Matthew 18:11, “for the Son of Man came to save the lost”
Matthew 18:11 is missing from some modern Bibles because reading A moves directly from Matthew 18:10 to the lost sheep, while reading B includes the sentence Ἦλθεν γὰρ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου σῶσαι τὸ ἀπολωλός. The witnesses and editions divide over whether it belongs here.
The APB text at this verse
The manuscripts, editions, and versions
The committee record at this verse
The APB's translation committee works blind: it is never told it is translating the Bible, never given a book name or a verse number, and it never sees the witnesses above. Since revision 3.5, the places where the manuscripts disagree are decided before translation by three readers, Grok 4.3, GPT-6 Astra, and Claude Fable 5.1, who see the readings and the witnesses by age and class but never a reference or a manuscript name. Whatever was done at this verse was done on the language and the evidence alone, and the record is public.
Matthew 18:11: set in brackets as a disputed passage, wording kept.
“The base text reads οὐρανοῖς. The copies also carry 11 Ἦλθεν γὰρ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου σῶσαι τὸ ἀπολωλός. [later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. Default wording chosen because the external evidence strongly favors οὐρανοῖς and the internal evidence shows no reason to prefer the longer reading.”
“This passage is not in the earliest copies of the text. The committee judged it a later addition and keeps it in brackets rather than removing it. The committee departed from the default because both external weight and copying habits point the same way: the shorter text is the earlier and better spread, and the longer text is best explained as a later devotional insertion drawn from a parallel saying. The remaining doubt is only that two majuscules do carry the sentence, showing it entered the tradition early enough to spread widely.”
“Included from the Faithlife/SBLGNT apparatus at Matthew 18:10 as a traditional verse addition. Witnesses: RP.”
The committee's decision was to set Matthew 18:11 in brackets as a disputed passage while keeping its wording. Its note says, "This passage is not in the earliest copies of the text." The blind committee record calls it "Textual supplement: Matthew 18:11" and describes it as a traditional verse addition. The audit verdict for the pericope is "clean."
The argument for each reading
If borrowed from Luke
Reading A leaves no separate sentence between Matthew 18:10 and the parable of the lost sheep. Westcott-Hort (1881) reads οὐρανοῖς and has verse 10 join directly to verse 12; its witness note associates this form with the critical editions and the earliest witnesses. The apparatus likewise places WH on the side where οὐρανοῖς is followed by the next material, rather than by verse 11. The proposed explanation is that a sentence at home in Luke 19:10 came into Matthew through later copying, completing one Gospel with wording from another. On this account, the direct transition is the form that requires no intervening saying.
If Matthew wrote it
Reading B prints Ἦλθεν γὰρ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου σῶσαι τὸ ἀπολωλός as a separate verse. Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Textform (2005) carries the sentence, and the apparatus records RP after the added verse. Its witness row also says that Tregelles and the Byzantine text carry it. The sentence fits the nearby lost-sheep material and expresses a coherent reason for the concern for the little ones in Matthew 18:10-14. Its resemblance to Luke 19:10 supplies a possible account of borrowing, but resemblance alone does not establish the direction of copying. The reading may instead preserve wording Matthew wrote that also appears in Luke.
The evidence supplied here establishes a real division between a direct transition and a printed verse, but it does not settle every question about how the sentence entered the tradition. The committee retained the wording in brackets, so access to the sentence does not hinge on choosing one form of the text over the other. The packet identifies a parallel in Luke 19:10, yet does not provide a broader doctrinal case for either reading.
Related entries
Witness readings for critical editions are quoted from the SBLGNT apparatus (CC BY 4.0); Hebrew text from the Westminster Leningrad Codex (Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible). Readings of ancient manuscripts and versions are cited as published scholarly fact with their sources linked above. The page does not declare which reading is original.
The registry gives no verdict
The registry does not say which reading is original. Each page lists the witnesses, shows what the committee did with the same text, and leaves the judgment to the reader.