“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction.” — Matthew 7:13
Some witnesses lose the gate from one side of Christ’s picture. At verse 14, editions divide between for the gate is narrow and an exclamation, how narrow the gate! The received text keeps both gates and repeats the conjunction “for.”
A complete pair
Wide gate and broad way lead to destruction; strait gate and narrow way lead to life. The architecture is balanced, but not decorative. A gate marks entry; a road marks continued travel. Christ calls for both entrance and perseverance.
The main modern editions retain gate in both verses. Ancient omissions likely simplify a saying that still makes sense with a road alone. Repeated nouns and articles give the eye easy places to skip.
The conjunction is less settled. The Textus Receptus reads ὅτι, “for” or “because,” just as verse 13 does. NA28 and Tyndale House read τί, “how,” producing a cry of wonder at the narrow gate. Westcott–Hort and SBLGNT stand with the received conjunction. One accentless letter separates the forms.
The exclamation is vivid, but the repeated for gives the paragraph its reasoning. Enter by the strait gate, for the broad route ends in ruin; seek the narrow route, for it leads to life and few find it.
The way is hard because it is Christ’s way, not because salvation is an expert puzzle. The sermon has named the life: poverty of spirit, mercy, purity, truth, enemy-love, secret devotion, trust in the Father, and obedience to Jesus’ words.
Few finding it does not make grace weak. It strips away the confidence that crowds, ease, and social approval prove truth. The next warning concerns false prophets; the next concerns false profession.
The received form preserves the entire image and a coherent repeated link. Critical editors mostly agree on the gates and remain divided on one letter at verse 14. That is the evidence’s real shape. Christ sets no third road between life and destruction, and the text should not lose either gate.
The omitted gate variants likely arose because a road can carry the whole contrast by itself. A copyist who simplifies “wide the gate and broad the way” still leaves a memorable sentence. Yet Christ’s two nouns answer two moments: a decisive entrance and the course that follows. Conversion is not merely choosing a destination, and perseverance is not entering by another door.
The difference between ὅτι and τί may have existed before accents were written. In majuscule script the forms differ by one vowel, and later readers had to construe the sentence they received. The exclamation “How narrow!” has force; the conjunction “for” has argumentative continuity. External division must therefore be joined to Matthew’s repeated logic.
The saying also corrects a modern love of scale. A broad platform, large audience, or crowded religious movement may be a gift, but none proves the road leads to life. Fruit, confession, and obedience in the verses that follow test the path.
Sources and further reading
- Psalm 1; Matthew 7:13–29; Luke 13:23–30.
- Nestle–Aland 28, SBLGNT, and Tyndale House Greek New Testament at Matthew 7:13–14.
- Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, note on Matthew 7:13–14.