Complete textual-variant dossier
No adverse entailment · agrees with the received text
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
The received text says your Father; some witnesses say simply the Father or otherwise shorten the possessive.
Variant class
Omission / addition
2Textus Receptus
Greek reading
The exact TR reading has not yet been entered in the structured field.
Authorized Version
“For your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.” — Matthew 6:8
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 2 variation units within this record's range. The notes ground the relevant decisions in the weight and distribution of external attestation, the likelihood of scribal or liturgical expansion; the printed confidence rating represented here is {A}. This is a controlled synopsis rather than a quotation.
Locator: Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed., notes on Matthew 6:8, 6:8
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
Weakening of explicit biblical testimony
Exact proposition affected
The identity and divine sonship of Jesus Christ.
Doctrinal analysis
The shorter form does not turn God into a remote deity, but it loosens the chain of pronouns Matthew has built. Christ therefore forbids pagan-style heaps of words intended to wear down or alert a reluctant deity.
Bahnsen four-point examination
Arbitrariness
At Matthew 6:8, the critical choice avoids arbitrariness only to the extent that it states public manuscript, transcriptional, and intrinsic grounds. An edition label or a CBGM output cannot substitute for the unstated argument that connects the evidence to the chosen reading.
Inconsistency
The criteria used at Matthew 6:8 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
Weakening of explicit biblical testimony: The shorter form does not turn God into a remote deity, but it loosens the chain of pronouns Matthew has built. Christ therefore forbids pagan-style heaps of words intended to wear down or alert a reluctant deity.
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
The received text says your Father; some witnesses say simply the Father or otherwise shorten the possessive. A more expansive ancient reading says he knows before the worshipper opens his mouth. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version.
Internal and transcriptional evidence
The main editions reject that picturesque addition.
Reception and ecclesiastical use
The received text says your Father; some witnesses say simply the Father or otherwise shorten the possessive. Metzger, discussion of Matthew 6:8 in the textual tradition.
Providential-preservation analysis
Providential preservation is not used as a substitute for evidence at Matthew 6:8. 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
The principal critical-text argument is answered in the full research essay; an edition-specific synopsis remains subject to independent review.
Conclusion
The possessive pronoun cuts through that pagan idea. A child does not approach an unknown official and hope to break his resistance. The disciples approach their Father, whose prior knowledge is joined to prior love. The Lord’s Prayer that follows is brief, ordered, and full because relationship removes the need for performance.
The expansive mouth-reading illustrates the very temptation under discussion: more words can feel more spiritual while adding little meaning. Its antiquity is interesting, but Matthew’s compact line is enough. God’s knowledge precedes not only the sound of a request but the need that drives it.
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.
No adverse entailment: agrees with the received text.
Necessary reasoning chain
- The current critical main-text reading assessed at Matthew 6:8 agrees with the received Hebrew/Greek reading at the variation unit governed by this card.
- An adverse preservation entailment at this locus would require the current critical form to displace a different received reading.
- Because no such displacement occurs at the assessed locus, no adverse preservation consequence follows here.
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
The received text says your Father; some witnesses say simply the Father or otherwise shorten the possessive. A more expansive ancient reading says he knows before the worshipper opens his mouth. The main editions reject that picturesque addition.
“For your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.” — Matthew 6:8
Jesus has already spoken of “thy Father” who sees in secret. He will soon teach the disciples to pray, “Our Father.” The received your carries that relation into the reason against vain repetition.
An explicit possessive can be added for warmth or clarity. It can also be dropped because the father-son relation is obvious. The shorter form does not turn God into a remote deity, but it loosens the chain of pronouns Matthew has built.
The longer “before you open your mouth” form shows how explanation grows. “Before ye ask him” is already clear. A reader turns the act of asking into a visible mouth opening, and the vivid gloss finds a place in a local text. Its antiquity does not make it original.
Prayer does not inform God. He knows need before speech and the heart before thought becomes a sentence. Christ therefore forbids pagan-style heaps of words intended to wear down or alert a reluctant deity.
Knowledge does not make asking needless. The Father appoints prayer as fellowship, confession of dependence, and a means through which he gives. A child asks a knowing father because the relationship itself calls for trust.
The possessive guards that answer. “Your Father knoweth” joins omniscience to covenant care. The one who knows is the one to whom the disciples belong.
The received form has broad use and close verbal fit with the paragraph. The mouth-opening expansion is secondary precisely because it says too visibly what Matthew says plainly. Keep the smaller, stronger sentence: your Father knows; therefore speak to him as children, not as performers.
The warning against “vain repetitions” is not a ban on repeated prayer. Jesus prays the same words in Gethsemane, and the Psalms repeat refrains. The condemned speech is empty piling—words treated as leverage by people who imagine quantity can purchase a hearing.
The possessive pronoun cuts through that pagan idea. A child does not approach an unknown official and hope to break his resistance. The disciples approach their Father, whose prior knowledge is joined to prior love. The Lord’s Prayer that follows is brief, ordered, and full because relationship removes the need for performance.
The expansive mouth-reading illustrates the very temptation under discussion: more words can feel more spiritual while adding little meaning. Its antiquity is interesting, but Matthew’s compact line is enough. God’s knowledge precedes not only the sound of a request but the need that drives it.
Sources and further reading
- Matthew 6:5–13, 25–34; Psalm 139:1–4; Romans 8:26–27.
- Frederick H. A. Scrivener, The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the Text Followed in the Authorised Version.
- Bruce M. Metzger, discussion of Matthew 6:8 in the textual tradition.
7Related materials
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- Record
- VAR-1025
- 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 6:8 — “Your Father Knoweth”: Does the Possessive Pronoun Matter?,” VAR-1025, Confessional Bibliology Research Center, version 1.0-staging.
Revision history
- — Chris Thomas
- — Chris Thomas