Matthew 21:44, the stone that crushes: original, or from Luke?
Matthew 21:44 has broad support as part of Matthew, while a few weighty witnesses omit it; whether it came from Luke remains uncertain. The dispute concerns the stone saying that also appears in Luke 20:18.
The APB text at this verse
The manuscripts, editions, and versions
The committee record at this verse
The APB is translated by a committee of language models that works blind. The translators are never told they are translating the Bible, never given a book name or a verse number, and never shown the witnesses listed above. Where the manuscripts disagree, the choice between readings is made before translation by the same kind of translator working the same way: it sees the competing readings and the witnesses by age and class, but never a reference or a manuscript name. There are 14,877 such places. For APB 4.0 every one was decided again in October 2026. GPT-6.1 Sol decided every one first. Claude Fable 5.1, from another model family, decided 2,483 of them second, including every place where the first translator left the base text. A departure from the base text needs both translators to agree and the first to be at least 0.8 confident. There is no third translator, so the base text stands when the two disagree. APB 4.0 is translated over those decisions. Whatever was done at this verse was done on the language and the evidence alone, and the record is public.
“The base text reads Καὶ … αὐτόν. The copies also carry the omission [greek majuscule; early greek manuscript tradition]; the committee kept the base text. Both readings have substantial evidence.”
The APB 4.0 committee kept the base text at Matthew 21:44 and prints the stone saying. Its textual note states: “the committee kept the base text. Both readings have substantial evidence.” GPT-6.1 Sol (OpenAI) was the first translator and retained that reading; the unit did not go to a second translator. The printed verse includes both falling on the stone and the stone falling on someone. No rationale note matching this crux adds a further explanation.
The argument for each reading
If Matthew wrote it
The case for retaining Matthew 21:44 begins with its presence in almost every manuscript. All four editions represented in the apparatus print the verse, including Nestle-Aland 28. This gives the longer reading broad support, even though the Westcott-Hort margin records doubt and NA28's predecessors bracketed it.
With the verse present, the parable includes the warning that a person who falls on the stone will be crushed and that the stone will scatter anyone on whom it falls. Its agreement with Luke 20:18 raises a question about transmission, but that agreement alone does not establish that the saying entered Matthew from Luke.
If it arrived from Luke
The case for omission rests on a small but weighty group of witnesses: Papyrus 104, Bezae, and Old Latin. Papyrus 104 appears not to have the verse, so its support for omission needs that qualification. The Western tradition also supports the shorter reading.
The saying's exact agreement with Luke 20:18 gives a concrete reason to consider whether it arrived in Matthew from Luke. On this reading, Matthew's parable ends without the additional warning about the stone crushing and scattering people. The omission witnesses and the parallel support that possibility, while the verse's presence in almost every manuscript remains substantial evidence for retaining it.
The uncertainty concerns whether Matthew included the saying or whether it entered his text from Luke. Broad manuscript support favors retaining it, while the omission witnesses and the agreement with Luke give grounds for questioning its place. Papyrus 104's apparent omission remains qualified. The saying itself remains in Luke 20:18 under either reading of Matthew. Matthew 21:43 also retains its statement about the kingdom being given to a people producing its fruit.
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 from the sources linked above.