The copies

Witness

Matthew jumps a verse. The prayer stops. Two strokes decide God or He.

Walk the copies. KJV often keeps the longer reading. BSB follows the older books. When a post says theft, we show you the page. A missing verse is often still in Mark. This is not a decoder ring for villains.

The gaps

A line sits in the KJV and not in the oldest copy. It is often still in Mark or Luke.

01Fasting02Lost03Widows04Ears05Worm06Forgive07Numbered08Fire09Field10Barabbas11Angel12I believe13Goads14Silas15Grace

The joins

An Amen was added. A hard stop was kept. Sweat like blood is argued. A woman the church would not lose.

01Amen02Ending03Sweat04Woman

The words

The copies disagree on God or He, on blood, on three that testify, and on God or Son.

01Comma02Blood03God or He04Son of God05God or Son

The gaps · 02 of 15 · Luke already closed it

To save the lost

Matthew’s lost sheep had no closer. A scribe borrowed Luke’s.

King James (1611)
For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.
Berean Standard Bible
Not in the BSB main text.

The seam

  1. 01The ninety-nine

    Matthew 18:12

    A man has a hundred sheep. One wanders. He leaves the ninety-nine and looks. The oldest Matthew does not need a title sentence to tell you why.

  2. 02Luke’s closer, borrowed

    Matthew 18:11

    Later Matthew copies write Luke’s Zacchaeus line in as a heading. The numbers jump. The sheep story did not lose its Lord.

  3. 03Zacchaeus

    Luke 19:10

    The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. He says it after a meal in a tax-collector’s house. The line is still on every page.

In these copies

  • Byzantine majority
  • Textus Receptus
  • KJV, WEB

Not in these copies

  • Sinaiticus
  • Vaticanus
  • B, L, Θ, f¹, f¹³ in part
  • BSB, ASV, NIV

Read it this way

Matthew 18 is the lost sheep. A man leaves the ninety-nine. He looks. He rejoices more over the one. The oldest copies then go on to the brother who sins. There is no verse 11. The story already has its heart.

The sentence “the Son of Man came to save the lost” is Luke 19:10 — Zacchaeus, the seeking Son, said in the open after a short man comes down a tree. Copies of Matthew that include 18:11 almost certainly borrowed Luke’s closer so the lost-sheep story would finish with the same gold line. That is how scribes love a Gospel: they make the pages rhyme.

The seeking Son is not missing. He is in Luke 19:10, in every Bible on this shelf. Matthew’s oldest copies simply let the sheep story end on joy.

Still on the page: Luke 19:10 — For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

Some sayThey deleted “the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.”

The seeking Son is not missing. He is in Luke 19:10, in every Bible on this shelf.

  • KJV

    on the page

  • WEB

    on the page

  • BSB

    not printed

  • ASV

    not printed

Open Matthew 18

The line the text already walks — that is Foretold. Words you already say out loud sit in Words with weight. Witness is when the copies do not match.