luke 20:47 Which devour widows’ houses, and for a shew make long prayers: the same shall receive greater damnation.
While not conclusive this is good internal evidence that the verse is authentic due to the fact that much of what is found in these two Gospels are also found in Matthew.
Manuscript Evidence.
Luke Wayne on the website Carm.org states that the verse is not found in a number of manuscripts.
It is not hard to see why scholars call Matthew 23:14 into question. It is absent in Codex Sinaiticus and Codex B (both early fourth-century), Codex D (fifth century), Codex Z (sixth century), Codex L (eighth century), Codex Θ, minuscule 33 and 892 (ninth century), and other later manuscripts on into the middle ages.
In his section that deals with the evidence for the verse he states
The significance of these details is magnified when we look at the evidence for including these words at Matthew 23:14. The words are found in this place in only a few relatively late Greek witnesses.
https://carm.org/king-james-onlyism/was-matthew-2314-removed-from-modern-bibles/
This is simply not true. the verse is actually found in the majority of Greek manuscripts hence the verse is included in the Majority text.
Matthew 23:14 Οὐαὶ ὑμῖν, γραμματεῖς καὶ Φαρισαῖοι, ὑποκριταί, ὅτι κλείετε τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν ἔμπροσθεν τῶν ἀνθρώπων· ὑμεῖς γὰρ οὐκ εἰσέρχεσθε, οὐδὲ τοὺς εἰσερχομένους ἀφίετε εἰσελθεῖν.
Byzantine Majority text.
Luke also states:
Many early Old Latin manuscripts do not contain it, such asita(fourth century), ite(fifth century), and others. The majority of the Latin Vulgate manuscripts, including all of the earliest copies, also lack the reading.
https://carm.org/king-james-onlyism/was-matthew-2314-removed-from-modern-bibles/
Luke further states:
The verse is present here in a number of Old Latin manuscripts, including itb and itff2 (both fifth century), and others.
So again the verse is in the majority of manuscripts and has early attestation.
Luke correctly states that the verse is not found in the earliest Syriac manuscript
” The verse is missing in the earliest Syriac manuscript, The Sinaitic Palimpsest (fourth century)”
https://carm.org/king-james-onlyism/was-matthew-2314-removed-from-modern-bibles/
But the verse is found in the 2nd oldest Syriac manuscript
It is present in the second oldest Syriac manuscript, the Curetonian Gospels (fifth century)
https://carm.org/king-james-onlyism/was-matthew-2314-removed-from-modern-bibles/
Many scholars believe that both these Syriac manuscripts are representatives of the same translation.
Like Codex W, there are many witnesses that have verse 14 directly after verse 12 instead of verse 13:
K Γ Δ 0102. 0107. 565. 579. 700. 892c. 1241. 1424. l 844 𝔪 f syp.h bopt
There is a theory that this omission can be traced back to Origin. As more info is found this page will be updated.
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