Matthew 6:13, “for thine is the kingdom”: where did it go?
Modern Bibles omit the closing praise because they follow critical editions where the prayer ends with deliverance from evil; the Byzantine text includes the doxology about the kingdom, power, and glory.
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 πονηροῦ. The copies also carry πονηροῦ Ὅτι σοῦ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία καὶ ἡ δύναμις καὶ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοῦς αἰῶνας Ἀμήν [later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The earlier evidence and the explanatory character of the addition favor the default.”
“The base text reads (nothing). The copies also carry ὅτι σοῦ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία καὶ ἡ δύναμις καὶ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοῦς αἰῶνας ἀμήν. [later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The closing praise is a later addition from use in worship and is absent from the early copies.”
The APB 4.0 committee kept the base text without the doxology. Its textual decision states: "The earlier evidence and the explanatory character of the addition favor the default." GPT-6.1 Sol (OpenAI) served as the first translator, and Claude Fable 5.1 (Anthropic) served as the second translator. The committee's printed text ends the prayer with "but rescue us from evil." The decision concerns the closing praise; the printed verse retains the petition for rescue.
The argument for each reading
If the prayer ends plain
Reading A ends the prayer with the request for rescue from evil. Nestle-Aland 28 prints this ending, and the critical editions end the prayer without the doxology. The apparatus places WH, Treg, and NA28 on this side of the difference and records the longer ending with RP.
This gives the shorter reading consistent support among the critical editions represented in the apparatus. The prayer reaches its close with a petition rather than moving into praise. Agreement among editions establishes how those editions print the passage; it does not by itself provide a full account of the manuscript evidence behind their decisions.
If the doxology belongs
Reading B closes the prayer with praise of God's kingdom, power, and glory. Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Textform prints the full doxology, including its final Amen. Its presence in this Byzantine majority edition gives the longer ending a clear place in the textual comparison.
The case for this reading rests on its transmission in the Byzantine tradition and its role as the prayer's closing praise. Retaining it makes that praise part of the prayer's wording in Matthew 6:13. The edition establishes that the longer form was transmitted; the apparatus alone does not settle how that ending entered the tradition.
The apparatus identifies the editions that print each ending, but it does not give a manuscript-by-manuscript history of the difference. The committee attributes the closing praise to use in worship; that remains the committee's stated explanation. The textual question concerns whether this praise belongs within the prayer's wording in Matthew 6:13. Both readings retain the request for deliverance from evil, and the shorter ending makes no denial of the praise expressed in the longer one.
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.