What Did Jesus Actually Say?
A liturgical ending, a prayer from the cross, and a hard word about anger
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Textual criticism feels especially personal when it touches words printed in red. This session examines three sayings attributed to Jesus:
- the doxology at the end of Matthew’s Lord’s Prayer;
- “Father, forgive them” from the cross;
- the phrase “without a cause” in Jesus’s teaching about anger.
The three cases do not receive the same verdict. One is an ancient liturgical addition. One remains genuinely debated. One is a softening of a hard command. Careful method should be capable of giving three different answers because the evidence presents three different histories.
1. Put the sayings side by side
| Passage | KJV form | Common modern treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Matthew 6:13 | “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” | Prayer commonly ends at “deliver us from evil” or “the evil one”; doxology in a note |
| Luke 23:34 | “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” | Usually printed, often bracketed or footnoted |
| Matthew 5:22 | “angry with his brother without a cause” | “angry with a brother” |
Each difference raises two questions. Did the evangelist write the words? If not—or if we cannot be certain—what does the church do with them?
2. Matthew 6:13: the church answers the prayer
The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew ends in many modern Bibles with the final petition: “deliver us from the evil one.” The King James continues with the words Christians know from worship: “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
Luke’s shorter form of the prayer lacks the doxology in every major English tradition, including the King James.
External evidence
| No doxology | Short doxology | Full familiar doxology |
|---|---|---|
| Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Codex Bezae, Family 1, most Old Latin, Vulgate | The Didache has “for yours is the power and the glory forever”; Sahidic Coptic evidence also has a short form | Codex Washingtonianus, Syriac evidence, and most later Greek manuscripts |
| Origen, Tertullian, and Cyprian discuss the prayer without it | The exact wording varies | Later Byzantine and printed tradition |
The Sahidic Coptic should not be placed among witnesses with no doxology; it preserves a short “power and glory” form. The Greek Byzantine doxology is also not a reading inherited from the Latin Vulgate, which lacks it.
The Didache, an early Christian manual often dated near the turn of the second century, shows that Christians were closing the prayer with praise very early. Its form has no “kingdom” and differs from the later full wording. That variation makes good sense if the doxology developed in worship before entering copies of Matthew.
Internal evidence
Ending on a petition can feel incomplete to a congregation accustomed to an ascription of praise. A copyist hearing the liturgical close every week could add it almost unconsciously. It is difficult to explain why copyists across the early tradition would remove a true and beautiful doxology.
Matthew also follows the prayer by returning to the forgiveness petition in 6:14–15. He does not comment on kingdom, power, and glory.
Where the conclusion lands
The doxology is ancient, orthodox, and fitting. The church can continue praying it as its response to the prayer Jesus taught. Historical origin and liturgical use are distinct questions.
Calling the doxology secondary does not make it false. Calling it liturgical does not make it trivial. It means that the congregation’s “For thine is the kingdom” answers the Lord’s words rather than belonging to Matthew’s original form of them.
3. Luke 23:34: “Father, forgive them”
This short prayer bears enormous pastoral weight. Jesus intercedes for those crucifying him: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Stephen’s dying prayer in Acts 7:60 echoes the same mercy.
The evidence is genuinely divided.
External evidence
| Prayer absent | Prayer present |
|---|---|
| P75, Vaticanus, first hand of Codex Bezae, Washingtonianus, Koridethi | Sinaiticus, though one corrector removed it and another restored it; Alexandrinus; Ephraemi |
| Sinaitic Syriac, Sahidic Coptic, and some Old Latin witnesses | Most later Greek manuscripts; most Old Latin; Vulgate; Curetonian and Peshitta Syriac |
| Early evidence from more than one region | Irenaeus knows the saying as Lukan before P75 was copied |
The prayer is both early and absent from important early witnesses. This is not a simple contest between one old manuscript and a late majority.
The case that Luke wrote it
- Jesus addresses God as Father throughout Luke.
- Forgiveness is a major Lukan theme.
- Stephen’s prayer in Acts, written by the same author, reads like a disciple echoing his Lord.
- Some Christians may have interpreted “them” as Jesus’s Jewish opponents and removed the prayer amid anti-Jewish hostility.
Bart Ehrman, though often associated with arguments about scribal alteration, has defended the prayer as original and its omission as deliberate. That position should be represented consistently.
The case that it was added
- P75 and Vaticanus omit it, joined by early witnesses from several traditions.
- A copyist could have supplied a remembered saying of Jesus or shaped the scene in light of Stephen’s prayer.
- The divided transmission may reflect an early insertion rather than an early deletion.
What the editors—and this course—are saying
The UBS committee rated the omission highly and treated the prayer as textually secondary. In Nestle-Aland/UBS editions that printed the words in double brackets, those brackets signaled that the editors judged them not part of Luke’s original text—not that they thought them probably original. At the same time, committee discussion could regard the saying as authentically dominical: a genuine saying of Jesus that entered this location secondarily.
The book and this course lean toward Luke having written the prayer. That is the author’s judgment, not the committee’s rating. Responsible scholars land on both sides.
What remains secure is the identity of the one on the cross. Luke’s Jesus commands prayer for abusers, welcomes the condemned man beside him, and dies entrusting himself to the Father. Whether Luke wrote this sentence here or received it from early tradition, it fits the mercy proclaimed throughout Luke-Acts.
