Matt 6:15 τα παραπτωματα αυτων

After τοις ανθρωποις a few Greek manuscripts (ℵ D f1 892* pc) and some versions (lat sy-p mae bo-pt) omit τα παραπτωματα αυτων, which is present in important representatives of every early version (b [but without αυτων] f q sy-c.h sa bo-pt goth) and most Greek manuscripts (including B E G K L M S U V W Δ Θ Π Σ Φ Ω 047 055 0211 0233 0257 f13 33. 399. 461. 565. 892C. 1080. 1424. 1500. 2224).
     Bloomfield (GNT, 46) reasons that "it is more likely that the words should have been accidentally omitted by scribes than inserted by critics, espec[ially] since they often omit words when they almost immediately recur," and also (Annotations, 6) that the creators of the versions often "took the liberty to pass over what seemed unnecessary, without any thought of the Hebraistic character, which expresses much that would be suppressed in the western languages" (emphasis original). Alford (1:64) concurs, saying the words were omitted because they were unnecessary and in conformation to the preceding verse, by which he must mean the second clause of 6:14.
     Other considerations first require the four alignments of witnesses for both 6:14 and 6:15 to be presented:

1. (6:14) forgive men their sins . . . Father will forgive you; (6:15) not forgive men . . . Father will not forgive your sins (ℵ D f1 892* pc sy-p bo-pt)
2. (6:14) forgive men their sins . . . Father will forgive your sins; (6:15) not forgive men . . . Father will not forgive your sins (lat mae bo-pt)
3. (6:14) forgive men their sins . . . Father will forgive you; (6:15) not forgive men their sins . . . Father will not forgive your sins (B E G K M S U V W Δ Θ Π Σ Φ 0233 33. 565. 892C. 1080. 1241. 1424 [Byz 1500+ mss] [b] f q sy-c.h sa goth)
4. (6:14) forgive men their sins . . . Father will forgive your sins; (6:15) not forgive men their sins . . . Father will not forgive your sins (L f13 pc)

Fritzsche (272) questions whether the author himself would have neglected the elegance and balance of alignment 4 and poses the rhetorical question, "Did it not frequently happen that scribes once and again omitted those words that were supposed to have been written many more times?" Fritzsche's opinion wrongly assumes that all the versions and almost all Greek manuscripts reflect accidental corruption of a structure containing nothing apparently needing improvement.
     More seriously, the critic must first decide whether to treat the form of each verse individually or that of both verses together. Griesbach (Commentarius, 1:73) treats each individually, and thus prefers that reading which in each verse exhibits the less perfect parallelism (i.e., alignment 1): "Therefore in both verses we prefer that reading which causes a less perfect parallelism to stand among its members; for scribes labored to patch up this defective [parallelism]." A weakness of Griesbach's view is that it fails to explain why the progenitor of most manuscripts "labored" to balance out 6:15 but cared nothing about the "imbalance" of 6:14. The same might be said for the versions in alignment 2.
     Metzger (14) treats the form of both verses together and, somewhat surprisingly, relates that alignment 3 should be rejected especially because it disturbs the chiastic structure of verses 14 and 15. Contrary to Metzger's rationale and by extension the rule expressed by Griesbach above, it is precisely such a "disturbance" of a chiastic structure that some scribes, but not all or even most, would have wished or even attempted to eliminate. In such a scenario, only alignments 2 and 3 exhibit a disturbance that might have invited alteration, with far superior manuscript evidence favoring alignment 3.
     It is also possible that there was some influence from the form of the passage in the parallel of Mark 11:26, which is missing in a few witnesses (ℵ B L W Δ Ψ pc k l sy-s sa bo-pt) and which some editors reject as an interpolation from none other than Matt 6:15, but wrongly, since the passage in Mark is far too removed in wording from that of Matthew (differences in bold):

• Matt 6:15: εαν δε μη αφητε τοις ανθρωποις [τα παραπτωματα αυτων], ουδε ο πατηρ υμων αφησει τα παραπτωματα υμων.
• Mark 11:26: ει δε υμεις ουκ αφιετε, ουδε ο πατηρ υμων ο εν τοις ουρανοις αφησει τα παραπτωματα υμων.

