The Anselm Project Bible · The Crux Registry

Matthew 24:36 — “nor the Son”: the phrase scribes couldn't bear

Matthew 24:36 is recorded both with οὐδὲ ὁ υἱός (“nor the Son”) and without it. The editions listed here divide over whether the phrase stands in Matthew.

οὐδὲ ὁ υἱός
oude ho huios — “nor the Son” — the phrase stands
only “no one… not even the angels”
Jesus says no one knows the day — not the angels, nor the Son. In Matthew (unlike Mark) many manuscripts quietly lose those three words.
IThe Reading

What the APB prints.

About that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the son, except the father alone.
Matthew 24:36 (source numbering) · Anselm Project Bible
IIThe Witnesses

Every witness, on the record.

Nestle-Aland 28
NA28 · critical edition, 2012
οὐδὲ ὁ υἱόςnor the Son
WH and NA28 print the phrase with the earliest uncials. NA28, a critical edition dated 2012, reads οὐδὲ ὁ υἱός; its row says WH and NA28 print the phrase with the earliest uncials. SBLGNT apparatus (Faithlife, CC BY 4.0)
Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Textform
RP · Byzantine majority edition, 2005
πατὴρ…but my Father only (phrase absent)
Tregelles and the Byzantine text lack the phrase in Matthew — where its absence is easiest to explain as doctrinal relief. The Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Textform, dated 2005, omits the phrase and reads πατὴρ; its row also notes that RP adds μου. SBLGNT apparatus (Faithlife, CC BY 4.0)
supports if “nor the son” belongssupports if it was never in matthew
IIIThe Blind Test

What a blind committee did here.

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. Whatever it did at this verse, it did on the language alone — and its record is public.

Committee recordaudit verdict: clean

The blind committee record supplies no rationale note for this crux, and the pericope audit verdict is “clean.” The APB nevertheless prints the verse with “nor the son,” followed by “except the father alone.” Its text therefore displays the phrase in its translation, without a recorded explanation of the choice.

IVThe Stakes

The case for each reading.

If “nor the Son” belongs

Reading A keeps οὐδὲ ὁ υἱός in the sentence: no one knows the day and hour, not the angels and not the Son, with the father alone as the exception. The apparatus line assigns this wording to WH and NA28. The NA28 witness row further says that WH and NA28 print the phrase with the earliest uncials. On this side of the division, the words make the stated sequence more explicit: human knowledge is excluded, angelic knowledge is excluded, and the Son is named before the father alone. The listed evidence therefore presents a form of Matthew in which the phrase stands rather than a sentence limited to no one and the angels.

If it was never in Matthew

Reading B omits οὐδὲ ὁ υἱός, leaving the wording with no one and the angels before the statement about the father. The apparatus line assigns the omission to Treg and RP, and the Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Textform is identified as supporting this reading. Its row gives πατὴρ and notes that RP has an added μου where WH, Treg, and NA28 have πατὴρ. The packet also describes the absence in Matthew as easiest to explain as doctrinal relief. Whatever account is made of that description, the reading itself is concrete: Matthew can be read here without the three-word reference to the Son.

The listed editions divide, and the packet does not provide a rationale note resolving that division. What changes is whether Matthew 24:36 explicitly names the Son among those who do not know the day and hour. What does not hinge on this variant is any doctrine considered across many passages; this page records a wording difference in one verse, not a doctrinal verdict.

VThe Registry

More places where the manuscripts argue.

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. Nothing on this page declares a winner — the evidence is the point.

Weigh it yourself.

The registry doesn't tell you which reading is true. It puts every witness on one page, shows what a blind committee did with the same language, and leaves the verdict where it belongs — with the reader.