Matthew 5:22 — angry with his brother… without cause?
Matthew 5:22 is represented either as “angry” or as “angry without cause.” The added εἰκῆ changes whether the saying addresses anger without qualification or causeless anger.
What the APB prints.
Every witness, on the record.
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.
The APB prints: “Yet I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to the judgment”. Its text therefore contains no “without cause” qualifier at this point. The blind committee’s pericope audit verdict is “clean”; no rationale note matches this crux.
The case for each reading.
If anger itself is judged
Reading A consists of ὀργιζόμενος: anger stated without an added condition. Westcott-Hort (1881) reads αὐτοῦ, described in its witness row as “angry with his brother (no qualifier),” and supports this reading. The apparatus line places WH and NA28 on the side without the addition: “αὐτοῦ WH NA28 ] + εἰκῆ Treg RP”. On this wording, the saying’s stated liability follows from being angry with one’s brother. The force is broad and direct: the text does not distinguish a cause that might make anger reasonable.
If only causeless anger
Reading B adds εἰκῆ, rendered “without cause.” Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Textform (2005) reads εἰκῆ and supports this reading, while the apparatus assigns RP to the addition: “αὐτοῦ WH NA28 ] + εἰκῆ Treg RP”. With the adverb present, the saying addresses anger that is without cause rather than anger without qualification. The difference is small in length but substantial in scope. This reading permits the sentence itself to distinguish causeless anger from anger for which a cause is claimed.
The supplied evidence records two forms of the verse and identifies witnesses for each, but it does not settle the question here. What changes is the scope of the stated judgment: anger itself, or only causeless anger. The packet supplies no wider doctrinal conclusion. Doctrines rest on many passages, and this single variant does not by itself decide them.
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.