Generally, it is more likely that the omission of τα παραπτωματα αυτων in Mark could have caused some scribes to omit those words in Matthew. Confirmation of this scenario comes from those versions (lat mae bo; and a few Greek witnesses) in Matt 6:14 that add "your trespasses" after "heavenly Father" (cf. Mark 11:25). Thus it would not be surprising if those same versions, and perhaps other Greek witnesses, omitted τα παραπτωματα αυτων in Matt 6:15 due to harmonization to Mark 11:26. Furthermore, one of the only two early Greek witnesses for the omission in Matt 6:15 is codex Bezae (D/05), which could have been influenced by the omission of the words in its Latin column.
     Finally, a theologizing scribe may have omitted the words in order to intimate with elegance that the sins of men against us, if compared with our sins against the Father, will vanish away (cf. Bengel, Gnomon, 1:195).
     And so the reading τα παραπτωματα αυτων should be preferred not only because it predominates in the Greek manuscript tradition (only 5 manuscripts before the 12th century omit the words: ℵ D 892* 1357* 1582*) and is supported by important representatives of most of the early versions, but also because those words seemed superfluous, seemed to disfigure the chiasmus, disagreed with the Latin version, disagreed with the parallel of Mark 11:26, and finally seemed theologically less elegant to an early editor of the text.


Text und Textwert #20 results:

1 τα παραπτωματα αυτων
03 07 011 017 019 021 028 030 031 032 037 038 041 042 043 045 047 055 0211 0233 0257 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17C 18 19 20 21 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31C 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 63 64 65 66 67 68 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 80 83 84 86 89 90 98 99 100 105 106 107 108 109 111 112 113 114 116 117 119 120 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 131 132 133 134 136 138 140 141 142 143 144 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 167 169 170 171 173 174 175 178 179 180 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 198 199 200 201 202 204 207 208 210 211 212 213 214 215 217 218 219 220 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 240 243 244 245 246 247 248 251 259 260 261 262 263 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 280 282 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 293 296 297 298 299 300 301 303 304 305 306 310 324 329 330 331 333 334 335 343 344 345 346 347 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NUMBER OF WITNESSES: 1480

1B τα {τοις ανθρωποις} παραπτωματα αυτων
1088
NUMBER OF WITNESSES: 1

1C αυτων
1285*
NUMBER OF WITNESSES: 1

1D τα παραπτωμα αυτων
137 1168
NUMBER OF WITNESSES: 2

1E τα παραπτωματα υμων
283 446 818 1052 1348* 1647 1901* 2291
NUMBER OF WITNESSES: 8

1F τα πτωματα αυτων
135S
NUMBER OF WITNESSES: 1

1G τα περιπτωματα αυτων
295
NUMBER OF WITNESSES: 1

1H τα προσωπα αυτων
1288
NUMBER OF WITNESSES: 1

2 Omit
01 05 1 22 118 130 205 209 279 372 892* 1357* 1582* 2701S 2737 2786
NUMBER OF WITNESSES: 16

3 τα παραπτωματα
17* 699
NUMBER OF WITNESSES: 2

U1 Homoeoteleuton: αποδωσει σοι εν τω φανερω (6:6) [... αποδωσει σοι εν τω φανερω (6:18)]
1602
NUMBER OF WITNESSES: 1

U2 Homoeoteleuton: τα παραπτωματα αυτων (6:14) [... τοις ανθρωποις τα παραπτωματα αυτων (6:15)]
31* 352 566* 1054 1581*
NUMBER OF WITNESSES: 5

U3 Homoeoteleuton: ουρανιος τα παραπτωματα υμων (6:14) [... υμων αφησει τα παραπτωματα υμων (6:15)]
706 2397
NUMBER OF WITNESSES: 2