4. Matthew 5:22: no “without a cause”
The disputed Greek word is eikē: “without cause,” “without reason,” or “in vain.” With it, Jesus condemns unjustified anger. Without it, he condemns anger against a brother without supplying the reader a qualifying escape.
External evidence
| Without the qualifier | With the qualifier |
|---|---|
| P64/67, Sinaiticus first hand, Vaticanus | Sinaiticus corrector, Codex Bezae, Codex Washingtonianus, most later Greek manuscripts |
| Vulgate; Jerome says accurate copies lacked the word | Most Old Latin, Syriac, and Coptic evidence |
| Origen | Irenaeus and Cyprian in Latin |
P64 is held at Magdalen College, Oxford; P67 is in Barcelona. They are fragments of the same manuscript. The Coptic evidence belongs with the reading that includes the qualifier, not with the omission.
The qualifier is early. The stronger early Greek witnesses nevertheless omit it.
Internal evidence
The shorter form is harder. A copyist confronted with an absolute condemnation of anger could protect the reader—and perhaps his own conscience—by inserting “without cause.” A scribe is less likely to remove a reasonable qualification and intensify the command against himself.
The unqualified reading also fits the Sermon on the Mount’s pattern:
- lust addressed at the level of the heart;
- oath-taking refused rather than regulated;
- retaliation answered by turning the other cheek;
- enemies answered with love and prayer.
The sayings press beneath defensible outward conduct toward the heart. “Without a cause” makes this antithesis unusually easy to evade.
The Law as mirror
The older form restores the command’s full accusation. Anger against a brother belongs to the same murderous root Jesus exposes. In Lutheran numbering, this is the second use of the Law: the mirror that reveals sin and drives the sinner outside himself to Christ. The first use is the curb that restrains outward evil; the third is the guide for the believer.
The sharper reading is not an invitation to deny that Jesus displays righteous anger elsewhere. It is a refusal to turn a necessary distinction into an excuse by adding a word Matthew probably did not write.
5. Three variants, three pastoral responses
| Passage | Textual judgment | Why the change arose | Pastoral response |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matthew 6:13 | Doxology is secondary | Worship supplied a beloved ending | Continue praying it as the church’s response |
| Luke 23:34 | Evidence remains debated; critical committee judged it secondary, while this course leans original | Either an early deletion or an early insertion of dominical tradition | Preserve the note and receive the saying with appropriate humility |
| Matthew 5:22 | “Without cause” is secondary | A hard command was softened | Hear the Law without the added escape and flee to Christ |
Copyists were active readers. Their worship, expectations, doctrinal instincts, and consciences could shape what they copied. Recognizing that fact does not make the text unrecoverable. At Matthew 6:13 and Matthew 5:22, the same evidence that reveals the change allows us to identify the earlier wording.
At Luke 23:34, the surviving evidence leaves a narrower margin for disagreement. Honest uncertainty at one sentence does not create uncertainty about Jesus’s command to forgive or the mercy of the crucified Christ.
Practice
Open the Matthew 6:13 comparison and Luke 23:34 notes.
- Which displayed editions include the full doxology?
- Pray Matthew 6:9–13 once without the doxology, then add it as the congregation’s answer. What changes?
- At Luke 23:34, list the best argument on each side before deciding where you lean.
- Read Matthew 5:21–48. Which of Jesus’s antitheses permits the easiest exception?
- Write one paragraph explaining how a saying may be ancient and genuinely from Jesus while remaining textually secondary in a particular Gospel.
Discussion
- How can words be right to pray without being part of Matthew’s text?
- What steadies Christian faith when a beloved saying remains textually debated?
- Why might worship and conscience be more common causes of textual change than malice?
- Does the omission of “without a cause” change how you hear the Fifth Commandment?
- What is the difference between uncertainty about one sentence and uncertainty about Jesus’s teaching as a whole?
Working vocabulary
Dominical. Pertaining to the Lord Jesus, especially a saying attributed to him.
Doxology. A short expression of praise to God.
Didache. An early Christian manual containing instruction about Baptism, prayer, fasting, and the Lord’s Supper.
Liturgical addition. Language formed or preserved in worship that later enters the copied biblical text.
Eikē. The disputed Greek adverb at Matthew 5:22, meaning without cause, reason, or purpose.
Second use of the Law. The Law functioning as a mirror that exposes sin and drives the sinner to Christ.
Before the next session
Read: Chapter 10, “The Verse-Numbering Ghosts.”
Do one thing: In a modern Bible, look for Mark 9:44 and 46, Luke 17:36, Acts 8:37, and Romans 16:24. Record what each footnote says, then compare the King James.
Bring: Your Bible, your notes about the skipped numbers, and your vocabulary pages.
Think about: Which saying of Jesus has shaped you most deeply? What would it take to discuss its textual history without treating historical investigation as hostility?
A closing word
Thanks be to God for the Lord’s Prayer, for the mercy of Christ toward his enemies, and for a command that reaches beyond appearances into the heart. Thanks be to God for a manuscript tradition honest enough to show where worship added praise, where witnesses divide, and where a difficult saying was softened. The voice of Jesus does not depend on pretending that every copy says the same thing.
“Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored, may your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
— Matthew 6:9–10 (NET)
Scripture quotations in this session are from the NET Bible, with the KJV quoted where the lesson compares translations. Confessional citations follow the Kolb-Wengert edition of the Book of Concord.