“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.” — Matthew 6:33
The words of God are omitted by some important witnesses. Modern Greek editions do not speak with one voice: SBLGNT omits them, NA28 brackets them, and the Tyndale House edition prints them without brackets. The Textus Receptus keeps them.
Sinaiticus omits “of God.” Vaticanus omits it and reverses the order, putting righteousness before the kingdom. Other witnesses read “the kingdom of heaven.” The variety shows early instability around a short, familiar phrase.
Critics can explain the full wording as clarification. Matthew usually writes “kingdom of heaven,” and “his righteousness” already identifies God. A scribe may add “of God” to name the owner of the kingdom.
The competing forms also explain one another from the received text. Once the genitive drops, “the kingdom and his righteousness” can feel uneven. One copyist changes the kingdom’s title; another moves righteousness first; another leaves the compact form. The full phrase is the stable center from which the variations spread.
What must be sought first
Jesus does not set a private spiritual realm against ordinary work. God’s kingdom is his saving rule made known in the King. His righteousness is the right order he gives and requires. Seeking them first governs food, clothing, labor, and tomorrow; it does not pretend those needs do not exist.
The phrase also answers the nations in verse 32. They seek “all these things.” The disciples seek the kingdom of God. The repeated name marks the true object of desire.
No shorter edition teaches a human kingdom. The context supplies God. Exactness still favors the full expression: it has broad Greek, versional, and patristic support, explains the divergent shorter forms, and states the contrast with plain force.
Editorial division should produce candor, not paralysis. The evidence does not justify presenting omission as a settled result of modern scholarship. The received phrase remains well grounded: seek first God’s kingdom, under God’s rule, with God’s righteousness, and receive daily things from the Father who knows the need.
Vaticanus’s reversed order is especially revealing. “His righteousness and the kingdom” may have arisen because a reader treated righteousness as the moral prerequisite for entering the realm. That is possible theological logic, but the manuscript gives us only the order, not the reason. The variation proves that the short form did not pass through every early line in one stable shape.
The received order begins with the King’s reign and then names the righteousness that belongs to him. Grace and duty are not rivals. God brings his kingdom; those under it hunger for and practice his righteousness. “All these things” are added, not enthroned.
The editorial disagreement also helps readers interpret brackets. Square brackets in NA28 do not mean the editors know the words are false. They signal serious doubt within a text that still prints them. A church need not convert that editorial hesitation into perpetual liturgical hesitation when the full received case remains sound.
Sources and further reading
- Matthew 5:6, 20; 6:25–34; Romans 14:17.
- Nestle–Aland 28, SBLGNT, and Tyndale House Greek New Testament at Matthew 6:33.
- Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, note on Matthew 6:33.