Complete textual-variant dossier
Adverse entailment established
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
Issue
> “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.”
Variant class
Omission / addition
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
The Textus Receptus keeps them.
Authorized Version
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.” — Matthew 6:33
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
No distinct NA28 reading has been entered; the received and NA28 texts may agree at this unit.
Translation or explanation
The received and current critical texts may agree at this unit; consult the full essay for any versional or apparatus-only variation.
Metzger’s report of the UBS committee
Metzger reports the UBS4 committee's treatment of the variation unit. The note grounds the relevant decision in the weight and distribution of external attestation, a proposed mechanism of accidental omission, the likelihood of scribal or liturgical expansion, authorial usage, grammar, or immediate context. 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 Matthew 6:33
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
UBS6 retains the NA28 / UBS5 Greek main-text wording in Matthew, so no main-text change is shown for this passage. The separate project ledger covers Acts, Mark, and Revelation.
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 bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Doctrinal analysis
That is possible theological logic, but the manuscript gives us only the order, not the reason.
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At Matthew 6:33, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. Critics can explain the full wording as clarification. Editorial division should produce candor, not paralysis. The editorial disagreement also helps readers interpret brackets.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Matthew 6:33 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: That is possible theological logic, but the manuscript gives us only the order, not the reason.
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
— Matthew 6:33 The words of God are omitted by some important witnesses. Other witnesses read “the kingdom of heaven.” 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.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
A scribe may add “of God” to name the owner of the kingdom. One copyist changes the kingdom’s title; another moves righteousness first; another leaves the compact form. The context supplies God.
Reception and ecclesiastical use
The Textus Receptus keeps them. The competing forms also explain one another from the received text. 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.
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at Matthew 6:33. It supplies the confessional context in which manuscript transmission, broad reception, and the church's actual possession of Scripture are evaluated together.
Canonical coherence with the rest of Scripture
Canonical coherence remains an explicit test: a proposed reading must make grammatical and theological sense within the immediate context and the rest of Scripture. No conflict is asserted merely because two editions differ; the claimed incoherence must be demonstrated at this passage.
Canonical-coherence verdict
The Authorized Version is retained where its representation of the TR forms a coherent reading within the immediate context and the rest of Scripture. Any competing form must demonstrate an equal or better canonical fit rather than merely invoke an edition or method label.
Response to the principal critical argument
Critics can explain the full wording as clarification. Editorial division should produce candor, not paralysis. The editorial disagreement also helps readers interpret brackets.
Conclusion
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.
Logical entailment
The Authorized Version serves as the faithful English representation. The preservation claim applies immediately to the authentic Hebrew and Greek texts—not to an English translation as though it were the inspired source.
Status: Established
Immediate textual or doctrinal consequence
At Matthew 6:33, the received text reads “The Textus Receptus keeps them.” and its Authorized Version representation reads “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.” — Matthew 6:33”. The assessed critical reading is “The received and current critical texts may agree at this unit; consult the full essay for any versional or apparatus-only variation.”. The immediate consequence is that the critical text no longer states the received wording at this locus. The immediate local effect is exegetical or interpretive; this argument does not claim that a distinct Christian doctrine disappears from the verse.
Necessary reasoning chain
- At Matthew 6:33, the received Hebrew/Greek form is “The Textus Receptus keeps them.”; the Authorized Version represents it as “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.” — Matthew 6:33”. The assessed critical form is “The received and current critical texts may agree at this unit; consult the full essay for any versional or apparatus-only variation.”.
- The received and critical forms are not the same at this locus. Therefore, if the competing critical form is original, the received form is secondary rather than the authentic wording at this place. The immediate consequence is: At Matthew 6:33, the received text reads “The Textus Receptus keeps them.” and its Authorized Version representation reads “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.” — Matthew 6:33”. The assessed critical reading is “The received and current critical texts may agree at this unit; consult the full essay for any versional or apparatus-only variation.”. The immediate consequence is that the critical text no longer states the received wording at this locus. The immediate local effect is exegetical or interpretive; this argument does not claim that a distinct Christian doctrine disappears from the verse.
- If the received form at this place is secondary rather than original, then the authentic Hebrew/Greek text was not kept pure at this place in the received textual tradition; therefore the unqualified confessional preservation claim must be denied or redefined.
Ultimate preservation consequence
If the competing reading is original and the received reading is secondary, then God did not preserve and keep pure the authentic text at this place in the received textual tradition. The unqualified confessional claim that Scripture was kept pure in all ages must therefore be denied or redefined.
Sources
- Westminster Confession of Faith (1647)Chapter 1, section 8 — Governing confessional preservation claim
- German Bible Society — UBS6 publications and relation to NA29Current critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
- German Bible Society — The Sixth Edition of the Greek New TestamentCurrent critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
- INTF — Online Tools for the ECMCurrent critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
- German Bible Society — Interview with Hugh HoughtonCurrent critical-edition, ECM, or editorial documentation
Read the full research essay and its sources
“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.
7Related materials
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- Record
- VAR-1031
- Status
- Preliminary
- Version
- 1.1-dossier
- Review
- Level B — Editorial synthesis
- Editor
- Chris Thomas
- Reviewer
- Independent reviewer pending assignment
- First date
- 2026-07-22 · Exact Day
- Last revised
- 2026-07-22
Evidence and editorial controls
- Verification
- Recovered project data; bibliographic and source-level verification remains record-specific. 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; cited sources retain their stated rights.
- Known limitations
- Staging record; independent review remains open.
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, “Matthew 6:33 — “The Kingdom of God”: Does “of God” Belong in the Text?,” VAR-1031, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas
- — Chris Thomas